Convention one-shot scenario document — proven structure

This is the document format that survived a real convention (Continuum 2026, six one-shots across a weekend). It is battle-tested and, critically, structured enough that every downstream artifact — print packs, GM consoles, a phone story reader — could be generated or distilled from it. Write the scenario doc this way and the apps fall out of it cheaply. Write it as freeform prose and every app becomes bespoke hand-work.

Prep doc ≠ table surface (the hardest-won lesson)

Everything below describes a rich, comprehensive prep document — the right form for writing and understanding a scenario. It is the WRONG form to put in front of a GM during play. At Continuum 2026 the comprehensive apps built from these docs went unused — "too complex, too convoluted." So keep two things separate:

The prep doc (this file's structure) — complete, for authoring and cold stand-in reading.
The table surface — a ruthless distillation of the live essentials only: the session clock / current beat, the next hard trigger, the one secret in play, and any "if late, cut this" note. One page. If a field isn't needed in the moment, it does not belong on the table surface. Concision is the feature.

Write the prep doc in full; render the table surface as the smallest possible subset.

The governing constraint: a stand-in must be able to run it cold

The single most important property. At a convention the GM can fall through — illness, a double-booking, a delayed train. Every scenario doc must let a competent stranger run the game with no prep beyond reading it. This forces:

A self-contained system crash-course in the doc itself ("MASTER RULES (this scenario)"), not a pointer to a 200-page rulebook. Enough to adjudicate the whole session.
One immovable clock with pre-decided cuts, so a nervous stand-in can't run out of time.
The GM's Truth stated plainly and early, so the runner knows the real story before Act One.

Section order (use these headings)

Title + logline — one italic line that is the whole game (The dead king remembers he was beautiful.). This becomes the app's hero text; make it earn that.
MASTER RULES (this scenario) — the crash-course. Structure, max runtime, act weighting (%), and the system reduced to what a stand-in needs to rule fairly. End with a doctrine line: "Rule once, rule the same all session."
Event Details — slot, system, player count, runtime, art style. Flat metadata; also the app's card fields.
Session Timing Guide — a table: Section · Duration · Cumulative · GM Checkpoint (the observable state that means "this section is done"). Then two sub-blocks:
- Hard rules — the immovable clock triggers ("the whistle blows at 1:00 whatever the players are doing"). The thing that must happen at the table by a wall-clock time, named as the point of the evening.
- Pre-written cuts if running late — numbered, in the order you'd take them. Decided in advance, never improvised under pressure.
Plot Summary (GM's Truth — do not share with players) — the real cosmology, the antagonist's true motive, and each named NPC's private secret. This is the block that must be walled off from players in every app.
The countdown (if there's an offstage threat) — a table mapping session-clock → where the unseen antagonist is. A pacing engine the GM reads against the party's speed. One of the strongest devices in the format.
Player Experience — one paragraph on what the players should feel and the shape of their arc. Not plot — experience. This is the "through-line" the phone reader surfaces.
Pre-Game Handouts — table: ID · Description · Format · When Given, linked to the print-ready HTML. Handout IDs (VC-H00-A) are the join key between doc, print pack, and console.
Introduction — three parts: the pitch (a read-aloud box), the dice primer (teach the system safely inside the fiction before it can hurt anyone — "these five rolls ARE the arrival"), and atmosphere notes (props on the table, music).
Acts — each act, same sub-structure (below).

Per-act sub-structure

Goal — one line: what this act is for (the social act; the fight that teaches the loop; the hour you can lose).
Summary — the act in a paragraph.
Staging — the physical setup, with playtest fixes annotated inline (Staging (playtest fix): two locations only — the faces come to the party, five players get scenes without a walking tour). Keep the fixes; they are the scar tissue that makes it run.
Location — Description · Atmosphere · inline mechanic call-outs ([SYSTEM: Reaction roll …]) · art asset ID.
The Faces / Foes — NPCs with just enough to voice and stat them.
Trail / triggers — what moves the story forward here.
Story hooks & answered moves — anticipated player actions and how they land.
Pacing note — how to speed up or slow down this act.
Handouts — which handouts appear here.
For a climax act, break into beats, and give each beat a spotlight — one PC/class whose "key turns exactly once." Distributing the spotlight deliberately is how five players each get their moment in a fixed slot.

Design theses worth stealing

Teach the system inside the fiction, staged so every player hits a safe failure before it matters.
Merge seams: "the Intro's last five minutes and Act One's first five are the same five." Fewer hard transitions = smoother table.
Immovable clock + pre-written cuts beats improvising cuts under time pressure every time.
Annotate playtest fixes in place rather than silently rewriting — the reasoning is the value.
The logline, the GM's Truth, and the Player-Experience paragraph are the three things every downstream app needs. If those three are sharp, distillation is trivial. Treat them as load-bearing, not flavour.

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