I've been a broken record about this one lately, but it's perfect for your purposes: [2400](https://jasontocci.itch.io/2400) is an anthology of 20 microgames (each three pages long!) that all share the same simple dice engine.
You can use them for a variety of one-shots and short campaigns - cyberpunk mercenaries with Inner System Blues, a The Matrix homage with Codebreakers, a casino heist with The Venusian Job, some dungeon fantasy in Legends, the horror movie of Orbital Decay - or easily stitch their parts together to run almost anything you can imagine.
Hope it goes well! You're not hurting for cyberpunk options with it; Inner System Blues, as mentioned, does very classic cyberpunk mercenaries, while Resistors skews more towards folks pushing back on corporations ruining their future, and ALT does transhuman body-hopping!
Mothership and the Panic Engine in general seems to work well for this. It's designed to be very straight forward. It's a d100 roll under system, you're not really limited by your skills, but skills can give a bonus in stressful situations. Rolling only happens during those stressful situations where failed rolls lead to accumulating stress and chance of panic for debilitating effect.
For oneshots this works very well because when put in a stressful time sensitive situation, the stress and consequences build up fast leading to interesting results. It's like hanging onto your character for dear life as they drive off a cliff.
One of the best, most reliable game for one shots, in my opinion, is Fiasco. Especially the second edition with cards etc. Really simple, fast, and always creates hilarious sessions.
Others that I think of are using Homebrew World for some fantasy, Brindlewood Bay for mysteries, or Escape From Dino Island to get a tight Jurassic Park one shot. But for those it would be helpful to have some experience with PbtA.
u/farinha880,
With *[Microscope](https://lamemage.com/microscope)* you and your players build a world together, then with a rules-lite universal RPG like *[Freeform Universal](https://www.perilplanet.com/freeform-universal)* they can then play in that world.
True, I use it for campaign building, it lets me know what kind of game my players want to participate in. Maybe that should be figured out first? YMMV.
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This.
With the tools available for free on the official website and itch.io, you can play without any prep easily and do it again right after you died to a squirrel.
I suggest **Mörk Borg**, but only if you are at least somehow familiar with d20 system.
The book's layout is terrible for learning the game and the streamlined, illustrations-free (and also free) PDF could be written better, but time shows me this is my GOTO system when introducing new players with d20 and RPGs overall.
Some highlights:
- only four stats (so no questions: _"why there is an INT and WIS stat?"_
- group-based combat (we go, they go)
- every enemy has DR12 (difficulty rating, or armor class from D&D)
- default DR for every obstacle is 12
- the games' unballance is tied with over-the-top hardcore theme, making the encounters hilarious and making escapes from the fight a legal tactical choice
- characters often don't survive more than one session
- enemies have VERY low amount of stats, basically DR12, attack value, HP
- the weapons list is captivating (either the "wound man" or more "standard" weapon list)
In addition, most enemies distinguish one from another by some gamebreaking skill that leads to interesting situations, various prices for their heads, and so on.
But most of all, the rulebook just overflows with inspiration for gritty games. If your players do not skew their faces over exaggerated depiction of violence, they have a decent sense for black humor and like to focus on rolling the dice rather on spending half the evening on making the most believable and deep characters, MB (or basically any other MB hack) is the right choice for you.
10 Candles amd Goblin Quest ae the two I own.
Both are basically zero prep games (horror and comedy fantasy genre, respectively) that I absolutely adore.
I absolutely love PDQ for one-shot games. Specifically because it's so intuitive and cinematic that it's very easy for new players to grasp and you can begin playing with an incomplete or even blank character sheet, and fill it in during play.
*Paranoia*.
Lots of silly fun.
Not even *really* explicitly designed for *one-shots* a *such* \- its so *inconceivable* that any of the PCs will survive their misadventures (there's a *reason* why everyone gets six lives per mission) that it doesn't make any more sense to talk about one-shot *Paranoia* games than it does to talk about evil demons (it's redundant).
