One shot and world building

[torrasque666]

How important is world building for a one-shot? Because I'm still kinda new to world building and npc building but want to try my hand at DMing a pathfinder game.

[Tibbit Tamer]

It depends. I've done only a single one-shot, and the only world-building I did was to make a map of a small section of a continent, know pretty decently what was in that one section and only a vague sense of what was beyond the map. For NPC I stated and named maybe 5. An inkeeper, a questgiver, the BBEG, and maybe a couple random people to move things along. I had a bit of an idea of the world and how it worked. Everything made sense and there was good reasoning behind where things were, why monsters were attacking, and what was going on.

My advice, since it is a one-shot make the encounters and trials interesting, and at least make it so the world makes sense. There is no need to over do it.

[torrasque666]

Speaking of, how long is good for a one shot? 4 hours? 5? or would that time frame be better for some sort of mini-campaign?

[Falcon X]

I design one-shots to last 2-3 hours. They always end up lasting about 6 though....

The great thing about one-shots is that they don't need big worlds. By nature, they are more rail-roaded and more goal oriented than longer campaigns. You have to pretty well give them their goal at the beginning. If they decide to go travel to some other part of the world, it's no longer a one-shot. Unless you plan it that way.

I mean only to say, if your game is only going to last 2-6 hours, it's much more reasonable to railroad the characters into at least not going somewhere absurd that isn't on the maps.

Study up on 5-room dungeons.

Some example one-shots I've done:
1. Dwarves have been driven out of their mines by goblins!
- I built a simple, 3-story system of mines. I built the mining village, I built the goblin village, and I know the general terrain between the goblins and the dwarves. Beyond that, I know cities they could send a messenger for help, but if they decided to go themselves, I would just bs the journey and take them straight to the throne room.

2. Aboleth Attacks Alaska-like tribals.
- I have a group of low-level fisherman who run into an aboleth on a fishing trip. After a short fight, the Aboleth laughs and says he's coming to destroy the village in 3 days.
I need to know the sea (its just a bunch of water). I need to know the village. And I need to have an idea of places people can go for outside help.

3. Goblin-village Raid.
- You hear stories of a great weapon in the middle of a goblin village. You want it!
Just make a map of the goblin village and be done with it.

[atemu1234]

How important is world building for a one-shot? Because I'm still kinda new to world building and npc building but want to try my hand at DMing a pathfinder game.

For one mission? Absolute zilch is what it's worth. The PCs just need the basics and go from there. You need to know enough about the world that you can go, "the guy he's praying to is the chief deity of his pantheon."

[HammeredWharf]

As with most other things, it's entirely up to you. You could go with a "Goblins attack a village! Kill them!" story or you could think up something more complex. Combat tends to be slow, but conversations are fast.

I'd use a well-known part of a published setting, however. That gives your players a general idea of where they are and gives you some extra time to spend on more interesting things, such as fleshing out NPCs.