I am a long-time RPG player, especially D&D, but my exposure to 5E is rather limited. I am asking for some help in building a very time-specific adventure.
I will be a guest DM teaching D&D at a local store starting on 7 MAY, and I need to have an adventure set up that will become its own "season". That means the sessions will run for 2 hours, and the season will be 4-6 sessions long...so we are talking about 8-12 hours of game time. The group will have 6 players, all level 1, and they will be new to the game. Once their season ends and the adventure concludes, a new group of 6 players will sign on.
So, my problem is this: How many encounters should the players deal with during each two-hour session? What should be the difficulty of these encounters? I know that the flow of game time is very dependent on many random factors, but I just want to know the average experience that people have encountered. Any help would be appreciated.
Using Kobold Fight Club, the group can handle the following:
The importance of the players leveling up is not the focus. I am running a game that is time-sensitive and must be concluded after 4-6 sessions lasting 2 hours each.
Once the players finish the adventure, a new group of players will start their own adventure with me. The main focus is teaching D&D 5E to groups of new players.
If the Players are not going to continue - at least not in this game, with these character - past the end of the initial set of sessions, then you're really more concerned with "time blocking" than number of encounters, or XP gained.
With sessions being 2 hours, you might only have room for a few social interactions and a combat encounter ( since combat encounters can last on the close order of 45 minutes ), or a bit more in the way of encounters if they are resolved via social interaction ( or other means ).
Since you're trying to teach the game, having a good mix of character role-player, social interactions, combat, and exploration would be ideal.
Give yourself strict session and scene time budgets: allocated 15 minutes for talking with the King's adviser, 45 minutes for the combat with the orcs ... etc. Know where you want the story line to be at the end of each session, and drive hard for that.
You probably won't hit those deadlines, but you have the between session time to figure out how to tweak the story to help make up lost progress. You might want to devise a handful of deus ex machina shortcuts in the adventure, to lurch the plot progression forward - and/or a priority list of story elements you can yank out - if the progression falls hopelessly behind.
I'd recommend using that approach, and ignore the number of encounters and XP entirely. Milestone level them up by DM fiat, if they need to be a higher level for certain parts of the story - but otherwise don't pay much to XP and progression. Still use KFC to determine the relative difficulty of encounters, however.
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If the goal is to get something complete within a real world time limit (ie 8-12 hrs) then I would ditch XP altogether and just use milestones.
Our sessions run about 4 hrs and we've done several one-shots. Time varies wildly between groups but I would allocate 45 mins for any decent sized combat encounter and we can typically do a "5 room dungeon" in that time period.
If you are planning on 4 sessions then I would outline something as follows:
Session 1: character intro/background. Provide a reason or work in backstory for these characters to be together. Have a 1-2 social encounters and a combat encounter this could then lead to your main town.
Session 2: main town. Create some rumours in the town that you think your characters could be interested in and let them go about pursuing them. Have more social encounters but then depending on the course of action a combat encounter.
Session 3: Rising action. The actions from session 2 should have started the characters down a main path, the last half of this session should start the finale (whether that is going to be a social thing or a dungeon crawl.. I'm going to assume a dungeon crawl).
Session 4: Finale: a good old dungeon crawl, hopefully part of which was started in session 3. 5-7 rooms total with a puzzle or two, a combat or two and some choices for the characters to make.
The above is super rough and generic but hopefully gives you an idea.
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Something you might consider is to have ready-made character sheets with a brief introduction as to what information they contain, where to find it and what it means to the players. This would reduce time getting ready by an incredible amount and allow the players to get right to learning this wonderful game.
If you are going to have players roll their characters you might consider a separate time to do so with them. Or even enlist an experienced player or two to help move things along.
I suggest the ready made sheets so you can also not only have a story ready but also have a good enough cross of character types that can stand up to the scenarios you create. This also allows the players to have free minds to be blown instead of being worn down by having to make numerous decisions regarding character creation which they will not understand, both, how to make and why they must be made.
Mis dos centavos.
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Thank you. ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
I'm sorry I did not clarify earlier, the players will have pre-generated characters that will be assigned to them. They will be learning more about how to play and not so much about character creation.
IIRC Storm King's Thunder chapter 1: a Great Upheaval runs in approximately this time frame. There used to be a downloadable file for it on the wizards site. The basic outline is the characters explore an abandoned village, negotiate with Zhentarim, fight off some orcs, maybe encounter some elves, clear a cave complex and save the villagers. Pretty straightforward as plots go, but doesn't feel railroady. Then you hint at the full STK book at the end.
