You meet in a Hackspace…
One Shot Wonders is our monthly tabletop role-playing game meetup at the Hackspace. As it celebrates its third birthday, we look back at how our quest started and the friends we made along the way…
When I was younger, me and my friends would meet and play Dungeons and Dragons. It was the era of the satanic panic, with role-playing games seen as a gateway to the occult, which made it all the more appealing. We played for a few years, before everyone went their separate ways, to Uni or wherever, and that was the end of that.
While I didn’t play for years, I always had fond memories of playing – the stories we created together, the characters we rolled up and felt sad for when they were eaten by a dragon, the cheers when you rolled a critical success or the howls when you rolled a fumble. After years of not playing, I eventually found a new group to play with, and then… lockdown!
During covid, the Hackspace organised a weekly meetup on Zoom, which still exists, and me, Steve, and Ali would spend time talking about role-playing games, chatting about everything from generating maps to virtual tabletops, and the games we’d like to play. There had been a Dungeons and Dragons campaign at the Hackspace which Ali had been part of, and Steve was writing and playing Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures as well as writing virtual tabletop software. From those chats, the idea of a RPG meetup at the space came about, if and when the virus allowed us to go back there.
Images from One Shot Wonders Games. L-R: Dog Squad Sausage Heist, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Goblin Quest. Images: Steve Barnett
From the outside, tabletop role-playing games can seem a bit odd and hard to get into. The rules seem overly complicated, the idea of playing a character intimidating, and if you don’t like the setting or genre, it’s hard to engage with it. The dominance of Dungeons and Dragons in the media suggests role-playing games are all about sword and sorcery, casting spells and engaging in endless fights. That can be part of it if that’s what you want, but it can also be 20th Century Horror, naughty goblins playing in punk bands, dogs stealing sausages, eighties teenagers solving mysteries on their BMX bikes, and a world of other things. Games come in all kinds of flavours and playing styles, and rules can be as complicated as rolling a set of many-sided dice and adjusting it with modifiers to flipping a coin.
It can also feel like a massive commitment, hours and weeks spent navigating a tomb or uncovering a cosmic conspiracy, trying to work out when everyone can meet again so the story can go on. We wanted to create something that was low commitment, so people could come along for a session without feeling that they were letting other people down if they didn’t come again.
Once the Hackspace opened again, we started One Shot Wonders, a monthly role-playing session aimed at one-shot sessions which are accessible and inclusive for new players and GMs. The idea was that if you wanted to try a game, or to run a game, you could, in a supportive and welcoming space. Games could be traditional role playing games, or more experimental storytelling games. Over the past three years, we’ve hosted games of Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Call of Cthulhu, Goblin Quest, Mothership, alongside others. You can see a listing on the Nottinghack Wiki! It’s been an opportunity not just to play, but to run games and write them too. Ali wrote some amazing scenarios for D&D, for example, and Dee wrote Dog Squad Sausage Heist, which might be one of the wildest games I’ve ever played!
L-R: Role Playing at EMF Camp 2024. Image: Duncan Fyfe, The Quiet Year. Image: Steve Barnett
The best thing about One Shot Wonders for me has been the friendships it fosters. There is something really special about coming together to create a story, to share moments that are unique, and to play different characters and identities. As One Shot Wonders has developed, we also have a group who are playing a longer campaign, and a Play-by-Post discord campaign. We even ran games at last year’s EMF camp. It’s a really important part of my life and has helped me build confidence and find a creative outlet, as well as introducing me to a wider community of players, GMs and writers.
If you have never played a tabletop role-playing game before, but you are curious to find out more, or if you have lots of experience, but are looking for new experiences and people to play with, sign up for a game and come and play with us!