I'm relatively new to d&d, having only participated in a handful of encounters. I've never run my own campaign and my working knowledge of 5e is quite limited. That being said, I'm interested in putting an encounter together for my friend who is of equal experience. Because I have a loose grip on the system as a whole I'd like to set this up as a solo one shot in an effort to minimize world building requirements and keep the encounter simple. Unfortunately i havent the slightest clue about where to begin. I know where I want the plot to go, but thats as far as my skills will reach. Anyone have any experience with setting up low maintenance encounters? Anything helps, I'm basically a sponge with a dice bag lol
If you are designing something for one player, make sure you think of ways for them to over come challenges using the world, rather than straight combat. Also crafting encounters with their class and abilities in mind. If you have a Wizard PC, the challenges may be more magic related with Arcana skill checks or casting spells. If its a ranger, you might have them face some wild animals that if they go toe-to-toe would result in death, but having them be smart about designing a trap to snare one of the animals to even the odds. A Bard might be faced with impossible odds, but escaping into the tavern and performing would mean the thugs wouldn't dare attack in front of the common room, etc.
Its also great to get the player to provide their backstory, this way you can weave in elements - much easier to do this with less players, as you would have less conflicts between back stories.
thats a good point, i hadn't even asked him what kind of character he wants to run. i know his play style favors stealth/rogue types, and the two of us have a few characters we've put together across the time we've spent playing together but finding out what kind of character he would want to run will definitely push me in the right direction. thanks, man!
Setting? Like, is your friend going to be wandering a graveyard, or find an old cave to spend the night in, or is this some back-alley adventure in a town?
EDIT: Oh, and what class is your friend playing?
EDIT EDIT: If you are very conservative with the monsters in this adventure, you could get away with having a single player take care of the whole thing.
I polled him a couple weeks ago to figure out what kind of adventures he enjoys most. I know he enjoys fighting vampires, stealthy combat/tacics, and he prefers loot over a kill count.
As far as characers are concerned, I've got a pretty good feeling hes gonna want to run with a rogue or ranger, or something close to it. I told him to make a lv5 so that his encounters arent just taking turns hitting each other, and when he sends me his finished character I will tailor his enemies according to his adventurer's strengths and weaknesses.
Now for setting, I'm leaning towards vampire castle. The bare bones of my intended plot have him in a new town during his unspecified travels. He is approached by a villager who deduced that he has killed his share of baddies by his appearance, and offers him the job. Assuming he will most likely attempt to covert the encounter, I will anticipate having to contruct the Vamp manor in a way that allows for that, to some extent at least. There will probably be a basement or dungeon below ground with stronger enemies, neat loot, and the main antagonist. Details will obviously be worked out as the fabrication unfolds, but thats where I want to start.
I think my biggest issue is gonna be scaling enemies to keep him challenged, or finding ways to let him explore his stealthy side without being too obvious or too vague.
Well for a Castlevania-style game, I'd suggest the following monsters:
Swarm of Bats, Vampire Spawn (As the boss monster, provided your player finds a way to temporarily generate sunlight via a magic item or something), Animated Armor, Commoner (basically castle servants or nobility loyal to the vampire), Dretch (as maybe a weird bat-themed monster servant), Flying Sword, Giant Bat, Grimlock (as more lower dungeon inhabitants), Lemure, and Shadow.
That way you have a nice variety of options to test your friend against. If I were constructing a vampire castle this way, I'd set it up so that there was maybe some ball or gathering going on there, giving your player the chance to hijack a traveling commoner with an invite and using it to sneak his way in. From there he might encounter Animated Armor or a Flying Sword if he tried to sneak off down hallways on the ground and upper floors where he isn't supposed to be, as well as the occasional commoner he can interact with or sneak past. Maybe the Dretch patrols the ground and upper floors as well as being something of a special servant of the Vampire Spawn. The Spawn could be encountered in the main ballroom or in the upper levels of the castle, and be able to summon one Swarm of Bats to make the fight more interesting. A Giant Bat would also roost in the upper reaches of the castle, in case your player decides to scale the walls or go running along the roofs. Your player might hear stories from the gathered people in the castle that the Vampire Spawn recently sacked a nearby church that worships a sun god of some kind, stole a relic there that is said to produce the power of the sun for a brief time, and then hid it away deep within his dungeons below the castle, guarded by dangerous monsters. This is where some mix of Grimlock, Lemure, and Shadow enter the picture. You can make some of them (like the Grimlock) just monsters that patrol the dungeons that your player can sneak past. The item itself can be guarded by a Shadow and/or some Lemure. Once the player has access to the item, the fight with the Vampire Spawn should be pretty fair, even with the additional bat swarm.
Here's a picture I would use as an establishing shot of the Vampire's mountain estate.
Start with something simple, just a few low CR monsters with very few abilities and attacks and put a few things like trees in the area. As you get more confidence, use more monsters with more abilities and add more things to the area.
Make sure that if your encounter was WAY to hard for a party you say something like; The entire party wakes up from a nightmare in a cold sweat, and after a few minutes of talking,find they all had the same nightmare. Then you just take out the one or two monsters that did the most damage (Within reason, if your encounter needs a dragon, try adding more cover and stuff to the environment.)
You can also add traps to your encounters to add more variety to the encounters you make and maybe even some kind of objective, like saving a hostage before he/she is killed by an orc.
