Hi, everyone! I have some in-laws coming flying in next week, and while they have never played D&D, they both want to try D&D and asked me if I could DM a holiday adventure. Looking back, I realize I have never played any holiday-themed adventures. I am curious if anyone here has any resources, ideas, or suggestions for a fun experience. This will be a 3-person group consisting of adults. As always, any advice or help is greatly appreciated.
I particularly enjoyed Adventures Awaits Studio's "The Snowman Cometh," a one-shot for third level characters (I've played it twice and three players is enough). It works straight out of the box, it's entirely combat focussed, and has some seasonal loot that should tickle their funnybones. Add in some festive combat music and you're good to go!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
A friendly NPC that the party likes comes to them with a problem. It seems that the NPC in question has received a letter informing them that they have committed a "naughty act" and this act of evil (maybe something as benign as a simple white lie) has tipped the scale on their soul according to an ancient artifact known as the Maledictum Scriptorum (the naughty list), which codifies all evil acts and occasionally arbitrarily sells the souls of those on its pages to devils in the nine hells. The NPC in question will be "collected" at the stroke of midnight in a day or so by those working for the owner of the artifact, and then be turned over to the devils who will soon own their soul.
Currently the tome is in the possession of the Lords Wyntyr, a two-headed ettin lord of a wintery Fey-realm. The Lords Wyntyr reside in an ice fortress guarded by "pain-deer" (minotaur stat block) and is attended to by squat fey slaves (deep gnome stat block). The interior of the castle may be decorated by various holiday trappings of wreaths and ornaments that might transform into twig, needle, or vine blights to ward off invaders. There may also be a gelatinous cube or two pretending to be giant fruitcakes. Bound in a decorative prison, is the winter realm's previous fey lord, a dryad (use conclave dryad stat block), bound to a decorated pine tree with mystical garland chains. Also the prison area might hold other fey and humanoid creatures awaiting their fate as servants of the devils that deal with the Lords Wyntyr.
The party must sneak into the castle and get the Maledictum Scriptorum. Helping free the previous fey lord might help them in combating the Lords Wyntyr or help in destroying the tome at the conclusion of the adventure.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I once tried adapting the premise of the Strahd Must Die Tonight oneshot to Christmas (where a young Strahd Von Zarovich plays the role of Kevin McCalister in Home Alone), although like the normal version requires that you have a copy of Curse of Strahd.
Here is link in case you are interested or it gives you ides
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Our DM in a sort of future cyberpunk game had an idea for a one shot where the players are middle managers at a corporation and their boss is basically Scrooge, being visited by the ghosts of christmas past/present/yet to come and must defeat them, to prevent their boss from ruining their careers and tanking their christmas bonuses by suddenly becoming an ethical business man in the setting's corrupt corporate hellscape. Mostly suggested as a joke but an interesting idea.
Maybe a grinch like heist to sneak into Santa's workshop and steal something for a more morally ambiguous party. Or a 'santa was kidnapped by some baddie' and they have to go save him for a traditional good party. Or put a christmas twist on 'strahd must die tonight.'
I've run two Christmas-themed one-shots for my friends that were both pretty opposite of one-another.
The first one was a villain one-shot where a small group of characters were infiltrating the North Pole to kill Santa Claus and put on his coat, using "The Santa Clause" rules to transform that person into Santa.
This year I already ran one for my friends using some characters they've already played with a few times, so it was more tailored to that specific group, since one of the characters is a pirate and the group has a magic speedboat. Basically Santa gets shot down by a different pirate group led by the infamous Cap'n Krampus. For this one shot Santa was a level 18 Barbarian, but starts at 0 HP, and the players had to strategically decide how much resources they wanted to spend to heal him so he could help in combat. Also revealed that Cap'n Krampus is actually a green bugbear named "Krampus Ebenezer Grinch", and had the final fight play to a death metal version of "Mr. Grinch." In the end the players helped santa deliver presents, including to the children of characters they played in previous campaigns.
