D&D 5E Help me plan!

[Warpiglet-7]

So at long last I am having a friend-con! I had so much fun in the early 90s going to gencon. The feeling never left me. Seeing painted armies and foam terrain blew me away…and I want to do something special for my lifelong friends to show them something similar. Or better.

Now I have a 4’ X 6’ modular dungeon and doors and furniture and minis to fill it.

I have 130 trees and a 4’ X 6’ grass mat

I have the ship, the kraken and more. Caverns, swamp terrain etc. I have toiled for hours and frankly weeks.

During the pandemic and before I began assembling lots of terrain and mostly finished my modular dungeon. So what do I need?

How many encounters can I run in 2 days? Roughly 8 hours less lunch? I want to have a rough idea so I can have an adventure get to an endpoint and excitement at the end end of the “con.”

My long suffering wife will even help me make lanyards and badges…time is getting shorter…

I’ll post pics when it comes.

 

[aco175]

I would look at 2 days of full play being maybe 6 hours each day. I would say that is about 6-7 encounters each day. Maybe plan for 7-8 and you can always drop the least favorite.

I might think about making a two part adventure, one for each day. I would have the PCs be 3rd or 5th level to be able to do some cool things and then level them up for the next day. Think about a 5-room dungeon for each day and maybe an extra encounter or two, so maybe a 7-room dungeon.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I would look at 2 days of full play being maybe 6 hours each day. I would say that is about 6-7 encounters each day. Maybe plan for 7-8 and you can always drop the least favorite.

I might think about making a two part adventure, one for each day. I would have the PCs be 3rd or 5th level to be able to do some cool things and then level them up for the next day. Think about a 5-room dungeon for each day and maybe an extra encounter or two, so maybe a 7-room dungeon.

I set up a dungeon but my story is too big…

I wanted an encounter in multiple environments…still too big…

This is helpful. I want this to be super fun and memorable for my friends…

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I set up a dungeon but my story is too big…

I wanted an encounter in multiple environments…still too big…

This is helpful. I want this to be super fun and memorable for my friends…

My recommendation: start from both ends, and work toward a happy middle.

Take an hour, and write down every awesome idea you can think of. Every cool thing you would do if you had infinite time, resources, preparation, etc. Just go all out. Leave nothing behind. Squeeze those thinkmeats until they have nothing left to give.

Then, after you do that, put on your managerial hat. Go through whatever records you have, and whatever memories you can call to mind, to figure out how much you can usually get through in a unit of time (e.g. if sessions are usually four hours, how much happens in four hours?) Once you know that, set a schedule. "I have 13 hours to work with spread across 2 days" (8 hours times 2 days = 16, minus 3 total hours for breaks, lunches, distractions, etc.) Drill down to exactly how much you think you can properly get through without overage and without grappling, perhaps with an hour or two of "extra" content just in case things run under time, though I personally wouldn't be too worried about that.

At that point, it's a matter of cleaving things off the "what-if" list, until you have a lean, mean roleplay machine. Be merciless. Neat idea but it would take an hour to set up? Can it, your setups need to be 15 minutes, tops. Cool two-part encounter, but you only have enough room for five encounters a day? Unless it's actually more exciting than any two individual encounters, can it.

You're quarrying a block of marble and then carving out everything that isn't a beautiful statue. It's better to start from an excess of material and then trim it until you can't justify trimming anything more.

Perhaps, as a starting point, tell us things you know you like, and/or things you know your group likes? This could help us suggest ideas you might not consider yourself but which could efficiently fill the time you have available.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I would look at 2 days of full play being maybe 6 hours each day. I would say that is about 6-7 encounters each day. Maybe plan for 7-8 and you can always drop the least favorite.

I might think about making a two part adventure, one for each day. I would have the PCs be 3rd or 5th level to be able to do some cool things and then level them up for the next day. Think about a 5-room dungeon for each day and maybe an extra encounter or two, so maybe a 7-room dungeon.

If it's two full days of one person running, I think six hours is a good baseline. Because running that much gaming, two days in a row, is going to be tiring.

