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Hey! Welcome to the Handful of Gold tier! Including the regular episodes, you'll also get Squawkbacks and Dodoboners!
Hello, everybody. Oh my goodness. What's this? A special episode for patrons? What?
Isaac:That's right. It's me, Chuboy, Chugium, Chahost of the show, Isaac Allenbirds. Here with me special guest, Rachel Baker. Hey. Now gang, I have to start this off on my hands and knees, forehead on the ground in apologies.
Isaac:Because when we started this Patreon, one of the things that was put up there for the $5 and above tiers was some behind the scenes stuff for patrons. Some behind the screens, maybe some looks at stat blocks and things. And here we are a few months later, and I'm finally getting around to releasing some of that stuff.
Rachel:You've glimpsed they've let them glimpse behind the curtains
Isaac:a little bit. Times.
Rachel:Yeah. Especially in squawk backs.
Isaac:Squawk backs. That's true. That's true. So they get a little bit of it.
Rachel:So what is this? Why is this different?
Isaac:Oh, I'm so thank you for asking,
Rachel:Rachel. Welcome.
Isaac:Well, so I wanted to also put some stuff out just for patrons that were, like, stat blocks and things I've written down in notes of mine. But I didn't just want to kind of put it out there as is. I want to do something a little more with it. And I'm long winded as you can tell by what I've written. And so I wrote a little something for the patrons.
Isaac:I wrote it, and I figured and I'm really scared of posting things that I've written because I've never done it before. I'm not a writer. But what I wanted to do was sort of read it out so that people who prefer more audio format could still enjoy the article without having to read what I wrote. And additionally, I wanted to bring someone along with me who had experience in the space. Uh-huh.
Isaac:Because, Rachel, would you like to tell everybody a little bit about yourself as a player? Because as far as I understand, I think you've been playing TTRPGs longer than I've been GMing.
Rachel:Really?
Isaac:I think so.
Rachel:Okay. How long have you been GMing?
Isaac:I started GMing in 2016.
Rachel:Oh, then I have.
Isaac:You had. Yeah. I started Yeah. My story with GMing, to put it on record officially, is 2016 rolled around, and I had a board gaming crew. And we saw the Lost Minds of Phandelver D and D starter set.
Isaac:Uh-huh. They bought it on a whim, but then someone has to GM it and really nobody wanted to, like, sit down and read the rules to GM it. Cause our person who typically reads through the rules and tells people was not did not want to GM at all. That was too much Really? I sat down.
Isaac:I looked at it. I read it. And I was like, this could be fun. Then we watched HarmonQuest. Mhmm.
Isaac:Thought it was really fun. Thought it was really cool. So we sat down and played. And so we played a little campaign for about a year. Played through Lost Mines.
Isaac:Little. Little campaign of a Lost Mines of Phandelver for a year. Got done. And, like, half of them were not into it. So we tried with others, and they kinda fizzled away.
Isaac:And I played at adventure league for two years. Then I started a new job in 2019, met some fun people, including Rowan, actually, and started to started a D and D group with that work crew.
Rachel:Oh my god. So Rowan was a part of, like, your second actual Yes. Attempt at Wow.
Isaac:Yeah. Played with Rowan for a while now.
Rachel:I guess.
Isaac:And we went levels one through 20 in Descent Into Avernus, The Walder's Gate, D and D one. And then after that, started playing a couple of different games with a couple other people. And a group I started with Joe Rowan and Annie was actually what started all this. Mhmm. Because we played Daggerheart because we wanted to play some different games other than D and D.
Isaac:So I've been DMing for a while. Yeah. That long campaign I did, I tell people that I would spend a full workday's worth of time during my weekends prepping and planning.
Rachel:Yes.
Isaac:And so I got really deep into GMing. And it also just how happened to happen during the pandemic when I had really nothing else to do. You had time. I had time. So I got into every possible GM ing hobby.
Isaac:I was painting miniatures. I was making terrain. I was learning how to GM. It was all kinds of stuff.
Rachel:Do you like any parts of that as much as you like GM ing? Any of those corners?
Isaac:I wish I had the time and space to get us into it, because I will say building little terrain out of cardboard. There's something really cathartic about taking a box cutter to some cardboard boxes. And that was what my experience was.
Rachel:I could clock that about you, I think, from how much, like, garbage you'll put around on the table and be like, this is a rock.
Isaac:Oh, yeah. And my bottle cap. Yep. Right? Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. But yeah. And mini painting, I really enjoyed, but I had to be in a specific mind space for it, I felt like. Mhmm. And I haven't picked it up in a while, but I do have a little box full of minis I've painted.
Rachel:Stop it. I didn't know this about you.
Isaac:Well, I never bring them out because they were very specific to Descent Into Avernus. So it's a bunch of devils and demons Yeah. And gnolls. And turns out if you have trouble being a perfectionist and then you get into mini painting, it can be very tough. But there are some nasty fucked up looking monsters out there.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:So how about practice doing it badly on some mushroom people? Get some fun girls, get some greens and yellows, and mix them and throw them all over the place.
Rachel:I was just talking about this with a friend last night. Yeah. And my friend paints a lot of minis. My friend is also a complete lesbian. Nice.
Rachel:And she practices on all the men so that her the sexy women have the best Yeah. Work of See, this is exactly what you do.
Isaac:I was about to because when you said, yeah, they paint minis that they're a lesbian. I was like, and those two things are very related.
Rachel:They are. Something else. No. They are.
Isaac:That's incredible. That's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.
Isaac:So that's my GM ing story. Fascinating. So I've been doing it since 2016. I would say I've GM ed since 2016. I've hardcore GM ed since 2019.
Rachel:How many campaigns have you I mean, I'm gonna assume it's mostly been one shots for you, but how many have you played in? Like, you rolled a
Isaac:character Oh.
Rachel:And sat down at the table.
Isaac:Much less.
Rachel:I'm assuming.
Isaac:I've I've I have played okay. I could not tell you, actually. Rowan ran a Strixhaven for me and that other D
Rachel:and D group. Right.
Isaac:I had a I it was a little special time in my life when I needed a break. And so they took over doing some, and I got to play that character. And it's really funny because I feel like the first time and you, this may not be everyone's experience, but I think the first time that you play a character that you've, like, come up with with the legit plan of running them through a story, I think I well, I don't think I know that I fell into the trap of making it incredibly deeply personal. Oh. And that was that was my cardinal sin.
Rachel:Oh, no.
Isaac:But that was only like eight sessions. So,
Rachel:Did your character die?
Isaac:No. They did live.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:But they went through a lot. Were very
Rachel:traumatic. That interviewed you a little bit more than you expected. You
Isaac:know, it got me to terms with some things about myself. And now I'm on Lexapro. Things are a lot better.
Rachel:Good RPGs work. This is what they're supposed to do. I have processed so many emotions
Isaac:to RPGs. That's what think the beautiful thing about it.
Rachel:Yeah. Exactly.
Isaac:But speaking of speaking of you Uh-huh. Tell people about you playing TTRPGs.
Rachel:Well, I mean, I I'm a lifelong RPG enjoyer as most of us are, I think. And I started playing D and D. It would have been '40 Oh. In 2013. It would have been right after I finished my undergrad degree in college.
Isaac:Gotcha.
Rachel:And this group was people I'd known since, like, junior high. My, boyfriend at the time was the GM, the one of the best GMs I've ever had until I met you.
Isaac:Aw. That's so nice.
Rachel:And he was excellent. And we met every single week for it would have been, like, almost a couple of years. So through that campaign, because it was so long term, and that's pretty unusual. It is. That's what I've come to learn is long term campaigns like that are really difficult to find, especially with everyone being committed to it.
Rachel:You know? So, I did that for a couple of years. And then after that, we tried out different, we did, like, Pathfinder. We did 3.5. And then when five v came out, I dabbled in that.
Rachel:But that was probably the only really long term campaign that I was in. Mhmm. We had a few others that would go for a while, maybe eight or nine sessions, and then they would end. Yeah. So over the years, I don't think there's ever been a time when I wasn't playing a TTRPG.
Rachel:Really? Or wasn't actively involved in one until we moved here.
Isaac:Oh, nice. Yeah.
Rachel:Which is also why Holly found you. So I We found each other. Specifically was interested in Daggerheart because Holly was obsessively following did it start on Kickstarter? Is that a Kickstarter? Where did it start?
Isaac:I remember it started they announced it during the big OGL debacle back in, like, 2322? Yeah. And I don't think it was Kickstarter, but it was announced then.
Rachel:That's okay. It's probably what I'm thinking of then. Yeah. Holly was waiting for this from the beginning. Really?
