One Shot Questions

[SpawnOfMorbo]

So I'm putting together a one shot (see below for details, this started over on the Post Big T party thread) and I was wondering a few things. Now I'm typically a sandbox type DM, I can just roll with whatever the players tend to get into and I don't do a whole lot of planning. However this will be used as an introductory one shot along with a theory/hardcore one shot for more experienced friends.

Where can I find a good map making tool? The generic map making stuff I've found isn't working too well.

Have you played in a single player D&D session? How did it go?

What level would you want to take on this one shot? Do note that it is a thief's guild, not all the members will be bum rushing the PC, nor is it guaranteed that all will be met.

What additional information would you ask for before starting this one shot?


Premise: Your group was contracted by a wealthy merchant to get his children (twins, age 10) out of the city to a safe house in the country side that is protected by the merchant guild. The merchant is worried that the thief’s guild is out to get her through her children. Years ago her wife was killed in an attempt to pay her back for not cowering to their influence.
Your party is currently busy outside the city gates, a small band of hobgoblins have decided to raid and your party was drafted by the city guard to defend the city and its people. You was allowed to go and meet your employer so that your contract wouldn’t become void (adventurer insurance covers this sort of thing, the city doesn’t want to have to pay because they drafted ALL of the party).
The merchant’s house is near the nicer brazaar where nobles like to gather and the finer items are sold. The brazar, for the most part, is safe as it is merchant ground (but staying there is not an option as your employer will not like that).

What You Have


Starting equipment of your class/background
500 gp that you may use to buy supplies before meeting with your client. (You can’t carry more weight than your carrying capacity).
After shopping you meet your employer and his children. You are then given a warhorse drawn carriage http://www.princesscarriage.com/photos/visavis.jpg



Your contacts have told you that the following thief’s guild members are in the region today.


1 Assassin
2 Bandit Captains
4 Scouts
2 Veteran
10Thugs

Where you start and basic city info.

You start in the center of town where you picked the children up from their mother, they are obedient and will listen to your commands. These two kids act on your turn and can control the cart.

The edge of the city is EAST about 5 miles, this is one of the side entrances to the city and not a main gate.

Along the way will be sections of buildings mostly just two or three stories tall and one park with only a little cover (less Central Park and more like a playground with a small grassy knoll). There are many major intersections and minor intersections, as shown on the map. There are a few guard stations scattered throughout the city (green circles on the map). Thief guild members typically won’t step foot near the guard stations (truce with the city guards but no one wants to push their luck).

As you start you here the rumble of thunder from the West. The weather for the past week has been partially cloudy, slight breeze, and it is in the low 80's temperature wise.

There are quite a few people in the bazar, very densely populated, but people aren’t as densely populated away from there. Most people leave each other alone as this is a bigger city.




Any and all help is appreciated!

[Hudsonian]

Clarification:
Party size of 1
Map covers many miles or maps for a dungeon (relatively small)?
What is the plot hook? Get to the city without dying? Protect the cargo?


For Maps I really like: http://davesmapper.com/ But if you have ideas already in mind it is not going to be for you.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Clarification:
Party size of 1
Map covers many miles or maps for a dungeon (relatively small)?
What is the plot hook? Get to the city without dying? Protect the cargo?


For Maps I really like: http://davesmapper.com/ But if you have ideas already in mind it is not going to be for you.

1 person as of right now, will eventually change some stuff up and make it work for multiple party members. I have a friend that wants to try D&D but can't make it to a group meeting.

Map will be of a city, doesn't need to be anything fancy.

Plot hook is provided in OP, merchant woman wants her children protected from the thief's guild. Party has been drafted into the city guard to protect people from hobgoblins.

I'll check out davemapper, I just heard a Dave Mathew's Band song and now I want to make puns.

[Kane0]

I recommend level 3, but 4 and 5 are both good options too. With one PC literally any character can be used, all you have to do is adapt to what they bring along. A party of 1 will have very clear strengths and weaknesses you need to play to.

