One Shot One Guild

Introduction

Plot Summary

      You are all members of The Guild, an up-and-coming organization which provides teams of adventurers for hire. While adventuring for The Guild can be very dangerous, it can also be incredibly rewarding!
      Mostly for The Guild, but also for its members.
     
      As you and your fellow Guildmembers embark on quests of increasing levels of danger and difficulty, you'll bring great renown to The Guild and perhaps even yourselves! As such, you'll be able to upgrade the Guild headquarters from which all such quests begin, as well as recruit new Guildmembers to venture out upon their own deathtraps important missions.

Mechanics Summary

      Rules are as D&D 5th Edition, with the exception of changes noted herein. Most of these changes are adapted from existing homebrew and variant materials produced by other authors, as well as non-D&D games in some cases. I have attempted to appropriately credit those authors in their respective sections. In particular, One Shot One Guild adapts many mechanics and tweaks from GiffyGlyph’s Darker Dungeons to form part of a larger system designed for a more challenging style of play. I’ve tried not to copy over all the information you’ll need from any one source, opting instead to refer you to the original source after defining the basic framework of rules for this game. It’s my hope that you’ll go support the original authors.

      The first major difference to be aware of is that One Shot One Guild is intended to be GM’d on a rotating basis. While most campaigns are GM’d by the same person for their entire duration, in this game players will take turns running episodic adventures (“one-shots”) for each other. These adventures all take place within the same fictional universe, and involve members of the same adventuring guild.

Character Creation

Inspirations:

• Darker Dungeons by GiffyGlyph
• Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios
• Roguelike games in general

      Due to One Shot One Guild’s highly episodic nature, players are not required to use the same character for every adventure. Instead, each player will maintain a roster of characters to choose from for each adventure. The exact size of the roster is dependent on your group. In general, I recommend having about 3 characters per player to start with. If your group continues with your One Shot One Guild campaign for a long enough time, there are options to expand the size of the roster.

Rookie Generation

      In most campaigns, players would be responsible for creating their own characters from start to finish. In One Shot One Guild, however, players instead select from a randomly generated pool of Level 1 rookies who are seeking to join The Guild. Before starting the campaign, your group will need to run a “Session Zero” where you each generate your starting rosters. We’ll talk more about Session Zero later, but for now here’s how you generate a random Level 1 rookie's basic traits, and how you complete the rest of that rookie's sheet after a player drafts them to the roster. In general, assume that character creation works as normal with the exception of differences noted here.

Before Drafting

1. Assign Random Ability Scores. For each of the character’s six main abilities, roll 2d6 and add 6 to the result. This will give you a number between 8 and 18. Assign the numbers to their respective abilities in order: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.
2. Assign Random Race and Class. Determine the list of races and classes your group will use, then roll randomly to select one of each. GiffyGlyph’s Darker Dungeons contains tables you can use for this purpose if you’re using only the core races and classes. If you’re using additional races or classes, you’ll need to make your own tables (or perhaps a deck of cards to draw from). Be sure to roll for the character’s subrace and class archetype as well -- in many cases, a character wouldn’t normally choose their archetype at Level 1, but it should be randomly selected at the time of character creation.

After Drafting

1. No Backgrounds. One Shot One Guild does not use Backgrounds as a mechanic, but every character should still be a fully-realized character with their own story. You should choose a name, personality, and backstory for your character. If you would like to choose (or roll!) an actual Background from one of the many sourcebooks available, that’s fine. However, it will provide no mechanical benefits or features for your character.
2. Choose an Alignment. Now that you know the character’s general concept, you can select their alignment. Be mindful of any class-based restrictions. Race-based alignment restrictions have no place in One Shot One Guild.
3. Determine Your Carrying Capacity. Using the tables in GiffyGlyph’s Darker Dungeons, determine how many inventory slots your character has available. In general, player characters of medium size should have a number of slots equal to 18 + their Strength modifier.
4. Choose Starting Equipment. Choose only from your class’s pre-defined starting equipment. You begin with no gold, and cannot purchase your own equipment. Keep in mind that your starting equipment may exceed your carrying capacity. If this is the case, you’ll need to decide which equipment to take with you on an adventure, and which equipment to leave at home. Some items take up more inventory slots than others, as described in GiffyGlyph’s Darker Dungeons.

