I’m suppose to run my first oneshot on a day my DM doesn’t feel up to running the main campaign. The part I’m still not sure about is when the characters are meant to explore the woods where the enemy beast supposedly is, as well as looking for a weapon once the embedded into or taken by the beast. The only real stipulation here is I don’t want there to be any combat except with the beast as the BBEG. Other than that, I am open for ideas/suggestions.
So far all I have is them making survival checks for prints/sign and when they move from area to area to see how long it takes and then perception checks when they are looking/investigation checks when they are feeling around. Does that sound right?
to make the forest a bit interesting, you can give players little hints about what they're coming against as they get closer. a clawed up skeleton here, a snapped tree there, just little somethings. if players fail to many survival checks, I'd recommend imparting levels of exhaustion or having them come up against natural hazards like quicksand, or carnivorous flora like giant flytraps or manchineel trees. it'd spice up the exploration for sure.
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Having fun? I would hope so. Lets see how much fun you're having after the lich starts dipping into it's 1/day spell slots.
I can say, as a player, my first thought would be to use locate object to try and find the weapon.
How much time do you have for the session? That can help dictate how much other stuff to throw in. And realize the the more you describe something, the more the players will think that means there’s something important there. You can use this to throw them off. Describe the waterfall and beautiful pool of crystal clear water it flows into, full of fish, with some birds in the shallows trying to eat said fish. The players will go nuts looking for the hidden cave behind the waterfall, or examining the fish to see which one is a magical fish spirit. But it’s nothing more than a pretty lake — unless you want there to be a mystical fish spirit who will help the party for a favor.
Beyond that, I’d try and throw in a social encounter. They find a family in the woods having a picnic (most parties will become instantly suspicious, and start wanting to make insight checks). Maybe they are really just a family, and they don’t know anything about it, but a good persuasion check could help remind them they did see something suspicious over that way. This will not be the monster. It might be something the monster recently fought. It might be a weird looking tree stump. Which, depending on the time, could be simply a weird looking tree stump, or if they get a good roll as they check it out, it could be a back door into the lair. Or the family is secretly a hag coven with a grudge against the monster, and they’re happy to send some patsy to do their dirty work.
Overall, I like to try and put in a good mix of some mundane stuff that’s just the world, vs. everything being some kind of trick. It helps keep the players on their toes if they don’t know what they’re encountering.
Interesting. I’ll have to look up how level of exhaustion work again; I haven’t personally ran into that before, but I’m certainly all there for it. Even if they end up resting it off, it at least adds tension in the moment.
I’m not sure how locate weapon works, but that’s a creative solution I would be ok with ultimately. They have no idea what will be happening in advance, so if they had the foresight to do so, I’d like to reward that.
Most sessions are 6-8 hours. I’m not sure if my normal DM will be able to jump in or not with the normal campaign if needed, but as you can see I’d rather be over-prepared then under.
That picnic does give me an idea. I was originally going to have my character make a cameo at the beginning, but perhaps him passing through the woods would make for more of an impact.
I’m down for more help, but these are great so far! Thank you.
I dont know which level your one shot is designed for, but if you want to have your players to fight only against your beast, consider the following:
- the beast could have chased away/ hunted all other prey animals in the woods. thats why your party does not encounter any other (random) battles. highlight this by carcasses the party encounters while walking through the woods. This can also indicate that they come closer to the beasts lair
- they could encounter a ruin of some sorts or an abandon hunters cabin. there they could have a puzzle or sth to get some loot
- think about making your beast magical/ mystical/ cursed/ blessed in one way or another so it can only be slain with the weapon you want to put in the woods. The weapon would "break" the blessing the beast has. highlight this by making your party encounter the beast several time in the woods, not hurting them during the encounter. If you decide to do this, make sure you verbalize enough that this fight cant be won at this point and the give the beast an belivible reason to not kill the party outright, i.e. it uses hit and run tactics to wear the party down
-leave hints/ markers to guide the players to the weapon, i.e. an erlier party that was send to find the weapon but failed
Good idea with the wildlife. I’ll be sure to work that in.
i could work in an old hunter’s cabin to at least reference legend of the beast. I’m not sure what kind of puzzle would be fitting for such a thing.
I had plans to include silver weapons… or at least call them silvered; i can’t figure out how to make them, and ai don’t seem to have access to them. Not sure what I would have to buy to get to them. Making them special custom weapons to undo a curse of some kind might be the better play.
I figured tracks and the corpses of wildlife would be a trail enough (possibly blood or information about the habitat in the old cabin). Do you not think so? What else would you suggest?
