I post on a bid for some help crafting my one-shot. Our DM is out for a few weeks and I’ve been given the opportunity to step back into the DM chair for a three hour session. The location has already been established in our campaign, and I’ll have four players all creating new level 3 characters for this game.
They are part of a revolution waging guerrilla war fare on a fascist Government controlling the city, and will be sent on a mission to infiltrate and disrupt the activities at a relatively big Research & Development facility. The Government is using ancient relics to build a super weapon, and must be stopped at all costs.
Their objectives will be: 1. Find a way to render the relics unusable by the Government. 2. Assassinate two high ranking officers who will be at the facility. 3. If possible, obtain any documentation or intelligence that may aid the revolution in future.
Where I am struggling is Encounters and a puzzle. The One-Shot will be three hours long, and the group will be doing some role playing. Can anyone give me an idea of generally how many encounters they should have to go through (or craftily avoid/diffuse) before the Big Bad Boss? I am unsure of what classes they will choose to play.
Also, who doesn’t love a good puzzle room?! Any ideas on interesting ones that require outside the box thinking, but won’t take a huge amount of time?
For a 4 to 5 hour session of D&D for 4-5 players, I generally budget about about 5 encounters. Roughly 1 encounter/hour which usually includes a combat or two. I'd budget for maybe 3 encounters plus the final encounter, and maybe make on those encounters optional which will allow you to manage the clock a bit if your group is doing more or less role playing/taking their time.
I struggle with throwing in puzzles because from a narrative perspective they rarely make sense. I suppose you could throw in a puzzle as a way to get into the vault/safe containing the plans to the Death Star/Intelligence.
Have you considered ending the adventure in a TPK? Ala Rogue One? Also, Rogue One spoiler alert. If these characters aren't moving onto other stories, it might be pretty cool to have a skill challenge involved in the final boss fight. Have the final baddie hopelessly outclass the party, and have a skill challenge to overload a magical device/ritual which destroys them all thus completing the assassination. You could then have them make narrative decisions to help in the resolution of the story.
For a 4 to 5 hour session of D&D for 4-5 players, I generally budget about about 5 encounters. Roughly 1 encounter/hour which usually includes a combat or two. I'd budget for maybe 3 encounters plus the final encounter, and maybe make on those encounters optional which will allow you to manage the clock a bit if your group is doing more or less role playing/taking their time.
I struggle with throwing in puzzles because from a narrative perspective they rarely make sense. I suppose you could throw in a puzzle as a way to get into the vault/safe containing the plans to the Death Star/Intelligence.
Have you considered ending the adventure in a TPK? Ala Rogue One? Also, Rogue One spoiler alert. If these characters aren't moving onto other stories, it might be pretty cool to have a skill challenge involved in the final boss fight. Have the final baddie hopelessly outclass the party, and have a skill challenge to overload a magical device/ritual which destroys them all thus completing the assassination. You could then have them make narrative decisions to help in the resolution of the story.
That is a very cool idea at the end. I’ve come up with some ideas for puzzles, but thank you for the encounter numbers. That’s where I was really struggling, so I appreciate it.
Honestly, the fastest puzzle for a door would probably be a combination lock where they have to enter the letters A-Z. Perhaps, before this point they need to find out the name of the super weapon or take the first letter of the 6 ancient relics used to spell a word... things along those lines. By the time they get to the lock, they already have the clues and will need to simply reflect back and piece them together.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
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I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
- Pile of objects reaching 20 feet up (corpses, skeletons, crates, chairs, etc) at the top of which stands a golden goblet that is untouched by the grime and dirt of the room. Somewhere near the door of the room is the engraving/plaque that reads "Have faith". There are no other exits to the room. When the PCs begin messing with the pile, their hands begin aging (getting wrinkly, scales losing color/falling off, etc). Detect magic would determine that this is an illusion. When they touch the goblet, however, they pull a "I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark" and disappear into dust. Don't worry. They're not dead, they have just teleported into the next room. Don't describe what happened to them after the teleportation until the final PC touches the goblet.
