My cousin is turning 16 in January. She has asked that I put together a one-shot for her birthday. I need ideas for a flexible sized party (some may not want to play the day of but will want to watch). There may be 4 players.
I also need suggestions on how to help gather information from the kids attending the party on their level of experience, class, race, background, etc?
I think we need some more info to be able to help!
Firstly, are you looking to make a pregenerated party of a certain level for a variable number of players? Or are you looking for an adventure which is built around a flexible party size?
How long do you have to play? If you're teaching the kids, then you will need to give them basic characters (no Wizards, just Fighters, Barbarians, Rogues, that sort of thing, and probably at level 2). Consider "rolling" maximum health for each of them, to give the kids a little leeway.
As you're saying they're kids, I would consider a fairytale style oneshot - the princess has been kidnapped by goblins and they are holding her in that tower in the woods, go save her! This gives them a good motive, and it's something they will likely understand very easily. Goblins = bad, princess = good.
For gathering the info, just asking at the start: "Does anyone know about D&D? Have you played it before?" Give them easy pregens (Dwarves, Elves, Humans, half-orcs) and avoid the more complex ones like Dragonborn (which will immediately start an "I want to be a dragonborn" fight when they use their breath weapon the first time). Good Luck!
I did something similar last year, albeit a couple of years younger, and boys instead - but generally speaking:
- I bought a set of dice for each person playing (you can get 6-8 sets with a little bag at quite reasonable costs) as well as a wooden mug (since it linked up with the adventure)
- I created pre-gen characters, and put them in an envelope (I created 6 for 4 players) - on the front of the envelope i wrote out some basics - like wizard, fighter etc.
- Once they had chosen characters, we did a really general introduction of each person telling what their character was like. We then moved into the adventure called "A most potent brew" (free from https://winghornpress.com/adventures/a-most-potent-brew/ )
- The mugs got used while the characters got into a little RP at a brewery (ginger ales in our case) and thne moved into the adventure
- The adventure is quite "classic" rats in the basement, but then moves into a mini dungeon with a riddle. - We took a break after the first battle and served snacks etc so they have a break and can chat/ask questions in a different setting.
Overall, it was a positive experience, and everything took much longer than imagined, so I am glad for going with a really simple adventure. Several of the players have since returned to play more regularly in their school and occasionally at our house as well.
My cousin is turning 16 in January. She has asked that I put together a one-shot for her birthday. I need ideas for a flexible sized party (some may not want to play the day of but will want to watch). There may be 4 players.
I also need suggestions on how to help gather information from the kids attending the party on their level of experience, class, race, background, etc?
I did this last year, and it looks like I'm set to do it again. I had the birthday girl do some of the work. She had fun asking questions. "What do you want to play?" She got some lukewarm answers, and she also got some VERY specific answers. I rolled and printed the toon sheets for them because... math. One wallflower came out of her shell more than I've ever seen. It was fun.
I started by asking the birthday girl, "What do you want to do?" The answer: undead. Gotcha. I found a one-shot somewhere with a start in a town in Cormyr. I tweaked it a bit to make one short intro battle, some fact finding, and a short quest to de-undeadify a situation. They ended up failing in a glorious way. They all asked to continue with the characters.
The birthday girl has been working on her DM skills recently. I'd call it a success.
16 year olds..? I would run something with a mild/moderate horror theme.
The party is hired by a wealthy family to recover the remains of the family patriarch before the hereditary crypt is lost to the rising waters of a foul swamp. Will-o-wisps, skeletons, zombies and giant frogs impede their progress. The worst part is that the crypt is haunted by the patriarch's tortured soul (in the form of a wraith/wight) and he doesn't want to be disturbed.
You can nerf the wight/wraith in order to give them a chance, but beginning players are familiar with the swamp/undead tropes, so they won't struggle as much with the roleplaying aspect.
Hands shoot up around the room as party guests yell in delight of the upcoming treat, the NPC advances towards the cake. Suddenly the cake splits open and a long red tongue that looks like stringy strawberry jam and cream whips out ensares the NPC's arm, roll for initiative, its the party vs....the Birthday Cake Mimic!
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I did something similar, I had the party gather things to help the faeries and pixies make this elaborate cake then one sprinkled some magik over it and it came to life, they had made a cake construct and it set to attacking party members, if it gobbled them up they grew into it's body as a candle until the birthday girl was eaten then came out of the top of the cake aged by a year and the cake went into a normal edible cake with a big celebration
My cousin is turning 16 in January. She has asked that I put together a one-shot for her birthday. I need ideas for a flexible sized party (some may not want to play the day of but will want to watch). There may be 4 players.