Adventure Structure

Inspirations:

• ParanoiaXP by Mongoose Publishing
• Acquisitions, Incorporated by Wizards of the Coast and Penny Arcade

An adventure for members of The Guild consists of three portions: The Briefing, The Job, and The Debriefing.

The Briefing

In the briefing, the guildmaster will first provide a summary of the job at hand. It may be that you’ve all been hired to provide bodyguard services for an anxious noble, or to deliver an important package to a mysterious address, or exterminate some wild beasts that have been terrorizing a nearby village. The Job can be anything, when you’re working with The Guild. The GM should include a general prediction of the job’s level of danger and difficulty (i.e., the approximate character levels appropriate for the adventure), as well as any restrictions on character alignment, race, or class.

     After the guildmaster has described the job, each player who is not the GM must select a character from their roster to attempt the mission. Players are allowed, but not required, to coordinate their selections in order to form a diverse and capable party.

     Once all players have selected their characters for the adventure, the GM should assign at least one Responsibility to each character. The GM may assign Responsibilities arbitrarily, or ask for volunteers, or a mixture of the two methods. Each Responsibility comes with a promised bonus of Requisition Tokens to be paid after the job is done. The assignment process, the list of Responsibilities, and the amount of the promised bonuses, are entirely up to the GM, in their infinite wisdom.

     Finally, the GM should distribute Requisition Tokens to each character to be used for the job. These are coins that, in addition to being of negotiable value as currency, can sometimes be traded in at the Guild headquarters for goods and services. The exact number of Requisition Tokens budgeted to a mission is entirely up to the GM.

     After leaving the briefing, the party may choose to spend any of their Requisition Tokens at the Headquarters to make use of its facilities by acquiring equipment or other benefits prior to beginning The Job.

The Job

The party must now attempt the job they were assigned. In addition to the overall mission, each party member has at least one Responsibility to attend to in the course of the mission. It may be that these Responsibilities, at times, come into conflict with the best interests of the party, the job, or both. It wouldn’t be a job if it was easy, though!

     The exact difficulty and tone of an adventure are, of course, at the GM’s discretion. However, One Shot One Guild incorporates many mechanics designed to encourage games of a higher difficulty and lethality than most. Remember: In the event that characters take a few too many permanent injuries or even die, there’s always another batch of randomly-generated rookies waiting to take their place.

     An adventure should last no more than 3 or 4 sessions without prior consent from the players. Remember, One Shot One Guild is intended to share the opportunities and responsibilities of GM’ing among an entire table, rather than resting entirely on one person’s shoulders. In addition, keeping adventures short helps keep a player from becoming disengaged if their character dies (or is otherwise forcibly retired) during the job. If you have a longer story you’d like to tell, consider breaking it up into chapters consisting of different adventures and telling it one chapter at a time.

The Debriefing

After the job has been successfully completed (or irrevocably failed), the party should meet back up at guild headquarters for a debriefing. The guildmaster will want a full report of how the mission succeeded or failed. In addition, they will want individual reports from the party members regarding their assigned Responsibilities (and the Responsibilities of others).

     Any characters who have successfully fulfilled their assigned Responsibilities should at this point receive the promised bonus of Requisition Tokens. For each character who did not adequately fulfill their Responsibility, distribute the promised bonus among the other party members as compensation for picking up the slack of their lazy companion. Characters are encouraged to speak up if they feel anyone is being rewarded (or not rewarded) unfairly.

     Any characters who died in the line of duty are assumed to have done their duty honorably, regardless of any other evidence. As such, their promised bonus and wages will be distributed to those closest to them -- namely, the other characters on that player’s roster.

     After the debriefing is complete and all characters have been paid the appropriate wages and bonuses, it’s time for The Guild to collect its pay as well. If the mission was successfully completed and the original client is still willing to pay, The Guild receives a number of Upgrade Points equal to the adventure’s challenge rating (that is, the intended level of character appropriate to the adventure, as determined by the GM).

