Help Creating a Jungle One Shot?

[SovelsAtaask]

Hey there, GitP. Wednesday, my robotics team is heading out to a competition and we'll be spending a few days in a hotel. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to introduce some of my teammates to D&D, but school has been keeping me busy as hell and I'm having some writer's block. The party will be 5 level 3 characters.

Right now, I'm sort of fixated on a jungle theme and want to do something with Yuan-Ti become snake people are rad, but I'm not sure quite what. I had the idea of the party being hired by their land's king to explore the jungles in a newly discovered land, but I'm having some trouble refining the idea. Any suggestions for something that could be more or less wrapped up in one session would be great. Thanks!

[MrStabby]

Raiding a lost temple might fit.

In a 1-shot you don't have much time for campaign development, but on the other hand you get a chance to have an opportunity to have a complex setting without worrying about people forgetting things between sessions.

A temple can be scaled to match your available time, it is plausible at lots of different character levels and can include the balance of combat and investigation you want.

[Honest Tiefling]

Party is captured by Yuan-ti. This means the party doesn't have to buy equipment, so one less step to worry about. Just propose the idea of being slaves and breaking out right from the beginning, and see how it goes.

The goal is pretty clear, and it is unlikely newer players are going to deviate from the goal of getting the heck out of there. Perhaps add in a helpful NPC in the way of an injured prisoner, with enough experience to offer in character suggestions, but unlikely to outshine the party due to the injuries. Also gives a reason to get out of there quickly!

If that idea doesn't work, then some shrine has become corrupted due to a demonic ritual, but the party doesn't know that. What they do know is that they are all in a jungle village that is being attacked by plant monsters every day. (Not at night, so the rules of light can be introduced later.) Plant monsters can be fluffed to have simple tactics, and the shrine should be known to a few villagers who don't think it's a real shrine as an introduction to social rolls.

Basically, I think you should have two simple ideas, and have the party vote on which one they want.

[SovelsAtaask]

I like the shrine idea, not so enthused about the captives idea. Don't want to give these totally new players the impression that D&D is a game where you can't actually fight anything because you don't have a sword and everything sucks. Maybe for slightly more experienced players more used to having to think outside the box in game.

The village being attacked by plants, though, I could work with that. Could easily branch things out into a second session if everyone wants to play again and we have time. And there's a decent amount of low level plants in the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide. I could make that work. Giving the players choices is a nice idea too, but that's double the work for me with half of it definitely being wasted.

[Puh Laden]

I like the shrine idea, not so enthused about the captives idea. Don't want to give these totally new players the impression that D&D is a game where you can't actually fight anything because you don't have a sword and everything sucks. Maybe for slightly more experienced players more used to having to think outside the box in game.

The village being attacked by plants, though, I could work with that. Could easily branch things out into a second session if everyone wants to play again and we have time. And there's a decent amount of low level plants in the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide. I could make that work. Giving the players choices is a nice idea too, but that's double the work for me with half of it definitely being wasted.

If you have volo's using the map in there for the yuan-ti temple is exactly where I would start. Someone or some group of people mysteriously disappeared, it's up to the party to find out what happened to them, rescue them if possible. Start them off in the jungle immediately, just as they discover the temple. The temple itself is at least a session's worth of exploration. You just have to come up with the monster placement is all.

[Human Paragon 3]

How about a Heart of Darkness thing? You're going to find out what happened to a missing military officer who disappeared into the forest. There are rumors he's "gone native" and become a Yuan-Ti leader. The party takes a river cruise to the Yuan-Ti encampment, but get attacked on the way, lose the boat and have to finish it out on foot avoiding Yuan-Ti and other jungle threats like giant snakes. Then they finally get to the encampment and find the missing man has gone completely insane.

[SovelsAtaask]

All good ideas so far, thanks everyone. Any further ideas or even suggestions about playing in a jungle would be appreciated.

[djreynolds]

How about a Heart of Darkness thing? You're going to find out what happened to a missing military officer who disappeared into the forest. There are rumors he's "gone native" and become a Yuan-Ti leader. The party takes a river cruise to the Yuan-Ti encampment, but get attacked on the way, lose the boat and have to finish it out on foot avoiding Yuan-Ti and other jungle threats like giant snakes. Then they finally get to the encampment and find the missing man has gone completely insane.

Kurtz: Are you an assassin?

Willard: I'm a soldier.

Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.

That is an awesome idea, the whole taking a boat up river into the unknown