I volunteered to DM a oneshot within a campaign I’m in. It’s my first time DMing, and I’m looking for a fairly simple 2-hour oneshot for four to five level 3 players.
Specifically, I want something that’s narratively simple so that it’s easier for me to adapt to whatever happens. I think that a oneshot that’s about just getting from Point A to Point B will be the easiest for me to run since there aren’t puzzles or mysteries involved. We did the Black Road before, and I was looking for something similar.
Do you guys have suggestions for free oneshots that might work?
Alternatively, if my goal is just going from point A to point B, should I just pick out point A and point B and then sprinkle unrelated but location-appropriate encounters in between?
The “Well of Wishes” oneshot from Nerzugal’s Second Dungeon Master Toolkit is the adventure I’ve found that looks the most promising, but it’s supposed to take 3-4 hours. Generally, I think our party moves more slowly (in a good way) than average. I am open to suggestions on how to cut it down to accommodate our time constraints though.
I don't know of any one shots that fit your exact specifications, but here are a few that I have run:
Granny's Apple Pie is a simple adventure for level 1 players. You can probably make the monsters slightly more difficult and still have it work just fine for level 3. Be sure to read everything in detail first because they can go to rooms in any order. You might also want to draw a map of the layout, which isn't provided. When I played it, it took more than 2 hours, but if you know it well, it should move faster.
For a less serious game, Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf is a fun bbeg. You can plan a short adventure based around the popular song and describe the party getting lost in the woods, encountering Shia, killing him, finding his cabin, and fighting him again. They might need to roll arcana to figure out how to finally kill him. To make the stat block suit your 3rd level party, give him 2 multiattacks instead of 3 and maybe reduce the to hit and damage bonuses.
Here's another idea:
Party has been hired to transport a locked case from one town to another. They were hired by the local lord, although, they’ve never actually interacted with him, all their communication has been with his herald. The transport would have been done by soldiers, but they’ve had a serious epidemic of the flu and are short staffed.
They are given a cart and set out on the road. On the road they encounter a trap set by kobolds (10 of them). The kobolds have a nerfed dragon wyrmling (pick the color based on CR and which one you think is the coolest) with them. The kobolds are trying to find someone to heal their friend the wyrmling. They would also like to rob the party. If the party heals the wyrmling they probably won't attack, but will still try to rob them. T
The trap: The Kobolds have prepared 2 trees to fall across the path of the forest, which will trap the party and cart between them. 5 kobolds will be on each side. To Notice that Kobolds are stalking them, DC Perception 15, to notice both sides of the trail 20, to see the wyrmling DC 25
If you need to nerf the wyrming: He has been blinded by acid, losing sight and blindsight, so all attacks made by him are made at disadvantage, and all attacks against him are at advantage. He is down 10 hit points, and if he gains at least 10 points for any reason, his sight will be restored.
Add a few non-combat encounters along the road as well, or a random combat encounter if they manage to get by the dragon without fighting.
Really, you can make your own simple one-shot by picking a D&D trope (rescue mission, mission to kill a monster, transport an item or npc, etc), add an interesting setting (forest, underdark, ocean, desert, etc). Pick a bbeg to be the main battle. Add one or two easy encounters before hand. Also, a handful of non-combat encounters for flavor or to gain info that helps them later. Use kobold fight club to balance encounters, but be aware that CR isn't everything, read stat blocks in detail ahead of time. I use the lists on http://dndspeak.com/ for interesting encounters and npcs.
Also, haven't played Wild Sheep Chase, but it looks pretty good.
Just ran Wild Sheep Chase as my first DM experience and had a blast. Looking for more to run during lockdown. Highly recommend sheep chase, easy to run, not too long, good introduction to dming.
Can second on A Wild Sheep Chase, it was the first session I ever ran as well - for three level 3 PCs I believe, it was very fun and pretty easy to run.
I totally agree with the chasing the sheep campaign. It was my first DM experience and it went well happened a few weeks ago. I forgot my PCs were at level 5 so battles were quick so I had to think fast for further encounters. so good intro . look forward to DMing again.
The first adventure I ran for 5E was The Mystery of Malvern Manor by Dan Head. It can scale to levels 3-4 but is a bit better for levels 1 and 2. It's a great intro adventure. It shows how much you can do with 3 pages of text. Crocodile Crossroads, the sequel, looks good but I haven't run it myself.
I also vote for Wild Sheep Chase. Especially the bear in the outhouse.
There are lots of adventures available for 5E these days. Merric has been keeping a pretty good list.
I volunteered to DM a oneshot within a campaign I’m in. It’s my first time DMing, and I’m looking for a fairly simple 2-hour oneshot for four to five level 3 players.