Rachel:Yes. I would hear about it way before the release. Like, oh, Tegra is coming out. She preordered the books. Like, it's all the if there was a preorder, I don't remember.
Isaac:There was.
Rachel:She was obsessive over it.
Isaac:That's awesome.
Rachel:So then when it did come out, she really wanted to play it. And I was kind of like, I don't know. I'm we're here in a new state. I don't know anybody. So she played Daggerheart, loved it, got me to play it.
Rachel:I also loved it, and now we're here.
Isaac:I love that.
Rachel:And I I think out of all of the different TTRPGs I've played, which includes, like, other random ones
Isaac:Mhmm.
Rachel:That I love, like, Monster Hearts is a personal favorite. I think Dagger Heart is the most fun. It fits the best with how I like to play.
Isaac:Yeah. So And that's that's how I feel about GM ing it too. Mhmm. It really does feel like there have been other TTRPGs that I've read through and felt like electricity Mhmm. Go through my body with excitement.
Isaac:Dagger Heart is really the one that I feel like fits my play style best.
Rachel:That makes sense. Yeah. It does.
Isaac:Which is why which is what even inspired me, I think, to even write this little article of mine. Mhmm. Because which I and I'll talk a little bit about it during the article. Oh, yeah. But yeah.
Isaac:So that's why we're here. We're here to talk a little bit about it. Hopefully, will find this helpful and interesting. So I feel like we are we're probably the most experienced people at the table, I think.
Rachel:Probably. And I am I wanna dabble in DMing, but it's so intimidating.
Isaac:It can be.
Rachel:My favorite DMs have always been extremely experienced and so good at improv, and that's and I know what I don't like. And I feel like I'm gonna be what I don't like at the you know? So reading these articles and and editing and all that with you is great. It's Yeah. Been a good look at this.
Isaac:Oh, I'm quite proud for a treat, everyone. Maybe maybe shout out future us with Rachel GM ing something. No. It would wouldn't it be wild for your first GMing experience to be on camera and on mic?
Rachel:Oh my god. What a nightmare.
Isaac:Right? I mean, Joe has played more TTRPGs on a mic than he has in Not a Monk.
Rachel:I'll never get over that when he told me that. Yeah. I was like, you can never have a normal experience.
Isaac:No. He's forever scarred. But yeah, without further ado, this is an article. And I think I'm gonna post this on the Patreon. Mhmm.
Isaac:It's very free form, but we're gonna post this on the Patreon so you can read it. But if you don't like reading, then enjoy this article that will definitely have me interrupting and me and Rachel talking and having a good time. So without further ado, let's talk about One Shots. Hey, everyone. This is me starting the article now.
Isaac:Hey, everyone. It's me, your GM, your best friend, and the author of this post. It's a new season, and that means trying new things. For a while now, I have wanted to release behind the scenes stat blocks and notes from the GM side for the patrons, and I'm finally digging my heels in and doing it.
Rachel:At last.
Isaac:At last, with an exclamation point. When I was first dipping my toes into game mastering, I scoured the Internet to figure out how to be a good GM. It's an enormous undertaking to be the emcee, voice talent, narrator, writer, director, and producer of a game, and any advice would be helpful. At least I thought of so at the time. Anything I could get my eyes on, videos, blogs, books, posts, I became a student of the art, which is really funny to write.
Isaac:I can't believe I wrote that. A student of the art. A student of the art.
Rachel:I didn't change that one.
Isaac:Alright. I wish you had.
Rachel:Uh-uh. Now you have to read it.
Isaac:Reading it out loud. Alright. Alright, Isaac. Relax. Now here I am nearly twelve years later with much more experience under my belt.
Isaac:And I can honestly say that the two most helpful decisions I ever made to improve my GM ing were, one, take improv classes, and two, run more games. And when I say run more games, I don't mean just, like, running the same game a bunch of times, but run a lot of different games too. Mhmm. Ultimately, no amount of reading and studying will be better than that experience. Unfortunately, for those out there who are wondering, what's the, like, number one tip that I can do to get better at GM ing?
Isaac:That is truly at the end of the day, those are the two things.
Rachel:Practice.
Isaac:Practice.
Rachel:And don't practice the same thing over and over again.
Isaac:Exactly. Exactly. Great. Improv classes will really help. However, I learned so many useful tools and tricks throughout the years that fill in the little details of my play style.
Isaac:Small things that seem so obvious but never would have occurred to me. Writing initiative down on a page relative to the number, doubling damage and halving HP to keep combat to three rounds, letting players decide what skills to roll, relegating conditions that cause lost turns exclusively for boss battles, looking to chew paralyzed Oh
Rachel:my god.
Isaac:Node based adventure design, And then in prison, you're say thank you, Alexandrian. Shout out to Alexandrian because I heavily used the his, like, blog post on Descent Into Avernus reworked. Used that a lot.
Rachel:That makes more sense.
Isaac:Yeah. That's why it was so good. That's why it's so fun. But, yeah. Isn't it fun when you're playing a game and you don't get to play?
Isaac:Isn't Paralyzed just a really great big
Rachel:I have spent whole, like, sessions just sitting there. Yeah. Whole sessions.
Isaac:Oh, yeah. And the and I will say I didn't quite pick up on it until it happened to me as a player. Because we Oh, really? We did a little one shot where, funnily enough, the first guy from the first campaign I ran decided to GM because we were all like, oh, well, I'll take turns GMing. Part of me thinks he did this so that he never had to GM again because I feel like that's something he would do.
Isaac:He's that kind of person. We fought a dragon. We were level 15. We fought a dragon. Very first round, I'm playing an incredibly min maxed Paladin sort
Rachel:of shit like
Isaac:bullshit, smite crit. I run up. I have one turn. I run up. I smite, hit him real big.
Isaac:I do so much damage. Hell yeah. He knocks me out in one hit and then cast wall of stone and shuts me in there. I sat there for an hour and a half
Rachel:Oh my god.
Isaac:Not playing. I sat there for an hour and a half
Rachel:watching all
Isaac:the rest of my other players just get utterly brutalized by this charity.
Rachel:You spent all that time been maxing yourself and crunching numbers?
Isaac:For real, though. For real oh, it felt so terrible. And that's when I really realized, oh, like, losing turns is really not fun.
Rachel:No. It is not.
Isaac:It's really not fun. No. I now nowadays, if I do have something that's, like, paralyzed, I've switched it to either you have to completely do something else on your turn. Like you can take like a sing you can only move or you can only take one action, can't move.
Rachel:That explains it. Okay.
Isaac:Something else I've done before is they were fighting Yinogu, which is a gnoll.
Rachel:Uh-huh.
Isaac:And they got hit and I think they had a, you know, like a paralysis whip. It was like a flint with paralysis. And so instead of that, I said, you have to bite one of your friends. You have to bite somebody. And they really loved doing that.
Isaac:They loved getting to bite their friends.
Rachel:Oh, that's really smart. Yeah. I love that.
Isaac:Because it's not a lot of damage. Is it is like a lost turn, but it's like It doesn't feel like that though.
Rachel:It doesn't feel like You have to make a choice.
Isaac:You have to make a choice. Who are you gonna bite? And then it gives the rest of the party something to play around, where you bit me. Like, what? So that or yeah.
Isaac:So That's great. But yeah, that was a fun thing. These are all things that I learned from these like little blog posts. And I just immediately incorporated in my play style. It was great.
Isaac:It's like an exercise. One thing alone won't cause a revolution, but little things can add up. To add to the general body of resources, I want to provide something similar for those looking for advice on Daggerheart. The patrons get to see you first. Hey.
Isaac:Segue. Oh. The Dodos wrote an article a few months ago for Darrington, and it was a thrill to shake the dust off my writing. It was so much fun, in fact, that I wrote much more than I should have. My page count was double the others combined.
Rachel:Yikes.
Isaac:I had more pages than they had paragraphs. So it was really exciting for me, but it was not great for a quick article. So I clipped and cut and edited it down to what it is today. You can read that link here. TK, insert link, TK.
Isaac:I haven't put the link in the post yet, but it will probably
Rachel:Read it out letter by letter. Exactly.
Isaac:The first portion to get the axe was a few pages of excruciating detail regarding leading questions and describing how I run a one shot. I find nowadays that a humble one shot is a majority of my TTRPG play outside of Dodoborne, and it has become more of a science than an art. While writing the article, I wanted people to have a template or blueprint that they could use and build off of. Even if only one person reads it and finds use, I'll be happy. Below is that segment, how to run a one shot with leading questions.
Isaac:Alright. Alright. Rachel, what's your experience with the one shot?
