Need random ideas for a random DND 1 shot

[Cravix]

So this Friday evening me and some friends are going to do a fun little 1 shot. Im going to generate a bunch of random level 1 characters from dnd beyond and give them randomly. What I need is various suggestions for places to start, things that may happen, reasons why PCs are where they are. Im goign to make a bunch of index cards and draw them randomly and just go with it. Think Fiasco or Whos Line is it Anyway style. So id appreciate any suggestions for stuff to randomly draw from.

[Pex]

Borrow a movie plot. You don't need to follow it exactly, though you can, but being a story you know gives you the framework.

[Yakmala]

Make up a bunch of cards or tokens to answer the following, or just create your own percentage tables:

Who needs help?

What do they know?

Person/Thing has Died/Missing/Stolen/Kidnapped/Threatened

Is suspected to be hiding out at [possible locations]

The bad guys/creatures behind the plot are suspected to be [possible mid level threats]

What the party doesn't know is that they are actually working for [bigger bad guy/final boss]

Area along the way is known the be infested/overrun/the lair of [possible creature(s)]

Lair is guarded by [various creatures or traps]

Party is helped along the way by [list of potential helpful NPC's who might also be the adventure's comic relief]

In an unexpected twist [someone who seemed like an ally or victim that is actually working with the bad guy(s)]

If they succeed, party will find/be rewarded with [possible items, favors, titles or other rewards]

[Nagog]

Some ideas I've had for a similar thing:

Murder Mystery (perhaps in a different setting like those below?)
Wild West (Substitute crossbows for guns and go to town)
Space Age (Star Wars or Star Trek, up to you which style fits better)
Post-Apoc
Ghost Apocalypse (similar to Zombie Apoc, but much, much more difficult to plan for)
Eldritch Horror (in any setting, personal favorite is Victorian Era)

Or just throw a Deck of Many Things in the mix. Those are great for spurring adventure. Oha nd straight up killing folks, but hey, give some lose some.

[Cravix]

Some ideas I've had for a similar thing:

Murder Mystery (perhaps in a different setting like those below?)
Wild West (Substitute crossbows for guns and go to town)
Space Age (Star Wars or Star Trek, up to you which style fits better)
Post-Apoc
Ghost Apocalypse (similar to Zombie Apoc, but much, much more difficult to plan for)
Eldritch Horror (in any setting, personal favorite is Victorian Era)

Or just throw a Deck of Many Things in the mix. Those are great for spurring adventure. Oha nd straight up killing folks, but hey, give some lose some.

Oh man deck of many things, what a great idea

[Segev]

They wake up in a room together, some stuffed into bedrolls that aren't their own, armor and weapons and other gear close at hand. An elf or a fighter in the party is the PC closest to the door, possibly having woken up leaning against it. Who brought them here? Where is here? Who are these people?

All of them have unlikely backstories that would make them seem not even really adventurer material.

The truth is: this dungeon eats the last year of memories from anybody who sleeps in it. Sometime in the last year, the party formed, and they've been adventuring together for months. But now they don't remember each other.

Possible alternative: one of the players' characters is somebody who wanted in on this party, and thus is feigning being memory wiped, too. But he actually whammied them with a one-shot he'd procured so he could slip in and become one of them. Alternate alternative: he whammied himself, too, so that he would wind up thinking he was really a member, and his past would be impossible to figure out, making him the mysterious one.

[Tawmis]

So this Friday evening me and some friends are going to do a fun little 1 shot. Im going to generate a bunch of random level 1 characters from dnd beyond and give them randomly. What I need is various suggestions for places to start, things that may happen, reasons why PCs are where they are. Im goign to make a bunch of index cards and draw them randomly and just go with it. Think Fiasco or Whos Line is it Anyway style. So id appreciate any suggestions for stuff to randomly draw from.

I literally did something very similar.
Most of my group I DM'ed for (game currently on hold indefinitely at the moment) had gone camping.
Several others joined us (who had never played D&D) but had wanted to.
So I went to the Wizards of the Coast site, grabbed their Level 1 characters, printed multiple of each and brought them.
Had people pick a number (1 through 10, and I'd give them the character that represented that number... so if they said 7, I gave them the 7th character. Then it was 1 through 9, then 1 through 8, rinse and repeat). Let them look over the characters (being Level 1 there wasn't much in the ways of skills and powers), so the biggest curve for the new folks was learning what a D8 and a D12 was and such.
I just made up one adventure (each night, two nights) pretty much on the spot. I let them do some crazy things I'd never normally allow in a game, and wasn't trying to kill them, but didn't feel bad (since these characters had no real time invested in their creation) if they took a lot of damage (or died).
It resulted in a very fun night. (http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-notes/adventure-notes-age-of-dragons/age-of-dragons-11-20/side-quest-jan-2018)

[Pex]

They wake up in a room together, some stuffed into bedrolls that aren't their own, armor and weapons and other gear close at hand. An elf or a fighter in the party is the PC closest to the door, possibly having woken up leaning against it. Who brought them here? Where is here? Who are these people?