Specifically, I want something that’s narratively simple so that it’s easier for me to adapt to whatever happens. I think that a oneshot that’s about just getting from Point A to Point B will be the easiest for me to run since there aren’t puzzles or mysteries involved. We did the Black Road before, and I was looking for something similar.
Do you guys have suggestions for free oneshots that might work?
Alternatively, if my goal is just going from point A to point B, should I just pick out point A and point B and then sprinkle unrelated but location-appropriate encounters in between?
The “Well of Wishes” oneshot from Nerzugal’s Second Dungeon Master Toolkit is the adventure I’ve found that looks the most promising, but it’s supposed to take 3-4 hours. Generally, I think our party moves more slowly (in a good way) than average. I am open to suggestions on how to cut it down to accommodate our time constraints though.
I don't know of any one shots that fit your exact specifications, but here are a few that I have run:
Granny's Apple Pie is a simple adventure for level 1 players. You can probably make the monsters slightly more difficult and still have it work just fine for level 3. Be sure to read everything in detail first because they can go to rooms in any order. You might also want to draw a map of the layout, which isn't provided. When I played it, it took more than 2 hours, but if you know it well, it should move faster.
For a less serious game, Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf is a fun bbeg. You can plan a short adventure based around the popular song and describe the party getting lost in the woods, encountering Shia, killing him, finding his cabin, and fighting him again. They might need to roll arcana to figure out how to finally kill him. To make the stat block suit your 3rd level party, give him 2 multiattacks instead of 3 and maybe reduce the to hit and damage bonuses.
Here's another idea:
Party has been hired to transport a locked case from one town to another. They were hired by the local lord, although, they’ve never actually interacted with him, all their communication has been with his herald. The transport would have been done by soldiers, but they’ve had a serious epidemic of the flu and are short staffed.
They are given a cart and set out on the road. On the road they encounter a trap set by kobolds (10 of them). The kobolds have a nerfed dragon wyrmling (pick the color based on CR and which one you think is the coolest) with them. The kobolds are trying to find someone to heal their friend the wyrmling. They would also like to rob the party. If the party heals the wyrmling they probably won't attack, but will still try to rob them. T
The trap:
The Kobolds have prepared 2 trees to fall across the path of the forest, which will trap the party and cart
between them. 5 kobolds will be on each side.
To Notice that Kobolds are stalking them, DC Perception 15, to notice both sides of the trail 20, to see
the wyrmling DC 25
If you need to nerf the wyrming: He has been blinded by acid, losing sight and blindsight, so all attacks made by him are made at
disadvantage, and all attacks against him are at advantage.
He is down 10 hit points, and if he gains at least 10 points for any reason, his sight will be restored.
Add a few non-combat encounters along the road as well, or a random combat encounter if they manage to get by the dragon without fighting.
Really, you can make your own simple one-shot by picking a D&D trope (rescue mission, mission to kill a monster, transport an item or npc, etc), add an interesting setting (forest, underdark, ocean, desert, etc). Pick a bbeg to be the main battle. Add one or two easy encounters before hand. Also, a handful of non-combat encounters for flavor or to gain info that helps them later. Use kobold fight club to balance encounters, but be aware that CR isn't everything, read stat blocks in detail ahead of time. I use the lists on http://dndspeak.com/ for interesting encounters and npcs.
Also, haven't played Wild Sheep Chase, but it looks pretty good.
Just ran Wild Sheep Chase as my first DM experience and had a blast. Looking for more to run during lockdown. Highly recommend sheep chase, easy to run, not too long, good introduction to dming.
Can second on A Wild Sheep Chase, it was the first session I ever ran as well - for three level 3 PCs I believe, it was very fun and pretty easy to run.
I'll third the Wild Sheep Chase (just google it, you can get a free PDF), I just ran it for the second time with new players and it went really quick
I totally agree with the chasing the sheep campaign. It was my first DM experience and it went well happened a few weeks ago. I forgot my PCs were at level 5 so battles were quick so I had to think fast for further encounters. so good intro . look forward to DMing again.
Blue Alley is a good mix of a puzzle-focused game with some interesting combat encounters.
The first adventure I ran for 5E was The Mystery of Malvern Manor by Dan Head. It can scale to levels 3-4 but is a bit better for levels 1 and 2. It's a great intro adventure. It shows how much you can do with 3 pages of text. Crocodile Crossroads, the sequel, looks good but I haven't run it myself.
I also vote for Wild Sheep Chase. Especially the bear in the outhouse.
There are lots of adventures available for 5E these days. Merric has been keeping a pretty good list.
Something in the long run is to make your own 1 shots, and than as a campaign idea to be a Dimension Traver going to these 1 shot worlds.
Even add the same big bad boss to shots to show links. I am planning this as well for me.