Make sure also with combat encounters to consider how many characters are involved. With a party of six all learning how to roll attacks and damage or cast spells, you may find that each turn could use up quite a bit of your limited time. And as they level up and get more options or attacks available to them, this time could increase. So consider how many enemies you want also having turns in each combat encounter. It might be easier in some regards to have one or two stronger enemies per encounter than many weaker ones. Just be careful of action economy here.
In terms of quests it seems like you really only have time for one more linear quest without really being able to engage in side quests. So to save time and see more of what you craft for them, perhaps make it so it doesn't necessarily matter too much who they talk to or where they go to find information about how to reach the end of the quest. Give them opportunities to use their characters' social skills without risking them never finding the information perhaps due to bad rolls. Be sure to hurry them along if need be but as I assume they understand the time constraints as well i would think they would also want to find this information as quickly as possible.
I don't know what the determining factor is for 4 vs 6 sessions you might get but if it is based on when you finish then perhaps plan for them to reach a dungeon with the final boss in the fourth session so that if they choose to move slowly and cautiously through it you can still have two days for them to reach the end and fight the boss.
I don't know what the determining factor is for 4 vs 6 sessions you might get but if it is based on when you finish then perhaps plan for them to reach a dungeon with the final boss in the fourth session so that if they choose to move slowly and cautiously through it you can still have two days for them to reach the end and fight the boss.
The number of sessions is basically agreed upon between me and the hosting store. They want this to be an opportunity for as many new players to sign up, play what the store labeled as a season (the 4-6 sessions), and then a new group starts their season. Apparently, the store had a lot of requests for this type of event, so they want to accommodate as many new players in a reasonable time.
I agree on using milestone path over xp. If you are going to force the encounter you may drive future DMs away. Make it fun. Go watch heroes of the vale. They do 2 hours and stop regardless at the 2 hour mark. Let the players set the pace
I am a long-time RPG player, especially D&D, but my exposure to 5E is rather limited. I am asking for some help in building a very time-specific adventure.
I will be a guest DM teaching D&D at a local store starting on 7 MAY, and I need to have an adventure set up that will become its own "season". That means the sessions will run for 2 hours, and the season will be 4-6 sessions long...so we are talking about 8-12 hours of game time. The group will have 6 players, all level 1, and they will be new to the game. Once their season ends and the adventure concludes, a new group of 6 players will sign on.
So, my problem is this: How many encounters should the players deal with during each two-hour session? What should be the difficulty of these encounters? I know that the flow of game time is very dependent on many random factors, but I just want to know the average experience that people have encountered. Any help would be appreciated.
Using Kobold Fight Club, the group can handle the following:
If you’re doing XP based leveling.. what level do you want the adventures to get to by the end of the season?
Once you have establish that you can divide up the encounters across the sessions relatively equally.
Thank you for replying.
The importance of the players leveling up is not the focus. I am running a game that is time-sensitive and must be concluded after 4-6 sessions lasting 2 hours each.
Once the players finish the adventure, a new group of players will start their own adventure with me. The main focus is teaching D&D 5E to groups of new players.
If the Players are not going to continue - at least not in this game, with these character - past the end of the initial set of sessions, then you're really more concerned with "time blocking" than number of encounters, or XP gained.
With sessions being 2 hours, you might only have room for a few social interactions and a combat encounter ( since combat encounters can last on the close order of 45 minutes ), or a bit more in the way of encounters if they are resolved via social interaction ( or other means ).
Since you're trying to teach the game, having a good mix of character role-player, social interactions, combat, and exploration would be ideal.
Give yourself strict session and scene time budgets: allocated 15 minutes for talking with the King's adviser, 45 minutes for the combat with the orcs ... etc. Know where you want the story line to be at the end of each session, and drive hard for that.
You probably won't hit those deadlines, but you have the between session time to figure out how to tweak the story to help make up lost progress. You might want to devise a handful of deus ex machina shortcuts in the adventure, to lurch the plot progression forward - and/or a priority list of story elements you can yank out - if the progression falls hopelessly behind.
I'd recommend using that approach, and ignore the number of encounters and XP entirely. Milestone level them up by DM fiat, if they need to be a higher level for certain parts of the story - but otherwise don't pay much to XP and progression. Still use KFC to determine the relative difficulty of encounters, however.
