Year Zero Engine One-Shot GM KitFree tables, prep checklist & ready NPCs — print and play tonight
Everything a GM needs to run a Year Zero Engine one-shotin any dark or horror setting — without spending an evening on prep. Two d20 random tables (complications & atmosphere), ten ready-to-use NPCs, and a four-phase session checklist optimised for single-session play. All content is system-agnostic within the YZE family: compatible with ALIEN RPG, Mutant: Year Zero, Tales from the Loop, TWILIGHT: 2000, and any homebrew YZE adaptation.
Want full ready-to-play scenarios?
Get 4 extended 10-page one-shot scenarios (FR/EN/IT/ES/DE) for €3 — the complete Pack YZE Vol.1 by AITTIA Studio.
Running a Year Zero Engine one-shot is not the same as running a campaign session. You have one evening to build tension, escalate danger, and land a meaningful ending — without the safety net of recurring characters and accumulated lore. These tools are built for exactly that context: fast to use at the table, dense enough to generate genuine surprise, and calibrated for horror and dark fiction.
Everything here works with any YZE-family game and any setting: a derelict space station, an isolated village, a post-apocalyptic wasteland, or a 1980s suburb where something is very wrong. Print this page or open it on a second screen — no PDF required.
d20 YZE Complications Table
Roll when the scene stalls, when players hesitate, or when you want to introduce pressure without telegraphing it. These complications are designed to create narrative tension rather than raw difficulty — they give NPCs motives, raise stakes, and force choices. They work equally well as GM tools (you choose the result) and as random draws.
How to use it: Roll 1d20 when entering a new scene or after a significant quiet moment. Apply the result immediately or hold it for later in the same session. Combining two rolls (complication + atmosphere) consistently produces situations that feel specific and earned rather than arbitrary.
Table 1 — Complications
Roll 1d20 for immediate narrative pressure — usable in any YZE setting
| d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | A piece of essential gear stops working at the worst possible moment |
| 2 | Radio silence — all communications are cut for 1d6 hours, reason unknown |
| 3 | Temperature drops sharply; exposed characters risk hypothermia within the hour |
| 4 | A distant explosion — direction impossible to determine, cause unknown |
| 5 | One NPC ally is lying about something small but crucial |
| 6 | The supplies counted on arrival no longer match current inventory |
| 7 | A door that should have stayed locked has been opened from the inside |
| 8 | Partial power failure — one key area plunges into total darkness |
| 9 | Someone has been following the group since the previous scene |
| 10 | A child is trapped somewhere unreachable and not making any noise |
| 11 | Outgoing communications jammed — someone is actively blocking the signal |
| 12 | An ally collapses without warning, no visible injury, breathing laboured |
| 13 | A crucial document is partially burned — only half remains legible |
| 14 | Regular footsteps heard in a sector everyone swears is empty |
| 15 | Two hostile factions arrive simultaneously, unaware of each other |
| 16 | A PC discovers someone has methodically searched their personal effects |
| 17 | The usual route is blocked by a very recent collapse |
| 18 | A vital object has been stolen — the thief is among those present |
| 19 | An alarm triggers for no reason — a patrol arrives in 4d6 minutes |
| 20 | The person the group has been looking for died exactly three days ago |
d20 Atmosphere & Dread Table
Horror in YZE one-shots lives in the details before the danger. These atmospheric cues are designed to be ambiguous: they might mean something, or they might be coincidence. That uncertainty is the point. Use one at session start to set the tone, and recall it near the end — by then it should feel inevitable.
Advanced technique: Pick your atmosphere result before the session. Describe it in the opening scene. Let it resurface twice more, in slightly different forms. By the third appearance, your players will feel the dread without you ever explaining it.
Table 2 — Atmosphere & Dread
Roll 1d20 for a sensory or environmental detail that builds unease
| d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | A persistent smell of burning plastic — source never found |
| 2 | Intermittent static on every communication channel at irregular intervals |
| 3 | All clocks in the area are stopped at the same time |
| 4 | Animals (if any) are unnaturally silent, pressing themselves to walls |
| 5 | A faint hum that changes pitch when you move closer to certain rooms |
| 6 | Water dripping somewhere — the sound never gets closer or farther |
| 7 | Someone's handwriting on a surface, but no one claims it |
| 8 | Artificial light flickering in a pattern that almost looks deliberate |
| 9 | A cold spot that moves slowly through the area — no draft to explain it |
| 10 | The same phrase overheard twice from different people who don't know each other |
| 11 | A door vibrates slightly when approached — not enough to open, enough to notice |
| 12 | Freshly extinguished candles in a room no one has entered in days |
| 13 | A screen showing a looping video of somewhere the characters recognise |
| 14 | Shadows that don't quite match the objects casting them |
| 15 | An old song playing faintly from a direction that shifts when you move |
| 16 | One character's name carved into a surface — old, weathered, impossible |
| 17 | Dust disturbed in a straight line leading nowhere obvious |
| 18 | The temperature in one room is ten degrees warmer than everywhere else |
| 19 | A window that should show the outside reflects a different time of day |
| 20 | Every character independently experiences the same brief, wordless memory |
Ready to run a full YZE one-shot tonight?