- The PCs walk into a room with two fountains on the left and right side and a door with slots for coins, slots much larger than your standard gold piece. The bottoms of the fountains are covered in coins. When the PCs reach in or use an object to move the coins around, a creature reaches up through the water and an illusory bottom to grab the PC and pull them into the water. I used undead as that was the theme to the dungeon and they could just sit underwater. The had a large Orcus coin in their chest.
- The PCs arrive in a room with a white marble statue of a hero. The statue itself is very non-descript/featureless. It's standing with its fists on its hips in a heroic pose. The base of the statue reads "Do as I do." When a PC stands in the circle in front of the statue and does the pose, the statue comes to life. Here are the steps"
Heroic pose.
The statue draws a marble longsword. The PC just needs to draw whatever weapon they have.
The statue strikes to their right, hitting nothing. When it pulls its sword back, it's covered in blood. The PC must attack a party member, dealing max weapon damage.
The statue plunges its sword into the ground in front of it. PC must do the same.
The longsword falls over and shatters. Inside is a dagger. The statue grabs the dagger and plunges it into its palm, black viscous fluid leaking from the wound. After some dragging, it tosses the dagger at the foot of the PC, then pulls a key out of its hand. The PC looks at their palm and can see a faint shadow of a key underneath their skin. They take 4-8 damage from the initial plunge, then two more instances of 4-8 damage from the dragging and tearing of the knife in their palm. They can then pull out the key. The statue nods and goes back to the heroic pose.
- Pile of objects reaching 20 feet up (corpses, skeletons, crates, chairs, etc) at the top of which stands a golden goblet that is untouched by the grime and dirt of the room. Somewhere near the door of the room is the engraving/plaque that reads "Have faith". There are no other exits to the room. When the PCs begin messing with the pile, their hands begin aging (getting wrinkly, scales losing color/falling off, etc). Detect magic would determine that this is an illusion. When they touch the goblet, however, they pull a "I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark" and disappear into dust. Don't worry. They're not dead, they have just teleported into the next room. Don't describe what happened to them after the teleportation until the final PC touches the goblet.
- The PCs walk into a room with two fountains on the left and right side and a door with slots for coins, slots much larger than your standard gold piece. The bottoms of the fountains are covered in coins. When the PCs reach in or use an object to move the coins around, a creature reaches up through the water and an illusory bottom to grab the PC and pull them into the water. I used undead as that was the theme to the dungeon and they could just sit underwater. The had a large Orcus coin in their chest.
- The PCs arrive in a room with a white marble statue of a hero. The statue itself is very non-descript/featureless. It's standing with its fists on its hips in a heroic pose. The base of the statue reads "Do as I do." When a PC stands in the circle in front of the statue and does the pose, the statue comes to life. Here are the steps"
Heroic pose.
The statue draws a marble longsword. The PC just needs to draw whatever weapon they have.
The statue strikes to their right, hitting nothing. When it pulls its sword back, it's covered in blood. The PC must attack a party member, dealing max weapon damage.
The statue plunges its sword into the ground in front of it. PC must do the same.
The longsword falls over and shatters. Inside is a dagger. The statue grabs the dagger and plunges it into its palm, black viscous fluid leaking from the wound. After some dragging, it tosses the dagger at the foot of the PC, then pulls a key out of its hand. The PC looks at their palm and can see a faint shadow of a key underneath their skin. They take 4-8 damage from the initial plunge, then two more instances of 4-8 damage from the dragging and tearing of the knife in their palm. They can then pull out the key. The statue nods and goes back to the heroic pose.
Ah, yes... I recognized that third one... that is definitely the work of Nerzugal from his Dungeon Master toolkit! He has some really fun puzzles!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Thank you for the comments everyone. I ran the game last night and it was pretty successful. What didn’t account for was the additional time - they got super into role playing so I just ran with it. But it was a fun night all round.
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Hey everyone thanks for checking then thread.
I post on a bid for some help crafting my one-shot. Our DM is out for a few weeks and I’ve been given the opportunity to step back into the DM chair for a three hour session. The location has already been established in our campaign, and I’ll have four players all creating new level 3 characters for this game.
