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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 7314596" data-attributes="member: 6777696">I struggle with the same thing, even though I often find myself running one-shots. So I am looking forward to the replies here.For myself, I have found:1. Err on the side of obvious. Players only have a little time to "figure it out" so it's ok to use hit-you-over-the-head clues that the players can quickly decipher.2. It's ok to not finish the adventure sometimes. Sometimes it works to "skip to the end," sometimes it works to bail out to an alternative climax that doesn't involve the original goals (like two of your characters die and the other two run away!), and sometimes it works to just put the dice down and say, "That's all we have time for today."Honestly, about half of the one-shot adventures I run don't get to the intended climax. Things can take a while to get started, unexpected tangents can take more time than expected, or, as a DM, I can just lose track of time. (I need to get myself a little desk clock to keep behind the screen, as 77IM suggests.) Sometimes it works to short-circuit the adventure and bring the quest goal closer to the players (removing sections of a dungeon, throwing more clues in front of the players, moving an NPC to a confrontation, etc.) Sometimes, that feels really forced, though usually this is because I prep'ed an adventure that was too ambitious for the time allotted. Sometimes, if play has moved too much from the originally intended event, some other sort of climactic confrontation can happen. Hopefully something that somehow changes the world the PCs were in, so you can sit back and say, "well, now things are a little different in the town of Red Tree."Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading more!</blockquote>

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