First time DMing 5ed, got some questions..

[MustacheFart]

So, I am thinking of running a halloween-themed one-shot for some friends in the next few weeks. Up until now, I have only played in 5th ed games but haven't DMed yet. Also mostly what I've played has been prewritten modules (HOTDQ)

Is there any method or info out there on scaling/creating encounters appropriate for a party? The DMG isn't out yet so i can't look there.

I'm thinking a party of 4-5 4th level players. I want to throw them through a series of encounters during a single night (halloween obviously) so I can't see any long rests being viable. Possibly a short rest or two. Are the rules of CR from 3ed still applicable here when creating an encounter?

I'll try and pick up the MM today. Any help would be appreciated.

[hymer]

You can get a bunch of monster stats and discussion on CR and XP budgets here (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules). It's the Dungeon Master's Basic Rules you'll want for that.

[MustacheFart]

You can get a bunch of monster stats and discussion on CR and XP budgets here (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules). It's the Dungeon Master's Basic Rules you'll want for that.

Thanks for the link. I don't even have the MM yet and those example monsters have already got my gears turning. :smallbiggrin:

[BW022]

Sometimes it is scarier to have lower-level characters -- especially for Halloween. At 5th, characters with fireballs, turning, etc. often don't feel as afraid of things which make low-level characters fearful. I'd say no more than 3rd.

Setting is a key thing for horror-themed areas. An abandoned keep, a roadside inn suddenly surrounded by fog, a "party" at a manor house where the guests start drying, etc. One key thing is usually to isolate the party. Most horror movies would fail if folks had the option to just call the police/guard or ride to the next town.

Shape shifters, evil humanoids, etc. often make great villains. Werewolves, doppelgangers, cleric with trickery domain, etc. This gives the option of a mystery -- think Scooby Doo. The sense that villages, other NPCs, etc. might be against you often makes groups paranoid. Something which avoids direct confrontations also makes players less likely to think about just mindlessly fighter their way out.

Obvious horror things can consist of darkness, spider webs, grave yards, undead, witches, bats, etc. You just have to remember, unlike movies, characters can easily have abilities to directly counter these (light spells, turning, fire, etc.) and that move characters are designed for direct confrontations. Overwhelming numbers or visibly powerful foes tend not to be as scary as the unknown. A creature who hides its identity (fog, darkness, disguises, illusions, etc.), how attacks NPCs rather than immediately going after the PCs... is often more scary than just having a vampire show up.

Some ideas...

Graveyard of Ships. Some stormy coast light house keeps going out and ships crash there. PCs are send to investigate by one of the merchant companies who lost a ship. Location is a foggy, rocky coastline, light house, and a half dozen wrecks off the shore. Main NPCs are a family who live in the light house, a nearby hermit, and the sheriff from a nearby town. A group of rogues are causing the ships to wreck and using disguises and illusions to make the area seem haunted so they can plunder the wrecks. Some of the rogues use sleep or a darkness spell on the lighthouse when ships are coming by. However, recently a sea hag found the wrecks and has killed two of the rogues. PCs need to discover the rogues as pulling a scam and yet there is something out on one of the ships.

Werewolf Inn. PCs are traveling along a roadway in some bad stormy weather. The group gets suck at an roadside inn as they ferry crossing has been knocked out and can't be repaired until they get some clear weather. Inn is full of lots of stranded travelers -- some unusual pilgrims, a couple of merchant groups, a sickly bard, a pair of noble women and their servants, etc., etc. Some people are missing. Someone finds torn up bodies in the woods. Wolves keep circling the inn. It's a full moon for two days. Horses in the stables are slaughtered. It's raining and overcast, fog moves in. etc. Anyone leaving is attacked by dire wolves. PCs need to discover who the werewolf is.

Dinner for Quasits. PCs are paid to be body guards for two merchants who received a dinner invitation from a strange reclusive artisan. PCs arrive in a remote manor house. There are servants and a number of other merchant guests along with their guards. The owner never appears, but servants and ravens keep brining letters stating he is on his way and hinting that he wants to make some type of agreement to sell his gem mines. All the merchants begin eyeing each other. Someone is poisoned. Another falls from a window. Poison is found in one of the guards possession. Some folks leave. The servants were all hired recently, never met the owner, and were told not to talk to people about him. The PCs must determine that the ravens in the building are quasits who are pitting everyone against each other, get the remaining guards working together and take on the quasits.

[Yagyujubei]

this is off topic kinda, but you should try to take a few gameplay features from paranoia and work them into the one off. it would be fantastic if the party didn't know for sure if there was a traitor(s) among them or if everyone wasn't trying to do in all the others to begin with.

[MustacheFart]

Sometimes it is scarier to have lower-level characters -- especially for Halloween. At 5th, characters with fireballs, turning, etc. often don't feel as afraid of things which make low-level characters fearful. I'd say no more than 3rd.

Setting is a key thing for horror-themed areas. An abandoned keep, a roadside inn suddenly surrounded by fog, a "party" at a manor house where the guests start drying, etc. One key thing is usually to isolate the party. Most horror movies would fail if folks had the option to just call the police/guard or ride to the next town.

