Advice for oneshot for beginners?

[Avista]

I need to plan out a oneshot for a group of ~8 players who have never played D&D before. It's meant to be an introduction to the tabletop world.

1. I'm planning to stick to only the PHB. Is this a good idea, or should I go for the PHB+1 where the players can use one choice of supplementary material? I want to keep it simple but interesting. To clarify, there will be no homebrew material.

2. What level should I start the adventure off at? Level 1 seems pretty boring for just a 1 shot, but I don't want the group to spend too much time planning their characters. I'm asked to give a 'lesson' on game mechanics and character building, then run the one-shot the next day.

3. How important would you judge canon D&D lore to be for an introductory campaign? Should I go over basics (Drow are evil, elves snub humans, Beholders sleep for centuries) or just gloss it over completely to save time?

4. Is it a good idea to prep some character sheets on the side?

5. Any other advice you could share? Imagine the players have zero knowledge of what D&D is, and I should cover all the basics.

[Zhorn]

If it is a one shot AND for a group of players that have never played before, pre-gen characters is a good way to go. Character creation can easily become a huge time sink the more options are presented to a group and without system familiarity there is bound to be a lot of questioning and indecisiveness. Adding on levels beyond first and you can easily get a group chewing up a 4 hour session on this alone, especially with ~8 either coordinating with or distracting each other. Much more direct to introduce the players to the aspect of play is you just throw a character at them and launch into the first scenario

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets has a heap of pregens level 1-10.

[Rusvul]

Seconded re: pregens.

I wouldn't start your party any higher level than 3 or so. Low level enough that they don't have dozens of abilities to keep track of, but tough enough to feel like heroes.

I wouldn't worry about non-PHB books for a totally new crew. They're there for after your players learn the rules and get excited for more options and content. If that happens at some point after the oneshot, then I'd talk about other books with whoever's interested. I wouldn't use the PHB +1 rule in a home game--it makes some sense in AL, where regulation matters, but in a home game it'll be irrelevant to the players who aren't in it for the mechanics, and it'll feel arbitrarily limiting to the players who are.

I would start, right at the top, by giving a super basic explanation of the mechanics. "You have six ability scores, this is what they mean; when you do something, roll d20 plus bonuses; when you run out of hit points you start dying;" just the very very basics. You can explain all the fantasy tropes (which your players are very likely to be at least a little bit familiar with if they've had any exposure to fantasy in any medium) and more complex rules as they come up. If any lore is directly relevant to your starting adventure, I'd explain that up top as concisely as possible.

[Avista]

Alright, I'll definitely get some pre-gen, but the event planners asked me to set up a 'lesson' to teach the new players. There's going to be a session zero anyways so I can help them build characters if they want to. The one-shot is to be run the next day.

[Zhorn]

Alright, I'll definitely get some pre-gen, but the event planners asked me to set up a 'lesson' to teach the new players. There's going to be a session zero anyways so I can help them build characters if they want to. The one-shot is to be run the next day.
Event planners? Is this like a local game store event, or AL? Just looking for context.
8 players did sound like a lot for a first time group, but if this is a coordinated event, I'm guessing there are other tables each with relatively large groups? Has the event organiser arranged a theme or any content for you to work with?
What's the event and what led to your involvement?

[Avista]

Event planners? Is this like a local game store event, or AL? Just looking for context.
8 players did sound like a lot for a first time group, but if this is a coordinated event, I'm guessing there are other tables each with relatively large groups? Has the event organiser arranged a theme or any content for you to work with?
What's the event and what led to your involvement?

It's actually meant for a youth community club. We're organizing a bunch of events, and the club asked for tabletop games. Since I'm the only member who has any experience in that field, I got elected for it. :smalltongue:

I'm asked to create an introduction lesson, teach them how to play, then run a oneshot.