Pack YZE Vol.1 includes 4 complete extended scenarios — Phantom Protocol (cyberpunk), White Signal (sci-fi horror), Les Enfants du Silo (post-apo), and La Dernière Vigile (folk horror). 10 pages A5 each, 5 languages, €3 for all four.
10 Ready-to-Use NPCs
Each NPC below can be dropped into any YZE horror one-shot without preparation. The format is intentionally minimal: a label, one observable trait, and one hidden fact. The hidden fact is for you alone — surface it when the moment serves the story, not before.
Assign names on the fly using the setting's conventions. The archetypes below are genre-neutral: they work in space horror, folk horror, post-apo, cyberpunk, or contemporary thriller.
Trembling hands, carries drugs for others but never uses them. Owes a debt she can't repay.
Uniform stripped of insignia. Knows the facility floor plan better than anyone. Won't say how.
Keeps repairing things that weren't broken. Has a theory about what's wrong. It's correct.
Photographically remembers every document they've ever seen. Speaks only in citations.
Shouldn't be here. Has been here longer than anyone. Knows where the exits actually are.
Recently joined whatever group controls this space. Enthusiastic. Dangerously loyal.
Hired for a job that ended weeks ago. Still here. Won't explain why. Very calm.
Saw something. Refuses to say what. Keeps moving. Won't be left alone in a room.
Used to giving orders. Currently has no one to give them to. Desperately needs a problem to solve.
Everything they own was found somewhere else. Encyclopaedic knowledge of refuse and debris.
Four-Phase One-Shot Prep Checklist
This checklist is calibrated for a 4-hour session with no prior campaign context. It assumes you have 30 minutes of prep time and no pre-written adventure. If you are running one of the scenarios from Pack YZE Vol.1, treat this as a secondary reference — the scenario texts already embed most of these elements.
Before the session (30 min)
- Set the hook: one sentence the players hear before they decide anything
- Identify the inciting incident — the moment normality breaks
- Prepare 3 NPCs: name, one trait, one secret (use table above)
- Note 2 locations: what they look like, what they hide
- Pick 2 complications from the d20 table — keep one in reserve
- Choose an atmosphere detail from the table — use it in the first 10 minutes
- Decide the ending condition: what does success look like? Failure?
- Set a soft time limit: 4 hours including breaks
Opening (first 15 min)
- Start in medias res — skip travel, start at the threshold
- Give every PC one immediate sensory detail: smell, sound, temperature
- Introduce one NPC with a concrete problem, not an info-dump
- Drop one visual detail that will become important later
- Let players ask two questions before anything bad happens
During the session
- Push each PC once with a YZE Push — make it feel necessary
- Trigger one complication at the worst convenient moment
- Let one NPC change sides or reveal a secret unprompted
- Check the mood: if energy drops, introduce immediate physical danger
- Introduce the atmosphere detail again — now it means something different
- Keep the clock visible: remind players time is passing in-world
Closing (last 30 min)
- Signal the endgame: something that cannot be undone happens
- Offer a meaningful choice — not easy vs. hard, but cost vs. cost
- Allow consequences to land visibly before the session ends
- Final image: one last sensory detail that echoes the opening
- Debrief: ask each player one thing their character learned
A Note on Year Zero Engine Horror Pacing
The YZE Push mechanic is your most powerful pacing tool. Every time a PC pushes a roll, they take attribute damage — which means the decision to push is inherently dramatic. In a one-shot, you want at least one Push per PC before the session ends. Craft situations where not pushing feels like cowardice, and pushing feels like sacrifice.
Stress (or its equivalent in your specific YZE game) accumulates faster in horror contexts. Design your opening scene to immediately impose one stress point on every PC — a visual, a sound, a discovery that cannot be un-seen. This forces the Push economy into motion before players settle into comfort.
One-shots in YZE work best when the horror has a face. An anonymous threat creates tension; a named, characterised source of danger creates dread. Even if the entity is never fully understood, give it one specific behaviour — something it wants, something it avoids, something it does that has no obvious explanation. Players will fill the rest.
Put these tools to work tonight with Pack YZE Vol.1
Phantom Protocol · White Signal · Les Enfants du Silo · La Dernière Vigile — 4 standalone extended one-shots, 10 pages A5, 5 languages (FR/EN/IT/ES/DE) · €3
More free YZE resources from AITTIA Studio
Design and content: AITTIA Studio · Year Zero Engine GM toolkit · Compatible with all YZE family games · Free to use and print · Published under the Year Zero Engine Free Tabletop License