My $0.02, anyway :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
If the goal is to get something complete within a real world time limit (ie 8-12 hrs) then I would ditch XP altogether and just use milestones.
Our sessions run about 4 hrs and we've done several one-shots. Time varies wildly between groups but I would allocate 45 mins for any decent sized combat encounter and we can typically do a "5 room dungeon" in that time period.
If you are planning on 4 sessions then I would outline something as follows:
Session 1: character intro/background. Provide a reason or work in backstory for these characters to be together. Have a 1-2 social encounters and a combat encounter this could then lead to your main town.
Session 2: main town. Create some rumours in the town that you think your characters could be interested in and let them go about pursuing them. Have more social encounters but then depending on the course of action a combat encounter.
Session 3: Rising action. The actions from session 2 should have started the characters down a main path, the last half of this session should start the finale (whether that is going to be a social thing or a dungeon crawl.. I'm going to assume a dungeon crawl).
Session 4: Finale: a good old dungeon crawl, hopefully part of which was started in session 3. 5-7 rooms total with a puzzle or two, a combat or two and some choices for the characters to make.
The above is super rough and generic but hopefully gives you an idea.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Something you might consider is to have ready-made character sheets with a brief introduction as to what information they contain, where to find it and what it means to the players. This would reduce time getting ready by an incredible amount and allow the players to get right to learning this wonderful game.
If you are going to have players roll their characters you might consider a separate time to do so with them. Or even enlist an experienced player or two to help move things along.
I suggest the ready made sheets so you can also not only have a story ready but also have a good enough cross of character types that can stand up to the scenarios you create. This also allows the players to have free minds to be blown instead of being worn down by having to make numerous decisions regarding character creation which they will not understand, both, how to make and why they must be made.
Mis dos centavos.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
I'm sorry I did not clarify earlier, the players will have pre-generated characters that will be assigned to them. They will be learning more about how to play and not so much about character creation.
Thank you so much for the suggestions!
IIRC Storm King's Thunder chapter 1: a Great Upheaval runs in approximately this time frame. There used to be a downloadable file for it on the wizards site. The basic outline is the characters explore an abandoned village, negotiate with Zhentarim, fight off some orcs, maybe encounter some elves, clear a cave complex and save the villagers. Pretty straightforward as plots go, but doesn't feel railroady. Then you hint at the full STK book at the end.
Make sure also with combat encounters to consider how many characters are involved. With a party of six all learning how to roll attacks and damage or cast spells, you may find that each turn could use up quite a bit of your limited time. And as they level up and get more options or attacks available to them, this time could increase. So consider how many enemies you want also having turns in each combat encounter. It might be easier in some regards to have one or two stronger enemies per encounter than many weaker ones. Just be careful of action economy here.
In terms of quests it seems like you really only have time for one more linear quest without really being able to engage in side quests. So to save time and see more of what you craft for them, perhaps make it so it doesn't necessarily matter too much who they talk to or where they go to find information about how to reach the end of the quest. Give them opportunities to use their characters' social skills without risking them never finding the information perhaps due to bad rolls. Be sure to hurry them along if need be but as I assume they understand the time constraints as well i would think they would also want to find this information as quickly as possible.
I don't know what the determining factor is for 4 vs 6 sessions you might get but if it is based on when you finish then perhaps plan for them to reach a dungeon with the final boss in the fourth session so that if they choose to move slowly and cautiously through it you can still have two days for them to reach the end and fight the boss.
The number of sessions is basically agreed upon between me and the hosting store. They want this to be an opportunity for as many new players to sign up, play what the store labeled as a season (the 4-6 sessions), and then a new group starts their season. Apparently, the store had a lot of requests for this type of event, so they want to accommodate as many new players in a reasonable time.
I agree on using milestone path over xp. If you are going to force the encounter you may drive future DMs away. Make it fun. Go watch heroes of the vale. They do 2 hours and stop regardless at the 2 hour mark. Let the players set the pace
I am considering using the Tenets of Bane series from DMSGuild:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/240678/CCCWWC01-In-the-Face-of-Fear
Four adventures, each paced at 2 hours each, according to the description. If nothing else, it could give me a good example.
Thank you all for your help.
That may work out good. I hope it is better than anything you expect.
you can make it happen, we have faith in you.