Downtime

Inspirations:

• Acquisitions Incorporated by Wizards of the Coast and Penny Arcade
• Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios

Downtime is the period of time between adventures. It functions similarly to Session Zero, in that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a specific player acting as GM. In the case that a conflict arises which requires adjudication, however, the GM of the most recent adventure should make the decision as long as the conflict is not related to their character(s) specifically. If it is, all uninvolved players should vote on the decision.

There are a few tasks that will need to be completed during downtime.

Replace the Fallen

If any characters died during the last adventure, they should be replaced by new rookies. Similarly to Session Zero, generate a pool of 4 rookies who are applying to join The Guild. Instead of rolling initiative to determine who chooses the first rookie, order is determined by the order in which characters died -- that is, if your character was the first to die in the last adventure, you choose a rookie first.

Upgrade the Headquarters

Players may decide together to spend The Guild’s Upgrade Points to add or improve facilities at the Headquarters. Make every effort to come to an agreement on how the points are spent; you all worked for them, you should all get a say in how they’re used.

Spend Requisition Tokens

The Guild has facilities where characters can spend their tokens in exchange for goods and services. For example, depending on the level of the Training Room, you may be able to level up your character there. Alternatively, you can simply hoard your tokens for later use.

There Goes The Neighborhood (Optional)

Determine together if any changes have been made to The Guild’s location during the most recent adventure. Did you burn down a local monastery, reducing the number of monks in the area? Did you invest in the local Thieves’ Guild, increasing the number of rogues who make their home here? Did an order of druids relocate to the nearby forest, and have they started creating Awakened Beasts all over the place? Adjust your rookie generation tables accordingly. This is also a good time to add in any new content, such as a homebrew race or class that you’re all interested in playing with.

Next!

It’s time for the next adventure. Allow another player to take over as GM. Make sure everyone gets a turn.

Rules for Adventuring

Below are the mechanical changes One Shot One Guild makes to D&D 5th Edition. Most of these mechanics are simplified, less brutal versions of the ones you’ll find in GiffyGlyph’s Darker Dungeons.

XP, GP, and RT

In One Shot One Guild, characters don’t earn experience points and aren’t rewarded (directly) with gold or treasure. Instead, all functions of XP and gold are replaced with a universal currency called Requisition Tokens.

Requisition Tokens (RT) are a form of company scrip utilized by The Guild. Guild members may exchange them for supplies, services, and other benefits of membership while at the Headquarters. In addition, because the tokens are made of gold, they have negotiable value as currency outside of the Headquarters. To begin with, 1 RT is roughly equivalent to 10 gold when used as currency. As the campaign goes on and The Guild’s reputation grows, that value may increase. Different merchants may vary in their willingness to accept RT as currency, or the value they assign to it.

When characters are out on a job, any items of value they recover (including gold or other currency) are considered property of The Guild. They must surrender such items during the mission’s debriefing. The party will be compensated for a portion of the item’s value in the form of an RT bonus. Therefore, when designing an adventure, the GM should not be afraid to include a magical item or piece of treasure that could dramatically alter the balance of the game. The players won’t be allowed to keep it after the adventure, so all you’re really giving them is a small amount of RT for managing to recover it. Non-valuable items and equipment, such as a common broadsword, may be kept if the player wishes.

When managing inventory and carrying capacity, RT are equal in size and weight to gold coins.

Multi-Classing

Multi-classing works differently in One Shot One Guild. Players may not freely choose their character’s starting class, and so they also may not freely choose to multi-class. There is a facility upgrade for the Training Room that will allow you to randomly select a secondary class for your character. When doing this, all multiclassing restrictions and pre-requisites are ignored.

More details may be found in the Headquarters Facilities section, under “Training Room: Multidisciplinary Training”.

