Tips for a first time one-shotter?

[tuesdayscoming]

Evening, Playground!

A buddy of mine is in town for the winter break and we've elected to play ourselves a bit of DnD. I'll be DMing, and using a custom setting that said friend has played in before.

The problem is that we don't have much time, and will likely only be able to play one or two sessions. This really doesn't lend itself well to my DMing style, as I usually take advantage of long, sweeping political story arcs that unfold slowly over time.

I was hoping that you might be able to lend me some practical advice – things to keep in mind when building a one-shot to keep it entertaining and to ensure that we'll have a fully encapsulated story arc in just a few hours of play.

Help me out, Playground?

edit: We're most likely going to be running a mid level game (6-10), and the player has expressed interest in a Shadowhand style Swordsage with the possibility of a one-level Binder dip.

[Tvtyrant]

Well here is my internet-penny worth:

1. Make the goal achievable. If your going to only play 2 sessions then you want a clear cut enemy, a reward/reason for fighting/stopping the enemy, an obstacle to overcome and a climax. So a small town being attacked by rat swarms and you need to kill the Rat King to stop the rats, but he is in a rat themed dungeon sorta thing.

2. Know thine group. Specifically how optimized your group is and how often they like to rest. The first group I DM'd for I had never played with, so I had no idea they were going to go to sleep after every encounter in order to get the most out of their sorc's color spray spell. I would never have given them a room with a locking door if I had known.

3. Make the encounter theme centered. Your only going to play this scenario once, so pick a theme and go all out on it. Yuan-ti with viper pits and slave warriors, Goblins riding Worgs with wolf companions and led by a Barghest, Lizardfolk with Kobold servants and guard Drakes, etc. Make it memorable!

[Rixx]

Make sure your party is already established.

I knew I was going to be running a one-shot, so I told the players that the characters were a down-on-their-luck detective agency. I cooked up a brief mystery plot with some wacky memorable characters, and sent them on their way.

My highly critical GM friend said it was the best session he's ever played in.

[Skaven]

You want to one shot your party? Ok.

When they enter the elaborately made chamber, they find that wooden beams are holding up the ceiling over 3/4 of the room. The door seals shut behind them and at the end of the chamber the room slopes upwards about 20ft high. Five men take 5ft steps out from cover on the sound of the door shutting as they are all set to ready actions to step out and use a scroll/spell. A magic mouth is set to delivery the evil monologue automatically on the soud of the door shutting so no BBEG's waste their turn. One man uses his solid fog scroll, two others use their acid fog scrolls, one uses stinking cloud and the last one uses dimensional lock.

The acid fog eats away the frail wooden beams (they have been damaged a little as the party arrives) bringing down over 500 vials of alchemists fire, enough caltrops to litter the room side and of course the ceiling itself. On round two the two mages each read scrolls of cloudkill while the rest encircle the area as needed with walls of stone.


Well..ok, thats MY personal 'rocks fall everyone dies' scenario but.. :P

Sorry, misread 'one shotter'... Ok, I didn't.. this trap just bounded into my head when I read the thread title though and wanted to share. ;)

[Shinizak]

Ask what your players want to play ahead of time, and make the build ahead of time. Use a point buy system or just do 16 down (16.15,14,13,12,11) for stats. It's let your players jump right into the game. Make the goal immediate and achievable, depending on the group level, it could be "the orcs are attacking the town, find the leader to stop him!" to "the nearby lich is getting uppity again, let's solve this before he causes any real harm."

[Kiero]

Don't waste time in-session with chargen, use pregens. Make sure there are twice as many as there are players, so there's lots of choice.