I'm new to D&D (just started my first campaign this summer) and I'm interested in making a Once Off/ One Shot adventure for my family. It'd be a total surprise and a very casual/ fun game. I'm giving myself plenty of time to put this together and I've been doing okay so far. My biggest concern right now is time.
If you have a minute and can read through my general idea and give me some feedback about duration, I would really REALLY appreciate it :)
The basic idea is based on the Greek mythological Labyrinth and Minotaur tale (cheesy I know, but it's simple and people will recognize it). The Minotaur has a key on him that opens a gated stairway in the center of the maze, this leads up to a bridge that crosses over top and allows them to escape. Four or five strangers (I'll have premade characters for everyone to choose from) will be dropped at the front and read a plaque about what this place is and how to survive.
I wanted to include some ****treasure**** to reward those who take the time to explore, and so I place something unique in each corner of the maze: a weapon chest (with a puzzle), a companion chamber (with a puzzle), a chest with a map (with an enemy), and an informative NPC (assuming they roleplay well and don't outright attack). All these things would make traveling and fighting the Minotaur much easier. I also put an inscription on the wall in the beginning that says: "With each risk comes a greater reward: a hero fares stronger with every corner explored." They can choose to skip it all and fight the Minotaur right away, but they won't all survive. Once one person escapes, the story ends.
My hope is that they would explore all four corners, but obviously I know it's not about my expectations. They'll have their own way of doing things as a party.
Enemies, so far are: the Minotaur (main boss- must defeat), the Euryale (aka- Medusa's sister, guarding the map chest), a shapeshifting Doppleganger to mess with the players (random encounter who can make himself look like the Minotaur, one of the party members, or Theseus (the guy in Greek mythology who killed the Minotaur)), and maybe some goblins or large rats if this seems too empty.
NPC's include: A centaur (aka- the informative NPC from earlier. best case scenario: gives up hints about item locations, how to escape, and how to fight Minotaur. worst case scenario: players must fight and kill him), and a barely-living Theseus (who can tell players about fighting the Minotaur).
Since we're family, and would all probably stay at my house, this campaign can run a little longer than usual. I'd say we could spend at most, around 6 hours playing, maybe taking a few breaks in between.
That being said, what do you guys think about the timing? Assuming they explore every single corner of the maze, face every encounter, solve every puzzle, and fight every enemy.... how long would that take? (ballpark is fine, I know it depends on how focused everyone is lol) Can it be done in 6 hours or less? Or do I need to make some changes?
Let me also say that 3 people have never played D&D before, one has been a DM before, and another plays with me in the campaign I'm currently in. I'm aware this is a very difficult task I'm taking on, and it won't go perfect, but I believe that this would just be about having fun and doing something really cool for my family.
Thanks in advance! I'm really open to any feedback!! Since I'm trying to surprise my family, and they're basically the only people I talk to about D&D, I haven't been able to share this or hash out ideas with anyone.
This sounds fun, and I think you could do it in the six hours. That said, I often find that my time expectations are drastically off. Case in point: in last week's session, I expected the party to finish up the previous adventure and get started on the next part of their quest. The players (in character) spent so much time discussing what happened and the implications of those events in the larger context, they never even got started on the next stage before our session ended, and spent another hour hashing it out this week before they started. So you never know. I take it as a good sign, that they are engaged with the story, so it doesn't bother me. In your case, if this six hours is all you have, you may have to prod them along. If you don't have to get it done in the one session, let them do what they do and have fun with it. You may get them all hooked and wanting to play every week.
With a budget of six hours, I would estimate you're looking at five encounters. As Jimmi said above, encounters aren't just fights. If you tell the players that the four corners of the labyrinth each have a tool that will help defeat the minotaur, that can encourage them to deal with the peripheral stuff before plunging into the labyrinth itself for the final showdown. I like that you have several of the hallmarks of a good short dungeon already: combat, puzzle, rewards, final boss.
I'm sure you already have your idea, but for the sake of example:
Theseus has a magical sword of minotaur slaying (+1 against minotaurs or some such)
Euryale is guarding a chest with a map of the labyrinth in it and a magic ring or something
Doppelganger guards a chest and challenges the players with a riddle. Solve the riddle the and win a magic prize. Guess wrong and fight the doppelganger.
Goblins (with flasks) hanging around a magical fountain. The fountain can heal players or bless them or whatever. New D&D players love magic fountains.
Finally, fight the minotaur, escape the dungeon, celebrate
Anyway, you're not railroading the players because they can do these in any order or even skip a step, but at the same time, they know that the more perks they do, the easier the minotaur will be when they face him. You can also use the encounters as a general estimate of how far along the players should be time-wise if you budget about an hour per encounter and then an hour of misc time doing non-encounter stuff.
This is an oversimplification, but maybe it will help you. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Thanks for all the great suggestions!! I really appreciate you guys taking the time to read and give me some advice.
I think I'll overestimate how long it takes to do things, this way I'm prepared. And kind of edge players along-- maybe I'll include a time limit ("Defeat him and escape before sunrise or the Minotaur will surely hunt you all down"); or maybe I'll just let them know, as a DM, they need to keep moving.
Thanks again!!! :) I'll update in a few months on how it turns out!
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Hey Everyone,
I'm new to D&D (just started my first campaign this summer) and I'm interested in making a Once Off/ One Shot adventure for my family. It'd be a total surprise and a very casual/ fun game. I'm giving myself plenty of time to put this together and I've been doing okay so far. My biggest concern right now is time.
If you have a minute and can read through my general idea and give me some feedback about duration, I would really REALLY appreciate it :)
The basic idea is based on the Greek mythological Labyrinth and Minotaur tale (cheesy I know, but it's simple and people will recognize it). The Minotaur has a key on him that opens a gated stairway in the center of the maze, this leads up to a bridge that crosses over top and allows them to escape. Four or five strangers (I'll have premade characters for everyone to choose from) will be dropped at the front and read a plaque about what this place is and how to survive.
I wanted to include some ****treasure**** to reward those who take the time to explore, and so I place something unique in each corner of the maze: a weapon chest (with a puzzle), a companion chamber (with a puzzle), a chest with a map (with an enemy), and an informative NPC (assuming they roleplay well and don't outright attack). All these things would make traveling and fighting the Minotaur much easier. I also put an inscription on the wall in the beginning that says: "With each risk comes a greater reward: a hero fares stronger with every corner explored." They can choose to skip it all and fight the Minotaur right away, but they won't all survive. Once one person escapes, the story ends.
My hope is that they would explore all four corners, but obviously I know it's not about my expectations. They'll have their own way of doing things as a party.
Enemies, so far are: the Minotaur (main boss- must defeat), the Euryale (aka- Medusa's sister, guarding the map chest), a shapeshifting Doppleganger to mess with the players (random encounter who can make himself look like the Minotaur, one of the party members, or Theseus (the guy in Greek mythology who killed the Minotaur)), and maybe some goblins or large rats if this seems too empty.
NPC's include: A centaur (aka- the informative NPC from earlier. best case scenario: gives up hints about item locations, how to escape, and how to fight Minotaur. worst case scenario: players must fight and kill him), and a barely-living Theseus (who can tell players about fighting the Minotaur).
Since we're family, and would all probably stay at my house, this campaign can run a little longer than usual. I'd say we could spend at most, around 6 hours playing, maybe taking a few breaks in between.
That being said, what do you guys think about the timing? Assuming they explore every single corner of the maze, face every encounter, solve every puzzle, and fight every enemy.... how long would that take? (ballpark is fine, I know it depends on how focused everyone is lol) Can it be done in 6 hours or less? Or do I need to make some changes?
Let me also say that 3 people have never played D&D before, one has been a DM before, and another plays with me in the campaign I'm currently in. I'm aware this is a very difficult task I'm taking on, and it won't go perfect, but I believe that this would just be about having fun and doing something really cool for my family.
Thanks in advance! I'm really open to any feedback!! Since I'm trying to surprise my family, and they're basically the only people I talk to about D&D, I haven't been able to share this or hash out ideas with anyone.
-SiKay
SiKay,
This sounds fun, and I think you could do it in the six hours. That said, I often find that my time expectations are drastically off. Case in point: in last week's session, I expected the party to finish up the previous adventure and get started on the next part of their quest. The players (in character) spent so much time discussing what happened and the implications of those events in the larger context, they never even got started on the next stage before our session ended, and spent another hour hashing it out this week before they started. So you never know. I take it as a good sign, that they are engaged with the story, so it doesn't bother me. In your case, if this six hours is all you have, you may have to prod them along. If you don't have to get it done in the one session, let them do what they do and have fun with it. You may get them all hooked and wanting to play every week.
Good luck.
Recently returned to D&D after 20+ years.
Unapologetic.
If it helps, I recently wrote a one shot for a brand new group. Nothing special, just a dungeon crawl.
I went by the rule of thumb that 5 encounters = one normal session of around 5 ish hours
I wanted about 7-8 hours play, and I had 6 encounters total. It worked.
FYI encounter = fight, RP section, or puzzle
Journeyman DM
Journeyman Adventurer
With a budget of six hours, I would estimate you're looking at five encounters. As Jimmi said above, encounters aren't just fights. If you tell the players that the four corners of the labyrinth each have a tool that will help defeat the minotaur, that can encourage them to deal with the peripheral stuff before plunging into the labyrinth itself for the final showdown. I like that you have several of the hallmarks of a good short dungeon already: combat, puzzle, rewards, final boss.
I'm sure you already have your idea, but for the sake of example:
Anyway, you're not railroading the players because they can do these in any order or even skip a step, but at the same time, they know that the more perks they do, the easier the minotaur will be when they face him. You can also use the encounters as a general estimate of how far along the players should be time-wise if you budget about an hour per encounter and then an hour of misc time doing non-encounter stuff.
This is an oversimplification, but maybe it will help you. Keep us posted on how it goes.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Thanks for all the great suggestions!! I really appreciate you guys taking the time to read and give me some advice.
I think I'll overestimate how long it takes to do things, this way I'm prepared. And kind of edge players along-- maybe I'll include a time limit ("Defeat him and escape before sunrise or the Minotaur will surely hunt you all down"); or maybe I'll just let them know, as a DM, they need to keep moving.
Thanks again!!! :) I'll update in a few months on how it turns out!