Donjon (http://donjon.bin.sh/) has some fantastic resources for 5e and RPGs in general, especially for open sandboxy games where you need generators for names, locations, loot, etc. Kobold Fight Club (http://kobold.club/fight/) is another recommended tool, it calculates encounters for you.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Clarification:
Party size of 1
Map covers many miles or maps for a dungeon (relatively small)?
What is the plot hook? Get to the city without dying? Protect the cargo?


For Maps I really like: http://davesmapper.com/ But if you have ideas already in mind it is not going to be for you.

Checked out davemappers and I think it will do great for what I need :)


I recommend level 3, but 4 and 5 are both good options too. With one PC literally any character can be used, all you have to do is adapt to what they bring along. A party of 1 will have very clear strengths and weaknesses you need to play to.

Donjon (http://donjon.bin.sh/) has some fantastic resources for 5e and RPGs in general, especially for open sandboxy games where you need generators for names, locations, loot, etc. Kobold Fight Club (http://kobold.club/fight/) is another recommended tool, it calculates encounters for you.

Hmm never heard of Koboldclub, I'll take a look. I've heard of donjon in passing, never really paid attention to that site thought.

I'm typically great at adjusting on the fly, I was mostly wondering from a player perspective what would be a good level to jump into this at.


Thanks y'all.

[Hudsonian]

If it is for 1 person that has never played before Definitely no higher than lvl 3 on a full caster (not suggested for solo)

lvl 5 on fighter is okay, Battlemaster might be a bit tricky.

overall, if they fight all of the bad guys, that is 7,600 XP... The player should be told ahead of time that they are NOT expected to fight all the bad guys and the evasion may work well for much of the problem. I would suggest starting the player halfway through a level to make sure he gets the experience of "OOOOO! NEW TOYS!"

I feel like the Second Wind on a fighter would be nice. Rogue is pretty much tailored to the evasion aspect of the one shot.

In fact, if I were to try and solo this I might very well go forest gnome rogue. Minor Illusion Hide check please!

[Hudsonian]

Donjon (http://donjon.bin.sh/) has some fantastic resources for 5e and RPGs in general,

Thank you for the new tool in my arsenal.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

If it is for 1 person that has never played before Definitely no higher than lvl 3 on a full caster (not suggested for solo)

lvl 5 on fighter is okay, Battlemaster might be a bit tricky.

overall, if they fight all of the bad guys, that is 7,600 XP... The player should be told ahead of time that they are NOT expected to fight all the bad guys and the evasion may work well for much of the problem. I would suggest starting the player halfway through a level to make sure he gets the experience of "OOOOO! NEW TOYS!"

I feel like the Second Wind on a fighter would be nice. Rogue is pretty much tailored to the evasion aspect of the one shot.

In fact, if I were to try and solo this I might very well go forest gnome rogue. Minor Illusion Hide check please!

The player has played other games before, just not D&D. I think their main game is Shadowrun and FATAL so I'm not to worried about the ability to jump in at any level :P

Friends have been giving him a bit of a hard time for never trying D&D (all in good fun) and I was talking to him about this idea for a one shot I posted on the other thread and he decided to try it (though sadly, as I said, he can't make it to a group meeting).

With the way I run games... Yeah he (they) may run into every enemy, some of them, or none of them.

Gnome Rogue would be nice hiding yourself, but you have two kids (who tower over you), to hide also. They are children and not trained in stealth so group stealth rolls aren't in your favor. Don't forget your cargo! To be successful you need to get the kids safely to the party/safe house.


Side Note: Also, while I'm a huge fan of Illusion spells and I'm quite flexible with them, Minor Illusion is not as powerful as a lot of people think. People try to make it work for a lot of different things, my group unilaterally agreed that plants (trees, shrubs, and the like) are creatures and not objects. As the spell only describes non-living uses for the minor image, living stuff is outside the score of the spell. So you would need be very crafty with it (a lot of people like to make shrubs and hide in them). :)

We have recently decided to do an all illusionist (different race/class combos) party, a stealth/infiltration game set up in more modern type setting... Lot's of fun will be had as we are put into a more Splinter Cell type world.

