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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7315571" data-attributes="member: 6801286">My advise would be to think about which sections of the adventure are optional, or can be shortened or stretched for time. As Iserith said, 30 mins should be enough to get all of the character introductions out of the way (and make sure everyone has their character sheets ready, so you don't lose more time there). If you have a good idea regarding how long the one-shot needs to be, then you can start looking at how everything else fits into that tight time frame.You'll probably want one or two battles in there, but battles tend to take up a lot of time (especially if some of the players are new to D&D). So plan ahead, and think about which fights could be shrunk, or dropped entirely for time. Same with exploration. If the players have to explore a dungeon/building, don't make it too large, and think about which rooms could be dropped entirely to save time. Some monster-encounters could be optional, or you could throw in extra monsters, in rooms that did not originally have them. Allow yourself to be this flexible in changing the campaign to fit the time you have.Especially encounters with npc's give you a lot of control regarding time and pacing. A conversation with an npc could easily be dragged out a bit to fill some time, or be cut short by a sudden plot development. You could leave out non-essential npc's on the fly, and push the adventure towards its finale a bit faster, if so desired.I did a 4 hour one-shot a while ago, which followed this basic plot structure:Introduction (roleplaying):-The players are imprisoned on a ship, along with other prisoners.-The players introduce their characters, and talk to npc's.-The players meet their cruel captors.-The players attempt to escape their prison. Success is optional.The escape (exploration and combat)-The prison ship is attacked by an unknown foe and starts sinking.-Escaping the prison is now easy, but escaping the sinking ship is the real challenge.-Swimming checks and holding their breath.-The players must deal with any remaining guards, and with sharks that swim into the ship.-Any prisoners the players have befriended, help them in the challenges here.-The players may or may not have to overcome a skill challenge to deal with rumble.Finale and epilogue-The players escape the sinking ship and are rescued by the attackers, ghost pirates.-They meet the friendly ghost captain, who asks the players for their help.-The one-shot ends with an open ending, with the option to continue it in a second one-shot.</blockquote>

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