Favorite one-shots?

Kevtron

First Post
I'm in a group now with my brother DMing, and thought it could be nice to give him a break one of these weeks, as well as fun for me, to run a one-shot for the group. But I'm looking for something totally self-contained, that doesn't use our current campaign characters.

I've found We Be Goblins (5e conversion here), as well as Honey Heist (though it looks tough for a new player/DM like myself), both of which look really fun since they both use completely new characters in completely new settings (I don't want to encroach on my DMs world).

Any suggestions for one-shots in the genre of those listed above? Just something fun to try and to get my feet wet as a DM. (note: in my group I probably RP the most [even though I'm a very new player], and a couple of the members barely do at all... So I'm both worried about using those above, yet also want to try to see if it'll help loosen them up a bit with a kinda silly adventure ;))
 

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I know it's not the season, but I DMed this one last X-mas and it went down well. Took about 4 hours.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/200795/The-Darkest-Night-5E

I think it is pay what you want. I changed Kringle to the Easter Bunny, The snowmen to fire carrots instead of snowballs and Holly to have been shot with a carrot. A also renamed the village to be called Helm-Thebe (Bethlehem anagram) The Tavern to the Pear Tree and the landlord to Jan Partridge.

The players slowly caught on that it was an X-Mass One-shot with lots of clues. There are three combats and as much or little social interaction as you like.
 

I ran "The Wolves of Welton". It was fun, but a little short in my group. "A Wild Sheep Chase" is also popular. Both can be found for free in PDF-form.

I also ran Death House from Curse of Strahd as a one-shot (it's also available for free). It's more difficult and quite a bit longer, but very cool if you can set the mood and if the players like a gothic theme. I enjoyed prepping it a lot and I'll be running it again tomorrow actually.
 

Some of my favorite one-shots:

Crucible of Freya
NeMoren’s Vault
Village of Hommlet (probably more likely a two-session run)

And if you’re feeling a bit cruel:

Tomb of Horrors

I recently played through the AL scenario “Winter’s Flame” and it was a lot of fun. It also meets the silly part rather nicely, being quite whimsical.

Additionally, Goodman Games has some shorter 5e adventures, but I’ve yet to run any of them.
 


Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Updated to 5e in Tales from the Yawning Portal. It sounds dumb if someone were to tell you about it. It was a gonzo temple-run type competitive convention adventure back in the day. It is a great one-off. It is also designed for 5th-level characters which is high enough that most classes have an assortment of cool powers and a feat if you allow it, but not too powerful.

My main recommendation is to spend the time to figure out how to do the time tracking. Part of the fun is the race to get out before exhaustion overtakes you. I used time-tracking wheels that broke the day into hours and rounds and I would just tick off the time. If I were to do it again I would create a larger version that I would print out and put on an easel so it was always before the players to further increase the sense of urgency.

Also, spend some time understanding some of the more complex rooms. There are some mechanically complex traps and puzzles, one of which also requires time tracking.

Really any of the adventures in Tales from the Yawning portal are good one offs. Dead in Thay, however, seems like it make take longer than most. I've not run that one yet. Tomb of Horrors--you have to know your players. It is a love it or hate it kind of adventure. Seems less deadly than the original, but still very capricious. I found Forge of Fury to be fun one off as well. The three Giants adventures are more of a mini-campaign. I think they are better played together over a number of sessions rather than as one offs.


We Be Goblins is also fun for a one-off. I have the RealmWorks version. Even though it uses Pathfinder statblocks, it is easy enough to convert to 5e.

En5ider, which is published by EN World via Patreon, has some good one-off adventures. I really enjoyed Dia de los Dinosaurios Muretos. I printed out the city encounter areas on a large format printer and bought a bunch of near-scale cheap dinosaur skeleton toy models and had a blast. If you want a Chult-like feeluing for a one-off without buying Tomb of Annihilation, check out this adventure.
 

Successful one shots that I have run in the past year or so: Blood in the Chocolate (LotFP), easily modded for 5e. Made the factory outside of Luskan. Everyone enjoyed it. You can tame some of the adult elements down or not.

Also ran We Be Goblins, that one was fun everyone enjoyed that.

Death House. It can be compressed into one session but might take two if your players are pokey. I would read it thoroughly and remove a few encounters if needed to speed it along. It can be deadly based on your players play-style.

On my short list in the near future are Wolves of Wheaton and Death in the Cornfields (may need to be extended with some additional encounters), several of the adventurers League scenarios (YMMV here)

The main components for a one shot in my opinion are: Keep it plot simple and straightforward, be able to completed with the allowed time, have something memorable in the treasure or the adventure for all involved (doesn't have to be powerful). Nothing worse than having to rush the ending or wave your hand to explain how it ends.
 

I created a 1-shot last year to have a pair of old players join for a night and did not want to fudge some of the things I had already started. I made a spin off of the regular group and set them up to be killed. I had the BBEG from the main group and some of his cronies take over a small tower and the town sent the guard patrol to investigate. The patrol was the 1-shot group going for 3 encounters taking one night.

They fought bravely and one did run away in the end when all was lost to report to the local lord. The players from the main group now had a reason to hate the BBEG and liked how it tied to that group. They also found out a bit of power and tactics that they could use when the other group fought him.

All in all they liked it and found the tie-in something worth doing again.
 

I have a number of short-form scenarios and one full-length dungeon posted here that may work. The short-form scenarios might need some expansion to fill a whole session, or several of them can be linked together perhaps.

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] My players loved the Xmas themed one above so much last time that I have decided to run your Vow of the Silent Knight this Xmas. Cheers for sharing your work. One shots are a great way to give the regular DM a break and a treat and also a great way for first time DM's to give it a safe and easy go. We always need more of them.
 

Ooh, good call on Blood in the Chocolate. I think it’d be really easy to convert, and the twisted version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory brings plenty of humor.

Successful one shots that I have run in the past year or so: Blood in the Chocolate (LotFP), easily modded for 5e. Made the factory outside of Luskan. Everyone enjoyed it. You can tame some of the adult elements down or not.
 

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