[Hudsonian]

In that case, I would still say no to full casters at above a 4th-5th level just because of all the spells that would be needed.

as for the illusion comments...... not really worth discussing because everybody and their mom is gonna chime in about a piece of minutia that is not necessary to the thread.

The one comment I will say, is that with the restrictions you have put forward, I would encourage you to reward him for thinking cleverly with his new set of tools and have many of the encounters take place before he leaves the city where crates and such would be good hiding places.

With an experienced RPG player, I'd say a lvl 10 ranger should be able to take on that challenge with no trouble. (unless he takes them on in groups)

It would also be interesting to see what a guerrilla barbarian would do.

One more question: Will the Thieves Guild know the appearance of the PC? (obviously they know what the kids look like.) Do they know that the kids are on the move?

What is your plan if the guy decides that this sounds like a fantastic way to role play the scene from Zelda Twilight Princess and you have ride the wagon and shoot all the baddies that come near?

Is there any chance that the hobgoblins come into play?

[BruceLeeroy]

Lurker here. Compelled to ask.

FATAL, as in the worst RPG ever created?

The person you are going to run a game for...their "main game" is Shadowrun and FATAL? What do they do for a living, snuff films?

[SpawnOfMorbo]

The one comment I will say, is that with the restrictions you have put forward, I would encourage you to reward him for thinking cleverly with his new set of tools and have many of the encounters take place before he leaves the city where crates and such would be good hiding places.

One more question: Will the Thieves Guild know the appearance of the PC? (obviously they know what the kids look like.) Do they know that the kids are on the move?

What is your plan if the guy decides that this sounds like a fantastic way to role play the scene from Zelda Twilight Princess and you have ride the wagon and shoot all the baddies that come near?

Is there any chance that the hobgoblins come into play?


Of course, people who know me know this but, out thinking me will get you rewarded. Kinda like in a movie where the main character does something that the movie/people in the movie don't know how to deal with and it turns out great for the main character. That's when a player out thinks the DM. Much like how Indiana Jones is going up against the sword guy in Egypt, instead of just fighting him Indiana Jones just pulls out a gun and shoots him. It was an auto hit/crit/kill because it took the setting by surprise (that scene was added in by Harrison Ford, I think because he was sick and didn't want to fight)
Player(s) would have no clue what the thieves guild knows or doesn't know.
Bring it on, not only would the thief's guild get involved but most likely the city guard. Some dude is going through town with his weapon ready and staring at people, waiting for them to make the first move? Yeah, I would have a lot of fun with that. Completely possible play style, might be harder or easier than other methods, but completely playable.
Players have no clue what is happening with the hobgoblins.





Oh yeah, the thieves guild knows the PC is in town and that the kids are being taken away.
Three main things the hobgoblins may try to do depending on how long it takes the PC to get there. They may have already fled, try to kidnap the children as hostages, or if the PC brings the thieves guild with them the Hobgoblins may haggle a truce and help the PCs take out the thieves guild memeber.

[Hudsonian]

Okay. The reason I was asking is that you could probably take on unsuspecting thug, or camouflage the kids in the wagon much more easily if the thieves didn't know.

Since they do, I feel like the PC would need to be a higher level.

I think that a good way to calculate minimum PC level would be to take 1 round of hits from every enemy and make sure that that it is not more than the total number of hit points available to the PC (Total Health + Hit Die + class abilities like second wind). That means it would be POSSIBLE, to face every enemy listed without being super clever.

Beyond that, I don't have enough experience/book knowledge to be of any more help. I'm kind of disappointed that nobody else has gotten in on this discussion. For once it isn't, "How can I abuse this rule?" or "which character would win in a (very specific set of completely arbitrary rules tailor suited to one particular class/race combo)"

Edited because grammar