It’s summer, regular-game groups slow down, so I’ll pull a few one-shots out of my hat.
In general, with one-shots I put individual goals/secret for each character, as part of my preparation. It helps create game, and give a way to player to engage without having a character they know.
In the excellent The space between us the secret roles are de-correlated from the public character, which is great in term of replay ability (And TSBU is one of the best (LA) RP experience I had. So play it if you haven’t, I can’t wait an occasion to replay-it)
In 10 candles, the GM doesn’t know the secret of each character as the I’ve seen you are written by your right neighbour
I was thinking about pushing that concept further, preparing the main-character, then the secret-roles, put the secret roles in an envelope, and ask each player to draw an envelope. So as a GM, I don’t know each PC’s secret.
Has anyone ever-tried it ?
Alien RPG has this mechanic in the “cinematic play”/oneshot playmode, and it for the single session of it I’ve done, kt was great.
I ran the introductory adventure with a few modifications (like taking out the android), and giving each player a card with their own goals and motivations. It culminated in a GREAT betrayal at the end of the session, and a desparate, selfish scramble for survival.
I’d love to try it again, say for Vampire or some other “non-good” and rp-heavy heavy game.