One-off suggestions? [3.5?]

[msully4321]

So, I'm in a bit of a pickle:
I'm running a weekly campaign that normally meets on Thursdays. This week, I had an exam Friday and decided to reschedule to Saturday. A couple hours ago, two of my five players reminded me that it is, indeed, Valentine's day, and as such they will be busy with their girlfriends.

So, I decided to run a one-off for several of my lonely single friends instead. The problem: with this short of notice, I'm not sure what I should run.

I probably want to run a DnD 3.5 game, but would consider other systems if they could be learned quickly and would work well for a one-off (I'm not particularly interested in running a 4e game).

Things I am currently considering are Tomb of Horrors and departing from DnD and running a Spirit of the Century one-off. The downside of Tomb of Horrors is that one of the players in my group has read it, and would thus need to be excluded. The downside of SotC is that nobody else is familiar with it and I have forgotten most of it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[AslanCross]

I suggest Hell's Heart. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20071031

It's set in Eberron, but I think it works fine. It's a shame there's no way to get the adventures that come before it, though.

[Adumbration]

The fact that one player has read through Tomb of Horrors shouldn't stop you, or force you to exclude the player in question. Just have a little chat with him/her, and tell hir that as long as (s)he won't metagame, (s)he can participate.

I'm going to run Tomb of Horrors myself one of these days, to a group which includes two people that have attempted to conquer the tomb - twice, and failed - plus a bunch of ToH virgins. I actually wouldn't mind if the veterans guided the newbies at least a bit, since I don't want to see the gargoyle head filled the third time. In the other hand, they'll probably - with sadistical glee - let them make their own mistakes.

Good times, good times... The last time I was one of the players.

[BobVosh]

Just move the traps around. Simple enough. Obviously some won't work, like the gargoyle mouth.

[Who_Da_Halfling]

You could always take the opportunity to make them fight things they would never normally have fought. You can make it an arena-like encounter, if you like, or just have them wandering through the wildnerness. I enjoyed throwing a T-Rex and Velociraptors at my party for a one shot.

I've found it really enjoyable to sort of pull out all the stops for a one-shot. After all, its one time when your players really don't care if their characters die. I mean, generally most players don't care anyway, but if the character you've spent months playing and building up gets eaten by a Dragon, it can be a little disheartening. A one-shot, on the other hand, everything's cannon fodder, PCs and monsters alike.

Particularly interesting could be to make your players play Evil characters so you can throw some Good-aligned monsters at them, just to see how they play. Most parties are at least Neutral and generally Good-leaning, so they'd never fight Metallic Dragons or Angels. See how they do.

-JM

[msully4321]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm looking over Hell's Heart now.

Also, some clarifications:
I'd like to do something in the level range 7-13, and while I don't care if we finish in one session, I do want it to be *awesome* in one session.

[msully4321]

It's been decided that is is a 9th level adventure for 4 people. Currently it's a tossup between Tomb of Horrors and The Dread Crypt of Srihoz, and any other suggestions that are made in the next hour.

Any other ideas? The only reason I hesitate on those is because I'm not sure I want it focused all on traps and undead, which both of those are.

Thanks!