Rachel:With the one shot? Well, okay. A lot of what I've played has also been one shots, especially because, like, I'll go and I'll play with the GM and not like them. You know?
Isaac:Yeah. It becomes one shot.
Rachel:It's a little it's rough when you're spoiled from the beginning with a really good GM. So I've spent a lot of time playing one shots, and it's gotten to a point now where I don't even really build my own characters. I'll just go and usually there are prefab ones at the D and D nights I'd go to or the tabletop nights, and I'll make something out of that. That's fine.
Isaac:Right? Yeah. It is sometimes fun to just have, like, a character handed to you and just be like, okay.
Rachel:Yes.
Isaac:What am I gonna do?
Rachel:Yes. Well, but the one thing that those nights always have in common is that we always know what the theme is for the game we're sitting down to ahead of time. True. Is that something you do with your one shots?
Isaac:Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. If it's like a planned one shot, I'll tell people ahead of time, here's what you can expect. Mhmm. And that's so that they don't show up as a pirate to
Rachel:Right. Like a to like a
Isaac:deep political in the castle knights running around. There's a dragon outside, and then you've got Bingo the pirate. Yeah. It's just also there.
Rachel:It's that meme with, like, big bird sitting in an office building at the Right. Like a table with everybody.
Isaac:So, yeah, I will do that. And it's also so that I I'll tell them, like, expect heavy role play in some combat. Or I'll say, expect a lot of combat instead of people like and some there's some games where it's like, you really like Pathfinder. You have to really like build your character. Oh, yeah.
Isaac:Gotta really think about it. And so
Rachel:When I say that I would sit down and play, a premade character, I mean, like, recent games, like monster hearts or something like that.
Isaac:No. For sure.
Rachel:Not the old. Not the old.
Isaac:But yes. So one shots.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:For those who don't know, one shots are a common form of play where the expectation is the story will last two to three hours. It should be self contained, need only a little character creation, and be done in time for the players to get to bed at a decent hour.
Rachel:Love that.
Isaac:We don't have time to dilly dally. No time for riffraff. No chatter chatter. Younger Isaac tried very hard to cram a two hour session full of scenes and conflicts. It never worked.
Isaac:We'd be going about the session role playing and combating, and before we know it, four hours have passed and everyone's yawning. One shots would become two shots or three shots, or more realistically, they would never happen again. Aw. I distinctly remember I listened to the adventure zone, the eleventh hour, which is still my favorite arc of that balance arc. And I I did a whole one shot around that.
Isaac:Basically, just doing putting them through the exact same thing. Right. It took four seconds.
Rachel:It would. I thought it
Isaac:was only gonna take one because time loops. Wasn't smart I wasn't smart at the time. I didn't know. In my head, things will go as fast as they do in the podcast. I'd be like, yeah.
Isaac:That was basically an hour. Oh, no. And that that was silly of me. It was silly. We did get it through, and I think I had more fun than they did, but that's fine.
Rachel:You know what?
Isaac:I think it's where my love of time loops started.
Rachel:How can you not love a time loop? I've never played one at the table, and I've always wanted to.
Isaac:Oh, man. You should ask ask Rowan about time loops.
Rachel:I will. They probably will not like talking about it.
Isaac:So younger Isaac pivoted to doing no prep at all, and he had much more luck going into a one shot with zero plans. The party wakes up in the cargo hold of a flying ship. So now what? Because all I had was direction and not location, I could end the session whenever I felt best. At the one hour and forty five mark, the ship captain reveals they are a vampire and it's a lunar eclipse, and, oh, no, we had better do something.
Isaac:While this made timing easier and was a great way to practice improv, it was extremely obvious that nothing was planned. If your party isn't prepared to take on the work of world building, the session will stall or fall flat, and throwing an open ended, what do you do, won't cut it. There's an illusion the GM must keep up that they have prepped a plan for the players to discover, And I have found this illusion to be the key difference between a good session and a great session. It doesn't take much, but it does take a little. And that little bit needs to be focused.
Isaac:The less focused, the less impact. Mhmm. Now I'm curious what are your thoughts on that, Rachel? Because you've played much more than me, and that paragraph comes from a place of observation. Mhmm.
Isaac:But I'm curious from your experiences playing, is that something you agree with? Or do you find that whether or not it feels like something's planned does not impact your fun at the table?
Rachel:It depends. I I do think that there's a lot of value in making it feel like you've planned things.
Isaac:Yeah.
Rachel:And with long term campaigns, there's always a lot of planning behind those. Yes. Always. Yes. Yes.
Rachel:So with one shots, I mean, really is a different kind of playing in a way. As a player, it's not that different, I think. But you can tell when a GM does not know how to
Isaac:lead. You know.
Rachel:And it does take practice, though. So there are always gonna be those sessions. I'm sure you've had them, which just you're like, I don't know. Yep. Please, somebody help.
Rachel:Like Yeah. And the players don't know what to do with it.
Isaac:No. Yeah. That's and that's always tough when you get nothing. Mhmm. Like, it's not even because, like, I'll tell people bad ideas aren't, like, bad idea there's no such thing as bad ideas.
Rachel:It feels like it is, though, when you're sitting at a table with a bunch of people
Isaac:And that's true.
Rachel:That you want to respect you and like you and think you're funny.
Isaac:Yes. I mean No. And I know that's very that's very real. Because I know there is, like, a pressure when I say, like, what do you see? It's like, I need to come up with something good.
Isaac:I can't just say, I I see a tree.
Rachel:Right.
Isaac:As GM, it's different because anything I get, I can use. So I'll take something even if it's not very clever or funny. I'll take that over just like nothing. That's but that's but that's very real. There is, a pressure as a player.
Rachel:You also have practice taking those shitty suggestions and turning them into something that matters. I've seen you do it. It's great. It's very good.
Isaac:That's very true. That's I very
Rachel:don't know that I could. Yeah. Right off the bat. I mean
Isaac:Yeah. It is practiced. There is a lot it's it's ultimately practiced.
Rachel:Yep. It is I like the word used, illusion. It it really is that's what it is. It's an illusion.
Isaac:It's an illusion. It is it is a magic trick.
Rachel:Now that I've played with you enough, I can tell when you sit down at a table and don't have anything ready.
Isaac:What do
Rachel:mean? I can. Because you'll start, and the way that you ask for details, I'll be like, oh, oh, you don't know anything. But when we first started, no. I would not be able to tell.
Rachel:I
Isaac:really gotta change it up because I feel like my ass is getting called out way more often nowadays. You
Rachel:asked me to sit here with you. Okay?
Isaac:Sure I did. And I being observed is in and of itself an important part of life.
Rachel:Yes. Yes. So I'm here observing.
Isaac:Oh, I gotta work on that. It's true. You really can't tell when you're it's like if you do something enough, you start to pick up on things. Like, you play you play enough video games. The moment you see a little crevice that you have to squeeze through, you're like, oh, this is a loading zone.
Isaac:You get on an elevator. This is a loading zone.
Rachel:Yep. Yep.
Isaac:But it really it's like the I never wanna I never want to do the, like, you come to a cave, do you go right or left, and they end up at the same place. Yeah. And a one shot, it's kinda always what happens.
Rachel:Yeah. I was gonna ask about that too.
Isaac:Because it and you want them to be different paths. Like, I make it very clear, like, you see this down this way and this down this way. You kinda get to choose. You get to pick your poison Mhmm. Because you'll end up at the same place.
Isaac:We all know you're gonna end up at the same place. Yes. Do you wanna, like, navigate through traps, or do you wanna and jump over spikes, or do you wanna deal with this giant, nasty looking rat that's there that's wielding a full knife? You have to choose, like, what do want.
Rachel:The difference is right there in your face.
Isaac:Exactly.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. When I play with people, I've played a lot, I will sometimes say, do you wanna go left or right? And they're like, is there any difference? No. There's no difference between them.
Isaac:Do you go left or right? Just pick one. Do you wanna go left or right? There's also a third way you could go up too if you want. And then just like it's just fully a blank choice.
Isaac:Yep. Yep.
Rachel:Yep. I like those.
Isaac:Right? I like those.
Rachel:And you get to build the world a little bit more.
Isaac:Exactly. So how can we run a one shot that fits within the allotted time, feels like the party had a say in the story, and appears like the GM had a plan? Keep in mind that Daggerheart can be especially difficult to handle within a one shot because of connection questions. Connections are crucial to the game and are a personal favorite mechanic of mine, but they can take a large chunk of time from whatever the adventure is. So how do we do it?
