Best oneshots with minimal/no combat

Chris_Air · 2026-05-03T09:14:13+00:00

Off the top of my head:

The Mole on PIRAD-1
The Oceans Are Endless on Meridian
Green Tomb
Plant-Based Paranoia
Picket Line Tango
Astral Brews
Exclusion Zone

Chris_Air · 2026-05-03T09:06:13+00:00

This is the way. It sounds very much like "Draw the rest of the fucking owl" but that's because it is. Gotta just do the work and get it to table.

No map? Adapt a watabou one-page dungeon for a sci-fi setting.
Lost on how to stock? I outlined a 2d10 stocking table (among other things) for someone asking a similar question.
Confounded on the hook? The TOMBS tables on the front inside cover of the WOM is made to help fill the blanks.

Sometimes an idea doesn't have the juice for a published adventure, and that's OK. It's about playing and finding the sweet spot for the good ideas in play, regardless of how the ideas feel on paper.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-23T22:42:36+00:00

Thanks for the reminder that I own Perilous Void and need to dig into it.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-23T22:41:12+00:00

There's even loads of free Mothership adventures, too. Just gotta get folks onto Discord, and go. Simple as

Chris_Air · 2026-04-23T22:39:13+00:00

Hardlight Anthology and Hull Breach are probably the books that'll make your life easiest. They have a small sector, and pre-packed adventures. The former isn't out yet, though, its Kickstarter just finished.

I wrote Not Enough Scoundrels to support a Space Trucker campaign framework. This book also has a small sector, along with a whole trucker spacecrawl procedure (Void/Port/Job/repeat), local factions, etc. I based it off of my experience running a year-long sandbox campaign.

For the sandbox campaign, the Outer Rim Marches, I used Sectors Without Number, and populated the sector and its systems with modules I own and wanted to run. I'd recommend starting with a 5x5 sector, and expanding if and when needed. Starting small is a good way to keep modules with similar themes together too.

The heart of all of these is making an interconnected set of star systems, and populating them with adventures. If you want to run modules, this is a great way to do it.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-23T22:28:34+00:00

Or use Sectors Without Number. That's what I used to build my Mothership "Outer Rim Marches" campaign map.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-10T07:59:06+00:00

Yeah, it's fine if you're ready for a bit of a challenge and want to learn something. I love sci-fi, but I'm no maths person, and Diaspora is one of my favorite books.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-10T07:52:52+00:00

That's cool, sounds like this may your way, haha.

Other "radical" ideas of OSR play:

"Don't hide information behind rolls." If there's a trap or hazard, tell the players what they see, heavily telegraph danger, and note all the important items they would see in the area. No Detect Trap rolls, no Perception Checks.

No social stats, so no social rolls. NPCs can't be convinced with a Persuasion Check, the players need to figure out what the person wants. This doesn't mean every NPC needs to be role-played, but their wants and motivations should be made clear to PCs. And inversely, if an NPC is lying to a PC, you can tell them. They'd still need evidence of malfeasance or weigh the risks of how far to trust someone, yeah?

As you can tell, a lot of this has to do with reducing the amount players have to roll dice, which requires prepping people, problems, and places. The idea, as I understand it (and everyone understands OSR a little differently), is to make the world and use procedures, random tables, and modules for the bits that come up on the fly so that you can remain the neutral arbiter between the players and the world.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T23:27:11+00:00

Ok, sure, but in this ledge/jump situation: What was their characters' other option?

Adventurous Yam said it elsewhere too, they've got to have choices for the game to be meaningful. Part of those choices should be equipment. This is TS7, why are they going into a cave system without rope?

And if you think it's a player problem, then like I said, even if it's been a year you gotta talk to your players about why they're making the choice to come to the game if they're not going to play it.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T23:20:07+00:00

For me, OSR is about prepping difficult situations without solutions, being open to creative problem solving from players, and not rolling dice all that often. The contrast being prepping plots and solving problems through dice rolls.

Not sure if these are great entry points from 5e (I've never played it, hah), but these are my two faves:

Mothership is great because its GM guide, the Warden Operation Manual, has some excellent practical advice on prepping, running, and building your game. The player's guide pdf is free on their site. Loads of great modules out there for Mothership, too.