Leveling Up

Characters in One Shot One Guild do not level up in quite the same way as characters in other versions of Dungeons and Dragons. Where most adventurers level up simply by virtue of going out on adventures and surviving them, Guild members must undergo focused training to advance in level. They can secure this training via the Guild Headquarters, but must pay for the privilege using their Requisition Tokens, according to the table below.

In addition, the Headquarters must have a Training Room facility of an appropriate tier. At the start of the campaign, the Headquarters may have only a Tier 0 Training Room, which will only allow players to level up to Level 4. To reach Level 5 or higher, an upgrade to the Training Room must be purchased using the Guild’s Upgrade Points.

Character Level	RT Cost	Tier
2	3	0
3	6	0
4	12	0
5	20	1
6	28	1
7	36	1
8	60	1
9	85	2
10	130	2
11	180	2
12	235	2
13	290	3
14	340	3
15	390	3
16	550	3
17	750	4
18	960	4
19	1310	4
20	1700	4

Skill Checks

Skill checks are a bit more freeform in One Shot One Guild. When rolling a skill check, the GM may choose your most relevant ability and your most relevant skill, even if that skill and that ability are not usually associated with each other.

Example: In standard D&D 5e, the Medicine skill is always tied to your Wisdom ability. However, it may be that your character is attempting to perform delicate surgery on another character. In this case, a GM running One Shot One Guild may ask you to roll a Dexterity check (because the surgery requires steady, quick hands) and add your Medicine skill bonus.

The combination of skills and abilities is always at the GM’s discretion, and should be shaped to the individual situation. In some cases, the standard ability-skill combination from Fifth Edition may still be the best choice.

Inventory

Standard D&D allows players to calculate their carrying capacity in pounds. However, making use of this mechanic requires a significant amount of note-taking and bookkeeping on the player’s part. As a result, many groups forego the mechanic entirely, and a player’s carrying capacity simply becomes “as much as you can write on your character sheet”. While still fun, this can rob the party of opportunities to make interesting choices based on their character’s physical limitations. Should you wear lighter armor so you can carry more treasure? Is it worth bringing a crossbow as a backup weapon, or should you use that inventory space for some extra potions instead? Leave the gun, take the cannoli?

GiffyGlyph proposes a simpler, slot-based inventory management system that creates limitations for your character’s inventory without saddling you with lots of math. Instead of having a carrying capacity measured in pounds, each player is allowed a certain number of slots based on their character’s size and strength modifier. Then, each item is assigned a size based on how many slots it takes up. I won’t copy all of the reference tables over from Darker Dungeons (you should go support the original author), but here are some general guidelines to help you get a feel for the system.

• A medium-sized character’s inventory can hold 18 slots, plus a number of slots equal to their Strength modifier. So if they have a +1 Strength modifier, their inventory is 19 slots. With a -1 modifier, their inventory is 17 slots.
• Characters of non-medium sizes have different base inventory sizes.
• Wearing armor changes your inventory size.
• You can store up to 5 food rations, 5 water rations, and 100 coins or Requisition Tokens without using up any of your inventory slots.
• Items only use up your inventory slots when you are actually carrying them with you. There may be containers, such as vehicles, that allow you to store them safely or travel with them more easily.
• For reference, a normal battleaxe is 3 slots, a normal shortsword is 2, a dagger is 1, 5 candles can be combined into 1 slot, and 100 coins or RT can be combined into 1 slot. Items can also be larger or smaller than these examples, obviously.

If at any time you exceed your inventory capacity, you are considered Encumbered. While encumbered, you have the following disadvantages:

• Disadvantage on all rolls involving physical abilities or activity.
• Your speed is halved.

GiffyGlyph’s inventory system is a bit more complicated than this, but for the purposes of One Shot One Guild I’ve trimmed it down to this simplified version.

Ammunition

Ammunition limits have always played a similar role to inventory limits, for me. They can provide for dramatic moments and interesting choices, but they often simply become a source of annoyance and frustration for both the player and the GM.