All of them have unlikely backstories that would make them seem not even really adventurer material.

The truth is: this dungeon eats the last year of memories from anybody who sleeps in it. Sometime in the last year, the party formed, and they've been adventuring together for months. But now they don't remember each other.

Possible alternative: one of the players' characters is somebody who wanted in on this party, and thus is feigning being memory wiped, too. But he actually whammied them with a one-shot he'd procured so he could slip in and become one of them. Alternate alternative: he whammied himself, too, so that he would wind up thinking he was really a member, and his past would be impossible to figure out, making him the mysterious one.

Someone liked the show Dark Matter.
:smallbiggrin:

[moonfly7]

They're drow slaves
They are in a military unit together, possibly behind enemy lines.
Gladiators forced to fight as a team.
Prisoners.
Trapped in a house with a murderer.

[Tawmis]

Something dark has awakened in the forest and has begun killing animals, but more concerning, Elves.
- Roots of a massive tree have broke through an ancient tomb....
- Ancient energy has seeped up into the trees...
- Treants are now walking the woods
- Ancient elves from those tombs arise (ghouls)
- And Zombies (but note their elven appearance) and Skeletons
- The leader, still down in the tomb is a ghast (with a pack of ghouls)
- In order stop it, the party must venture down into the tomb and smash an ancient crystal
(Attempts to take it will corrupt the person who touches it for more than 2 hours, or siphons their life/soul, draining 1 point of CON every minute they touch it, requiring a long rest to regain 1D4 CON back).

And you can use this to generate your dungeon...
https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/

If you want story - it turns out these ancient elves relied heavily on magic (which Elves are all inherently born with, but someone never tap into that potential) - so these elves (ghouls and a ghast now) are actually siphoning the life force and magic from the Elves they capture to try and restore themselves... The Zombies were the care takers, and the Skeletons were the guards entombed to be their eternal guardians...

[DerficusRex]

Bear in mind that the DNDBeyond random character generator really means random: stats, class, and proficiency choices won't necessarily be matched up in a way that makes sense. Still very cool, as long as you're aware that something like a forest gnome paladin with 6 Str might be what you get out of it. :)

I usually use http://fastcharacter.com/ for quickie pregens if I want something I know will be more or less coherent.

As for ideas.. if everyone is pretty familiar with the game mechanics, I have a module somewhere (which I think is just titled Amnesia?) where the premise is that everyone just woke up with no memory of who they are. All players get a blank character sheet which they fill in by trial and error as they work to overcome obstacles. Haven't had a chance to run it yet, but it looks like a blast.

Gotta run for now, but I'll see if I can dig up details on where I got it later.

edit: It's called "Amnesia: Forgotten and Forsworn" by Two Bats Gaming.

Here's the DM's Guild link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/254692/Amnesia-Forgotten--Forsworn

[Nhorianscum]

So this Friday evening me and some friends are going to do a fun little 1 shot. Im going to generate a bunch of random level 1 characters from dnd beyond and give them randomly. What I need is various suggestions for places to start, things that may happen, reasons why PCs are where they are. Im goign to make a bunch of index cards and draw them randomly and just go with it. Think Fiasco or Whos Line is it Anyway style. So id appreciate any suggestions for stuff to randomly draw from.

The PC's are all familiars of an eccentric band of wizards who run a casino to fund their extensive research into probabilities. The main event is a race of the deadliest of sorts with the prize being the promised cheese and of course survival. Tonight is an all star special known as deathratrace 2000. The players must attempt to outrun, outfight, and outlive "Frankenbat" the 11 time champion. Frankenbat however is something... or someone else with an agenda greater than the race.

Index cards give our route through this maze board game style.

[Segev]

Someone liked the show Dark Matter.
:smallbiggrin:

Never even heard of it. This has been a campaign-start idea I've had since seeing a particular episode of One Piece. In the anime, it's clear to the audience what's happened, but I thought the premise would be interesting when the audience (in this case, the players) did not know what'd happened.

Were I to run it, I'd start by asking the players to each describe what they were doing the night before the game starts, and, if necessary, assure them I'd bring them together in-game. I'd then tell them they went to sleep as normal (or as they might expect from that description), and that they woke up in the described scenario. How'd they get there? Well, that's one of the things they'd need to find out....

I take it Dark Matter runs off this premise?