Christmas One-Shot, where the party has to save Christmas, by fighting against Krampus and his nefarious caprine minions.
Basically, everyone knows the modern story of Krampus, right? Goat-demon guy who punishes all the naughty children, by kidnapping them and forcing them into a sack, basket, or what-have-you, so that he can tote them off to who-knows-where? Well, turns out, it's so he can drag those naughty children into the center of the nearby woods, so he can turn those naughty children into even naughtier devils and demons. Who woulda thunk? Well, to keep this from happening, all you have to do is track down this infernal creature, put an end to his infernal shenanigans, and save Christmas. Oh, and did I forget to mention? You gotta do all that in a week's time. Otherwise, well... see you next year. ;3
Hi, everyone!
I have some in-laws coming flying in next week, and while they have never played D&D, they both want to try D&D and asked me if I could DM a holiday adventure. Looking back, I realize I have never played any holiday-themed adventures. I am curious if anyone here has any resources, ideas, or suggestions for a fun experience.
This will be a 3-person group consisting of adults. As always, any advice or help is greatly appreciated.
I particularly enjoyed Adventures Awaits Studio's "The Snowman Cometh," a one-shot for third level characters (I've played it twice and three players is enough). It works straight out of the box, it's entirely combat focussed, and has some seasonal loot that should tickle their funnybones. Add in some festive combat music and you're good to go!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
As I posted elsewhere:
I once tried adapting the premise of the Strahd Must Die Tonight oneshot to Christmas (where a young Strahd Von Zarovich plays the role of Kevin McCalister in Home Alone), although like the normal version requires that you have a copy of Curse of Strahd.
Here is link in case you are interested or it gives you ides
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Our DM in a sort of future cyberpunk game had an idea for a one shot where the players are middle managers at a corporation and their boss is basically Scrooge, being visited by the ghosts of christmas past/present/yet to come and must defeat them, to prevent their boss from ruining their careers and tanking their christmas bonuses by suddenly becoming an ethical business man in the setting's corrupt corporate hellscape. Mostly suggested as a joke but an interesting idea.
Maybe a grinch like heist to sneak into Santa's workshop and steal something for a more morally ambiguous party. Or a 'santa was kidnapped by some baddie' and they have to go save him for a traditional good party. Or put a christmas twist on 'strahd must die tonight.'
I've run two Christmas-themed one-shots for my friends that were both pretty opposite of one-another.
The first one was a villain one-shot where a small group of characters were infiltrating the North Pole to kill Santa Claus and put on his coat, using "The Santa Clause" rules to transform that person into Santa.
This year I already ran one for my friends using some characters they've already played with a few times, so it was more tailored to that specific group, since one of the characters is a pirate and the group has a magic speedboat. Basically Santa gets shot down by a different pirate group led by the infamous Cap'n Krampus. For this one shot Santa was a level 18 Barbarian, but starts at 0 HP, and the players had to strategically decide how much resources they wanted to spend to heal him so he could help in combat. Also revealed that Cap'n Krampus is actually a green bugbear named "Krampus Ebenezer Grinch", and had the final fight play to a death metal version of "Mr. Grinch." In the end the players helped santa deliver presents, including to the children of characters they played in previous campaigns.
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Christmas One-Shot, where the party has to save Christmas, by fighting against Krampus and his nefarious caprine minions.
Basically, everyone knows the modern story of Krampus, right? Goat-demon guy who punishes all the naughty children, by kidnapping them and forcing them into a sack, basket, or what-have-you, so that he can tote them off to who-knows-where? Well, turns out, it's so he can drag those naughty children into the center of the nearby woods, so he can turn those naughty children into even naughtier devils and demons. Who woulda thunk? Well, to keep this from happening, all you have to do is track down this infernal creature, put an end to his infernal shenanigans, and save Christmas. Oh, and did I forget to mention? You gotta do all that in a week's time. Otherwise, well... see you next year. ;3
There's a great list of holiday one shots here: https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/best-dnd-christmas-one-shots/