Oh shit, Veeky Forums! It's game night and the fellas are over, dicks hard and ready to go, but at the last minute old mate Shmuckatelli calls to say he can't make it.
What is your go-to system to quickly set up and run an improvised game for one night?
With this PDF you can improvise on the run. The only input you need is a setup.
If one guy can't make it we just play anyway and NPC their character. One player volunteers to play them and does his best to roleplay them based on how they usually act. Usually everyone can agree on what the character would do in most situations.
Its only if 2 guys can't make it that you start looking at doing something else.
Risus. Just make shit up and roll some d6s.
>no longer have "Rhesus - The Anything Macaque.jpg" saved
Damn that reformat.
>What is your go-to system to quickly set up and run an improvised game for one night?
Paranoia.
Apocalypse World is usually what I'd do in this situation. Spend 20 minutes setting up characters and their relationships to each other and you're almost guaranteed something out of that which will make a good focus for a session.
No. RISUS sucks ass. It's basically the "ultra-lite freeform generic RPG system that works for everything but is good for nothing and also it fits on one page because that's a good reason to play it" trash that most fa/tg/uys make at one point. The numbers are unbalanced because 2d6 is literally twice as good as 1d6 but the point costs don't reflect that, the TNs are somewhat retarded, the combat system is just the same cliche wankshit as anything else. I remember when I wanted to play RPGs with someone and just made up some 2d6+ability vs 10 for a mechanic and hit points for damage and it was just as good as RISUS because there is nothing particularly good about the game. Also Cliches are basically code for "whoever is good at arguing that his cliche is good in every situation, gets the most from the game." At least Everyone is John has an interesting premise, so that makes up for it having shitty stupid rules. Anyone who plays RISUS for a one-shot is retarded. Anyone who plays it for more than a one-shot deserves to put in a gas chamber.
Everyone is John, All Outta Bubblegum, Lasers and Feelings, or some other one page RPG I've got hanging around. I've got a notebook full of little jumping off points, so I'm set.
Oh, look, this garbage copypasta again. You really need to find something better, dude, you're sperging out.
This is what Microscope was made for.
How about tristat dx, is that any good?
It's not copypasta. RISUS is actually a bad game, can you handle that some people think that?
Traveller
Savage Worlds
Trail of Cthulhu
World of Darkness
Shadowrun
The Hard Way
Everyone is treated as a singular entity. Could be a party of 4 but Da Chief yells at them as a team, they all have the same ex-wife with custody over their shared daughter, and have to fight crime in early 90s LA.
>Oh shit, Veeky Forums! It's game night and the fellas are over, dicks hard and ready to go, but at the last minute old mate Shmuckatelli calls to say he can't make it.
>What is your go-to system to quickly set up and run an improvised game for one night?
The exact same game we were going to play except one PC is an NPC controlled by group consensus, because I'm not cancelling a session for one assclown who couldn't be bothered to plan ahead.
TIIIIIIIMMME WIIIIIZZZARDDSS
>Stopping for one person
Kek no. We're going to play and that guy is getting his character NPC'd for the session.
I'd use GURPS. Just throw some simple stats down on a notecard and call it good.
somebody listens to oneshot
this. Also, lasers and feelings.
Anything powered by apocalypse world is pretty damn good for pick-up-and-play. Granted, not everything powered by apocalypse world is good, but some of it really is.
Not even that. If someone doesn't show up in my group, their character is just not there.
If I don't NPC the character, we play the ongoing Prowlers and Paragons game. Superheros are a great setting for one-shots with an understrength party. I just have a big folder full of villians and pick one at random.
Risus, everyone makes their characters separately with no collusion or knowledge of what type of campaign it will be, inappropriate cliches rule in full effect.
I'd just run the normal game anyway. Shmuckatelli's PC will be gone and we'll figure out why next session.
My own homebrew ultralite RPG system
And then we do some delta green
>It's not copypasta
You don't even get a reaction image
Kick Shmuckatelli not only from the game but from the group of friends as well.
Okay? So? You're yet to show a reason why someone SHOULD play RISUS.
My DM just puts their character in limbo until they come back, at which point it exists once more.
Rogue Trader. Bunch of premade sheets, a big ship and onwards to adventure
Battletech grinder, or some sort of game using pre-made forces of about 6000 BV.