Hi! Coming back to D&D after almost a year away and not much getting done previously. I'm looking for a source for one-off adventures (I think that's the right term) that I can run in one evening with minimal prep, but hopefully I can creatively tie together to create some sort of living world and story arc. I should also mention that this would be for a 2- to 3-player character party of newbie players.
I do have a copy of the Lost Mine of Phandelver and we ran that just for a few sessions and I think my players got to the town and explored the castle, but that's it. However, as a DM, I found it quite overwhelming to read all of that and to try to be ready for all the branches/options that the players may take, so I'm looking for an adventure that's much simpler and can wrap up in an evening of gaming. Or if you have a suggestion on how to break down the LMoP adventure into more manageable chunks for me as a DM?
I also have a copy of Adventure League material kindly shared by one of the forum members here, but I've not gone over them yet; I will after this post.
Lastly, what would be an ideal party composition for a 2-PC party? What would be a nice PC type for the third and fourth PC? Basically, I'm looking for suggestions for a 2-PC party that would be balanced and can handle most situations, then looking for suggestions for a third PC that would complement the first two, then lastly, a fourth PC that would round out the first three nicely. I guess the idea here is to have the two PCs as the stable ones in the party and the next two as extra characters that can hop in and out of the party as needed, meaning I can hand them out to new players as and when they join the party and remove them if they leave.
I'm going to attempt to give you some advice, but feel free to disregard it :) Everyone has a different style, so find what works for you.
I do have a copy of the Lost Mine of Phandelver ... However, as a DM, I found it quite overwhelming
The Lost Mine isn't meant to be run in one session. I view it as an intro to both the game and to Dungeon Mastering. I suggest reading the early portion again and think about why's and hows. The other word you may be looking for is either "one-shot" adventures (which are typically less than 4 hrs) or 5-room dungeons. You can use either of those to begin creating a story and hence your own world. They are tools.
Let's revisit Lost Mine briefly:
Chunk 1: Get the party together. Using character backgrounds, have each one have some connection to Gundren Rockseeker or Phandolin. This gets the party aligned to a short term goal and moving in that direction.
Chunk 2: Bandits on the road, goblins on the road etc. As they travel they can relate backstories and give them a chance to RP. Also the initial battle can lead to character bonding and player trust.
Chunk 3: Decision: a dead horse and abandoned cart on the road. WHAT DO WE DO? After combat do we follow the trail, or continue to town. This is both combat, then RP (though the goblins, if played well, can be deadly).
You can probably do the first 3 chunks in one session, depending on combat time and RP for character interactions.
As a DM you don't have to know everything all the time, instead, focus on "just enough". I think what you are ultimately getting to, is a story/narrative decomposition problem.
Also, if you just have a 2 PC party, consider adding some NPCs that join the party on occasion. The alternative is to create situations for just two players, in my mind that is similar to Hadrian and Royce from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10790290-theft-of-swords or something like Fafred and the Grey Mouser.
Hope this helps.
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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!"
For shorter adventures you can look at tales from the yawning portal or the new ghosts of Saltmarsh. Both books contain multiple one shot adventures that can be completed in 3 or fewer sessions.
Saltmarsh might be a great option for a drop in, drop out campaign. It is almost as much a setting book as it is an adventure book. Everything takes place in and around a port town, and includes larger encounters/events that can serve as 1 session adventures.
It is hard to balance a 2 PC party. 2 classes that have high endurance like a cleric, druid, or paladin. Or a class with healing (bard, cleric, druid) with a tough martial class (barbarian, fighter, paladin). If there will be less combat then a CHA class (bard, paladin, sorcerer, warlock) and a skill heavy class (bard, ranger, rogue). A lore bard with a war or tempest cleric might fit multiple roles (good healing, utility, skills, and martial prowess). Wizards and fighters make good drop in characters because of their versatile play styles (even without changing the build). But consider using NPCs, or having your players control 2 characters to fill the party.
Thanks for the replies! "One-shot" adventures was indeed the term I was looking for!
