D&D 5E What happened to one-off games?

I am probably going to come across as a grumpy grognard, but I'm feeling a bit miffed about the lack of single-session or "mini-series" games in modern Dungeons & Dragons. While this may be a "General RPG" topic, it is more pronounced in DnD for me.

First, some background, to see where I'm coming from. I am in my mid-40s. I started playing DnD in the 80s, moved on to other games in the late 80s and stopped playing TTRPGs in '90 or '91. I started thinking about getting back into TTRPG after moving back to my home town. I was regularly playing board games with old high-school friends and we would talk about our old campaigns and I got nolstalgic. Then DnD 5e came out and it was awesome, so I bought it and started building my own world. My campaign has been running for over two years now.

The trouble is that with work and family, that I don't have time to commit to a regular campaign outside of the one I DM, but I would still like to play now and then.

But nobody seems to do one-off adventures any more. At my local Convention I've played in Adventurer's League games and had fun, but since I don't regularly play AL games throughout the year, I always have to play at first level.

What happened to the old tournament games? I remember going to Gen Con and being able to sit down for a mid-to-high level adventure using pre-generated characters. It was great. I did not care about "winning", I just enjoyed a one-off game and having to role-play a character I might not have played in a campaign (there are lots of characters that are fun to try out, but that you would not want to be stuck with playing for many months). Also, the adventures can be more experimental and the challenges can be better tailored if the players are playing with pre-gens.

I know that at Conventions you can find DMs running games like this but I've had bad experiences. My first DnD game after 25+ years was for a game where the DM was hung over and only two people showed up so he cancelled it. Luckily I was able to get into an AL game with a great DM...but playing a 1st level character. I wish WoTC would offer some non-AL games. Or, allow a player to join an Adventurer's League game with a pre-gen. Let me play a 5th level character and just rip it up after the game, I don't care. I'm never going to have an AL character get up high levels.

Still, while allowing one-shot pre-gens in an AL game would go a long way, it still isn't the same as the old tournament module experience. The DM never knows who they are going to get for an AL game and sometimes the party chemistry just isn't great for the adventure. Having to design adventures around all the contingencies that can arise from a random mixed bag of characters constrains the writers. You can do a lot of great challenges and story telling in a one-shot module with pre-gens made specifically for that adventure than you can with a bring-your-own-character game.

Outside of conventions, I avoid AL games at my FLGS because (1) I will always be at low levels since I can't play regularly and (2) it can be hard to find a seat at a table, especially if you are only going to be there for one session. Really looking for opportunities to play the occasional 6-8 hour one-off session with a mid-to-high level pregens. DnD Encounters seems to be designed for the exact opposite experience.

The obvious solution is to find DMs doing their own one-shots. But the message boards and Meetup.com seem to be people looking for players to commit to longer campaigns.

It does indeed seem to be a fairly modern assumption that every adventure has to be part of some overarching campaign, in which players will stick with one character and one group for a long period of time. In the 80s we played a lot of one-shot games, mainly due to the difficult of getting a group of teenagers who were scattered over a large city together on a regular basis. I didn't have a regular local group, I tried to set them up, but again we were fickle teenagers, with homework and strict bedtimes on weeknights. Living in the UK we don't have large basements, so gaming sessions relied on compliant parents, and there were very few who would allow a rowdy bunch of teens to invade often.

We would usually all meet up to play a pre-decided module, some might bring an existing character, others would just make one up there and then. We rarely finished them. I have probably DMed the Haunted House of U1 a dozen times, but the Ship chapter only twice. I've started GMing G1 plenty of times without the characters ever getting to the lower level, let alone G2 or G3.

I applaud WotC for setting up organised play as it gets new people involved, but I share your own misgivings about it.

I now play in 3 groups, most meet weekly, and most of the time it is to play an ongoing campaign. But we do have occasional one-shots, mostly to try new systems out, and I really enjoy them - they have a different atmosphere about them. I ran I6/Ravenloft and S1/Tomb of Horrors as one shots for 2 groups, and they made for some highly memorable sessions!

More one-shot games people, yes please

I had no idea AL required characters to start at 1, no matter the level of the adventure. That sounds punishing. (but true, source http://sage.dndadventurersleague.or...cular_adventure_or_with_a_particular_group.3F )I've never been to an AL game, but the Meetups I've been to have all been one-shots, with pregens available.

I think computer games have made one-off table top games less popular. Both because computer action RPG's can be casual one-off single-player games that you can pick up and put down whenever you have some spare time, and because computer RPG's and MMO's have trained people to expect long term character advancement when it comes to fantasy games.

I run quite a lot of one-shots on Roll20. I prefer it to a regular campaign, though I run one of those, too.

Your best bet is to get an AL adventure of 4 hour length and make PCs that fit the level of the adventure. It won't, of course, be AL legal. But at least you will have a 5e adventure that fits in a time frame that suits your allowable play.

I DM AL at my FLGS and I think I may get a level 5-10 AL adventure and create a dozen mid-level (7-8) pregens for people to play who just drop in. Most don't come back for more than a session or two, anyway. So it doesn't matter if the game is AL legal. But starting at level 1 can be really boring for people.

Part of it might also be an increase in the complexity of character design. It took a hell of a lot more time and thought to understand a pre-gen 3.X or 4e character than it did in earlier editions. 5e definitely seems to be the better option but there's still a proliferation of class abilities (thanks to the "no dead levels" design philosophy).

Your best bet is to get an AL adventure of 4 hour length and make PCs that fit the level of the adventure. It won't, of course, be AL legal. But at least you will have a 5e adventure that fits in a time frame that suits your allowable play.

I DM AL at my FLGS and I think I may get a level 5-10 AL adventure and create a dozen mid-level (7-8) pregens for people to play who just drop in. Most don't come back for more than a session or two, anyway. So it doesn't matter if the game is AL legal. But starting at level 1 can be really boring for people.

Just to clarify, for an AL legal character, you always need to start them at L1 and build them through regular play. As you note, there is no contingency to start at a higher level, or use a pre-gen at the desired level. I may be misinterpreting, but [MENTION=61124]thorgrit[/MENTION] seemed to think you could run a a new L1 character in a mod designed for higher levels? ("That sounds punishing.") That is NOT the case. Each mod specifies the Tier, or level range, for which it's written, and you can't legally run a character who is outside that Tier.

More to the OP's question though: If you don't care about being AL legal and just want to run/play one shot adventures when you can get together with your friends, there are now dozens of AL modules written across all the tiers for short 2, 4 or 8 hr sessions. Many (most?) are excellent. Poke around online for reviews and buy what sounds interesting on DMsGuild. They are certainly playable outside of AL, and you can just jump into a higher level mod with pre gens if you want to.

I am not much of a "grognard" (IMO) but I started decades ago in basic and never really liked "modern" D&D (3.x, 4e). That being said, one-shots are things that haven't ever really worked for me. I don't know if it's just personal preference for more developed characters and stories (I almost always will prefer a novel to a short story), or something else but only a few times did they approach the level of satisfaction we get from a campaign. It's possible that other people have had the same experience, I don't really know.