One-Shots / Cutting down the System Stuff

[Spinachcat]

Palladium characters are detailed. They have lots and lots of skills and modifiers for this and that. Lots of stuff that may be used across a long campaign.

But way too much to put in front a noob for a one-shot.

There is a mountainload of stuff to explain to a noob. That's fine if its a home campaign, but I am talking 4 hours from sit-down to pack-up. Think convention game. People you might never see again after 4 hours.

So...what would you do to streamline the character sheet, the skill list and the game system if you were presenting a 4 hour demo?







You go first! I'll throw my ideas in later.

[Killer Cyborg]

1. Limit gear selection to a single book or two.
(That's an easy one)

2. Simplify skills. Combine a number of skills into single skills.
Ancient Weapon Proficiences would just become one skill: "Ancient Weapons." You know one, you know them all. Same with Modern Weapons and Energy Weapons.
Other skills could be combined by category (Communications would be one skill, Pilot would be one skill that applied to any vehicle, etc), or they could be narrower, like all computer skills under one umbrella, or all stealth skills, or all social skills, etc.
Pick a single skill percentage for the new skills.

[Armorlord]

Pre-made character sheets with all the information on their abilities on the sheet, combat numbers in bold with WP bonuses noted right next to the weapon, and stick to relatively basic character types. Also be very familiar with the characters yourself, and lead them through their first fight ask them to add their bonuses from their sheets- which in bold should be quick to find. Any other modifiers and conditions keep track of yourself and simply tell them when they succeed or fail but don't bog things down explaining things like point blank penalties, lasers, or whatever else you're worried about confusing them with.
Harder on your, easier on them. Remember to have enough variety of pre-gens to be fun for most people and doubles with slightly different weapon/skill selections in case some really want to play the same type as another person.

[lather]

Simply the campaign, too.

[The ineffible GM]

Pre-made characters.
Don't do any kind of character creation in the session, just say "I've got eight characters put together, who wants what?" Try to avoid mages or psychics that have a lot of spells/abilities.

Don't try eliminating any of the information on the character sheets, it'll just make things more confusing as you play.

Show a summary of their combat bonuses, preferably all their bonuses for each of the weapons they have.

The information on a Palladium character sheet, if labeled correctly, is all fairly self-explanatory. You have attributes, saves, skills, health, PPE/ISP, combat stats.

If you want, photocopy each OCC/RCC out of the book and give them to each player to read over for five minutes before starting the game.

[Sentinel]

I have not been able to attend conventions for many years now, and when I did run convention games, it was before I used Palladium exclusively.

I would usually work up a set of pre-generated characters for the system I was using, while also looking over any characters players might have already developed.
Often, several of my regular players would attend as well, so they would help get newbies up to speed.

[Armorlord]

Often, several of my regular players would attend as well, so they would help get newbies up to speed.

Aye, if you can seed a couple veterans into a new group that can certainly help a great deal, whether a one-shot or a campaign.

[Sentinel]

During my time doing conventions, I was able to add to my regular player group. At a pick-up in '89, I added five regular players, and three occasional guests.