I appreciate that LMoP isn't meant to be run in one session and IIRC, the path/cart/goblin cave was our first session, although they just made it to the entrance of the cave and killed the guards when I ended the first session, kinda like a cliffhanger ending ;) What I really found to be overwhelming was when the PCs started to have choices like do they explore the castle or follow up on this lead or look for this bandit leader or this or that? Maybe 2 or 3 choices I can handle but IIRC once they got to town, there were lots of choices they could make and branch off the adventure at that point and I really felt underprepared and totally swamped. Is it normal for a game session to take a 5- or 10-minute break? Like the players say "we'll comb the town to look for the bandit leader" and while as a DM, I kinda know where this goes, I stop the game for 5 minutes or so to re-read the material?
I probably should've mentioned that I'll be playing with young teens and kids. My two boys will be my main players, ages 16 and 10. The eldest can strategise a bit but the youngest is probably your gung-ho fighter that loves to swing first and sort out the body parts later. Drop-in players can be my wife or some of the kids' friends when they come over to play or sleepovers. Because of the age of the boys, I would really rather they play one PC each and since I felt so swamped as a DM, I'm hesitant to run a DM-PC. I'm also afraid that by giving them two characters, they'll roll play more and role play less. Am I wrong in this chain of thought?
For the party suggestion, I guess I would prefer to run a more action-oriented game, lots of swinging and dice rolling, and less roleplay. So definitely a meat shield (fighter? barbarian?) that is melee-focused and a support PC that is ranged-focused. Is it possible to create a ranged-focused cleric and a fighter with some sneak/traps skill? I think wizards/sorcerers may be too squishy for front-line work and no healing for support roles, same thing for rogues.
A cleric with martial weapons (like war or tempest domain) can be an archer. Arcana (and some others) clerics get a few non-cleric cantrips (damaging cleric cantrips are all saves) and can keep up with archer builds.
Druids can be stealthy, tanky, and healy. Kind of dependant on wild shape to tank (basically free HP). Moon druids can tank and deal melee damage pretty well.
Paladins don't sneak so well, but can do a lot of damage, tank, and heal.
Fighters are pretty versatile at any range, battle master has the most support and control abilities, but very limited support (a little temp HP, leting allies use their reaction to make an empowered attack, thats about it).
The classes that do the most damage from a distance are usually pretty squishy (rogues, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards).
I think with just two main PCs, both should be able to fight, then the party needs a sneak/traps person (aka scout) and a healer. Are there any roles that I'm missing?
Any class can sneak (as long as they don't have heavy armor) and disarm traps. All they need is DEX and proficiency to be good at it, and they can get that from background (like urchin).
I still think lore bard (DEX and CHA, healing, damaging spells later on, skill monkey) and Tempest/War cleric (STR and WIS, healing, can change spells daily, some decent damage spells) are good choices. Urchin and outlander are good backgrounds for them.
Thanks! I'm a bit worried that these builds may be a bit too complex/nuanced (not sure if I'm using the right terms here) for new players to build on and follow? Or am I overthinking this?
No? The lore bard is the default subclass (the bardiest bard) their thing is learning songs and stories. A war cleric is just a cleric who worships a god of combat and is basically a paladin with no smites, but more spells (tempest cleric basically the same, except storm god, and likes thunder and lightning).
A battle master fighter carrying longbow and sword (rapier?) and board (two swords?). Point is it can do any martial fighting style you (or the player) want.
The 5 room dungeon might be a helpful model. They don't have to be literal rooms, of course. Simple dungeon crawls might suit your players as well. Limited options for choices, so it is easier to prepare for what might happen. Lots of monsters to fight. A few traps or tricks to spice things up and make them think occasionally.
Hi! Coming back to D&D after almost a year away and not much getting done previously. I'm looking for a source for one-off adventures (I think that's the right term) that I can run in one evening with minimal prep, but hopefully I can creatively tie together to create some sort of living world and story arc. I should also mention that this would be for a 2- to 3-player character party of newbie players.
