Oneshot help and suggestions needed.

[Climowitz]

Hello everyone, i'll be hosting a oneshot soon and i need help with. Im having a real world modern time dnd style with a hidden magic and societies setting, like men in black meaning that magic exist but normal people just dont percieve it.

So how can i make a single session adventure in a world like this one. Feel free to think that things work just like you think they work, i need help and suggestions with the plot more than managing everything.

Thanks in advance.

[BowStreetRunner]

A couple of TV shows that might be good inspiration for this sort of thing. First of all, Stargate: SG1. The characters all lived in the real world that we live in, but would go through the portal and suddenly be facing aliens who could pass for living gods and mind boggling advanced technology. And then on Sunday they could take in a Broncos game with a couple of beers to celebrate their latest victory.

Secondly, Warehouse 13. It was a bit like Men in Black but with a focus on recovering strange and dangerous artifacts from all over the world. Whereas the SG:1 type story would take the characters out our world into some fantastic place, the Warehouse 13 style story would remain in our world but be focused on trying to clean up the mess some artifact was causing.

One of my favorite intros for this sort of thing - jumping into a world bigger than they believed it to be - is to start by introducing a bunch of amazingly heroic NPCs who are going to take care of everything and save the day. All the PCs need to do is stay out of the way and let the professionals handle things and everything will be all right. Except...ooops...bad stuff happens and the heroic NPCs are toast leaving the PCs with a potentially catastrophic threat on their hands and no heroes around to handle it. There might be a 'guy in the chair (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MissionControl)' somewhere in communication with them who gives them guidance regarding what they have to do to save the day. It throws the PCs in the deep end and by toasting the heroic NPCs and drives home the serious danger of the situation before the PCs ever have to face their adversaries themselves. Plus it explains why they don't have a deep background on everything wonky going on, without necessary leaving them to figure out everything on their own.