Instead of recording exactly how many arrows (or bullets or crossbow bolts or darts) you have, use a die to notate it. A standard archer’s quiver (or other ammunition container) for a medium-sized character is d12-sized. This means that when you fire an arrow, you roll a d12. If you roll a 1 or a 2, your ammunition is reduced one die size -- that is, from a d12 to a d10. Otherwise, your ammunition remains at d12. This process continues each time you use ammunition in any way, with a 1 or 2 on any die size resulting in a reduction of the die size. The size progression is:

A d4 is, of course, the smallest die size. If you roll a 1 or 2 on a d4, you are reduced to Last Shot status. When you’re at Last Shot status and you use ammunition, you’re completely out and must replenish before you can use that type of ammunition again. Ammunition can be replenished at an appropriate merchant or vendor, through magic or crafting, or through looting ammunition from other sources.

Flasks, Potions, and Oils

An arcane flask is a special container that bears extradimensional magic, allowing it to hold large amounts of liquid such as potions, poisons and oils. For characters in One Shot One Guild, flasks can be important because they allow you to carry more potions (or other liquid) in fewer inventory slots. Unfortunately, due to the invisible nature of extradimensional space, it can be hard to know exactly how much you’ve got left in a flask. Therefore, we’ll be using a similar system to the ammunition dice above.

Each flask has a maximum capacity size represented by a die, and takes up a set number of inventory slots, as follows:

Size	Capacity	Inventory Slots
Tiny	D4	1
Small	D6	1
Medium	D8	2
Large	D10	3
Huge	D12	3
Gargantuan	D20	4

Any time you use liquid from a flask (drink a potion, apply a poison or oil, etc.) you roll the die associated with its current contents and reduce the contents by one die size if the result is a 1 or 2. Keep in mind that the flask remains the same size and has the same max capacity; you’re draining the flask, not making it smaller.

When you roll a 1 or 2 on a d4-sized flask, it’s empty. You won’t be able to drink from it again until you refill it.

Due to Guild policy, Guild members may only carry Guild-branded flasks. This means that the only way for characters to legitimately obtain a flask is by spending Requisition Tokens at the Guild Headquarters, provided the Guild has constructed the appropriate facility. (See under Headquarters Facilities, specifically the Alchemist’s Workshop upgrades.)

Magical Burnout

Magic users are usually among the most powerful individuals in the world, but even their power has its limits. The harder a mage pushes himself, the more likely he is to discover exactly where those limits are. We’re going to apply the same mechanic we used above for ammunition and flasks, but applied to magical endurance for spellcasting characters.

A fully rested and healed spellcaster has a burnout die size of D12. Any time they cast a spell of 1st level or higher, they must roll their current burnout die. On a 1 or 2, reduce the die’s size by one step, as usual. If a spellcaster rolls 1 or 2 on a D4 burnout die, they are completely drained of magical energies and must rest to recover before casting any more spells. In addition, if a character is fully burned out in this manner by casting a spell, they must roll a number of d4 equal to the spell’s level and take that many points of damage.

Cantrips, magical items or consumables, and specific spells or abilities granted by class or racial features are considered safe, and do not require burnout rolls. In addition, spells cast as rituals are safe in the same way.

A character’s burnout die increases by one size at the end of a short rest, to a maximum of D12. It is fully restored to a D12 at the end of a long rest. The GM may allow other means of increasing the burnout die, such as rejuvenating potions or enchantments.

Stress and Afflictions

See chapter 25 of Darker Dungeons. One Shot One Guild uses those rules in their entirety, with two exceptions:

• Breaking Point does not cause immediate death. The character is still allowed their death saving throws.
• Rest does not automatically heal stress. The character must engage in activities during rest and downtime specifically to heal their stress. There are Guild facility upgrades which can make this easier and more efficient between adventures.

Wounds and Injuries

See chapter 20 of Darker Dungeons. One Shot One Guild uses those rules in their entirety, with none of the variant options.

Rest

Short and long rests are different in One Shot One Guild. A long rest has been increased to 1 week of uninterrupted downtime, while a short rest now takes as long as a long rest would have taken in standard D&D, dependent on the character’s race. For most races, this means 8 hours (a good night’s sleep, for example).

Responsibilities

Headquarters Facilities

Coming soon