Shape shifters, evil humanoids, etc. often make great villains. Werewolves, doppelgangers, cleric with trickery domain, etc. This gives the option of a mystery -- think Scooby Doo. The sense that villages, other NPCs, etc. might be against you often makes groups paranoid. Something which avoids direct confrontations also makes players less likely to think about just mindlessly fighter their way out.

Obvious horror things can consist of darkness, spider webs, grave yards, undead, witches, bats, etc. You just have to remember, unlike movies, characters can easily have abilities to directly counter these (light spells, turning, fire, etc.) and that move characters are designed for direct confrontations. Overwhelming numbers or visibly powerful foes tend not to be as scary as the unknown. A creature who hides its identity (fog, darkness, disguises, illusions, etc.), how attacks NPCs rather than immediately going after the PCs... is often more scary than just having a vampire show up.

Some ideas...

Graveyard of Ships. Some stormy coast light house keeps going out and ships crash there. PCs are send to investigate by one of the merchant companies who lost a ship. Location is a foggy, rocky coastline, light house, and a half dozen wrecks off the shore. Main NPCs are a family who live in the light house, a nearby hermit, and the sheriff from a nearby town. A group of rogues are causing the ships to wreck and using disguises and illusions to make the area seem haunted so they can plunder the wrecks. Some of the rogues use sleep or a darkness spell on the lighthouse when ships are coming by. However, recently a sea hag found the wrecks and has killed two of the rogues. PCs need to discover the rogues as pulling a scam and yet there is something out on one of the ships.

Werewolf Inn. PCs are traveling along a roadway in some bad stormy weather. The group gets suck at an roadside inn as they ferry crossing has been knocked out and can't be repaired until they get some clear weather. Inn is full of lots of stranded travelers -- some unusual pilgrims, a couple of merchant groups, a sickly bard, a pair of noble women and their servants, etc., etc. Some people are missing. Someone finds torn up bodies in the woods. Wolves keep circling the inn. It's a full moon for two days. Horses in the stables are slaughtered. It's raining and overcast, fog moves in. etc. Anyone leaving is attacked by dire wolves. PCs need to discover who the werewolf is.

Dinner for Quasits. PCs are paid to be body guards for two merchants who received a dinner invitation from a strange reclusive artisan. PCs arrive in a remote manor house. There are servants and a number of other merchant guests along with their guards. The owner never appears, but servants and ravens keep brining letters stating he is on his way and hinting that he wants to make some type of agreement to sell his gem mines. All the merchants begin eyeing each other. Someone is poisoned. Another falls from a window. Poison is found in one of the guards possession. Some folks leave. The servants were all hired recently, never met the owner, and were told not to talk to people about him. The PCs must determine that the ravens in the building are quasits who are pitting everyone against each other, get the remaining guards working together and take on the quasits.


Nice. Thanks for all of the great info and suggestions!

So you think level 4 is too much? Does an ability boost or feat really make a player character feel invulnerable? Maybe 3 would be better but I was thinking of some semi-tough fights.

I really like all of your suggestions. They put mine to shame I think. Maybe I'm not in the mindset of a one-shot.

Right now, my initial idea was:

A stereotypical manor keep with greenhouse and personal cemetery up on a fog-covered hill. It's a typical halloween night and kids are trick or treating. However, reports are going out that some people have been murdered by trick or treaters. The local townsguard/police/whatever have their hands full trying to determine the cause of death while not quite believing that "kids" are causing this. After a little more in-depth investigation the party learns that X number of kids have gone missing. The police are too busy dealing with the murders to look for the kids. Assuming the party decides to go look for the kids they're lead to the old manor. The connection that may or may not be made in town (thinking I shouldn't let them make this connection in town) is that the people are being killed by tricker treaters in the same costumes as the missing kids.

At the manor, as soon as they step on the property they're pretty much unable to escape if they wanted to. Inside, they face traps...creatures that don't appear to be what they seem...Items attack them...etc. Additionally, the manor would be divided up into these rooms:


Maw's Kitchen
Uncle's Basement
Sister's Room
Brother's Playroom
The GreenHouse (aka ScreamHouse)
Cemetery/Crypt
Master Suite


In between the rooms they would be surprised with traps, small encounters, etc. I like the idea of illusions and darkness to disorient and scare the party. I'll use that. :smallbiggrin:

As for the actual rooms I was thinking inside most of them they will discover a missing trick or treater held captive in some fashion. Maw's kitchen I am picturing some hag throwing kitchen knives, pots, pans, etc as she tries to cook one of the kids. As they close in on her, she springs a lever to drop them into a pit below. It's completely dark and all they hear is the woman utter, "Here kitties! Dinner time!". The party would then be attacked in the dark by a number of creatures (thinking panthers but it could be other creatures really).

As for the greenhouse, I am picturing a kid tied up and being subjected to torture by way of being forced to listen to an old man's tall tales. :smallwink: There are plants everywhere including a few especially big pots/plots. The old man's method of attack will be to somehow change the gravity. I haven't figured out if that would be another mechanical lever to activate it or if he simply casts a spell. In any case the party should be tossed onto the ceiling. At which point all of the plants and shrubs and trees come to like to swat at the players. I'm thinking of using a clear grid map for when they're upside down moving around. That way if they happen to walk over a certain spot, the old man will drop the spell/trap causing them to fall...right into some entangling man-eating plants. Seems fun in my head.

