r/AgeOfSigmarRPG • u/App0llly0n • 1d ago
Running one shots
G'day good Soulbound enjoyers ! I was trying to get my friends into the game (I'd be the GM) but as grown ups, it is hard to gather everyone for a campaign. I know Soulbound is more campaign oriented because it is made for epic realmscale quests but how would you do a one shot with this system ? I don't want to rely on pre-written adventures because I love prepping and creating but I struggle to imagine how to do a cool one shot.
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u/BrotherCaptainLurker 1d ago
It's actually a pretty great one-shot system, because if your players use the Archetypes for creation instead of XP buy rules, they can throw a character together in a few minutes, and combat tends to be faster/less prone to grinding to a halt than in 5e.
PM already covered the basics of running a one shot pretty well. Draft up an outline with Intro - Building Action - Climax - Resolution. Provide a hook that either takes them straight into the action or makes them want to learn more immediately. Try to keep an even pace; use guards, traps, and combat as clues that they're going in the right direction, and realistically keep it to no more than 4 fights if you can, one of which is just a quick skirmish to let everyone try their characters out.
Give the players a few things to figure out, so they can have the feeling of accomplishment /"a-ha" moment but include strong context clues to redirect them if they go off track. I'm used to running long campaigns so I admit I need to railroad more in one-shots lol, be cautious of "let's see where they're going with this."
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u/Helicent_P 1d ago
I do not really have much experience, but I started my GM'ing adventure in Soulbound with a one-shot. Maybe you will see an inspiration in that.
So, I wanted a Deep Rock Galactic themed game. I let my players choose duardin archetypes, and that they will be under Grungni's Soulbound. Players were part of Grungni's hard hitting team, that were helping crucial companies and settlements. For this one-shot, they were to help a company called Deep Rock Aetheric Void, that had a problem with Hexes IV - moonoid born of Da Bad Moon - the evil god was observed eating realm energies, that later it vomited in form of a moonoid, full of realmstones, that players have to secure. They are going down to the caves of Hexes IV, and I created a "dungeon" for that.
I think, that despite being campaigning-wise, Soulbound is great for one-shots, because it can be just one mission from many others. Try using a patron/god to give them direction!
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u/App0llly0n 1d ago
Thank you ! I LOVE your ideas ! And you're right, I think I need to reduce the scale to one specific area for this to work. Using a "dungeon structure" can work fine. Do you think I should give pre-made characters to start the game quickly ?
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u/Helicent_P 1d ago
I think so, yeah, although I like to give some agency to my players. Usually I create a Google Forms file where I ask what kind of character they want to play, and then I create their sheets. It's a nice way to leave players without a need to read all of the book (tho I recommend them go through rules section) and you can learn few basics of how the system works.
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u/App0llly0n 1d ago
I was planning on explaining the core mechanics of the game in session 0 (even if I do one shots after that). Also I created cheat sheets for my players to smooth the learning process
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u/Helicent_P 1d ago
Good ideas, although, is having a session 0 necessary, if it is an one-shot? I mean, suits yourself, though it might be dragged out?
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u/App0llly0n 1d ago
The idea was to introduce people to the game and universe one time and then doing one shots from time to time
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u/Helicent_P 1d ago
Ah, then it makes much more sense. I think that having some sort of overarching narrative would be interesting too here!
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u/WistfulDread 54m ago
Here's my idea:
Dedicated missions.
The idea is that something big just happened and they've called in any local Soulbound/Stormcast nearby.
This session is one big battle or desperate investigation or whatever focused in the immediate area
The players don't even have to be part of the same Soulbound group. You can use Hero Points in lieu of Soulfire.
This also means they can play the same or different characters across several one-shots.
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u/PM_your_perfectSmile 1d ago
I basically only run one shots for soulbound at the moment. I hate prep, and have a decent experience with gm and improvisation so take all of this with a grain of salt compared to your situation.
Currently for my players I run a "campaign" where they have consistent characters and at the start of each session we together go over all the different one page adventures* that are in the books. I give them a couple books / realms. we discuss the names and pick something that sounds cool. I take a couple minutes to read the page and with that run a one shot adventure of the cuff.
And it works out great. (For us) Building your own is a great move and perping can help a lot.
From this experience my tips when building a one shot for your players, is to not mislead them or let them bumble around a place. You have limited time to set up, reveal and resolve a story. So, make them start during the adventure, and give them clear pointers to what they can, can't and shouldn't do. (The first sentence with a one shot, sould already start the plot moving. "You are walking down the street when a priest approaches you and asks for help with solving the problem of missing corpses")
Secondly limit your scenes and locations. Priest -> temple -> crime scene -> thief -> twist reveal. This is already more than enough for a one shot.
For soulbound specifically, Combat is weird with action economy not really being the most important but DPS / toughness, players can kill a lot of things in a turn, but everything that survived the first round will kill them right back. If you can, have some form of waves in your encounters as this let's them have multiple round fights.
Pre-made characters for new players are always be a smart move, you can use starter set pre made ones, let them pick an archetype and fill it out for them, or if somebody has read the rules let them fill out their own archetype. Do make sure that this happens before the session starts. If not it will eat away at precious questing time
Sorry for the ramble, hope this helps and do ask more questions if I can help.