Isaac:Specific leading questions. Whenever current day Isaac runs a Daggerheart one shot, prep consists of one question per player to build up the story. Keep it basic and easy. We go around the table with each person introducing their PC, answering some questions to develop the narrative, then in reverse order, we do a connection question. You'll find that even if this takes up half the time, the players feel like they are still moving through the narrative and discovering a story.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:The prep is not creating nouns such as NPCs, locations, or artifacts. Rather, the prep is figuring out what you need to know to get the party to where they need to be. Ultimately, admittedly, I I was doing this before Daggerheart. I I clicked on the code in my head of other systems where it's like, I can ask a question Mhmm. By distilling the detail I need and asking it in a way that gets the same direction but not the exact thing.
Rachel:Right? Clever.
Isaac:There was actually a there's actually a great example because we're in the middle of filming season three.
Rachel:We sure are.
Isaac:And so not to spoil anything, but there is a moment in one of the episodes where I'm sending out questions, I'm shooting out questions, and I had one thing in mind for what something was. Mhmm. And one of y'all, I won't say who, but one of y'all gave me a completely different answer than what I was expecting, and it fully rewarps the whole thing in my mind. That encounter went completely differently than how I had it in my head because of actually, two of y'all asked questions. Two of y'all answered those questions in a way that fully upended what I had for it.
Isaac:And you'll probably when we get to that squawk bag, you'll find out which ones those were.
Rachel:Is this something though for you that's kind of unique to Daggerheart, where these kinds of world building moments really can change how the story goes?
Isaac:I think I think yes and no. Okay. Let's get technical.
Rachel:Let's get technical. We're here for technical.
Isaac:So I'm gonna compare two systems and how I think about this. Right? One of them is Daggerheart, which we're playing, and the other is Fabula Ultima.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:Fabula Ultima has a similar thing that Daggerheart has, and then it has a meta resource. As a resource that's built around story
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:And not necessarily something your character is doing. Right? Yep. For Fabula Ultima, it's Fabula points. Mhmm.
Isaac:And then I, the GM, have ultimate points. Mhmm. And in Daggerheart, it's hope and fear. Hope in Daggerheart is still, in my opinion, used in a very mechanical sense
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:Within the narrative, but not for story. Because it's a lot of, like, you can spend Three Hope to do this and do this and do this. And it's impacting the story because it's, you know, momentum going back and forth. But fat I and I thought it was more meta and then Fabula. Mhmm.
Isaac:One of the things Fabula does first of all, if you crit in Fabula, one of the opportunities you get says the the player reveals a plot twist.
Rachel:Yep. Fully
Isaac:just says player reveals a plot twist. So this mechanical thing that happened, which is critical, that wasn't as the the decision you made was to attack, and you just have it roll a crit. Now you get to impact the story in a
Rachel:You full temporarily take the reins.
Isaac:You take the Yep. And fabulous points, you can spend a fabulous point to fully throw in a detail into the world.
Rachel:That was my favorite part of it.
Isaac:Yes.
Rachel:Yeah. I use the hell out of that.
Isaac:Exactly. And it is. It's like you can spend a fabulous point and say this guard that's chasing me is my cousin.
Rachel:Yep. Or Yep. Something big.
Isaac:Or something big. Or, like, you go to the dragon's lair and the dragon's asleep.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:I'm trying to think what was the thing because I remember you used one.
Rachel:There were two. So one of them was we came up against someone that was an enemy, and then Holly was at the table, and Holly decided that they had met before.
Isaac:Yes. She
Rachel:spent her fabulous ultimate point on that. And then mine was that halfway through it, made myself a spy.
Isaac:That's right.
Rachel:And that I was working for one of the NPCs that we had like, yes, you'd built them up as this like antagonist a little bit. And I attached myself to that NPC using my ultimate point. And that it was great.
Isaac:And that's great. And that's something and the main thing is that I did not prompt that. No. And I think that's the main difference is that, yes, Daggerheart has a lot has metanarrative resources, but at the end of the day, those are controlled by me.
Rachel:Right.
Isaac:Right. I ask the question Yeah. I'm spending fear to do those things, but you enter in a detail at my behest. Mhmm. Whereas in Fabula, y'all can just do it whenever.
Rachel:Yeah.
Isaac:And I think that's the main difference. So I think that Daggerheart, it's the expectation of play at the front end that supports my play style. But, like, you can't spend a hope and say, like, just a full blown detail. I mean, well, you could. I could say you can spend hope to just make things happen like that, but that's not really the rules.
Isaac:Rules.
Rachel:No. It's not. Would be homebrew.
Isaac:That would be homebrew. And and then and then there we are. I'm doing the same thing I did with D and D, which is just you know? And I feel like that was the promise of D and D when I played it was that it was collective. Yep.
Isaac:But none of the rules supported it. Mhmm. But in Daggerheart, the it's the expectation is there.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:Everything else around the game, like the way that the cards are written, the way the language that it uses around the GM making moves is very much in support of the play style.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:But there's not having played a different game that did something similar and was way more mechanics built into it. Mhmm. It really did make that stark difference between the I
Rachel:would agree with that, I think, with my own experience. Yeah. Yeah. I in the way that we play though, you do allow for a lot more of that wiggle room for your players. Yeah.
Rachel:But I mean, there will always be tables where they're just not gonna cooperate with you. And in those games, those games are much more they feel more like D and D to me. Yes.
Isaac:Yeah. And you really could like, that's the thing when Devil Heart was first coming out and people reading the rules, there was that conversation. You could just play this like D and D. Right. Like, can put you you can have a grid.
Isaac:You can instead of far and close, it's 30 feet, 60 feet.
Rachel:Well, and the opposite is true too. Mhmm. The D and D campaign that I played first was a lot more like Dagger Heart. I had a GM that really wanted everyone to contribute.
Isaac:Yeah.
Rachel:So it so then when I started playing D and D at other tables and realized that's actually not how this works, it was really disappointing. Yes.
Isaac:I feel like that was because my first time ever playing, I realized a memory surfaced, like, years ago for me that I actually played, I think, fourth edition randomly in college one time. Really? Didn't know what I was do they handed me a character sheet. I don't remember a single thing on that character sheet, and it was just full blown, like, yeah. You're in a cave.
Isaac:What are you doing? And I remember I was like, can I try and, like, push the boulder? They're like, yeah. And I rolled a natural one. And he described me, like, breaking my nose.
Isaac:And it was the funniest thing. Everyone was, like, dying laughing. It was the whole experience. In. You didn't
Rachel:DM first.
Isaac:I didn't DM first. Apparently, I played fourth edition. I don't think I rolled this thing. I think I rolled, like, two or three times.
Rachel:And you crit failed.
Isaac:And I crit failed one of them. So oh my goodness. But yeah. So that's so I think that I think that really is, like, a lot of this to bring it back to the topic is that I do think that the play style is system agnostic. Like, these are I would say this is pretty agnostic until we get to connections.
Isaac:But you could do this in D and D. You can do this in probably a lot of other systems. But
Rachel:yeah. The connection questions, though, do do change things.
Isaac:Yes.
Rachel:Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. And I think that that is well, hang on. Let's not get to it.
Rachel:We're here.
Isaac:We're here. Let's break this down with an example. Yeah. So just be clear, get us back there. We were talking about prepping and how you start off a one shot with low prep leading questions.
Isaac:Mhmm. And I'm I'm gonna give an example because as an engineer, I'm a big example guy. At the beginning of a session, the only true fact that we're starting with is that the party is on a cart headed to a nondescript location. Starting with the person on my left, I have them describe their character, name, and pronouns, and where their character is in relation to the cart. That question I find is the money right there.
Isaac:Mhmm. Because that that really helps describe not just what a character looks like on their sheet, but how they act Mhmm. Too. So you can tell a lot about how the character wants to be played by that question right there. Highly recommend.
Isaac:Once that's done, I ask that player for the first prep question. The first one should be an easy layup to set the vibe. For instance, what's the weather like outside? What season are we in right now? What general biome is the party traveling through?
Isaac:If it's a newer player, give them a multiple choice so they understand what you're looking for. So, new person, what's the season? Is it a brisk winter morning, a scorching summer day, or a rainy spring afternoon? They might take one of yours, or they might come up with something on their own following your provided templates.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:So I'll I try and always start with a new person if I can. If someone's like, oh, I've never played ever before. Mhmm. I'll try and if they're like, I've played D and D before, but, like, you know, I've never played this. I tend to not start with them because giving them examples of what to expect and sometimes take them out of some, like, older TTRPG knowledge.
Isaac:Right.
Rachel:Right. Right. So this is funny because this is literally how our first session went.
Isaac:Oh, 100%.
Rachel:You started with this.