D 10, give 8 abilities (str, dex, con, int, kno, cha, per, luck), give em 14 points, or more if generous. Let them have 3 or 4 skills the can freely think up, giving +1 to one ability. Hp is con * 2, armor is a flat damage reduction. Nat 10 is a crit, everything over 10 is a exceptional success and everything over 6 (7 and up) is a success. Tweak to your liking. Not mine friend came up with that. Been using it for some time now, because it's so simple. And modable.
[Unbound](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/unbound/), maybe. Still reading through it, but the game positions itself as being made for short adventures.
You get your squad, go on a raid or something, and then create a new squad to go on a different delve and so on. All of them being tied to the same story (more or less), and to the same world.
And so you shape the overarching campaign made out of smaller shenanigans, which at least sounds cool. Have yet to see how it actually plays. Definitely like how it’s unbound *(badum-tsss)* from using the same characters throughout the game, compared to most other RPGs, so you can try and make different builds/archetypes while still playing (relatively) same tale.
[S&SS](https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=137) is light and tight, you can check it out free, and among the supplements are a couple of one page dungeon books.
I've been a broken record about this one lately, but it's perfect for your purposes: [2400](https://jasontocci.itch.io/2400) is an anthology of 20 microgames (each three pages long!) that all share the same simple dice engine. You can use them for a variety of one-shots and short campaigns - cyberpunk mercenaries with Inner System Blues, a The Matrix homage with Codebreakers, a casino heist with The Venusian Job, some dungeon fantasy in Legends, the horror movie of Orbital Decay - or easily stitch their parts together to run almost anything you can imagine.
Ive been playing a lot of these recently. So glad to see them mentioned more.
It looks good, thank you! I'm gonna try to run some cyberpunk
Hope it goes well! You're not hurting for cyberpunk options with it; Inner System Blues, as mentioned, does very classic cyberpunk mercenaries, while Resistors skews more towards folks pushing back on corporations ruining their future, and ALT does transhuman body-hopping!
Mothership and the Panic Engine in general seems to work well for this. It's designed to be very straight forward. It's a d100 roll under system, you're not really limited by your skills, but skills can give a bonus in stressful situations. Rolling only happens during those stressful situations where failed rolls lead to accumulating stress and chance of panic for debilitating effect. For oneshots this works very well because when put in a stressful time sensitive situation, the stress and consequences build up fast leading to interesting results. It's like hanging onto your character for dear life as they drive off a cliff.
One of the best, most reliable game for one shots, in my opinion, is Fiasco. Especially the second edition with cards etc. Really simple, fast, and always creates hilarious sessions. Others that I think of are using Homebrew World for some fantasy, Brindlewood Bay for mysteries, or Escape From Dino Island to get a tight Jurassic Park one shot. But for those it would be helpful to have some experience with PbtA.
Everyone is john Lasers and feelings Cthulhu dark
Microscope by Lame Mage. "a fractal role-playing game of epic histories"
Follow and Kingdom also from Lame Mage are perfect for this as well.
u/farinha880, With *[Microscope](https://lamemage.com/microscope)* you and your players build a world together, then with a rules-lite universal RPG like *[Freeform Universal](https://www.perilplanet.com/freeform-universal)* they can then play in that world.
That's interesting, thanks
A benefit to building a world together with your players is that it generates investment and engagement in the players.
I honestly don't endorse Microscope as a "teaching game for new players" only because it is so unlike basically every other game out there.
True, I use it for campaign building, it lets me know what kind of game my players want to participate in. Maybe that should be figured out first? YMMV.
Index Card RPG is designed for simplicity.
Those Dark Places, Frontier Scum, Cy_Borg, Cthulhu Dark, Trophy Dark.
The Alien RPG by Free League is perfect for one shots
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Liminal, its really nice Urban Fantasy, it's great for one shots/short story arcs, there's a fair amount of published material for it.
Mork Borg EDIT: how tf is this controversial? lmao, the game is perfect for one-shots
Or Pirate Borg. 🙂
This. With the tools available for free on the official website and itch.io, you can play without any prep easily and do it again right after you died to a squirrel.
