Crazy One-Shots

[Zaydos]

Well I just finished running a one-shot for 5 players (3 new to D&D completely). I had been given... around 10 minutes to plan. They made characters (most of my planning was during this) and we began.

They met in an inn, from an old campaign. The exalted monk started training his orphan army (he even took 6 ranks in profession Orphan Trainer). The dwarf got drunk off of her first beer (nat 1 on the Fort save). The ranger stopped being good aligned (he was nervous about playing good in the first place) when he started robbing unconscious people.

Then the guy the ranger robbed came out of the bath room, and the ranger buys him a drink (with the money he stole) and starts talking to him. He decides to ask about one of the objects he just stole and the guy was obviously worried about what happened to it. The guy stabs him (Imp Init and Quick Draw) with the shortsword he didn't steal. One quick bar brawl later (the victim took out the ranger in two hits but then got whacked by the half-troll orc barbarian bouncer) and the cleric is waking everyone up. The ranger lies about not being a thief and the psion gets a 29 on his sense motive before using Suggestion to get the ranger to return what he had stolen.

I had planned to use the fact that he stole a note to kick start the adventure, some sort of assassination plot on a minor noble.

Instead the PCs volunteered to be the ranger's parole officers, and help him perform community service.

So the innkeep gives them a mission from the bulletin board and one day later they are exploring the undercity and fighting psuedonatural ogres (which they call trolls... I don't know why but they've almost got me doing it), a cloaker (which ran away), and a mimic (which the monk grappled into submission... somehow).

They want it to become a campaign

So I've missed some of the crazy (apparently Profession: Orphan Trainer allows a 6th sense about when your orphans are threatened), but just wanted to share my crazy one shot and hear about others since I'm sure there's been other crazy one shots.

[Sillycomic]

I had an Easter inspired one shot last year that my players thought was absolutely amazing.

It started with an entire village of people made out of rock candy (miniatures were made out of rock candy). The village itself was being attacked by gummi bears (miniatures were gummi bears)

Turns out there was an evil rabbit that was behind all of it. They found out where his layer was, only to discover it was behind a locked door with several egg shaped key holes.

So, my adventurers had to go through a dungeon hunting for easter egg keys (I used Cadbury eggs). They encountered cockatrices (peets) and oozes (jelly beans)

And once they opened the door, there was a giant chocolate bunny inside (played by a giant chocolate easter egg bunny, with some gummi bear cohorts)

The players got to eat anything they killed.

It was pretty freaking hilarious. They laughed every time I pulled out a new "miniature" for them to fight. I had a wonderful time putting it together, and they had a wonderful time fighting/eating their way to victory.

[MeeposFire]

Whispers of the Vampires Blade is a great one shot adventure.

Ours included a gnome eating animal companion*, a druid thrashed by a swordsage gnome*, shapeshifter druid crashing a nice party, power ranger warforged combining into a megazord*, an airship battle, and the most infamous NPC in my game (the vampire in the story). Players loved it.

* These events are not stock for the adventure though they happened in our do to insanity and planning. There were warforged on a train but they do not normally combine that was my insanity.

[big teej]

I had an Easter inspired one shot last year that my players thought was absolutely amazing.

It started with an entire village of people made out of rock candy (miniatures were made out of rock candy). The village itself was being attacked by gummi bears (miniatures were gummi bears)

Turns out there was an evil rabbit that was behind all of it. They found out where his layer was, only to discover it was behind a locked door with several egg shaped key holes.

So, my adventurers had to go through a dungeon hunting for easter egg keys (I used Cadbury eggs). They encountered cockatrices (peets) and oozes (jelly beans)

And once they opened the door, there was a giant chocolate bunny inside (played by a giant chocolate easter egg bunny, with some gummi bear cohorts)

The players got to eat anything they killed.

It was pretty freaking hilarious. They laughed every time I pulled out a new "miniature" for them to fight. I had a wonderful time putting it together, and they had a wonderful time fighting/eating their way to victory.

do you mind if I steal this idea?

[Corronchilejano]

When I had only a couple of years of DMing on my belt, one of my players told me he had a few friends that wanted to learn more about this "D&D" thing. Of course, I prepared a session for them, and made them as I usually do for all newbies, appear in a tabern. They where 4 characters in all, a wizard, a rogue, a paladin and a fighter, this last one controlled by the only player that had any experience at all in D&D.

Now, the "experienced" player I placed him having dinner, completely unarmed, in the tabern. The hook was that he was supposed to be kidnapped by a group of bandits that wanted to exchange him for a certain item his father, a noble, had. The rest of the characters would follow the bandits and rescue him. That was the idea.

As SOON as we begin the session, all characters are in the tabern, and for reasons unknown to me to this day, the first thing the wizard does is stand up, walk up to the rogue, AND BURN HIS FREAKING FACE. He seriously unloaded a burning hands over the humanity of the poor rogue for no reason. The rogue player, obviously having no idea what the hell just happened, stabbed him back, and then, bar-brawling ensued.

At this point I started thinking that maybe I should've explained a bit more what "role playing" meant, until the Paladin went outside and called a couple of guards on horse over. "Finally some sanity!" I thought to myself.

Paladin: "Ok, have the guards gone in?"
Me: "Yes, you can see they approach both the spellcaster and the other villager and attempt to subdue them."
Paladin: "Good. I grab my rope, go inside and tie it to the middle pillar of the tabern."
Me: "... why would you..."
Paladin: "Now I tie that to the horses and scare them away."
Me: "What the f..."

The rogue and the fighter got out on time before the building collapsed, killing everyone inside. After that, more guards appeared and started fighting with the "paladin" that, against all odds, killed 13 before the last two got him. The rogue, with only 2hp left, tried to stab the fighter many times for no reason, until the fighter, understandably mad at this point, grappled him to unconsciousness, and then tied his legs to a horse, scaring him away too. Then he walked away into the sunset.

I've never had a more chaotic one timer in my life.

[rakkoon]

Were any of the players sober?

[Corronchilejano]

Were any of the players sober?

All of them.

Don't get me wrong, it was hilarious. It was just, completely and utterly pointless.

[Sillycomic]

do you mind if I steal this idea?

Of course, all yours. Just make sure to hide the miniatures until right before you have to use them. It was much more fun this way.

I did it right after Easter when all of this stuff was on clearance and super easy to find.