D&D 5E Best one shot 5e adventures?

[Condiments]

So as the resident perma-DM of my friend group, I was recently volunteered to be the DM of a weekend party between my friends. I have no problem doing this as being DM is usually pretty fun, but I don't have a lot of time to come up with a one shot adventure on my own. I design content for my regular campaign that has been going on for over a year. The group will be a mix of experienced players and newbies(potentially 8 players ugh), and I'm hoping to start around the 3-6 range.

So the question becomes, what are the excellent one shots for 5e? I've been doing some digging myself and its often difficult to ascertain the quality of an adventure, or if it falls within the 4-6 hour playtime to finish. I'll probably continue to do research myself, but I figure its good to ask some of the far more experienced DMs(1 year for me) out here what has worked for them.

 

[Zardnaar]

Some of the DMGuild stuff is free/cheap and decent for one shots.

Temple of the Nightbringers for example and that author is decent as well.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I suggest reading these two documents from Hackslashmaster on Treasure and Tricks/Traps/Empty Rooms:

Then apply the random tables therein to roll up twenty or thirty rooms in a dungeon, on the assumption that only about 30% of the potential treasure will be found by the party.

The reason I am suggesting these documents instead of a pre-made adventure is twofold:

(1) I think the process of generating the content will help you to run it more smoothly than something that someone else created for you.
(2) I think the time you invest in preparing this adventure will yield better long-term benefits for your game if you learn something in the process about adventure construction.

I'm a fairly new DM myself and I've found these kinds of resources more useful than any prepackaged adventure, even the halfway decent ones like Out of the Abyss or the rather good ones like Quests of Doom.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You can look at several one page adventures like these. I don't know if they are all for 5e, but I'm sure many are, and others you can convert really easily.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Oh, also check out this post (http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-adventure-design-solved-problem.html) for a nice idea on how to condense pre-written modules for use at the game table, if you decide to use a pre-written module. It winds up looking like this:

Guard Room w/Teleport Corridor 4)
Racks of weapons-> 15 swords, 30 spears, 3 hvy. x-bows, 200 bolts, 10 shields
Floor is strewn deeply with rushes, cracked and slightly buckled->Similar to rest of tower
Last 10' of the corridor is completely pristine->Floor nearby is cracked and buckled
|->*One Way Portal to location T between rooms 7 & 8.

Stuff in bold is what you tell the players immediately, the rest of it they have to ask questions to learn.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There's any number of Adventurer's League scenarios that I think would work perfectly fine for your purposes.

 

[iserith]

I've posted a number of scenarios, some longer than others, that are good for one-shots here.

I'm working on a pretty awesome one-shot adventure for DM's Guild, but it won't be out till June.

 

[Sir Brennen]

There's any number of Adventurer's League scenarios that I think would work perfectly fine for your purposes.

I notice some Adventures League modules say "A X-Hour Adventure for Nth level Characters", but not all. For those that don't, I'm wondering if they also are pretty much intended to be run at conventions or game stores, within a 2-to-4 hour time frame? Are there any which aren't really one-shot suitable?

Also, for AL adventures that say "Part X of Y of Group of Scenarios", can they be played as stand alone adventures, or should you really play through all of Y parts?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

From my experience, yes, pretty much all correspond to a two-to-five hour run time. Though almost every time, the shorter two hour ones have run over.

The ones that are part of a group can easily be run separately (though the current Ravenloft season is intended to be run sequentially), but often you will get more out of them when done as a whole, context-wise.

I notice some Adventures League modules say "A X-Hour Adventure for Nth level Characters", but not all. For those that don't, I'm wondering if they also are pretty much intended to be run at conventions or game stores, within a 2-to-4 hour time frame? Are there any which aren't really one-shot suitable?

Also, for AL adventures that say "Part X of Y of Group of Scenarios", can they be played as stand alone adventures, or should you really play through all of Y parts?

 

[Gnarl45]

So as the resident perma-DM of my friend group, I was recently volunteered to be the DM of a weekend party between my friends. I have no problem doing this as being DM is usually pretty fun, but I don't have a lot of time to come up with a one shot adventure on my own. I design content for my regular campaign that has been going on for over a year. The group will be a mix of experienced players and newbies(potentially 8 players ugh), and I'm hoping to start around the 3-6 range.

So the question becomes, what are the excellent one shots for 5e? I've been doing some digging myself and its often difficult to ascertain the quality of an adventure, or if it falls within the 4-6 hour playtime to finish. I'll probably continue to do research myself, but I figure its good to ask some of the far more experienced DMs(1 year for me) out here what has worked for them.

It depends on what you're looking for!

If you want a mystery adventure, you could try the Ghost and the Peddler on DriveThruRPG (it's free). I like it but I'm biased.

If you feel in a helping mood, I'm looking for a couple of people to playtest a site-based mystery I'm working on for the DM's Guild. If you're interested, let me know and I'll PM a link so you can download it. It's a 2nd level adventure though.