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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spinozajack" data-source="post: 6618145" data-attributes="member: 6794198">+1Although you can tell players to email you in advance, or what they want over lunch and get it all done beforehand. Or meet them for 5 minutes to roll their stats and pick from one of the 4 food groups. An intro to 5th edition should be as typical as possible in terms of party makeup. I would also keep some pregens handy just in case. And a copy of their character sheets if they made them in advance because someone always forgets theirs. I would even consider playing by the Basic D&D rules for a one off. Mechanical complexity slows things down and won't improve the game much for a one-off. I would highly encourage you to enforce that the player who "doesn't care about character creation much" or "the rules", be given a class like Warlock, Champion, Evoker, Sorcerer, or War / life cleric. Or for a healer in the group, you could even do a favored soul because that is simpler and a real cleric to play (less spell choice = much simpler).I would also advise against any complex moral quandaries because those will slow things to a crawl. I've seen more than my share of sessions have half the time wasted due to decision paralysis. If they are given a fork in the road, make sure there is a ticking time bomb for them to pick within 5 minutes max. Have the door about to be broken down and players have to decide whether to slay their prisoner or to let them go before escaping towards Path A or Path B.Never make a three-choice path, unless one of them is obviously the wrong choice. (and then if they pick the wrong one, let them suffer the consequences without railroading a success condition). Failure should be a distinct possibility. Don't try to force a "win". That doesn't even result in more fun. Nobody likes knowing that their actions don't matter, and experienced players will figure this out if you are guiding them (subtly or not) towards a sure thing.If there's any ideal time for a TPK, it's a one shot. Bring an extra NPC along who is a pregen in case one player dies, and make sure that this is a distinct possibility in terms of the challenges they will face. And I don't mean, a slight chance to die in a fair fight. I mean, a chance they will do the wrong thing and get splat. Then you can swoop in with the pregen sheet and say "I will avenge thee!" Nothing spurs renewed vigor to succeed more than a PC death. D&D is actually better for it.</blockquote>

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