Isaac:Absolutely. Listen. There are people who play games with me on Discord who are gonna probably see the science behind the things. Yeah. Then I'm gonna play a game with them, and they're gonna be they're gonna be ready for it.
Rachel:Yeah. They are. They're gonna throw something at you that because
Isaac:this is absolutely how I start every one shot. Mhmm. Like, 100%.
Rachel:Well, and I see why. Yeah. The explanation makes a lot of sense.
Isaac:Yeah. Yeah. Now we move to the next player in the circle. Describe the character, name, and pronouns, and where their PC character is in relation to the cart and their fellow traveler. Mhmm.
Isaac:Always throw in their fellow traveler and maybe say again where they're at. That way it makes the first person feel seen, and it helps you remember where everyone is. Continue to listen actively to what they say about their character as any detail can be a plot hook. Now the next prep question. We want to establish what's going on and where they are going.
Isaac:Feel free to add a few nouns to guide them. For instance, what rumor have you heard about the small rural town you're going to? What is the name of the cave you're all approaching? What is in the cart right now that all of you have been tasked to guard? Sometimes you can follow-up with a second question here for more detail.
Isaac:Ask why the cave has that name. Ask who gave them the treasure in the cart. Push slightly for players to define more of the world and make it clear that they have narrative freedom. Continue around the circle. The next questions will be for obstacles.
Isaac:Keep it general. Why are the three to five of you needed to escort the thing they've been tasked to guard? What has people nervous about traveling near the newly named cave? What has your character noticed within this previously mentioned biome that has them on edge? Notice how we build on the answers to the previous questions.
Isaac:This will help narrow the focus immensely while still honoring the answers to the previous questions. Remember, you only have two hours. Take an idea and go all the way with it. Any detail a player adds should be escalated. Double it and give it to the next person.
Rachel:What do you mean by that?
Isaac:So for instance and you'll find out a little later in the article that because you only have two hours, right, you can't spread a wide net. You have to keep it to a beam. Right? And so for instance, if someone mentions a cave Mhmm. Right, say there's a cave at the beach, A way of not doubling it and giving it to the next person, but instead widening it would be to say, what's the name of the village right next to the cave?
Rachel:Oh, I see.
Isaac:Oh, no. Now you've got two locations. Uh-huh. Now you've split the focus. Or for instance, like, this thing that you've been tasked to guard, oh, it's this, like, beautiful chest with inlaid gold.
Isaac:And then the next you ask the next person, like, okay. And what's the name of the guard that's also in the cart also guarding that? So instead of, like, putting the next detail on top of the previously mentioned thing, it's like you're putting another detail next to it.
Rachel:That makes a lot of sense.
Isaac:Okay. Okay. So never do if it's a if it's a person, place, or thing, keep it on what that thing was. Don't add another person, place, or thing. Okay.
Isaac:The best way to say it.
Rachel:Got it. Okay.
Isaac:But, yeah, good question. At this point, your players have set you up with plenty of details to build off of, setting, objective, and obstacles. Any remaining questions can build off the previous ones, add more flavor, or be specific to the characters. For instance, a person approaches your cart. What do they look like, and how can you tell that they're super stressed?
Isaac:That one's my favorite because everyone have everybody's stressed out. They would love to describe a stressed person. There's a feature that this town is known for. What tells you that it hasn't been cared for in a while? Mhmm.
Isaac:There's a symbol on a cart in front of the mayor's house. Where have you seen it before? Mhmm. One important note, do not try to multitask right now. Listen actively to the player while they are speaking and engage with it.
Isaac:Avoid immediately writing down every little thing that they're saying. Give yourself space to hear the details and write it down after you've asked for one or two follow ups and they finish their thoughts. We can multitask and pull everything together after we have all these details. This is super important because one thing because one thing that I even talked about in the article was, like, you can always tell when you're having a conversation with a person, and they're fully not listening to what you're saying.
Rachel:Yes.
Isaac:And this is something improv is also very good at teaching you, which is active listening. Mhmm. Which I say people talk about yes, and a lot. Active listening is, I think, the key thing. Mhmm.
Isaac:Because if, like, say you're describing a character to me, and I have my head down in my paper, and I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh, and I'm just writing. Mhmm. Or if you're talking about your character and I'm looking at you, and I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm nodding along. I'm like, I'm literally looking, I'm making eye contact, I'm looking at you, You're gonna feel more engaged. You're gonna feel more listened to.
Rachel:Especially with someone I don't know. Yes. I think with you now, I would know you're listening
Isaac:Yes.
Rachel:Because I know how you play.
Isaac:But yeah. Especially yeah. Especially because one shots lot times you're playing one shots with strangers. Yes. And so you wanna make you wanna make as open of a table as you can.
Isaac:And so the main thing is too is that sometimes someone has, like, a thought at first, and then the more they talk about the character and the more they talk and they, like, answer your question, things might change halfway through.
Rachel:I've noticed that too. Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. And so the best thing I could tell you is basically let them say everything they wanna say. And once you feel like it's a good stopping point, that's when you put your head down, you start writing. Write what you remember and what the vibe you got away from it was. Mhmm.
Isaac:And another thing that'll teach you is that it's okay to have a a, like, thirty seconds of quiet at the table. Because I because sometimes that I think there's I think there's a fear in GM ing where, like, if things aren't happening, if things aren't moving, I'm, like, fucking up. Right? But there is silence is sometimes really golden. Because if you say all these things about your character, you give me a lot of things.
Isaac:I mean, like, that's so and I, like, look down. I'm like, that's really cool. That's really awesome. And maybe, like, I'll say, oh, sigil of dead god. And I'll, like, say what I'm writing.
Isaac:Repeat. Mhmm. Mhmm. Repeat it. And if you're quiet, sometimes other people don't like quiet, and then they'll talk, and then you're having character banter.
Isaac:Look at that. Smart. Smart song. Mind games here. God.
Isaac:Once everyone has finished answering a question, now we do connection questions. Because we have a time restraint, limit each limit each player to a single connection with one other player. A good stipulation to add is that if someone has already been chosen for a connection, they cannot be chosen again. Players have to spread out attention to the whole table. Ultimately, yes, someone will get picked last, but that likely won't be the person who's picked a connection last.
Isaac:You know what I mean? Like, you want you aren't gonna get to the last person, and no one's made a connection with them. So that's also a good way so that if you have disparate groups, gets everybody kinda talking to each other. Sometimes I'll even sometimes I'll even say if someone comes on in with, like, a preexisting relationship with another character Mhmm. Like, if two people walk up and they're like, oh, we're brothers and like, oh, we we love each other so much.
Isaac:I'll sometimes even say, so and so, you can make a connection with anybody at the table except this person, this person who've already had connection questions. And I'll say that you already have a connection with so and so, so you have to pick someone else. Uh-huh. That's a good way also to, like, spread it out because you wanna get not only do you want the table interacting with you, you want the table interacting with each other too. Yes.
Isaac:So big up. Something you've probably also seen me
Rachel:do before. Bet. Well, that and just GMs playing and not doing that.
Isaac:Yes.
Rachel:So many of them are are the computer screen that people are interacting with, and they're not interacting with each other at all.
Isaac:Yeah.
Rachel:And that doesn't work with Dagger Heart.
Isaac:I really don't work with Dagger Heart. It's also, I think, less fun playing at the table that way too. Mhmm. Because, like, I think have you because, like, how when you're doing, like, a one shot or whatever, like, have you had experiences where you're sitting there and, like, nobody is talking to you and you're just, like, sitting by yourself? That's something that's happened to you?
Rachel:Or You know what? I'm I'm pretty social. So Nice. Not really, but I have seen a lot of people do that.
Isaac:Yeah.
Rachel:And it can be really hard if you don't have the floor at some point to pull them in. And if the GM isn't actively doing that, the player has to do that. Mhmm. So, yes. I don't think it's ever been me, though.
Isaac:Nice.
Rachel:Which is a lucky thing, I think.
Isaac:Right? Yeah. If we're if you're more talkative, it's easier for that to not happen to you for sure.
Rachel:But it does happen. I've seen it.
Isaac:I do. I've seen you see, like, the quiet person and, like, you try and, like, oh, you get the it's like you were start talking and then you say, what do you think so and so? And they're like, ah. And then before they can say anything, a person comes in and is like, I bust in with with I break the window and I throw something.
Rachel:Okay. See oh, I have a question around this. Okay. Okay. Number one.
Isaac:Uh-huh.
Rachel:We have awkward players at the table that have only ever played D and D in a group where they don't do much. Yeah. And there are all the different kinds of players. Right? They're the ones that are just quiet, and they're there, and they're gonna roll their dice, but they're not gonna contribute.