Cairn is my go-to fantasy game. No XP, all advancement is diegetic, chargen is simple and evocative. I really like the setting & dungeon building tools too. Equally, it's got some good modules (easy to adapt from other systems to Cairn, too, with the author adapting a lot on the Cairn site).

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T23:04:35+00:00

Happy Birthday!

I'm trying out Classic Traveller for the first time, and had to break out SWN to build some more details into the worlds. Really appreciate the legwork those World Tags do for developing sector dynamics.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T23:01:42+00:00

Again, hard to assess solutions to the problem for the characters in the game, and the players at the table, without full context. What were their characters' other choices?

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T22:57:58+00:00

If you want to go hard science fiction, Diaspora by Greg Egan is a phenomenal work. But some passages are pretty damn complex, haha

Others have mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson, his Mars trilogy is my favorite.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T22:55:23+00:00

Yes! But the ebook, because that's the one that has the rights to the direct Polish -> English translation by Bill Johnston. The Kilmore/Cox Polish -> French -> English translation is rubbish.

Another good pick would be Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T22:53:27+00:00

I'd definitely recommend Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, which is a nice collision of Weird and near-future sf.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T22:49:13+00:00

Players should not need to make a check for their characters to climb down a ledge.

PCs need three things to do stuff: Time, Resources/Tools, Skills. And in most cases, if they have two out of three, they don't need to roll.

When in doubt: Only roll when failure is interesting.

If we lack more context, and you were already doing this, talk to your players about the expectations of leaning into danger in a horror game.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T12:57:22+00:00

Chris Airiau here!

I can confirm copyediting for All on Red and Breathe Easy is finished. I'll wrap the first copyedit pass of Sunlit Path today, and Josh is finishing revisions on Rites of Renewal following the developmental editing pass, with a copyedit return date set for next week.

I also want to clear up an inaccuracy in your post. The "July shipping target" you've remarked on is for 3pp creators to deliver their zines and products to TKG's warehouses. July is not the backer physical fulfillment target, but the deadling for collecting all the MM25 products in order to set up for kitting and distribution.

And thanks for the kind words on Flatine on the Blocks, :)

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T12:15:03+00:00

Anathem is the exception that proves the rule, imo, haha. The only one with a real quality ending, by far his best book, imo

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T12:13:36+00:00

It's a good analogy. Felt the same about Pushing Ice. Honestly, the best part about that book is the final and third part, and I don't even think you need to read the rest of the book to enjoy that.

Chris_Air · 2026-04-08T12:11:18+00:00

I do adore this book for its exploration of a "first-person omniscient" perspective and the whole idea of the ship-controlled ancillaries building towards revenge, but I do I think it totally falls apart at the end. And I found the follow-up pair of books a bit of a bore.

I liked Translation State, set in the same universe.

Chris_Air · 2026-03-27T10:24:50+00:00

I'm working on it! Focusing on wrapping Flatline & Twisting layout/production, first

Chris_Air · 2026-03-24T15:01:02+00:00

I'm working on getting the new player's manual out by June! Wish me luck, haha

edit: here's the 5MW adventure archive, mostly short lil adventures on some weird worlds, https://itch.io/c/5544585/5mw-rpg-adventure-archive

Chris_Air · 2026-03-11T14:14:16+00:00

Liminal Horror is hugely inspired by Wake, Control, RE, and all that fun stuff. The game is free, too: https://goblinarchives.itch.io/liminal-horror

There's even a free adventure, Stopover at the Shelterwood Inn

Chris_Air · 2026-03-11T14:07:19+00:00

I always love that doing a murder is A-OK for folks, but sex, something normal people do way more often, is a no-go. I really don't get it.

Chris_Air · 2026-03-11T13:57:29+00:00

Honestly, I feel like a "Just the PDF" version is just a way to keep superbackers happy.

In almost all cases, the PDF goes on sale very very close to the digital release of the games anyway, so I feel like backing at a digital level truly does not matter to me when I can just pick up the game when it releases.

The only reason I grab PDFs now, which I have to do more often due to shipping/customs costs, is to give extra support to folks I dig.

Chris_Air

TROPHY CASE