 

[aco175]

Another idea is to break things up into 4 sessions of 3 hours each. You play for 3 hours then take lunch and play for 3 more each day. This gives you a bit of room if things run longer before lunch or finish lunch and start the next session allowing for a bit of room on the end as well.

Each of these sessions could be a theme or its own small 5-room dungeon thing. You seem to have some great set pieces made you want to be a battle or encounter. The best 4 of those become the main focus of each session. I would still level up the PCs at the end of the day or even between the four sessions to make things more grand.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

My recommendation: start from both ends, and work toward a happy middle.

Take an hour, and write down every awesome idea you can think of. Every cool thing you would do if you had infinite time, resources, preparation, etc. Just go all out. Leave nothing behind. Squeeze those thinkmeats until they have nothing left to give.

Then, after you do that, put on your managerial hat. Go through whatever records you have, and whatever memories you can call to mind, to figure out how much you can usually get through in a unit of time (e.g. if sessions are usually four hours, how much happens in four hours?) Once you know that, set a schedule. "I have 13 hours to work with spread across 2 days" (8 hours times 2 days = 16, minus 3 total hours for breaks, lunches, distractions, etc.) Drill down to exactly how much you think you can properly get through without overage and without grappling, perhaps with an hour or two of "extra" content just in case things run under time, though I personally wouldn't be too worried about that.

At that point, it's a matter of cleaving things off the "what-if" list, until you have a lean, mean roleplay machine. Be merciless. Neat idea but it would take an hour to set up? Can it, your setups need to be 15 minutes, tops. Cool two-part encounter, but you only have enough room for five encounters a day? Unless it's actually more exciting than any two individual encounters, can it.

You're quarrying a block of marble and then carving out everything that isn't a beautiful statue. It's better to start from an excess of material and then trim it until you can't justify trimming anything more.

Perhaps, as a starting point, tell us things you know you like, and/or things you know your group likes? This could help us suggest ideas you might not consider yourself but which could efficiently fill the time you have available.

I think you are right.

What I have is a lot of set pieces. I have a ship for one water born Encounter…that is on a table.

I have bog encounter with dead trees and sacrificial rocks.

I have a huge forest with mountains. 2 encounters?

Then I have the dungeon. I am thinking I should pick wisely and whatever is left can be in the dungeon if I want to show off each set piece once.

So maybe 4-5 in the dungeon will do it…

Very very hard choices, all. But making a list and designating the top ones is the way to go and I will have to excuse a lot. Going to be hard…

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Another idea is to break things up into 4 sessions of 3 hours each. You play for 3 hours then take lunch and play for 3 more each day. This gives you a bit of room if things run longer before lunch or finish lunch and start the next session allowing for a bit of room on the end as well.

Each of these sessions could be a theme or its own small 5-room dungeon thing. You seem to have some great set pieces made you want to be a battle or encounter. The best 4 of those become the main focus of each session. I would still level up the PCs at the end of the day or even between the four sessions to make things more grand.

Well I would like to do that. And maybe possible if one person is only there for part of it.

A friend’s kid will be at college and so back weekends here and there…

Unless he is coming home for summer…hmmm…..

Maybe two weekends? Will think. Probably two days though with 8-9 encounters…may build a little fudge in in face I have to cut some out later on…

 

[aco175]

Well I would like to do that. And maybe possible if one person is only there for part of it.

A friend’s kid will be at college and so back weekends here and there…

Unless he is coming home for summer…hmmm…..

Maybe two weekends? Will think. Probably two days though with 8-9 encounters…may build a little fudge in in face I have to cut some out later on…

No, my thought was to take the weekend and make it 4 sessions over the 2 days.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

No, my thought was to take the weekend and make it 4 sessions over the 2 days.

Ah…might be possible. If we start really early maybe possible to have decently long sessions.

Well the discussion has already been helpful: I am going to stop working on the caverns. Only can get so much in and might as well deal with that reality!

This gives me more time to pare down the encounters and making sure clues are still present, etc