Isaac:Right.
Rachel:How do you help them through a one shot with Daggerheart where the expectation really is that you are going to participate?
Isaac:Yeah. So something I picked up at cons is the pass rule. So when I'm doing the, like, this is Daggerheart. You'll take two d twelves and roll them. And I start I say right up front in, like, the first spiel, I say, now this is a very collaborative game, so they're gonna be sometimes I'm gonna throw to y'all to give me details either about setting or about NPCs or even what's coming up over the hill.
Isaac:And what I'll offer them is I'll say, if you if I throw something to you and you're just really not feeling it and you're like, I don't know. I can't think of anything. I feel like I'm freezing up. You can say pass, and I'll throw something in and we'll move on. No pressure.
Isaac:Don't worry about it.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:I'll tell them, don't pass if you don't feel like you have a good idea because I'll decide if it's a good idea or not. And I, like, wink at them. But but I'll say, first stop, best thought all the time. But if you're freezing up, you can't think of anything, and you just you don't feel it right now, feel free to pass. And people have used that before.
Isaac:Mhmm. And you can tell if someone's passing because they're legit like, oh, I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You got me.
Isaac:I don't I'm blank right now. Every trivia question I've ever been asked ever. Right? Just I don't yeah. I don't know who who sang Thriller in 1980.
Isaac:I have no clue. And but then you can also tell when someone is passing because they just don't they don't care. They don't want it. Right. And the and the good thing is that I kinda want that.
Isaac:Okay. Because if someone says that and they're disinterested Uh-huh. That means I don't need to worry about them anymore.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:I just fully don't. If you're the the conceit of the game is to play with each other here. Yes. So if your pass is like, I don't care. I don't know.
Isaac:I don't care. You just wanna hit goblins. Honestly, totally fine. There's no judgment from me because I'm running a game with people.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:It just means that I can tell you're not gonna be into one third of what this game is typically about. Yes. So when we get to combat, they might light up. They're going be really excited to kill a goblin. That's totally fine.
Isaac:It's just now I know that when NPCs are talking to people, I don't need to have an NPC look at them and say, like, what do you think? Because they're just gonna be like, I don't care. Punch them. Oh, yeah. But the person who really is just like, I don't know.
Isaac:I don't know. Sometimes the response from me will just be, oh, yeah. Do you think it's like A or do you think it's B?
Rachel:The multiple choice. Multiple
Isaac:choice because you give someone a frame of reference and they can latch on to that. And that pretty much nine times out of 10, whenever that happens, they're like, they'll give me an answer. Sometimes isn't even one of the two things I gave them, and then everyone's happy. And if they are more awkward and, like, not talking as much, that's when you, as the GM, you really have to, like, position an NPC to talk to them. My favorite trick is to have them notice something no one else does.
Isaac:So I will so they'll be at the table and say they're all at a bar and, like, two people are talking the whole time and one person is set quiet. When I tend when I'm doing a one shot, I think, like, every every time a person is done talking, I do a mental checklist of who has who was the last person that talked the least. Mhmm. And I'll look to them and say, so and so, can you give me an instinct check? Can you give me a perception check?
Isaac:And then whatever they roll, unless it's really low. If they roll, like, critical fail. I'll say, you see someone come in, and what is it about them that's so suspicious to you? And then boom, now they're kinda talking. And sometimes, they'll even tell them, like, they'll say, I go up and talk to them.
Isaac:And I say, you sneak away and talk to them. And then that person gets a little bit of time just to talk to a person at the table. Mhmm. And then if that person's close to me, then the other players are just gonna banter with each other while me and this one person are having a scene, which is honestly, I think, of the best it can probably be sometimes. But that's that tends to be how I get some quieter players into it.
Isaac:Mhmm. Because sometimes that'll also put in details in the world that other players will tack on to. Yeah. Yep. And so that's that's, like, my key thing is, like and then if they and if they roll low, I'm not gonna say you don't notice anything.
Isaac:I'll say something insane. Like, you see that that person at the bar look is looking at you. They have 10 eyes on their face. That is something insane. The fail is that you saw something, but you didn't know what it was.
Isaac:And sometimes if they interact with that, then the guy really does have 10 eyes on their face. That's elder Troy. It just depends on the bar. It just depends on the bar. But that's my typical trick is that if someone is always check, like, who hasn't talked who's talked to the least so far, send them a specific question.
Rachel:That's really smart. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That makes a lot of sense.
Rachel:Yeah. I I've seen you do that too before.
Isaac:I'm really breaking open the GM. Like
Rachel:Peeking behind the curtain today. Okay.
Isaac:Nice. And you've played with a lot of GMs too. I have. So I think you have like the full range of
Rachel:Oh, yes.
Isaac:Stuff. I feel like
Rachel:plenty of tables I've sat at that are just awkward silences or there's one person that never speaks the whole time. Yeah. Which is fine. Which is
Isaac:fine because sometimes it's not even because I one of the players in my long term campaign didn't really wanna role play at
Rachel:all. Uh-huh.
Isaac:Like, his thing was beating me at a board game.
Rachel:Okay. Got
Isaac:it. I grew up I didn't grow up. I went throughout college with this person losing at board games to him, and he loves that part of it. Absolutely. So I always whenever I do a combat, I really have to try hard because this character is going to demolish me no matter what system.
Isaac:But I put up a good fight and oftentimes have to really challenge the other players too. But, like, anytime I've tried, like, bringing up, like, a story arc or characters or anything, he's just very much like, uh-huh. No. I don't I don't do that. My character wouldn't be into that.
Isaac:And I'm like
Rachel:Got it.
Isaac:Alright. That's fine. It's because he's not
Rachel:into all sorts. Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. And that's and I'll probably talk about it in a future installment, but in fact, the fourth edition GM guide Mhmm. Has a whole section about different kinds of players.
Rachel:I remember. Yeah. Yes.
Isaac:And that that is one of the kinds of players. It's just I'm here to fight. I'm here to you know, I'll do light role playing. Like, if you talk to me, I'll talk to you in character. Yeah.
Isaac:But I'm not gonna, like I don't wanna lead a scene. Mhmm. I don't want, like, a scene just one on one with me in an NPC. Like, I'm not gonna do that. I'm just I'm just here to crack jokes and fight.
Rachel:One four e was so bad. I mean, you it was the game for people that wanted to count Yes. And wanted big numbers.
Isaac:Oh, yeah. Lots of modifiers.
Rachel:That's so many. Modifiers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:So there were plenty of people that I had played with that had that. Yeah. That was their thing too. Oh, yeah. Big numbers, please.
Isaac:Oh, yeah. And those are as a GM, those are the best sessions is because I did have that long term campaign. I had four very different play styles. Oh, interesting. I had Rowan all about role play.
Isaac:Uh-huh. 100% role play. Didn't care about combat. I had the one individual I was talking about, all about combat, deal one role play.
Rachel:Yeah.
Isaac:And then I had two who were kind of in the in between. One of them really wanted a lot of story to happen, and the other one wanted to push red buttons to make crazy things happen in the story.
Rachel:So I had I had
Isaac:I cut my teeth on the table that wanted completely different things, and they stuck around for a full level 20 adventure.
Rachel:The witch is rare. I've never been to level 20. Yeah. That's never happened to me outside of, like, Baldur's Gate three or something.
Isaac:Oh, and there let me tell you. There there's a reset. Having played high level D and D, there's a reason.
Rachel:They're gods.
Isaac:That's yeah. There and there's, like, no one you can do.
Rachel:No.
Isaac:It's that's why I'm gonna be curious for Daggerheart as y'all go up in levels, how it scales. Because some of the abilities at level 10, I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, this will level an army. Like, anyways, I'm excited
Rachel:to you. See.
Isaac:Gosh. Where were we? This is good. This is good. Okay.
Isaac:This connection portion gives you a chance to breathe and plan how to pull it together. Players are currently talking to each other, which is golden GM planning time. All you need to do is keep track of who's been chosen for a connection so far. Write it down if you have more than five people. Take a moment to read back over your notes and remind yourself who these characters are and the details of the world.
Isaac:Draw arrows between them. Write down something quick to pull it together. This is another skill that GMs learn is when do I need to be actively listening and when can I write down some notes? Uh-huh. Because, like, that's and that's the thing.
Isaac:I'm always exhausted after tables where I've been talking the whole
Rachel:time. Right.
Isaac:Because I have played with people who are like role playing. Who cares? Story? Who who cares? I want to fight giant sandworms.
Isaac:Yeah. And those are all I'm talking. I'm talking. I'm talking. I'm talking.
