A friend wanted to run her first adventure game, with a two-page RPG, and asked for advice. Here’s what I told her:
“First of all, communicate clearly to the players how probable death is in your game. Also communicate clearly you are not writing a story you want to impose on them, so they should reciprocate by not imposing their characters’ motivations and backstories as your responsibility. You played with me and know why I ask very minimal backstories. Say that directly to players when making characters. Anyone who doesn’t like that has a chance to skip.
Next, you want a location. Sketch something, with some people, and introduce a single conflict. You can also use a dungeon if you want, but if you don’t like dungeons, just think of a problem you don’t know how it would be solved, with clear winning conditions. Like a gang conflict. You’re a writer so you know how conflict works, but you absolutely must not have expectations about how the game will go. Be upfront that the players’ problem-solving and investigation are the skills being tested. Anyone who doesn’t like that has a chance to skip.
About the rules, you will have to fill a lot of them. You may be afraid of the Mother-May-I situation, but that’s mostly a myth. First, you shouldn’t be expecting any single correct solution to problems or anything that may require dice, so any reasonable approach will probably be good enough. Second, if the players say something that doesn’t make sense, explain the situation again to guarantee everyone has almost the same picture. These cases are often just misunderstood explanations. And just roll dice when you can’t make a call.
Be open to players’ suggestions about rulings, but be upfront about the following conversation procedure: you make a ruling and you are transparent about your reasoning. Players have one opportunity of contesting or suggesting otherwise. You listen, consider and make a final ruling. Not more than that, otherwise the game may stall and the procedures get confused. Say you’re using this method before the game. Anyone who doesn’t like that has a chance to skip.
Ask players to take notes of what’s important, especially your rulings. You will want those notes later to be consistent and write your own rules with precedents. GMing is allowed authority for purposes of play and you need to show you are respecting that allowance and your players. This is why you give so many explanations at the start: you respect them enough to be clear that they can not play if they don’t like your procedures.
As for planning: imagine how much time the situation you have in mind would take to solve. For every player beyond just one, double it. Only prep enough for a single game. You don’t know if people will want to keep going in that world.
At the end of the session, if you all plan to continue that fiction, ask them what they will do next. That’s your prep for next week.”
She later told me it was an one-shot and it went fine.
Roll to Doubt 