How to Design a One-Shot from a Movie

While campaigns are often home to hand-spun adventures created by the GM, one-shots can be practically anything. All it takes is one problem, and you've got a story for your players to solve. One way to create especially memorable one-shots is to base your story on that of a movie or game that your players enjoy. Here on this site, I have already created one-shots based on the movies Cats and Con Air, with plans to create even more as time goes by. Both of these one-shots take the basic framework of the movie's story and develop it into moments that the players can use to be creative (the goal of most any TRPG). Read on for the guide on how to create a one-shot from a movie, using Cats as a foundation. 

Your first step for recreating another media is to watch the movie you're adapting (or play the game in question, but for the sake of this article, we're focusing on movies). Sit down with the movie and a notepad and write down anything that sticks out to you. You should be looking for major plot points, interesting characters, memorable moments, and anything that you think might belong in the one-shot. For the Cats one-shot, I didn't have too much plot to work with, but I did have plenty of other things to track. I recorded that the movie begins with the description of a competition to be the Jellicle Cat; from there, I kept track of the cats that populate the story, including descriptions of how these characters behave in the context of the plot. Because part of the goal with this one-shot was to come together and mock the movie (in a mostly loving way), I also noted really bonkers things like the singing cockroach group and the repetition of the song "Memories." Finally, I made some general notes about the ending of the movie. Once we get there, we're going to be completely rewriting the ending, but it's good to have an understanding of what the movie does and why. 

Now that we have our notes, it's time to work on the big picture. For Cats, I wanted the tone of the one-shot to be funny and weird, so my narration strives to match that tone. If you refer to the beginning of this one-shot, you'll see that the player characters begin in a sack thrown onto a dock, just like the movie's opening. Then a selection of cats approaches the players and describe the Jellicle Ball, again just as in the movie. The early phases of your one-shot should generally align with the movie you're adapting so that you can place your players in the world of the movie. Once you know your tone and general framework of the plot (which you've gotten from the movie), you can move on to the rules system. 

This is one of the more intimidating parts of designing a custom one-shot. You can quite easily adapt systems that already exist for your game--I am currently working on a one-shot based on Monty Python's Holy Grail, and for that, traditional D&D will work quite well. But for Cats, there was no model that worked well as a system for what I wanted to do. And as it turns out, it's not too complicated to create a system from scratch. All it takes is starting with a sense of what you want your players to be able to do and extrapolating from there. In the Cats one-shot, I wanted my players to be able to act with a wide range of abilities, so rather than create specific skills, I just set in place a system where all rolls rely on the player's choice of abilities. Specifically, the game states that the player can favor two out of five abilities which can contain essentially any action the player wants to take. Trying to calm another cat would be a Fostering roll, for instance, and blending in with the shadows requires a Sneak roll. Where skill-based games ask the players to align their actions with a selection of actions in the game, this model lets the players decide on an action organically and fit that action into the rules. 

So if you decide to create your own rules system (and I think you should try it), here's the general gist: what do you want your players to be able to do? If it's a broad roleplaying system, a simple system like the Cats one-shot's will serve you well. A bigger, more statistically dense system can be borrowed from existing games. Somewhere in the between, you can create a system with unique abilities like I did for the Con Air one-shot, where players choose special abilities that help them be more threatening in combat, more able to negotiate, or able to safely land a place. These abilities are all centered around both the skills they'll need to complete the adventure and the sensibility of the movie they come from. A little imbalance is generally fine here, as it's only a single-session game, and you'll really only face issues there is your game is far out-of-balance. 

With a big picture complete and a rules system that is ready for players, it's time to write the actual story of the one-shot. This step will vary pretty widely depending on the movie you have picked. The Cats one-shot is very freeform in shape because the movie itself has only a loose plot which isn't really the point of the movie. As a result, my one-shot keeps certain character traits and ideas in place, but I couldn't exactly adapt a musical into a one-shot by keeping everything. I wrote original songs for the one-shot to honor that, but the basis of the one-shot had to be something else. I decided on having the players face abstract challenges from other Jellicle competitors in order to replicate the sense of competition but still give my players a chance to solve the puzzle of how to deal with each cat. For Cats, I thought that an isolated challenge followed by references to the movie in alternating fashion would recreate the sensibility of the movie but in TRPG form. And sure enough, my players really enjoyed this one-shot because it let them be a part of the movie's universe in a way that still granted them control to act as players. 

But Cats is a unique example. Other movies are more carefully scripted and coherent, and that means that you'll want to adhere more closely to the plot of the movie. That's where Con Air comes in. I was worried while writing this one-shot that my players would not be able to follow the story of the movie well in one-shot form--how can you guarantee that players will deboard and reboard a plane three different times without deciding to do something else entirely? But I pushed my narration a little further than usual, more or less taking some choice away from the players and returning them to the plane each time, and sure enough, the players managed to make it through the entire one-shot without getting derailed. For Con Air, I kept essentially every major scene in it, offering the players opportunities to be involved in each scene in the movie. If you read through the one-shot, you'll see that until the very end, there is almost no deviation from the movie's plot at all. With movie that bank on plot rather than tone, you'll want to preserve most of the story. 

Finally, it's time to write the ending of our one-shot. We want the ending to be different from the movie so that we can surprise our players. If they were to play through Con Air and experience the movie's ending, with the dramatic plane landing on the Vegas strip and the final showdown, they might enjoy the feeling of reenacting the movie themselves. But they will be far more intrigued and motivated if the end of your one-shot goes in a different direction that honors the movie itself. If you've read through either Cats or Con Air, you know the endings get pretty wild. Cats ends with the players emerging in cat heaven for their "new life," and they learn that the deal they have accepted is a dark one that means death for the cats. Con Air, on the other hand, takes Vegas out of the equation as destination and transports the convicts to Area 51, where Cyrus has made a deal with imprisoned aliens. These endings are a little wild, but let me assure you: my players loved these endings. They recreate the movies' insanity and raise the stakes narratively while still adding something new to the stories. So reach for the stars with your endings (literally, if you choose), and watch as your one-shot becomes a far more exciting adaptation of the movie. 

It's actually that simple. Notes, big picture, rules system, script, changed ending: five simple steps to go from a movie to a one-shot. With this guide, you should be able to turn just about any movie into a one-shot, and that means that you can reward your players with games set in their favorite fictional worlds. You can adapt tv shows and video games, books and even songs if you set your mind to it. Soon, you'll be able to create original gaming materials for your players in a personalized way, and I promise that your players will be amazed by how much fun it can be to disappear into their favorite movies. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: how to write player notes on in-game documents, a list of technologies to make available in your world, and an argument against min-maxing. Until next time, happy gaming!

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