Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 4629761" data-attributes="member: 66434">Most published adventures for D&D have been written for multiplesessions of play. Some short ones in Dungeon and Dragon magazines could be done in a session. Writing adventures designed for a single session of play is hard to do as a generic published product. How long should the session be?How familliar are the players with the game system? Will the players be running familiar characters or pre-gens? These are just a few non-edtionspecific questions that affect one-shot play. The trick with one-shots, and it doesn't matter what edition youplay or even if its D&D or another game, is flexibility and allowingfor multiple ending points. Without scripting an adventure there isn't a truly reliable way to know how long a given segment of a game will run.Knowing the players and how they operate helps a lot but preparing a oneshot for a group of unknown players is possible.  A few guidlines for one shots: 1) The sandbox is not your friend. A strong story and sense of directionare more important in a one-shot game. False leads, multiple plot threads and twists should be saved for campaign play. You have one session to wrap up the entire adventure so every minute counts. 2) System knowledge. If the game system is rather involved and the players are not experienced with it, allow time for questions and explanations.The adventure will have to be a little shorter than one run for an experienced group.3) Limit the number of key encounters. By this I mean try to avoid too many points within the adventure that are vital to bringing it to a conclusion. The adventure should contain some built in shortcuts for reaching the finalencounter. Secret doors and passages that only exist if the DM is pressed for time can be session savers. Thinking ahead and allowing for shortcuts in the initial design helps a lot.4) Overprep is your friend. Having extra material on tap in case the players manage to blow through parts of the adventure quicker than expected never hurts.</blockquote>

Verification