So I seem to have cornered myself into somewhat of a difficult position. This Thanksgiving my siblings and a cousin are planning on playing d&d, which means that by default I am going to be DMing for them. My problem is that I need to put together a one shot adventure that will work for four to five players and won't take much longer than two or three hours.
Notes: I've never been good with writing one shots, anything I write tends to spiral into a long-term campaign. One of the people(possibly two) who will be playing I have never gamed with before and I am not entirely sure what his(or their) play style(s) is(are).
What are some tips and pointers you might suggest for me? I would love to make this a great game for my players and would be very grateful for any help you all might have.
It helps to avoid a long-term campaign by writing up a single event session.
Your (players/long-time friends/group of bandits) are traveling (through the woods/down the kingsroad/along the beach) and encounter a (mansion/cave/encampment). They notice a particular (sound/smell/light) which seemed out of place and decide to investigate.
The location has been infested with (undead/mercenaries/spiders) and has plenty of (riddles/magic/traps/hazards) to avoid. Your players venture through in hopes of (treasure/curiosity/ridding evil) and save the day.
Story starts with the introduction to the location and ends as they leave. No further campaign to worry about. :D
My advice for one shots is always the same. Look at a film that has a decent balance of action and adventure that's set over a short period of time and rip it off. Something like Jurassic Park, The Raid, Dusk till Dawn, Big Trouble in Little China ect.
A one shot that i did was have the players chose from a set of pre generated characters that i made. The characters were performers/ workers in a traveling circus where the owner had essentially enslaved them and forced them to preform. I had them do checks based on their position or performance and had the owner punish them based on how badly/often they failed their checks. After the performance they would team up with each other and an elderly goblin worker to escape the circus and fight their way to freedom. What helped me keep it a one shot was to have the entire story take place within a one to two day period. This helps limit you on how much time you have to tell the full story and helps you quickly decide what elements are worth/important enough to expand on. Thinking with this mindset should hopefully help you with writing your one-shot. I hope this helps and wish you luck.
Establish that all of the player characters already know each other (and maybe are part of some organisation). This reduces the amount of "getting to know each other" time and time spent with characters being suspicious of each other's motives.
Communicate out of character how the session will work such as, "We're going to play for 5 hours - this is a short adventure so I'll make efforts to hurry you through at times"
Communicate a clear objective for the session in character as an npc, "We need you to stop the evil necromancer who is assaulting the town with undead." - this frames the victory conditions and everyone knows what they are working towards.
If starting play with characters that are higher level, be careful if someone wants to play something complicated that they aren't used to, "I'll be a 5th level warlock multiclass with 3rd level sorcerer"
As long as you restrict the session to a set place with a small goal (clear out this area, get an artifact, defend an area, carry a message, etc.) and then throw in a couple encounters to complete the task, you should be fine.
If you go under on time, you can always move to other things, or do a battle royale game with everyone's characters.
Why reinvent the wheel? There are already many already written one shots that have been shared online, several of which are free. I've recently discovered DMs Guild which has a wealth of pre written adventures and one shots. I'm sure you could also find a bunch just googling "D&D 5e one shot". Many of these mini adventures include everything you need, including suggested player level and approximate play time
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So I seem to have cornered myself into somewhat of a difficult position. This Thanksgiving my siblings and a cousin are planning on playing d&d, which means that by default I am going to be DMing for them. My problem is that I need to put together a one shot adventure that will work for four to five players and won't take much longer than two or three hours.
Notes: I've never been good with writing one shots, anything I write tends to spiral into a long-term campaign. One of the people(possibly two) who will be playing I have never gamed with before and I am not entirely sure what his(or their) play style(s) is(are).
What are some tips and pointers you might suggest for me? I would love to make this a great game for my players and would be very grateful for any help you all might have.
It helps to avoid a long-term campaign by writing up a single event session.
Your (players/long-time friends/group of bandits) are traveling (through the woods/down the kingsroad/along the beach) and encounter a (mansion/cave/encampment). They notice a particular (sound/smell/light) which seemed out of place and decide to investigate.
The location has been infested with (undead/mercenaries/spiders) and has plenty of (riddles/magic/traps/hazards) to avoid. Your players venture through in hopes of (treasure/curiosity/ridding evil) and save the day.
Story starts with the introduction to the location and ends as they leave. No further campaign to worry about. :D
My advice for one shots is always the same. Look at a film that has a decent balance of action and adventure that's set over a short period of time and rip it off. Something like Jurassic Park, The Raid, Dusk till Dawn, Big Trouble in Little China ect.
A one shot that i did was have the players chose from a set of pre generated characters that i made. The characters were performers/ workers in a traveling circus where the owner had essentially enslaved them and forced them to preform. I had them do checks based on their position or performance and had the owner punish them based on how badly/often they failed their checks. After the performance they would team up with each other and an elderly goblin worker to escape the circus and fight their way to freedom. What helped me keep it a one shot was to have the entire story take place within a one to two day period. This helps limit you on how much time you have to tell the full story and helps you quickly decide what elements are worth/important enough to expand on. Thinking with this mindset should hopefully help you with writing your one-shot. I hope this helps and wish you luck.
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D&D Beyond FoundersMy main advice for one-shots is:
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As long as you restrict the session to a set place with a small goal (clear out this area, get an artifact, defend an area, carry a message, etc.) and then throw in a couple encounters to complete the task, you should be fine.
If you go under on time, you can always move to other things, or do a battle royale game with everyone's characters.
Why reinvent the wheel? There are already many already written one shots that have been shared online, several of which are free. I've recently discovered DMs Guild which has a wealth of pre written adventures and one shots. I'm sure you could also find a bunch just googling "D&D 5e one shot". Many of these mini adventures include everything you need, including suggested player level and approximate play time