I do have a copy of the Lost Mine of Phandelver and we ran that just for a few sessions and I think my players got to the town and explored the castle, but that's it. However, as a DM, I found it quite overwhelming to read all of that and to try to be ready for all the branches/options that the players may take, so I'm looking for an adventure that's much simpler and can wrap up in an evening of gaming. Or if you have a suggestion on how to break down the LMoP adventure into more manageable chunks for me as a DM?
I also have a copy of Adventure League material kindly shared by one of the forum members here, but I've not gone over them yet; I will after this post.
Lastly, what would be an ideal party composition for a 2-PC party? What would be a nice PC type for the third and fourth PC? Basically, I'm looking for suggestions for a 2-PC party that would be balanced and can handle most situations, then looking for suggestions for a third PC that would complement the first two, then lastly, a fourth PC that would round out the first three nicely. I guess the idea here is to have the two PCs as the stable ones in the party and the next two as extra characters that can hop in and out of the party as needed, meaning I can hand them out to new players as and when they join the party and remove them if they leave.
Any help appreciated!
Howdy!
I'm going to attempt to give you some advice, but feel free to disregard it :) Everyone has a different style, so find what works for you.
The Lost Mine isn't meant to be run in one session. I view it as an intro to both the game and to Dungeon Mastering. I suggest reading the early portion again and think about why's and hows. The other word you may be looking for is either "one-shot" adventures (which are typically less than 4 hrs) or 5-room dungeons. You can use either of those to begin creating a story and hence your own world. They are tools.
Let's revisit Lost Mine briefly:
Chunk 1: Get the party together. Using character backgrounds, have each one have some connection to Gundren Rockseeker or Phandolin. This gets the party aligned to a short term goal and moving in that direction.
Chunk 2: Bandits on the road, goblins on the road etc. As they travel they can relate backstories and give them a chance to RP. Also the initial battle can lead to character bonding and player trust.
Chunk 3: Decision: a dead horse and abandoned cart on the road. WHAT DO WE DO? After combat do we follow the trail, or continue to town. This is both combat, then RP (though the goblins, if played well, can be deadly).
You can probably do the first 3 chunks in one session, depending on combat time and RP for character interactions.
As a DM you don't have to know everything all the time, instead, focus on "just enough". I think what you are ultimately getting to, is a story/narrative decomposition problem.
Also, if you just have a 2 PC party, consider adding some NPCs that join the party on occasion. The alternative is to create situations for just two players, in my mind that is similar to Hadrian and Royce from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10790290-theft-of-swords or something like Fafred and the Grey Mouser.
Hope this helps.
"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!"
For shorter adventures you can look at tales from the yawning portal or the new ghosts of Saltmarsh. Both books contain multiple one shot adventures that can be completed in 3 or fewer sessions.
Saltmarsh might be a great option for a drop in, drop out campaign. It is almost as much a setting book as it is an adventure book. Everything takes place in and around a port town, and includes larger encounters/events that can serve as 1 session adventures.
It is hard to balance a 2 PC party. 2 classes that have high endurance like a cleric, druid, or paladin. Or a class with healing (bard, cleric, druid) with a tough martial class (barbarian, fighter, paladin). If there will be less combat then a CHA class (bard, paladin, sorcerer, warlock) and a skill heavy class (bard, ranger, rogue). A lore bard with a war or tempest cleric might fit multiple roles (good healing, utility, skills, and martial prowess). Wizards and fighters make good drop in characters because of their versatile play styles (even without changing the build). But consider using NPCs, or having your players control 2 characters to fill the party.
Thanks for the replies! "One-shot" adventures was indeed the term I was looking for!
I appreciate that LMoP isn't meant to be run in one session and IIRC, the path/cart/goblin cave was our first session, although they just made it to the entrance of the cave and killed the guards when I ended the first session, kinda like a cliffhanger ending ;) What I really found to be overwhelming was when the PCs started to have choices like do they explore the castle or follow up on this lead or look for this bandit leader or this or that? Maybe 2 or 3 choices I can handle but IIRC once they got to town, there were lots of choices they could make and branch off the adventure at that point and I really felt underprepared and totally swamped. Is it normal for a game session to take a 5- or 10-minute break? Like the players say "we'll comb the town to look for the bandit leader" and while as a DM, I kinda know where this goes, I stop the game for 5 minutes or so to re-read the material?