Isaac:Right. So I have no time to write down those. I have no time to do anything. But with role play heavy tables, you can throw a bomb to him of, there's an NPC who runs in, and he has a hat, and he steals it, and he does something. And then that's something they can talk about for, like, five minutes, and now I'm writing down notes.
Isaac:I'm letting them talk to each other. Like, this will come out before the finale, but there I had a lot of time to just sit there by myself and write notes on that one. Oh. Was great.
Rachel:That explains
Isaac:a lot. Okay. Okay. But in this case, like, connections the thing the thing about Dagger Heart with connections that I think is that connections are primo space for the players to make weight of them. Mhmm.
Isaac:Where it's not to say it's not my job, but my main concern is not actualizing connections at the table. Mhmm. That's the players. If the players bring attention to it and the players are interacting with it, that's when I'll play with it. But if, like, you have a connection with someone where, like, that's that's the man who killed my father.
Isaac:First of all, that's a big one. So I'll Good swing. And I'll ask, like, you know this? And they're like, yes. And I'm like, okay.
Isaac:Okay. And I'll feel like, how do you feel about what that person said? And what they're like, oh, it's fine. Whatever. And they just, like, trust the person immediately, and they don't do anything with it.
Isaac:There's nothing I can do. No. There's nothing I can do. And so connections, I feel like, is where the weight of the players can sit, which means that as y'all are making connections, I can have one ear on it where if someone says something that's like, oh, well, we met at, during our Rumspringa back in back ten years ago, that I can write Rumspringa ten years, question mark. But if but if they're talking like, yeah, there was this time where this cat took stole my toddler and,
Rachel:like No.
Isaac:Never. You helped me rescue it, and that was really huge. And, like and that cat, like, moved into our home and had a really long, beautiful life together, and we really cared about that. I don't need to write that down.
Rachel:No. I need to
Isaac:write that down. If you talk about sprinkles every time, oh, this reminds me of sprinkles, that old cat is still my toddler. When you bring that to the table, then we'll work with it. But, like, connections at their base, I'm not gonna, like, put heavy weight on that.
Rachel:That makes sense. Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. Yeah. Because as you're doing connection questions, you I've noticed with, like, the Discord and talking is that you'll spend some time on connections.
Rachel:Yeah.
Isaac:You talk to the people about connections now.
Rachel:That's important.
Isaac:It is. Do you think the connection questions help guide the character?
Rachel:Oh, 100%. Absolutely.
Isaac:Interesting.
Rachel:I mean, yes. But only if you take them seriously that way. You don't have to. You don't have to do that. I'm just as much of a fan of characters coming to a table with really minimal connections and figuring out who they are while they play.
Rachel:That's great. But for the long term campaigns that we've done now, the connection questions did make a big difference in who my character will trust and who they won't and who they'd opened up to, who they won't, and how they interact in general. So yeah, it does make I don't know about one shots as much. But with long term campaigns, yes, they matter. They do matter.
Rachel:And I don't know how I feel about them being fixed to specific classes, but when there is that list where you can kind of pick a few, you know, and do it on your own, I like that a little bit better.
Isaac:No. That is one thing I hope we see more of, is more connection questions in some of the supplement. With shout out to Bladebound. Shout out to him because when we did a little thing on we or, myself, Rowan, and Joe were on Bladebound saga.
Rachel:Uh-huh.
Isaac:And as part of character creation, he sent out a Word doc where he had created, like, pages of connection questions for both class and background and ancestry, which was super impressive. I need to ask him, like, is that something you've posted somewhere?
Rachel:Helpful. There are a few guides like that. Yeah. Some of them are just obnoxiously thorough. Don't need don't need to do that.
Rachel:There's a balance you gotta strike Yeah. With planning a character.
Isaac:When did we first meet one hundred years ago? When did we first meet two hundred years ago? Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
Isaac:I think in one shots, I think character guides connections. But I think in long term campaign, connections guide character.
Rachel:That that's a great way to put it. Yeah. Absolutely.
Isaac:Okay. Okay. I was wondering if you would agree with that.
Rachel:Yes. I do. I think that's about what I'm trying to say here. Yeah. Good job.
Isaac:Okay. Hey. Great. Call me a wordsmith.
Rachel:Thanks for translating. No problem. I'm happy to help.
Isaac:If this process took an hour, then you should take a quick break and let yourself have a moment to bring it together because, clearly, the party really likes to role play.
Rachel:Yeah.
Isaac:Or you have a huge table, which if you do, good luck. If this process took twenty minutes, then you likely have a table of strangers who are less interested in world building, so you can just keep it rolling.
Rachel:Talk the whole time.
Isaac:Talk the whole time. Get ready. Do some exercises. That was at gen when we went to GenCon last year, 2025. I had a table at nine people.
Isaac:Oh. I was foolish and said, who's gonna wanna play at my table? They're all gonna go to the Darrington table. So I put table limit of seven. That was a mistake.
Isaac:All the tables sold out immediately. Yes. Get there. There are people on the wait list, and I'm like, sure. One more person can come.
Isaac:Okay. And then I had eight people. My tables were eight eight seven nine eight is the the levels it went. And famously, someone got someone got engaged at my last table.
Rachel:Yeah. That did happen.
Isaac:But that that really stress tested this process, and it worked every time. Oh, okay. Say, every time there I think there were maybe one or two people who probably left who didn't feel like it was a good time, and one of it was at the nine player table. And the situation was that there were these two dads that were there, and one of the sons did not want any part of it. I could tell.
Isaac:He was I said he said, pass. And I was like, okay. Yeah. Pass. Okay.
Isaac:Cool.
Rachel:Yeah. He gotta roll with it.
Isaac:You gotta roll with it. And then I just didn't worry about it. He swung his sword as a fighter and didn't care. It was fine. Yep.
Isaac:But every everyone else, I could you can feel a table when they're into it because they're, like, giving things, and they're, like, lean forward. Mhmm. Mhmm. They're laughing at your jokes. And it seemed to work.
Isaac:It seemed to work. So this
Rachel:Stress testing is the
Isaac:word. Yeah. Honestly, it's harder with a table of three to do this than it is with eight because by the eighth person, you're like, yeah. So, like, what color is the sun and how many moons are there in this sky? You know, so many details.
Rachel:They're not gonna just build the story for you. They'll build the whole history.
Isaac:They're gonna build the whole history. Yeah. You're gonna have so much to work with. Learning where to take ideas can seem daunting, but it is a skill you can develop. Lean on tropes, take ideas straight from movies or video games, and be absurd.
Isaac:Mhmm. Furthermore, it doesn't need to be perfect. We're making a string and not a web. Maybe a player say they saw a golden big bird in the sky, but we're about to go into a cave called the Ice Cave to drop off a valuable gem. The mayor of the town is rumored to be divorcing her husband, but of more interest is the sigil of a rival house of a PC on a carriage outside the cathedral to another PC's deity.
Isaac:Mhmm. Not all details are made equally nor does everything need to pay off. This is a one shot after all.
Rachel:So be discerning.
Isaac:Be discerning. Be discerning. Sometime listen. If someone says, oh, the burger master of the town loves burgers. And suddenly, at the table is like, he loves burgers.
Isaac:We gotta what's the perfect burger for him? Now you're playing a burger game.
Rachel:Oh god.
Isaac:And you gotta roll with it. You gotta roll with a burger game. You can't say, but that's not where the story is, guys. There's a cave full of goblins and there's a dragon in there. You gotta say, there's a beef shortage.
Isaac:And everyone's like, oh my god. You got you roll with it. But, yeah, if someone says, like, a crazy thing and nobody is, like, into it or it's just so wildly off the path, you you can bring it in at the very end, and that could be really funny, but you don't have to. Keep that in mind.
Rachel:Fascinating.
Isaac:Now I've talked way too much about setup, but what about the payoff? What are we making with all these details that we are receiving from the party? So, I mean, this is this is the part where I talk about my personal style of play. Previously, this was mechanics that you can use. Now this is how I play the game.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:Okay. I lean on the three pillars heuristic of TTRPGs, role play, exploration, combat. It can easily map to a three act structure and can take as long or as little as you'd like. Role play to gather information on where to go and what is going on, exploration to get to the action, and combat for the climax. Mhmm.
Isaac:I could write a whole blog post on each of these, but I'm gonna follow the spirit of the one shot and keep it short. Alright. Role play is my personal favorite and can be flexible. For instance, say your party spends an hour during connections. That was some good role play.
Isaac:Likely, you know where they're going and what's waiting for them. On the flip side, your twenty minute connection table will need an NPC to point them to where they need to go. The goal is to point the way towards where they need to go or where the problem is located.
