It wasn't what I was hoping for, but hey, it was free.

The description calls One Shot "a role-playing system designed for single session gaming." I didn't need to see yet another rules-light RPG system. I was more interested in its focus on single-session gaming. I was hoping to get some great insights and cool ideas on one-shots.

The 15-page document consists of 1 cover page, 5 pages on the game system, and 9 pages on a sample adventure.

The game system is yet another rules-light generic RPG system. There's nothing new there.

The 9-page sample adventure seems like way too much material for a single-session game, especially since it's "presented for only a single character." It's loaded to the gills with background material on the people, places, and history - way overkill. My eyes kept glazing over as I tried to read the walls of text. That wouldn't do in a single-session game.

What about the main thing I was after - tips on single-session gaming? Hardly anything.

If you skim the headings in the rules, not a single one of them makes any explicit reference to single-session gaming. You have to wade through the game system text to hunt for it.

The single-session advice comes down to not taking the long view. Yup, that much is obvious - no need to worry about session #2 if there won't be one.

But there's more to single-session gaming than not worrying about session #2. What about tips for engaging the characters from the start when, by definition, they have no history with their own characters, the NPCs, or the game world? (Reading pages of background isn't engaging.) What about guidelines on making the material modular so you can expand or compress depending on what the players do? How about some guidance on how to teach the players the rules quickly? What about techniques to keep the pacing crisp instead of (for example) letting one non-climactic battle chew up half of the available time? What about techniques to make sure you've got a rollicking good ending that's neither too early nor too late, that flows well with whatever choices the players have made, and that gives them a satisfactory resolution to the adventure? Are there any tips for finding a nice single-session balance that avoids excessive railroading (no decisions for the players) and excessive sandboxing (nothing in particular to do)?

None of that is present, but that's what I was hoping to see in a system designed for single-session gaming.

In short, I was disappointed. The rules system is light, but otherwise it does very little to aid single-session gaming.

"One Shot" starts out as a generic RPG framework. What sets it apart is the fine tuning and GM advice for single-session games, especially the notion of being consistent just within the game session. This is very liberating because, as the author notes, a lot of effort in a typical RPG is put into creating a whole consistent game world that must support long campaign play. From that premise, the author presents a simple set of rules for character creation and conflict resolution.

The fact that characters may have distinct and arbitrary abilities makes me think that the system will work better with pre-generated characters. After all, freeform abilities mean the GM will have to discuss with each player to avoid inbalance and abuse, and such a lengthy process doesn't make sense for a one-shot game.

Conflict generation is a straightfoward d12 roll and there really is no need to get any more complicated as characters won't grow in power over a campaign etc. One thing I found missing is the use of Areas of Expertise. They seem to be descriptors that allow an automatic success for a character in certain circumstances but the text isn't really clear. In any case, the game will probably work just as well if they are not used.

All things considered, One Shot is an interesting read whether to use the proposed system or just the advice for one shots that may be applied to other games. As a game system, it is not for beginning GMs as there is a lot of planning and decisions to be made to flesh out an adventure.