I probably should've mentioned that I'll be playing with young teens and kids. My two boys will be my main players, ages 16 and 10. The eldest can strategise a bit but the youngest is probably your gung-ho fighter that loves to swing first and sort out the body parts later. Drop-in players can be my wife or some of the kids' friends when they come over to play or sleepovers. Because of the age of the boys, I would really rather they play one PC each and since I felt so swamped as a DM, I'm hesitant to run a DM-PC. I'm also afraid that by giving them two characters, they'll roll play more and role play less. Am I wrong in this chain of thought?
For the party suggestion, I guess I would prefer to run a more action-oriented game, lots of swinging and dice rolling, and less roleplay. So definitely a meat shield (fighter? barbarian?) that is melee-focused and a support PC that is ranged-focused. Is it possible to create a ranged-focused cleric and a fighter with some sneak/traps skill? I think wizards/sorcerers may be too squishy for front-line work and no healing for support roles, same thing for rogues.
A cleric with martial weapons (like war or tempest domain) can be an archer. Arcana (and some others) clerics get a few non-cleric cantrips (damaging cleric cantrips are all saves) and can keep up with archer builds.
Druids can be stealthy, tanky, and healy. Kind of dependant on wild shape to tank (basically free HP). Moon druids can tank and deal melee damage pretty well.
Paladins don't sneak so well, but can do a lot of damage, tank, and heal.
Fighters are pretty versatile at any range, battle master has the most support and control abilities, but very limited support (a little temp HP, leting allies use their reaction to make an empowered attack, thats about it).
The classes that do the most damage from a distance are usually pretty squishy (rogues, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards).
I think with just two main PCs, both should be able to fight, then the party needs a sneak/traps person (aka scout) and a healer. Are there any roles that I'm missing?
Any class can sneak (as long as they don't have heavy armor) and disarm traps. All they need is DEX and proficiency to be good at it, and they can get that from background (like urchin).
I still think lore bard (DEX and CHA, healing, damaging spells later on, skill monkey) and Tempest/War cleric (STR and WIS, healing, can change spells daily, some decent damage spells) are good choices. Urchin and outlander are good backgrounds for them.
Are those on the basic PHB?
They are in the PHB, yes.
Thanks! I'm a bit worried that these builds may be a bit too complex/nuanced (not sure if I'm using the right terms here) for new players to build on and follow? Or am I overthinking this?
No? The lore bard is the default subclass (the bardiest bard) their thing is learning songs and stories. A war cleric is just a cleric who worships a god of combat and is basically a paladin with no smites, but more spells (tempest cleric basically the same, except storm god, and likes thunder and lightning).
Yep, I was overthinking it! Thanks for the suggestion!
So bard for ranged, cleric for melee, both can heal and have some spell capability, great! Any suggestions for party member #3 and #4?
A battle master fighter carrying longbow and sword (rapier?) and board (two swords?). Point is it can do any martial fighting style you (or the player) want.
An evocation wizard. Lots of spells.
I just recently picked up this collection of one-shot adventures.
Some of them are loosely connected with each other, and all are highly rated (only played one of them so far, but it was great).
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
Link didn't work.
Nice. Those look interesting. I may need to check them out myself. I'm always looking for one-offs to run alone or to hook into my campaign.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/198501/Complete-Adventures-of-MT-Black-Vol-I
Does that one work for you?
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
The 5 room dungeon might be a helpful model. They don't have to be literal rooms, of course. Simple dungeon crawls might suit your players as well. Limited options for choices, so it is easier to prepare for what might happen. Lots of monsters to fight. A few traps or tricks to spice things up and make them think occasionally.
It is taking me to a DM Guild page that says resource not found.
Strange, try this: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?keywords=m+t+black
Or just search for "M T Black" on DM Guild. There are two collections of adventures there, and they are listed individually, too.
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules