D&D 5E (2014) What's your favorite one shot adventure?

[Lakesidefantasy]

I think Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme from Candlekeep Mysteries is a great one shot adventure. It slowly unwinds ike a good psychological thriller, revealing the antagonist over time.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme from Candlekeep Mysteries is a great one shot adventure. It slowly unwinds ike a good psychological thriller, revealing the antagonist over time.

It is. I think about 3 adventures stood out in that book.

I've warmed up bit as occasionally I need shorter adventures. Golden Vault was good as well.

 

[TheHand]

I don’t have any to add, but I wanted to thank everybody for these suggestions! I’m often in need of short one shots and I’m taking notes!

 

[Amphytrion]

I wanted to add one that I haven't seen mentioned here yet: The Waystop, which is AL-compliant but not part of any of the storylines (at least as I understand it; I've never played or DMed in AL).

The whole thing is what I think a professionally written adventure should be: simultaneously intricately designed and easy to run.

• The hook is inspiring and immersive. A storm leads the party and a few other strangers to pass the night in an abandoned house in the middle of a wasteland.
• The whole thing uses mostly a single monster statblock. It takes the (great) flavor text of that monster in Volo's Guide to Monsters and builds an entire adventure out of it.
• There are six fleshed-out NPCs in this adventure, each quite interesting on its own. I've had parties react in wildly different ways to these NPCs, and that is a strength of the module. Each has their own believable life going separately from the party and may become an enemy, a friend, something in-between, etc.
• Within the confinement of the narrative (one night, one session), it is very open-ended and can conclude in a myriad of different ways.
• The author provides you with maps, a cheat sheet/guide, and character reference cards for each NPC. I don't like the art for the NPCs (it doesn't quite match the atmosphere of the adventure), but otherwise I have zero criticisms.

I love this adventure. If the authors ever see this message, know that I am a big fan of your work.

I wish the more recent WotC one-shots showed this much thought in their design. A couple of encounters thrown together on a map I can simply improvise on the fly (I don't need a pre-written module for that), but this sort of narrative well-thought design would take me a lot more time to put together (and so this is the sort of adventure in which pre-written modules can really shine!).