I also need suggestions on how to help gather information from the kids attending the party on their level of experience, class, race, background, etc?
I think we need some more info to be able to help!
Firstly, are you looking to make a pregenerated party of a certain level for a variable number of players? Or are you looking for an adventure which is built around a flexible party size?
How long do you have to play? If you're teaching the kids, then you will need to give them basic characters (no Wizards, just Fighters, Barbarians, Rogues, that sort of thing, and probably at level 2). Consider "rolling" maximum health for each of them, to give the kids a little leeway.
As you're saying they're kids, I would consider a fairytale style oneshot - the princess has been kidnapped by goblins and they are holding her in that tower in the woods, go save her! This gives them a good motive, and it's something they will likely understand very easily. Goblins = bad, princess = good.
For gathering the info, just asking at the start: "Does anyone know about D&D? Have you played it before?" Give them easy pregens (Dwarves, Elves, Humans, half-orcs) and avoid the more complex ones like Dragonborn (which will immediately start an "I want to be a dragonborn" fight when they use their breath weapon the first time). Good Luck!
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I did something similar last year, albeit a couple of years younger, and boys instead - but generally speaking:
- I bought a set of dice for each person playing (you can get 6-8 sets with a little bag at quite reasonable costs) as well as a wooden mug (since it linked up with the adventure)
- I created pre-gen characters, and put them in an envelope (I created 6 for 4 players) - on the front of the envelope i wrote out some basics - like wizard, fighter etc.
- Once they had chosen characters, we did a really general introduction of each person telling what their character was like. We then moved into the adventure called "A most potent brew" (free from https://winghornpress.com/adventures/a-most-potent-brew/ )
- The mugs got used while the characters got into a little RP at a brewery (ginger ales in our case) and thne moved into the adventure
- The adventure is quite "classic" rats in the basement, but then moves into a mini dungeon with a riddle.
- We took a break after the first battle and served snacks etc so they have a break and can chat/ask questions in a different setting.
Overall, it was a positive experience, and everything took much longer than imagined, so I am glad for going with a really simple adventure. Several of the players have since returned to play more regularly in their school and occasionally at our house as well.
I did this last year, and it looks like I'm set to do it again. I had the birthday girl do some of the work. She had fun asking questions. "What do you want to play?" She got some lukewarm answers, and she also got some VERY specific answers. I rolled and printed the toon sheets for them because... math. One wallflower came out of her shell more than I've ever seen. It was fun.
I started by asking the birthday girl, "What do you want to do?" The answer: undead. Gotcha. I found a one-shot somewhere with a start in a town in Cormyr. I tweaked it a bit to make one short intro battle, some fact finding, and a short quest to de-undeadify a situation. They ended up failing in a glorious way. They all asked to continue with the characters.
The birthday girl has been working on her DM skills recently. I'd call it a success.
Good luck. I hope it's a great birthday.
16 year olds..? I would run something with a mild/moderate horror theme.
The party is hired by a wealthy family to recover the remains of the family patriarch before the hereditary crypt is lost to the rising waters of a foul swamp. Will-o-wisps, skeletons, zombies and giant frogs impede their progress. The worst part is that the crypt is haunted by the patriarch's tortured soul (in the form of a wraith/wight) and he doesn't want to be disturbed.
You can nerf the wight/wraith in order to give them a chance, but beginning players are familiar with the swamp/undead tropes, so they won't struggle as much with the roleplaying aspect.
NPC at a party: Anyone for cake?
Hands shoot up around the room as party guests yell in delight of the upcoming treat, the NPC advances towards the cake. Suddenly the cake splits open and a long red tongue that looks like stringy strawberry jam and cream whips out ensares the NPC's arm, roll for initiative, its the party vs....the Birthday Cake Mimic!
You're evil. I like it.
I did something similar, I had the party gather things to help the faeries and pixies make this elaborate cake then one sprinkled some magik over it and it came to life, they had made a cake construct and it set to attacking party members, if it gobbled them up they grew into it's body as a candle until the birthday girl was eaten then came out of the top of the cake aged by a year and the cake went into a normal edible cake with a big celebration
Any constraint? e.g. setting, theme, topics?