Need help for 4 hour one shot D&D game

[Mighty Halfling]

Pimpin' the EN Worlders, dontcha know!

Our own Richards wrote Gorgoldand's Gauntlet and the Challenge of Champions series.

I'm such a whore. I lurk over these boards like a vulture, hoping a mention of one of my adventures pops up and then dive in.

 

[scourger]

Buzz in the Bridge is a great adventure (I used it for the first adventure in a Spellslinger game I ran).

But, I would download something free with pre-made characters and counters if I were you. My suggestion is My Big Fat Centaur Wedding from Sean K. Reynolds Games. It's a little different as it uses some rules from The New Arognauts campaign setting, but all the rules you need are printed right there in the advneture. If I were in your shoes, I would get it, print it, print the counters on cardstock, and poster print the encounter area maps. You should then be ready to go. Here's a link:

http://www.seankreynolds.com/skrg/free/index.html

Otherwise, pick up a copy of The Giant's Skull. It's a 3.0 adventure, but it's a good one. Again, it has counters and pre-generated character sheets that you can hand out. It's a little different (sort of a reverse dungeon). Check out the reviews at this site if you want more information. I passed on it several times over several years before buying it about a year ago--now I can't wait to run it, but I'll probably never get the opportunity.

Have fun!

 

[Rel]

I'm not sure if the setting really matters to me. I think I would like something which encourages role-playing, and maybe even has a good plot, so, maybe a city adventure?

I'm hardly the expert that Piratecat is, but I'm getting a pretty decent amount of experience designing and running my own one-shot games for the NC Game Days (we're about to have number 6 next weekend). I'll give a few short bits of advice with more to follow in the morning when I hopefully don't have this headache:

1) Feel free to do something quirky and offbeat for a one-shot. If the GM is really good then any adventure will be memorable and fun. But I find that it helps me keep some enthusiasm if I'm doing something out of the ordinary. I've run a homebrew version of "Return to the Dungeons of the Slave Lords" where I stripped the PC's of nearly all their equipment, having them scavenge gear from trash heaps as they hurried to escape from a rumbling volcanic island (this was particularly cool since the time limit on the game was when the volcano actually blew). I've also had a lot of good response from my "Orcz!" games wherein the players run a murderous and quirky band of Orcs through an adventure that somewhat reverses the typical D&D schtick. I won't belabor the point further except to say that you should feel free to abandon the typical stuff and do something wacky.

2) Railroad the players. This is almost always considered "bad form" for typical, ongoing campaign play, but I consider it a must for a one-shot. You only have 4 hours! You've got to get the players into the action and do it fast. And you also need to make sure that the story can progress regardless of whether the players pick up on any clues you put in. Give them a clear path to follow or give them some strong incentive to keep pushing forward (remember that volcano?...).

3) Have at least one and probably two "throw away encounters". These are encounters that are not absolutely essential to the primary plotline that you can keep or get rid of based on time constraints. I usually try to come up with about three "essential" encounters and get a good grasp of the links between them that will take the party from A to B to C. Then I figure out a good place between A and B or B and C and put in one of my disposable encounters there (between B and C is best if it can be added and still make sense). I'll figure out an estimate of how long I think that the big, climactic encounter will take and maybe pad it a bit. Then I back that out of the end of the session and that will give me an idea of whether I can keep the disposable encounter based on when they get to the point in the adventure that calls for it.

4) Playtest if possible. You're up against the clock here but if you can get your adventure settled quickly and get a chance to run it for some friends then it really can help things go smoother at the actual event. It will give you an idea as to whether what you've got planned is too long or too short and where it might tend to drag or go off track. I recommend it.

If you are interested in basic plotlines for any of the adventures that I've mentioned then I can provide them as well as the PCGen files for the Orcz PC's.

 

[Mark]

CMG's Whispering Woodwind (pdf) might be playable in four hours with tweaks.

Thanks! And has been sucessfully run that way at a half a dozen Gamedays that I know of, here and in Australia. Drop me an email, Airwhale, and we'll get you set up with a "CMG Starter Kit" and put you on the road to DM like a Pro!

(email = Mark at my domain/company site)

 

[Mighty Halfling]

So how did your session go Airwhale? No more lurking now, let's hear what happened!

 

[Airwhale]

It's next weekend actually, but I'll be sure to let you guys know how it went!

 

[Airwhale]

Thank you for all of your help! Thanks esp. to Mark and Rel, who both were kind enough to send me stuff.

I fleshed out both Orcz and the CMG andventure a bit, and also read through the TSR/WotC adventure "Fallen Angel" avalable on their website. When I got to the game store, I had found that the guy who runs the place had forgot to put the one-shot on the calender!

However, their did happen to be 4 middle schoolers (I'd say around age 13 or so) who were around for a Magic tourny that for some reason never got off the ground. The head of the store called them over, asked if they wanted to play, and they all kinda shruged, looked at me, shruged, looked at their magic cards... They were not to enthusiastic about the proposition.

Nevertheless, we did start the game. I chose to ran "Fallen Angel" simply becuse I think I might run something here again in Febuary and I did not want to waste anything "good" on a group that might bolt to play magic 30 minutes into the game. After about 15 minutes of explaining their charicters, what all the dice were, how to roll to hit, what different spells did, we were off. And...

The kids had a blast! One even told me that it was better than playing a video game. Granted , I had simplified the rules *alot* and was mainly just storytelling with dice. Nevertheless, it was nice to introduce part of a new generation to D&D.

I think I may get a chance to run some more advenures soon in Santa Fe, and, if I do, I'll let you all know how they go. Thanks for the support!

 

[Rel]

Thank you for all of your help! Thanks esp. to Mark and Rel, who both were kind enough to send me stuff.

You're welcome. And if you decide to run Orcz in the future, send me another e-mail and I can send you back some stat blocks for the monsters and NPC's. I realized after my initial reply that I hadn't sent that stuff along.

And if you want to see some pics from the last time I ran that adventure, go HERE. The last three pics at the bottom of the page and first one at the top of the next page show some of the layouts that I used for the Elven Tree Fortress and Castle of Justkeep.