D&D 5E (2014) What's your favorite one shot adventure?

[Lakesidefantasy]

I think Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme from Candlekeep Mysteries is a great one shot adventure. It slowly unwinds ike a good psychological thriller, revealing the antagonist over time.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme from Candlekeep Mysteries is a great one shot adventure. It slowly unwinds ike a good psychological thriller, revealing the antagonist over time.

It is. I think about 3 adventures stood out in that book.

I've warmed up bit as occasionally I need shorter adventures. Golden Vault was good as well.

 

[TheHand]

I don’t have any to add, but I wanted to thank everybody for these suggestions! I’m often in need of short one shots and I’m taking notes!

 

[Amphytrion]

I wanted to add one that I haven't seen mentioned here yet: The Waystop, which is AL-compliant but not part of any of the storylines (at least as I understand it; I've never played or DMed in AL).

The whole thing is what I think a professionally written adventure should be: simultaneously intricately designed and easy to run.

• The hook is inspiring and immersive. A storm leads the party and a few other strangers to pass the night in an abandoned house in the middle of a wasteland.
• The whole thing uses mostly a single monster statblock. It takes the (great) flavor text of that monster in Volo's Guide to Monsters and builds an entire adventure out of it.
• There are six fleshed-out NPCs in this adventure, each quite interesting on its own. I've had parties react in wildly different ways to these NPCs, and that is a strength of the module. Each has their own believable life going separately from the party and may become an enemy, a friend, something in-between, etc.
• Within the confinement of the narrative (one night, one session), it is very open-ended and can conclude in a myriad of different ways.
• The author provides you with maps, a cheat sheet/guide, and character reference cards for each NPC. I don't like the art for the NPCs (it doesn't quite match the atmosphere of the adventure), but otherwise I have zero criticisms.

I love this adventure. If the authors ever see this message, know that I am a big fan of your work.

I wish the more recent WotC one-shots showed this much thought in their design. A couple of encounters thrown together on a map I can simply improvise on the fly (I don't need a pre-written module for that), but this sort of narrative well-thought design would take me a lot more time to put together (and so this is the sort of adventure in which pre-written modules can really shine!).

 

[haakon1]

There are a metric ton of good short adventures in Dungeon.

But none of it it is 5e, so you’d have to convert or play a different edition.

For my last one shot, I ran the Fast Play Game, repeated in Dungeon 70-72. It’s for a simplified version of 2e, but I ran it in 3.5e. I think it took about 2.5 hours with mostly never played before folks.

 

[hojulation]

I wanted to add one that I haven't seen mentioned here yet: The Waystop, which is AL-compliant but not part of any of the storylines (at least as I understand it; I've never played or DMed in AL).

The whole thing is what I think a professionally written adventure should be: simultaneously intricately designed and easy to run.

• The hook is inspiring and immersive. A storm leads the party and a few other strangers to pass the night in an abandoned house in the middle of a wasteland.
• The whole thing uses mostly a single monster statblock. It takes the (great) flavor text of that monster in Volo's Guide to Monsters and builds an entire adventure out of it.
• There are six fleshed-out NPCs in this adventure, each quite interesting on its own. I've had parties react in wildly different ways to these NPCs, and that is a strength of the module. Each has their own believable life going separately from the party and may become an enemy, a friend, something in-between, etc.
• Within the confinement of the narrative (one night, one session), it is very open-ended and can conclude in a myriad of different ways.
• The author provides you with maps, a cheat sheet/guide, and character reference cards for each NPC. I don't like the art for the NPCs (it doesn't quite match the atmosphere of the adventure), but otherwise I have zero criticisms.

I love this adventure. If the authors ever see this message, know that I am a big fan of your work.

I wish the more recent WotC one-shots showed this much thought in their design. A couple of encounters thrown together on a map I can simply improvise on the fly (I don't need a pre-written module for that), but this sort of narrative well-thought design would take me a lot more time to put together (and so this is the sort of adventure in which pre-written modules can really shine!).

I have long held the opinion that some of those AL adventures from the first three "seasons" of 5E AL play were really excellent adventures.

There's a great one from Season 2 (Princes of the Apocalypse/elemental cults season) where you start in an arena fighting pit and end up in an abandoned mine high in the mountains fighting creatures of elemental earth.

Forget the name but I still remember how good I thought the adventure concept was.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I have long held the opinion that some of those AL adventures from the first three "seasons" of 5E AL play were really excellent adventures.

I agree. I've run the Secrets of Sokol Keep from season 1 (DDEX 1-2) a few times. It's a great adventure.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Orc & Pie

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Orc & Pie

We should have suggested that one for the desperate teacher in another thread. It's just about simple enough for text phobic grade schoolers. I think they'd have fun too.

 

[messy]

Nbod’s Room.