I'm aiming to DM a game for my nephews and nieces (ages 10-14). It''ll be their first D&D game ever! I'm looking for a one-night, one-shot adventure that will have an interesting hook, be a fun adventure, and help them learn the mechanics of the game (more than the role-playing aspect of the game). I'd kinda prefer it to be "a dungeon crawler" instead of in a town, or heist, or something of that nature. Any suggestions?
Also, we most likely will play via Roll20 to include a few out-of-state nephews.
The Stellarium of the Vinteralf is a fun dungeon from the one-page-dungeon folks. The hook can be as simple as people in a mountain village seeing weird lights in the peeks above, or a recent avalanche caused by the geothermal activity revealed the secret base of the Vinteralf walrus people and adventurers were called to check out the strange structure.
Depending on the level of your players, the monsters can be tailor fit. For lower level parties, maybe the dragon-like creature inside is really a drake or wyvern. I used Berserker stats for the Vinteralf, but you can use other basic stats like Bandit or Thug.
A very basic and straight-forward adventure for young/new players is Matt Colville's Tomb of the Delian Order. The characters are hanging out at the Green Dragon Inn and find out that the blacksmith's daughter was abducted. They track her goblin captors to an old tomb outside of town.
Great for new and young players (and DMs).. The adventure is brief (can be completed in a single session), has an obvious goal, allows for some RP, combat, and skill usage. 3 rooms, a trap, a secret door, a puzzle, and at the end- a cool magic sword! It's a simple and rewarding 1-shot. I ran it for my 12-year old son and his friends and it got them hooked on D&D.
I can't find a single all-in-one package, but here are links to the pieces.
Matt Colville's video on this adventure. It's not necessary for you to watch the video in order to run the adventure. He uses this 1-shot to talk through an adventure for new DMs.
Death House is good but my party took multiple (2h) sessions. We play online ("theatre of the mind") using rolz.org and TeamSpeak. That works, but IMO it's slower than in-the-flesh gaming.
Also note there is a product on DMSGuild that provides extra descriptive detail for this adventure, though I didn't use it myself I probably would try it if I ran it again. I found that the most satisfying part of running this adventure was getting the PCs frightened of their own shadows by the spooky nature of the setting.
I'm not sure if you ran The Lost Mine of Phandelver for your kids before but if you didn't, you may use only part 1 to run as one-shot adventure. It's pretty fun for everybody.
"You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend." ― Bruce Lee
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I'm aiming to DM a game for my nephews and nieces (ages 10-14). It''ll be their first D&D game ever! I'm looking for a one-night, one-shot adventure that will have an interesting hook, be a fun adventure, and help them learn the mechanics of the game (more than the role-playing aspect of the game). I'd kinda prefer it to be "a dungeon crawler" instead of in a town, or heist, or something of that nature. Any suggestions?
Also, we most likely will play via Roll20 to include a few out-of-state nephews.
Thanks in advance!
The Stellarium of the Vinteralf is a fun dungeon from the one-page-dungeon folks. The hook can be as simple as people in a mountain village seeing weird lights in the peeks above, or a recent avalanche caused by the geothermal activity revealed the secret base of the Vinteralf walrus people and adventurers were called to check out the strange structure.
Depending on the level of your players, the monsters can be tailor fit. For lower level parties, maybe the dragon-like creature inside is really a drake or wyvern. I used Berserker stats for the Vinteralf, but you can use other basic stats like Bandit or Thug.
A very basic and straight-forward adventure for young/new players is Matt Colville's Tomb of the Delian Order. The characters are hanging out at the Green Dragon Inn and find out that the blacksmith's daughter was abducted. They track her goblin captors to an old tomb outside of town.
Great for new and young players (and DMs).. The adventure is brief (can be completed in a single session), has an obvious goal, allows for some RP, combat, and skill usage. 3 rooms, a trap, a secret door, a puzzle, and at the end- a cool magic sword! It's a simple and rewarding 1-shot. I ran it for my 12-year old son and his friends and it got them hooked on D&D.
I can't find a single all-in-one package, but here are links to the pieces.
Matt Colville's video on this adventure. It's not necessary for you to watch the video in order to run the adventure. He uses this 1-shot to talk through an adventure for new DMs.
The Green Dragon Inn
Map and general notes
Nice Maps
Best wishes!
What did you end up going with?
So far I've seen the below recommended:
Still on the hunt for more recommendations.
Death House is good but my party took multiple (2h) sessions. We play online ("theatre of the mind") using rolz.org and TeamSpeak. That works, but IMO it's slower than in-the-flesh gaming.
Also note there is a product on DMSGuild that provides extra descriptive detail for this adventure, though I didn't use it myself I probably would try it if I ran it again. I found that the most satisfying part of running this adventure was getting the PCs frightened of their own shadows by the spooky nature of the setting.
I'm not sure if you ran The Lost Mine of Phandelver for your kids before but if you didn't, you may use only part 1 to run as one-shot adventure. It's pretty fun for everybody.
"You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend." ― Bruce Lee