Hello all, 

I may have an opportunity to run a one-shot for a few co-workers soon. It will be my first time behind the screen in a little while, and some of the players are brand new to ttrpgs. 

I've run one-shots before, but I want to make sure the new folks have a fun first time. What level range do you think would be the most fun to introduce people to D&D? I want them to have plenty of toys to play with without adding the complexity that can come from high level play. Any tips are appreciated!

I also considered having a mini session zero or something similar before the game, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. If any of you have done something like that before, I'd love to hear about that too. 

I use the same setting for new groups to sort out the group see if they can play together, get new players up to speed etc. Create 1 town with a Tavern general good store chapel and maybe a weapon / armorers shop - have there be a call to arms board at the bar where the bartender usually knows about little quests in the area that need to be done. 

Start at level 1 - each quest should require no more than 2 maps - super simple - save the farmers daughter from the bandits, kill the evil sprite corrupting our grove, you get the idea. 

There is usually some story - a fight on the 1st map on the way to the thing - a fight on the 2nd map at the thing - come back to town get your reward. Shop a little hunker down in the tavern rest - get a level - start again next time. 

I usually make these a 4-5 shot series then if the group meshes well if we want to continue I will then start a real campaign at about level 5 or 6. 

Easy enough to generate 5 super simple plots and 10 super simple maps with ai these days roll up a level 1 mob in D&D beyond and use if for all your rolls session one then just make it level 2 for next time - give it a dagger a short bow and maybe a cantrip. 

Best of Luck! 

That's not bad advice!

This would be a true one-shot though, a one session story that ends when the players leave. 

For my birthday one year, I invited some friends over who had never played TTRPGs before and I DMed a one-shot. Because I had a lot of time, I actually created mini-games to explain the stats and awarded point values based on how people did in the games. So for DEX, I had them dodge or redirect ping pong balls,  INT was a timed Sudoku game, CHA was 2 Truths and a Lie, CON was a pepper eating contest, etc. Was a lot of fun and made the one-shot's skill checks more intuitive.

As for the one-shot itself, I just found something fun on DMs Guild that I thought my friends would enjoy and ran it at level 3 or 4, I think. I had pre-gen characters ready with newbie-friendly spells and class features, and I ran the session more Rule of Cool than I usually do because I didn't want to get bogged down in mechanics.

I've also run a one-shot for my new hires during orientation. I only had like 2 hours total to play, so I actually skipped character sheets entirely and just gave everyone a set of dice, some basic equipment, and explained how skill checks and combat worked when it came up in the narrative. That one-shot was less about playing D&D and more about teamwork and creative problem-solving, so I stripped the mechanics back a lot to suit my needs. Ended up being really fun and it got one of my employees to start playing on her own!

A higher level character can do more and really are more fun to play. I taught my high school class how to play, and I started them at level 8. They are now obsessed with D&D. dmsguild.com is a good place to start. 

Level three was what I had in mind for this game. PCs have their subclass, but not so many buttons to press that it's overwhelming. I hope. 

Do any of you have tips for ending the one-shot? I don't want it to linger much past the final combat, but I also don't want the players to feel like they didn't get the satisfaction of receiving accolades for their efforts. The rewards I'm used to giving in a campaign aren't that satisfying when there is no next game. 

I would start at lvl 1 or 2. That gives them some idea how the class features work before making a blind choice for subclass.

Small village/town as stated above with a bounty board is good idea. But since it is a one-shot just give them the thing to do. Lots of new players need a few steps on the railroad in order to learn how the game works.