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Hey all,
I'm relatively new to d&d, having only participated in a handful of encounters. I've never run my own campaign and my working knowledge of 5e is quite limited. That being said, I'm interested in putting an encounter together for my friend who is of equal experience. Because I have a loose grip on the system as a whole I'd like to set this up as a solo one shot in an effort to minimize world building requirements and keep the encounter simple. Unfortunately i havent the slightest clue about where to begin. I know where I want the plot to go, but thats as far as my skills will reach. Anyone have any experience with setting up low maintenance encounters? Anything helps, I'm basically a sponge with a dice bag lol
Thanks in advance.
How many PCs?
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If you are designing something for one player, make sure you think of ways for them to over come challenges using the world, rather than straight combat. Also crafting encounters with their class and abilities in mind. If you have a Wizard PC, the challenges may be more magic related with Arcana skill checks or casting spells. If its a ranger, you might have them face some wild animals that if they go toe-to-toe would result in death, but having them be smart about designing a trap to snare one of the animals to even the odds. A Bard might be faced with impossible odds, but escaping into the tavern and performing would mean the thugs wouldn't dare attack in front of the common room, etc.
Its also great to get the player to provide their backstory, this way you can weave in elements - much easier to do this with less players, as you would have less conflicts between back stories.
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Wary the wizard who focuses on homebrew, for he can create nightmares that you wouldn't even dream of
one PC
thats a good point, i hadn't even asked him what kind of character he wants to run. i know his play style favors stealth/rogue types, and the two of us have a few characters we've put together across the time we've spent playing together but finding out what kind of character he would want to run will definitely push me in the right direction. thanks, man!
Setting? Like, is your friend going to be wandering a graveyard, or find an old cave to spend the night in, or is this some back-alley adventure in a town?
EDIT: Oh, and what class is your friend playing?
EDIT EDIT: If you are very conservative with the monsters in this adventure, you could get away with having a single player take care of the whole thing.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6aaB76e06XdSFRMSTNwOFo4Qmc
I suggest that you stat the "Centicrawlers" as a Giant Centipede for the named one and maybe a handful of rats using the Cranium Rat stats.
I polled him a couple weeks ago to figure out what kind of adventures he enjoys most. I know he enjoys fighting vampires, stealthy combat/tacics, and he prefers loot over a kill count.
As far as characers are concerned, I've got a pretty good feeling hes gonna want to run with a rogue or ranger, or something close to it. I told him to make a lv5 so that his encounters arent just taking turns hitting each other, and when he sends me his finished character I will tailor his enemies according to his adventurer's strengths and weaknesses.
Now for setting, I'm leaning towards vampire castle. The bare bones of my intended plot have him in a new town during his unspecified travels. He is approached by a villager who deduced that he has killed his share of baddies by his appearance, and offers him the job. Assuming he will most likely attempt to covert the encounter, I will anticipate having to contruct the Vamp manor in a way that allows for that, to some extent at least. There will probably be a basement or dungeon below ground with stronger enemies, neat loot, and the main antagonist. Details will obviously be worked out as the fabrication unfolds, but thats where I want to start.
I think my biggest issue is gonna be scaling enemies to keep him challenged, or finding ways to let him explore his stealthy side without being too obvious or too vague.
Well for a Castlevania-style game, I'd suggest the following monsters:
Swarm of Bats, Vampire Spawn (As the boss monster, provided your player finds a way to temporarily generate sunlight via a magic item or something), Animated Armor, Commoner (basically castle servants or nobility loyal to the vampire), Dretch (as maybe a weird bat-themed monster servant), Flying Sword, Giant Bat, Grimlock (as more lower dungeon inhabitants), Lemure, and Shadow.
That way you have a nice variety of options to test your friend against. If I were constructing a vampire castle this way, I'd set it up so that there was maybe some ball or gathering going on there, giving your player the chance to hijack a traveling commoner with an invite and using it to sneak his way in. From there he might encounter Animated Armor or a Flying Sword if he tried to sneak off down hallways on the ground and upper floors where he isn't supposed to be, as well as the occasional commoner he can interact with or sneak past. Maybe the Dretch patrols the ground and upper floors as well as being something of a special servant of the Vampire Spawn. The Spawn could be encountered in the main ballroom or in the upper levels of the castle, and be able to summon one Swarm of Bats to make the fight more interesting. A Giant Bat would also roost in the upper reaches of the castle, in case your player decides to scale the walls or go running along the roofs. Your player might hear stories from the gathered people in the castle that the Vampire Spawn recently sacked a nearby church that worships a sun god of some kind, stole a relic there that is said to produce the power of the sun for a brief time, and then hid it away deep within his dungeons below the castle, guarded by dangerous monsters. This is where some mix of Grimlock, Lemure, and Shadow enter the picture. You can make some of them (like the Grimlock) just monsters that patrol the dungeons that your player can sneak past. The item itself can be guarded by a Shadow and/or some Lemure. Once the player has access to the item, the fight with the Vampire Spawn should be pretty fair, even with the additional bat swarm.
Here's a picture I would use as an establishing shot of the Vampire's mountain estate.
thanks for the help, man. I really like that castle set up too.
If you end up running the castle adventure, let me know how it goes.
If you go to the Dungeon Masters Guild website, you'll be able to find adventures that you can purchase at a cheap cost, even 1-player adventures.
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Start with something simple, just a few low CR monsters with very few abilities and attacks and put a few things like trees in the area. As you get more confidence, use more monsters with more abilities and add more things to the area.
Make sure that if your encounter was WAY to hard for a party you say something like; The entire party wakes up from a nightmare in a cold sweat, and after a few minutes of talking,find they all had the same nightmare. Then you just take out the one or two monsters that did the most damage (Within reason, if your encounter needs a dragon, try adding more cover and stuff to the environment.)
You can also add traps to your encounters to add more variety to the encounters you make and maybe even some kind of objective, like saving a hostage before he/she is killed by an orc.