I met a couple recently who likes playing D&D, and they asked if I'd run a one-shot. It took about three months to find a date (life with kids is tough!), but finally last night I ran a one-shot D&D game for them and it went great! I wanted to collect my thoughts about what went well and reflect on the challenges of running a one-shot using D&D.
The Adventure
I used a Quick Dungeon by Patrick E. Pullen bought on DMs Guild, but then modified the heck out of it. It's a dungeon I've actually used multiple times for various campaigns, each time modifying it for that game's needs.
The basic scenario was this:
The characters are seeking the Elixir of Endless Health in order to cure their mentor of a terrible magical disease. Research has placed the potion in the Panacean, a temple and apothecary that used to provide healing medicines to sovereigns and peasants across the land. The characters have traveled through Umber Dell, a corrupted and polluted swamp where the towns are falling apart and suffering from contagions. Unfortunately the ruins of the Panacean have been taken over by Skirovan, a "necro-chemist" who has corrupted the magical waters of the temple in his efforts to achieve immortality. The characters will have to fight through Skirovan's necro-oozes, avoid a giant ooze at the center of the temple, and retrieve the Elixir of Endless Health in order to cure their mentor.
The Players
I ran this game for a couple who has a few years experience playing D&D. I texted them the basic premise of the adventure, and they were ready with characters: a Halfling Wild-Magic Sorcerer and a Goliath Berserker Barbarian who had both grown up in the same town. They each represented powerful families and were rivals working for the same mentor. Both players were super engaged and imaginative, and seemed to enjoy all aspects of the game (roleplaying, exploration, and combat).
What Went Well
Overall this game was a big success! It had that great feeling of a D&D game throughout, that there was a lot to explore, the risk was high, and there was always something to do.
Here are some things that I think led to this success:
- One Location: I kept the adventure to a single location (the five-room dungeon). We started right outside the open doors. By the end of the session, the characters had explored four out of five rooms.
- Quick, Fun Combat: I planned out two combats, one for the beginning of the session and one for the end. In each combat, I had the majority of the enemies take actions that didn't reduce hit points. For example, the first combat was against three magic-slinging undead oozes (Necro-Oozes). One Necro-Ooze spread an entangling goop, one Necro-Ooze flung blinding goop, and one Necro-Ooze lobbed caustic goo-balls. This made combat dynamic without being deadly. I kept enemy HP really low too so that each combat lasted only two to three rounds.
- Timed Events: This was a big one, and I think the main driver of what made the evening so fun. I knew I wanted three big events to happen during the session, but that it's almost impossible to control the pace of the players. The three main events were:
- 1) Fighting the Necro-Oozes at the entrance of the temple.
- 2) Encountering Bastien, a local thief who is seeking the Vault of the Panacean.
- 3) Encountering Skirovan, the Necro-Chemist who has corrupted the Panacean.
The first event was easy because it was the first "scene" of the adventure. For Bastien and Skirovan, rather than placing them in rooms in the dungeon, I jotted down our starting time and ending time and planned on introducing them one hour after the adventure began and then 45 minutes before the adventure ended.
This worked really well! The characters wound up stumbling upon Bastien right after exploring a pilfered library with lots of clues about how the Panacean fell to ruins and where the Elixir of Endless Health might be. He was able to answer a lot of questions and provided some fun roleplaying opportunities, since his goals (get treasure and move to the Big City) lined up only partially with the characters' goals. By the end of the session they were able to convince Bastien about the importance of friendship and he popped up like Han Solo in the final fight to provide some much-needed support.
Making sure Skirovan popped up 45 minutes before the end of the session was important, too, as it provided time for both a fight and a denouement. When introducing the adventure I made sure to describe how the swamps were polluted and foul, and how the people of nearby towns were suffering. Bastien gave the characters more information: the Panacean used to bless the swamps with healing magic that made everyone healthy and happy, and it was Skirovan's experiments that were causing so much suffering. Skirovan wanted the Elixir for himself in order to try and achieve immortality. The characters were definitely motivated to defeat Skirovan and get the Elixir, so it was helpful to have time set aside at the end to really play out this combat.
- Multi-Step Final Enemy: I wanted to make sure the combat against Skirovan didn't end in the first round, so I planned him out as a multi-step enemy. He had a corrupted, slimy Ioun Stone that had its own hit points that had to be reduced first before Skirovan could be damaged. This was really helpful as, of course, the sorcerer rolled a natural 20 on their first Witch Bolt against Skirovan! They had the satisfaction of absolutely frying Skirovan's defenses with their crit, and I made sure to play up Skirovan going from confident to scared for his life. I also gave Skirovan a bunch of minions (Oozelings) that could sacrifice themselves to heal him. It was very satisfying when the barbarian reduced Skirovan to one hit point, and then a bunch of Oozelings leapt into his body to heal him. Of course, another Witch Bolt took down the Necro-Chemist right after, but it still gave each character chances to "be cool" in combat.
What Didn't Go Well
Nothing in the adventure was a drag, but planning for this one-shot reminded me of how much prep time D&D takes! I really haven't run any long-term D&D campaigns since my son was born 3.5 years ago, and this one-shot reminded me why. Scheduling this one-shot was a beast. We tried in April, then March, then May, and finally we found an evening in June.
Four months for one session! I also feel lucky that I'm on vacation right now, because it took a few hours to plan out this session. I don't think I would have had the time during the school year.
Final Thoughts
This was a really fun evening a great D&D experience. Being flexible (I changed some enemy stats on the fly to better match the pace of the adventure) was extremely important, and planning events based on time rather than location helped this adventure feel complete. I would definitely run this one-shot for other groups with very little modification.
This session made me really want to find a way to start running RPG games again on a regular basis, and in person. However, I don't think D&D is the right game for me to be running right now, because of the heavy amount of prep time required. I might try to pull together a regular Ironsworn game, or other game that requires very little prep.
Your Thoughts???
What successes or struggles have you had with one-shot D&D games?
