It has been a whle since I have talked to much about iRPG design on the site. I have dedicated most of this year to Wargames rather than RPGs on the blog. On the Patreon, the same is not true. I have been dumping tons of content there in the form of One-shot outlines for various RPGs. I always have quick ideas for RPG adventures, but the problem is that these one-shots ended up clogging my brain and making it hard to write other content! Typically, I have no interest on expanding on these ideas into a fully-fledging, sellable product and then they end up taking up brain space and getting in the way of the projects I am working on selling! Therefore, I tend to brain dump them out on the Patreon so maybe others can make use of them!
If you have played Dungeons and Dragons for as long as I have. You have been familiar with the concept of the 5-room Dungeon for a long, long time. The idea is pretty simple, so simple that is was the foundation for an entire magazine called Dungeon magazine that was full of one-off adventures DMs could drop into their campaigns. However, the internet machine will tell you that it was created in 2006 by a person named Johnn Four.
Anyway, the premise is pretty simple, if you need a quick adventure you need to have 5-rooms. The first is the Entrance Guardian to explain why no one has raided this place before, second is a puzzle or riddle that can not be solved by simple combat rolls to force some lateral thinking, room three is the setback or challenge that forces them to rethink the dungeon or narrative such as a surprise twist (i.e. The real treasure is the friends we made along the way), fourth is a combat to resolve the dungeon, and the last room is a reward for getting this far. Pretty simple stuff that most players know the story beats for but works because it is rewarding and tells a good "heroic journey" style storyline.
However, most RPGs don't use dungeons. I have never run into a dungeon playing Star Wars or Shadowrun. Dungeons are specific to a certain Fantasy focused genre and perhaps even a specific game; Dungeons and Dragons. Therefore, I like to think of the 5- Room Dungeon instead as the 5- Scenes of the session.
The 5-Scene One-Shot
The 5-Room Dungeon is just a story-writing structure and the 5-scene One-shot is the same. It is a structure to a game that gives satisfying results. Instead of thinking about rooms in a dungeon, it shifts the focus to more broadly think about 5-scenes in an evening of gaming and how to move the players from the beginning to the end of the adventure in a satisfying way. My structure is as follows:
1. The Hook - Why are we going to see this to the end? Here you set up the problem and the stakes. The Hook is where the premise of the game is laid bare.
2-4- The Adventure Path - These are scenes that get you from the Hook to the conclusion with rising tension, and not always in a linear way. However, they are scenes that should happen for the Big Finale to make sense. These often require clue-gathering, social skills, stealth, and other tasks to resolve the scene.
5- Big Finale- All the other scenes lead up to this scene that resolves the Hook. The end of this scene is the end of the One-shot. Many times, this means combat BUT not always. It could be resolved through other methods but this should be where the drama is.
Super simple stuff that I often lay-out explicitly in my RPG rules such as Glittering Void, Flashlight: Tales of Terror, No Dice, and Super Sexy, Swingin' Spies.
The Hook
The Hook is where the gamemaster lays out the premise of the game, what the goals of the game are, and what the stakes are if the players fail. This is the part of the game where the Characters have to decide if they are going to keep going and experience the adventure.
The classic example is.... you all meet at the inn..... however that is a very weak hook. Instead, you want to set-up a scene where the Characters are immediately thrown into the action and forced to work together or make a tough decision. If as the GM you have done a good job helping players make Good Characters for the game, then taking the Hook should almost be a given. However, avoiding down time and jumping into the action is always a good idea! Ideally, a good Hook doesn't really give the Players a chance to derail the story, it should assume they are all ready on the ride. This is often called an In Media Res opening.
Here is an example, you spent the time making good characters and you know that the 3 players are a run-away heiress, her butler/father-figure, and the bodyguard they have conned into helping them. The game starts with them holed up in a flea-bitten motel on the seedy side of town. The Bodyguard is keeping watch out the window, when a black sedan shows up and thugs get out and go to the manager's office. It is clear they are looking for you. What are you going to do?
A great hook should end with the question, What are you going to do? The answer should not be able to avoid the premise of the game. In the example above, the three characters can not decide to try to buy a cabbage stand and start selling cabbages on the corner, because that would lead to the thugs finding them really quickly; which would still propel the adventure forward.
The Adventure Path
This is the series of steps that lead the players logically and naturally to the Big Finale. During this phase of the game, players should be using their character's abilities to resolve challenges and role-play. This is where knowing the different types of scenes comes in handy! The adventure path should be set-up to allow characters to shine! They should help a character reveal their personality, history, and skills.
Ideally, the scenes should be interchangeable so as the players make choices it will lead to different Adventure Path scenes but no matter what route they go, it will lead back to the Big Finale. A good example of this is the sample adventure El Fin du Monde in the Flashlight: Tales of Terror rules. There are a series of scenes that the players will participate in, but they branch and come back together so players do not feel overly railroaded and their choices mattered with what they know going into the Finale.
Unlike the 5-Room Dungeon, the Adventure Path scenes are not laid-out as rigidly as the puzzle, the set-back/twist, the social scene, etc. Each adventure will have different scene needs. For example, a mystery needs more clue-gathering, a social adventure needs more drama building interactions, and adventure games needs action set-pieces! These Adventure Path scenes should lead to a rising tension with the players for what the Big Finale will look and feel like. Therefore, the Adventure Path are the connective tissue of scenes that any adventure needs to go from the Hook to the Big Finale in a logical way while building connection and tension within the game world.
In the scenes we laid out with the run-away princess story, perhaps the adventure path would be:
1. Hook - Avoid Daddy's searching Thugs: Action/Chase Scene
2. Plan of Escape - Meet with a contact to find a way to escape: Social Scene
3. Get Gear - In order to escape, you need certain things. Gather them now: Acquisition Scene- Varies from Social, to Stealth, to Combat depending on how they gather the needed supplies.
4. Mommy Intervention - Mom shows up and tries to help/hinder the escape: Intrigue Scene
5. Big Finale - Daddy finds them and this leads to the final confrontation
Scenes 2,3, and 4 are focused on using other skills and revealing relationships, and story points to add to the emotional resonance and stakes of the Big Finale. You could shift these scenes around and still have the same basic premise work.
Big Finale
As the name implies, all the other scenes should lead up this. In the Big Finale the players know the stakes from the Adventure Path and now have to face up to the threat and resolve the central conflict of the Hook! When this scene is over, the game is essentially over too. The main drama and conflict of the adventure is complete. Often times, this will include combat BUT not all RPGs lean into this as a resolution mechanic. It could be the Big Show, a Court room scene, an emotional heart-to-heart, or something else thematically appropriate.
A good Big Finale will do the following:
- Close the main conflict introduced in the Hook
- Leave threads open for the Players to follow if they want to go beyond the One-shot
- Leave space for Players to tell an epilogue about what happened to the Characters after the adventure IF this is a true One-shot.
- Make people want to play again!
Final Thoughts
This is not rocket-science or anything new. It is story structure as old as time. However, I have found this to be a useful way to compose an evening RPG session. This set-up works well with 1 GM and 3-5 players and typically yields about 3-4 hours of gameplay. I often only come to the game with a strong Hook, and let the rest evolve as play emerges, using the 5-Scene structure to help me guide the pacing and the action. However, when it comes to the content on the Patreon I try to fill out all 5-Scenes.
Give one of these Patreon One-shots a try, or even use the 5-Scene game structure and let me know what you think in the comments.
Until next time!
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