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I’m suppose to run my first oneshot on a day my DM doesn’t feel up to running the main campaign. The part I’m still not sure about is when the characters are meant to explore the woods where the enemy beast supposedly is, as well as looking for a weapon once the embedded into or taken by the beast. The only real stipulation here is I don’t want there to be any combat except with the beast as the BBEG. Other than that, I am open for ideas/suggestions.
So far all I have is them making survival checks for prints/sign and when they move from area to area to see how long it takes and then perception checks when they are looking/investigation checks when they are feeling around. Does that sound right?
How would you all run such a scene?
to make the forest a bit interesting, you can give players little hints about what they're coming against as they get closer. a clawed up skeleton here, a snapped tree there, just little somethings. if players fail to many survival checks, I'd recommend imparting levels of exhaustion or having them come up against natural hazards like quicksand, or carnivorous flora like giant flytraps or manchineel trees. it'd spice up the exploration for sure.
Having fun? I would hope so. Lets see how much fun you're having after the lich starts dipping into it's 1/day spell slots.
I can say, as a player, my first thought would be to use locate object to try and find the weapon.
How much time do you have for the session? That can help dictate how much other stuff to throw in. And realize the the more you describe something, the more the players will think that means there’s something important there. You can use this to throw them off. Describe the waterfall and beautiful pool of crystal clear water it flows into, full of fish, with some birds in the shallows trying to eat said fish. The players will go nuts looking for the hidden cave behind the waterfall, or examining the fish to see which one is a magical fish spirit. But it’s nothing more than a pretty lake — unless you want there to be a mystical fish spirit who will help the party for a favor.
Beyond that, I’d try and throw in a social encounter. They find a family in the woods having a picnic (most parties will become instantly suspicious, and start wanting to make insight checks). Maybe they are really just a family, and they don’t know anything about it, but a good persuasion check could help remind them they did see something suspicious over that way. This will not be the monster. It might be something the monster recently fought. It might be a weird looking tree stump. Which, depending on the time, could be simply a weird looking tree stump, or if they get a good roll as they check it out, it could be a back door into the lair.
Or the family is secretly a hag coven with a grudge against the monster, and they’re happy to send some patsy to do their dirty work.
Overall, I like to try and put in a good mix of some mundane stuff that’s just the world, vs. everything being some kind of trick. It helps keep the players on their toes if they don’t know what they’re encountering.
Interesting. I’ll have to look up how level of exhaustion work again; I haven’t personally ran into that before, but I’m certainly all there for it. Even if they end up resting it off, it at least adds tension in the moment.
I’m not sure how locate weapon works, but that’s a creative solution I would be ok with ultimately. They have no idea what will be happening in advance, so if they had the foresight to do so, I’d like to reward that.
Most sessions are 6-8 hours. I’m not sure if my normal DM will be able to jump in or not with the normal campaign if needed, but as you can see I’d rather be over-prepared then under.
That picnic does give me an idea. I was originally going to have my character make a cameo at the beginning, but perhaps him passing through the woods would make for more of an impact.
I’m down for more help, but these are great so far! Thank you.
I dont know which level your one shot is designed for, but if you want to have your players to fight only against your beast, consider the following:
- the beast could have chased away/ hunted all other prey animals in the woods. thats why your party does not encounter any other (random) battles. highlight this by carcasses the party encounters while walking through the woods. This can also indicate that they come closer to the beasts lair
- they could encounter a ruin of some sorts or an abandon hunters cabin. there they could have a puzzle or sth to get some loot
- think about making your beast magical/ mystical/ cursed/ blessed in one way or another so it can only be slain with the weapon you want to put in the woods. The weapon would "break" the blessing the beast has. highlight this by making your party encounter the beast several time in the woods, not hurting them during the encounter. If you decide to do this, make sure you verbalize enough that this fight cant be won at this point and the give the beast an belivible reason to not kill the party outright, i.e. it uses hit and run tactics to wear the party down
-leave hints/ markers to guide the players to the weapon, i.e. an erlier party that was send to find the weapon but failed
It’s totally himebrewed actually.
Good idea with the wildlife. I’ll be sure to work that in.
i could work in an old hunter’s cabin to at least reference legend of the beast. I’m not sure what kind of puzzle would be fitting for such a thing.
I had plans to include silver weapons… or at least call them silvered; i can’t figure out how to make them, and ai don’t seem to have access to them. Not sure what I would have to buy to get to them. Making them special custom weapons to undo a curse of some kind might be the better play.
I figured tracks and the corpses of wildlife would be a trail enough (possibly blood or information about the habitat in the old cabin). Do you not think so? What else would you suggest?