Rachel:Do you have a standard list of NPCs? I have. Have you reused anybody?
Isaac:Can I tell you something? And this is for the patrons only. Every one shot that I ever do is located in a little tiny gnomish town called Timbers.
Rachel:And What?
Isaac:I have little Timbers name. Timmy Timbers is always the founder from four hundred years ago, there's a statue of him. It's the same world. It is often the same NPC names because I can just come up with a t name and something to hard t timbers. So Tammy Timbers is there.
Isaac:Tamisha Timbers is there. Tally Timbers. It's it. Tiny Timbers? People love tiny timbers,
Rachel:and it's like a big gnomes.
Isaac:It is always I always go to the tiny gnomes town, and I do it every single time because it's just so set in stone. Mhmm. And I can just see it so clearly in my mind that I'm not always trying to come up with stuff.
Rachel:You're not fishing. Yeah.
Isaac:That's sense. More recently, if you played a game with me in Discord last time, you did not go to Timbers. We were all over the place Right. Because I'm stretching myself. Know?
Isaac:Hey. But, yeah, there are there is absolutely, absolutely stock NPCs that are ready to go.
Rachel:Alright. Good to know.
Isaac:Good to know. Y'all just in case, you know, sometimes it's just, you know, it just that you just need a guy. You just need a guy to roll up and say, oh, the beer's out, and then that's all they need.
Rachel:They act different every time Oh, yeah. Depending on what you need. Yeah.
Isaac:Yeah. There's always listen. The bartender is always polishing a glass to let you know he's a bartender, and he's wearing nothing but suspenders. Like, that's that's just the way it goes. But, yeah, I do I do.
Rachel:Good to know.
Isaac:Good to know. Yeah. You'll see if you if you play long enough with me, you'll see familiar faces. Good to know. Exploration can take many forms.
Isaac:Group checks are a solid way to handle exploration, or the daring among you might use a random encounter table. Or even the most daring of you will have the party randomly choose a number between one and three hundred and eighty four and turn to that page in the monster manual to determine what the encounter is.
Rachel:Oh, no.
Isaac:Whether they need to tail a suspect, climb a large wall, or cross a raging river, the goal is to make the party work together to overcome an obstacle before the climax. Environmental stat blocks are great for this
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:Which is one thing. I will say not only connections, but environmental stat blocks are a great resource for this style.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:Because instead of an adversary because that I think is the complaint a lot of times with random encounter tables as GMs is it's just it's just HP. It's just you get ambushed by wolves or
Rachel:Oh, no.
Isaac:You see you see a bunch of kobolds in a clearing. Right? And ice the conversation often becomes like, well, if the party comes up on just a bunch of quicksands, why can't they just go around? You know what I mean? Mhmm.
Isaac:And it's a valid question. If the party stops and says, okay, well, we'll double back and go another way. Okay. What do you do as GM? Do you say, okay.
Isaac:Yeah. That works. And then you keep going. Was that fun for anybody? You don't know.
Isaac:So which which is something I struggle with too when it comes to environment. But stab blocks make it so that there are, like, actual rules in place for this.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:Like, raging river is great because you can just say, oh, you think that if you had to cross the river somewhere else, it would take you way too long.
Rachel:Right.
Isaac:And there's all there's also, like, a lot. Oh, well, exploration will be its own thing. It should
Rachel:be. Yeah. I wanna ask more about this. Yeah.
Isaac:I will add to I will add to the mountain of people trying to tell you how to do exploration.
Rachel:Oh, boy.
Isaac:Happily add
Rachel:to it. Oh, boy.
Isaac:Oh, another and another thing I will say about exploration, shout out for Daggerheart. If you're trying to teach people Daggerheart, this is the time to do a group check. Uh-huh. This is the time because so many type people are coming from different systems that have versions of group checks. Mhmm.
Isaac:This is a great way to just introduce it, which is one person's taking the lead. They're gonna be the main role. All the rest of you are assisting, explaining explaining this is how the rules work. How's everyone interacting in the scene? You've introduced the mechanic.
Isaac:Great way to teach Dragon
Rachel:Warriors. Time. That makes sense.
Isaac:Yeah. I think combat is pretty self explanatory. If you're short on time, let everyone get a turn in and the last eight kills. If you're going big, have some stat blocks on the side for a fun adversary. The goal is to let them use their abilities and defeat something.
Isaac:Now I don't say that as the the dragon dies when I think it's the best time because the stat block is gonna be there. But as a GM, you want everyone to get a turn. Right?
Rachel:Right.
Isaac:That's the goal. You so if someone rolls up to the shadow monster and they get do 42 damage and you look and that's, like, all their HP or, like, oh, that's severe damage. They're down to one HP now. You don't need them to have four HP. They could have more.
Rachel:Just put a little more in there.
Isaac:Yeah. More in there. You don't don't do this for important campaign things.
Rachel:Okay.
Isaac:I would not say do that for important campaign things Okay. Often. But in a one shot, you could the the white dragon can die when we think it's best in a one shot. Okay. You know what I mean?
Isaac:Okay. Or at least have everyone have at least a turn to do something.
Rachel:Choose the HP with your heart instead of your head.
Isaac:And keep in mind keep in mind, most of these games are balanced for four people. So if you have a table of eight, Oh god. You probably should increase everything or else
Rachel:there's Double it. Add another dragon.
Isaac:Double it. Double it and add it. Yeah. Add a second shadow monster. You know what I mean?
Isaac:But, yeah, that's just my kinda go to. It's with combat. You're trying to let everyone have a good time.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially in a one shot.
Isaac:Especially in a one shot. Yep. So that's how Isaac Allen Burns preps for a one shot. In summary, prep four or five specific leading questions and actively listen to the responses to build up your one shot. If you've ever played at my table, either at a con or on Discord, you've probably seen this in action.
Rachel:Mhmm.
Isaac:Let me know in the comments if this was helpful for you. How do you run one shots? What works for you? That's a call to action at the end of it there. So you can go to the comments right now.
Isaac:Yeah. So that's how one shot is done. Rachel, do you feel like the magic gone now? That if you play with me and you see it happen, you're gonna be like, I see you.
Rachel:Yeah. This is gonna be a huge problem now. No. Huge problem.
Isaac:No. You're gonna see you're gonna see uh-oh. You're gonna see the magic behind the screen.
Rachel:Honestly, I don't know the last time I played a one shot with you, though.
Isaac:It was a great point. It was a great point. Because we play together now.
Rachel:Yeah. We do.
Isaac:You know, you probably won't do one shots with me.
Rachel:But if I do
Isaac:You're gonna know.
Rachel:I'm just gonna sit there cackling the whole thing. I'll come prepared. I know your tricks now.
Isaac:You do? Yeah. You're gonna throw me a loop. Gonna try.
Rachel:I'm gonna try. It's a challenge. Yep.
Isaac:But, yeah, ultimately, that that was fun for a bit. Hopefully, people learned something. I feel like that was very informative.
Rachel:I thought it was. Yeah.
Isaac:That's some that's some observations from two people who have done this for a while.
Rachel:Yes. Yeah. From two different sides of the table, it seems like.
Isaac:Yeah. Exactly. So now this is when you're gonna write your article of being a player. And then we're gonna do the reverse where you read, and then I'll respond. Great.
Rachel:Or I'll just attempt my own one shot.
Isaac:Oh, that would be fun.
Rachel:I I do wanna DM at some point.
Isaac:You should.
Rachel:And this this is really helpful for me. Yeah. I'm intimidated by it.
Isaac:It can be intimidating, I'm sure.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah.
Isaac:It's you're gonna do a great job.
Rachel:Oh, we'll see.
Isaac:You're gonna do great.
Rachel:I really appreciate you, being willing to do this kind of post Absolutely.
Isaac:For those
Rachel:of us that do wanna know.
Isaac:Yeah. Because because I've done I've done this a while. Mhmm. It's I'm hoping because it was helpful for me reading through all that stuff. Yes.
Isaac:Shout out to the Alexandrian. Shout out to SliceFlourish. My little shout out to the angry GM. I don't know if I love his stuff as much anymore, but at the time, it was helpful. Mhmm.
Isaac:Yeah. I just wanted to, like, you know, put something out that maybe could help people.
Rachel:Yep. Yep. Well done.
Isaac:Well, thank you so much for stopping by my office, Rachel. This is very fun.
Rachel:Okay. Well, I'll see myself out then.
Isaac:I don't know how to end this. So we'll just say
Rachel:Hope this was helpful.
Isaac:Hope this was helpful, and squawkulator.
Rachel:Oh, no.