They are part of a revolution waging guerrilla war fare on a fascist Government controlling the city, and will be sent on a mission to infiltrate and disrupt the activities at a relatively big Research & Development facility. The Government is using ancient relics to build a super weapon, and must be stopped at all costs.
Their objectives will be: 1. Find a way to render the relics unusable by the Government. 2. Assassinate two high ranking officers who will be at the facility. 3. If possible, obtain any documentation or intelligence that may aid the revolution in future.
Where I am struggling is Encounters and a puzzle. The One-Shot will be three hours long, and the group will be doing some role playing. Can anyone give me an idea of generally how many encounters they should have to go through (or craftily avoid/diffuse) before the Big Bad Boss? I am unsure of what classes they will choose to play.
Also, who doesn’t love a good puzzle room?! Any ideas on interesting ones that require outside the box thinking, but won’t take a huge amount of time?
thank you in advance!
For a 4 to 5 hour session of D&D for 4-5 players, I generally budget about about 5 encounters. Roughly 1 encounter/hour which usually includes a combat or two. I'd budget for maybe 3 encounters plus the final encounter, and maybe make on those encounters optional which will allow you to manage the clock a bit if your group is doing more or less role playing/taking their time.
I struggle with throwing in puzzles because from a narrative perspective they rarely make sense. I suppose you could throw in a puzzle as a way to get into the vault/safe containing the plans to the Death Star/Intelligence.
Have you considered ending the adventure in a TPK? Ala Rogue One? Also, Rogue One spoiler alert. If these characters aren't moving onto other stories, it might be pretty cool to have a skill challenge involved in the final boss fight. Have the final baddie hopelessly outclass the party, and have a skill challenge to overload a magical device/ritual which destroys them all thus completing the assassination. You could then have them make narrative decisions to help in the resolution of the story.
That is a very cool idea at the end. I’ve come up with some ideas for puzzles, but thank you for the encounter numbers. That’s where I was really struggling, so I appreciate it.
Honestly, the fastest puzzle for a door would probably be a combination lock where they have to enter the letters A-Z. Perhaps, before this point they need to find out the name of the super weapon or take the first letter of the 6 ancient relics used to spell a word... things along those lines. By the time they get to the lock, they already have the clues and will need to simply reflect back and piece them together.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Wally DM on YouTube
Some of the ones I've run recently:
- Pile of objects reaching 20 feet up (corpses, skeletons, crates, chairs, etc) at the top of which stands a golden goblet that is untouched by the grime and dirt of the room. Somewhere near the door of the room is the engraving/plaque that reads "Have faith". There are no other exits to the room. When the PCs begin messing with the pile, their hands begin aging (getting wrinkly, scales losing color/falling off, etc). Detect magic would determine that this is an illusion. When they touch the goblet, however, they pull a "I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark" and disappear into dust. Don't worry. They're not dead, they have just teleported into the next room. Don't describe what happened to them after the teleportation until the final PC touches the goblet.
- The PCs walk into a room with two fountains on the left and right side and a door with slots for coins, slots much larger than your standard gold piece. The bottoms of the fountains are covered in coins. When the PCs reach in or use an object to move the coins around, a creature reaches up through the water and an illusory bottom to grab the PC and pull them into the water. I used undead as that was the theme to the dungeon and they could just sit underwater. The had a large Orcus coin in their chest.
- The PCs arrive in a room with a white marble statue of a hero. The statue itself is very non-descript/featureless. It's standing with its fists on its hips in a heroic pose. The base of the statue reads "Do as I do." When a PC stands in the circle in front of the statue and does the pose, the statue comes to life. Here are the steps"
Ah, yes... I recognized that third one... that is definitely the work of Nerzugal from his Dungeon Master toolkit! He has some really fun puzzles!
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Wally DM on YouTube
Indeed! It's been a while so I've forgotten where I got that one!
Thank you for the comments everyone. I ran the game last night and it was pretty successful. What didn’t account for was the additional time - they got super into role playing so I just ran with it. But it was a fun night all round.