As for the sister's room I am thinking she's a Banshee who has a kid tied up whom she claims is her new boyfriend. She'll attack the party but I haven't got much farther than that.

Also I am thinking the party will have a chance to run into the fake "trick or treaters" who are really a group of murderous minions. Maybe they're kabolds. I don't know. If they engage them they'll kill them sure but if they follow them they'll find out that they're dropping the candy off to the Brother's playroom. Inside is a a big cyclops kid pigging out on candy. Haven't got much further on his room yet.

As for the cemetery I am thinking, a couple of dire wolves as guard dogs. Skeletons that rise up from the grave. Fog...you name it. Big bad here would be a headless horseman. The headless horseman would be some undead on horseback but what would make him frightening or deadly is his flying head which would really be a Flameskull.

if they venture into the crypt I'm thinking they encounter a semi maze of corridors causing them to be attacked repeatedly by a mummy. As in, it pops out, attacks, and retreats...dissappearing from the party. If they chase after it they're hit with batswarms and other goodies. If they make it to the main area they could discover a chamber with the letters AARV overhead. Inside would be an elderly vampire along with several elderly vampire spawn.

Uncle's basement I am picturing various torture devices and otherwise open here.

The Master Suite would be the big battle with Mom and Dad but I'm undefined on it here.


I hope this doesn't sound like a complete snoozefest or completely retarded. I try to mix in a little humor because it seems to work well for keeping the party off balanced. If you put funny things in they let their guard down.

[MadBear]

Setting is a key thing for horror-themed areas. An abandoned keep, a roadside inn suddenly surrounded by fog, a "party" at a manor house where the guests start drying, etc.

First, your ideas were great, and your post was well written.

Second, I can't help but imagine a water elemental hotel where Mr. Investigator is trying to find the cause of them Drying up. :smallbiggrin:

[Person_Man]

First time DM tricks you might want to consider:

1) Encounters should involve multiple choices. Maybe the PCs want to attack the Ogre. But maybe they want to just sneak around him, or wait till he's sleeping and then poison his food, or just walk up to him with a cow and offer to cook him lunch, or maybe they want to take the side path around him filled with traps, or whatever. Don't force a particular outcome.

2) Don't bother planning every detail. Your players will screw up your best laid plans 5 minutes into the game. Come up with some interesting NPCs and adventure locations filled with challenges and treasure and plot tree ideas, and some kind of interesting mystery or concept or adventure hooks or whatever. Then just let your PCs decide what happens next, and throw stuff at them.

3) Some combat encounter options should be easy, others balanced, and a few should be really hard. Difficulty level is hard to suss out sometimes though, so start with easy, and then ramp up slowly as they get deeper into the game.

4) Don't just throw all of your enemies at the PCs all at once. That's often a recipe for Team Party Kill (TPK). Instead, have the PCs encounter a small number of enemies, with the remainder on their way back from hunting trips, or in the other rooms that can be alerted if combat is noisy, or sleeping in huts, or tunneling underground, or whatever. That way if combat seems too easy, you can always throw more enemies at them, if its too hard, then the reinforcements just don't show up.

5) Use intelligent enemies. In addition to offering more interesting tactical choices, they can always run away out of fear or call for the PCs to surrender if you've accidentally made the encounter too hard.

[MustacheFart]

First time DM tricks you might want to consider:

1) Encounters should involve multiple choices. Maybe the PCs want to attack the Ogre. But maybe they want to just sneak around him, or wait till he's sleeping and then poison his food, or just walk up to him with a cow and offer to cook him lunch, or maybe they want to take the side path around him filled with traps, or whatever. Don't force a particular outcome.

2) Don't bother planning every detail. Your players will screw up your best laid plans 5 minutes into the game. Come up with some interesting NPCs and adventure locations filled with challenges and treasure and plot tree ideas, and some kind of interesting mystery or concept or adventure hooks or whatever. Then just let your PCs decide what happens next, and throw stuff at them.

3) Some combat encounter options should be easy, others balanced, and a few should be really hard. Difficulty level is hard to suss out sometimes though, so start with easy, and then ramp up slowly as they get deeper into the game.

4) Don't just throw all of your enemies at the PCs all at once. That's often a recipe for Team Party Kill (TPK). Instead, have the PCs encounter a small number of enemies, with the remainder on their way back from hunting trips, or in the other rooms that can be alerted if combat is noisy, or sleeping in huts, or tunneling underground, or whatever. That way if combat seems too easy, you can always throw more enemies at them, if its too hard, then the reinforcements just don't show up.

5) Use intelligent enemies. In addition to offering more interesting tactical choices, they can always run away out of fear or call for the PCs to surrender if you've accidentally made the encounter too hard.

Thanks...

Umm, this isn't my first time DMing. It's just my first time DMing 5th ed. I appreciate the tips though as they're good to remember.

I'm looking for insight into my idea regarding 5th edition.