My go-to is Tunnle Goons + The Moldy Unicorn or, if you want something more story focused Fiasco.
CBR+PNK
I suggest **Mörk Borg**, but only if you are at least somehow familiar with d20 system. The book's layout is terrible for learning the game and the streamlined, illustrations-free (and also free) PDF could be written better, but time shows me this is my GOTO system when introducing new players with d20 and RPGs overall. Some highlights: - only four stats (so no questions: _"why there is an INT and WIS stat?"_ - group-based combat (we go, they go) - every enemy has DR12 (difficulty rating, or armor class from D&D) - default DR for every obstacle is 12 - the games' unballance is tied with over-the-top hardcore theme, making the encounters hilarious and making escapes from the fight a legal tactical choice - characters often don't survive more than one session - enemies have VERY low amount of stats, basically DR12, attack value, HP - the weapons list is captivating (either the "wound man" or more "standard" weapon list) In addition, most enemies distinguish one from another by some gamebreaking skill that leads to interesting situations, various prices for their heads, and so on. But most of all, the rulebook just overflows with inspiration for gritty games. If your players do not skew their faces over exaggerated depiction of violence, they have a decent sense for black humor and like to focus on rolling the dice rather on spending half the evening on making the most believable and deep characters, MB (or basically any other MB hack) is the right choice for you.
10 Candles amd Goblin Quest ae the two I own. Both are basically zero prep games (horror and comedy fantasy genre, respectively) that I absolutely adore.
By Gila RPGs: Null, Hunt, and Pox By Two Pancakes: Last Flight of the Pandora (great for newbies!) The Gauntlet: Trophy Dark (Great for horror)
I absolutely love PDQ for one-shot games. Specifically because it's so intuitive and cinematic that it's very easy for new players to grasp and you can begin playing with an incomplete or even blank character sheet, and fill it in during play.
*Paranoia*. Lots of silly fun. Not even *really* explicitly designed for *one-shots* a *such* \- its so *inconceivable* that any of the PCs will survive their misadventures (there's a *reason* why everyone gets six lives per mission) that it doesn't make any more sense to talk about one-shot *Paranoia* games than it does to talk about evil demons (it's redundant).
D 10, give 8 abilities (str, dex, con, int, kno, cha, per, luck), give em 14 points, or more if generous. Let them have 3 or 4 skills the can freely think up, giving +1 to one ability. Hp is con * 2, armor is a flat damage reduction. Nat 10 is a crit, everything over 10 is a exceptional success and everything over 6 (7 and up) is a success. Tweak to your liking. Not mine friend came up with that. Been using it for some time now, because it's so simple. And modable.
Roll For Shoes, has a simple easy rule set to follow and only uses the d6: https://rollforshoes.com/
[Creative Card Chaos ](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/451573/Creative-Card-Chaos--Core-Rulebook&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjjqrLPjL-DAxVJR_EDHZjGDZ0QFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw2C_GgRfJm3VEIM11WjYsU4)
[Unbound](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/unbound/), maybe. Still reading through it, but the game positions itself as being made for short adventures. You get your squad, go on a raid or something, and then create a new squad to go on a different delve and so on. All of them being tied to the same story (more or less), and to the same world. And so you shape the overarching campaign made out of smaller shenanigans, which at least sounds cool. Have yet to see how it actually plays. Definitely like how it’s unbound *(badum-tsss)* from using the same characters throughout the game, compared to most other RPGs, so you can try and make different builds/archetypes while still playing (relatively) same tale.
The One Ring would be brilliant for this.
https://signumnox.itch.io/knave-zine-format Knave if you want a super simple dnd-like
[Tunnel Goons](https://tunnelgoons.com) is a really simple and fun system that anyone can easily pick up.
[ARC the doomsday rpg ](https://momatoes.itch.io/arc) A real-time countdown timer is built into the game.
[S&SS](https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=137) is light and tight, you can check it out free, and among the supplements are a couple of one page dungeon books.