One-shots have many differences compared to long campaigns. These
differences can make for unique challenges but also for unique
experiences. The unique constraints often lead to different
approaches out of pure necessity, but also new challenges. I can't
possibly go over every challenge that could come up, but I hope to go
over some of the most important ones. It also let's me put my
thoughts down in a coherent way, which is always a plus. You don't
realize some things until you try to write them down, after all.
Ideal Length
This kind of thing often comes down to person preference. However I
find that 4 hours tends to work best for me. It gives a good amount
of time to work with, and is still feasible amount of time for
guests. Admittedly it gets kind of close to being too long for a lot
of people, but that's roughly where you'd want it I think. A length
of time as long as possible but still not inconvenient for your
players. 2 hours can work too, but it's a very different skill. You
need to be extremely precise and prepared for those kinds of
situations and may need to push things along at times to keep them
moving at the desired pace. Some groups can spent that long in an inn
talking about the last adventure so it really is a challenge.
However, it can also be a great experience because there is no filler
or anything unnecessary. It's the condensed best things you could
come up with.
What I Want
Typically when planning a one-shot, there are a few things I want. I
want at least one major and iconic role-play situation. It's the kind
of thing that right after, days later, perhaps even years later, they
will talk about fondly. I also want to include some kind of combat
encounter. People typically like their combat encounters so I usually
feel that I want to have at least one. This way the decision of what
character they chose means something. Otherwise, players who enjoy
the combat aspect will tend to feel like I wasted their time forcing
them to pick between a barbarian and a fighter.
I also find I get the best results if there is something else
happening in the encounter. It could be the whole place collapsing on
their heads, it could be someone trying to escape with something
important, it could be an attempt to buy time while a baddie opens a
portal to hell. It could also be something unique about the combat
encounter itself, such as a creature capable of hiding in shadows or
fog that uses hit and run tactics. Again, what I found best here is
if there is some problem they need to solve. Everything I mentioned
previously, put another way, is just a problem I'm presenting the
players beyond “kill everyone”.
Pre-Generated Characters
Pre-generated characters can be a massive boon in these kinds of
situations. It can be a lot to ask someone to create a character for
a 2 hour session. This is especially true if the person never played
a tabletop game before and you want to introduce them. In these cases
you could whip one up yourself quickly a head of time after asking
your players what kind of character they'd like to play.
It can also be a surprisingly good change to not come up with your
own character. It's a great way to break a rut and it's also very
safe. If it turns out you don't feel like you have a lot to work with
the character you chose, you may never use them at the end of the
session anyway. At the best case scenario though, you could find
yourself enjoying a very different experience. Of course, a pre-gen
character still leaves a lot of room for a player to make the
character their own. You are given a starting point but where you take the character is up to
you. It's the being pushed out of your comfort zone that can lead to
great new experiences, though I must also preface this thought with the
admission that it doesn't always work out. However, it can still be that all important seed.
Different seeds can grow to different results.
Having this kind of power is also interesting from the perspective of
a Dungeon Master. It further lets you have an element of control over
the session and can be an opportunity to say something about the
world. Limiting abilities and classes does the same, but it's a
different mechanism. I would never advocate preventing players from
making their own characters when they want to. It pays off massively
from the perspective of player engagement. However, if you find
yourself in a situation where you need pre-generated characters
because your players won't have the time to create a character from
scratch before the session, want the challenge or whatever other
reason, it's a valid option. Some players don't mind the challenge either. They may in fact welcome a new character they never would've played had they had that control. If you have these players, there is nothing wrong with giving them what they want.
The Setup
Setup time is a big enough problem in long campaigns. Since we have
even less time to work with, having things run like a well oiled
machine is even more important. 10 minutes out of 4 hours may not
feel like a long time during play to wait, but the number of things
you could have done with those 10 minutes is surprising. It's also
one of the easiest things to trim down while not drastically changing
the adventure itself. Overrunning the time limit is very common.
If you can, have the rooms ready to go if you are using tiles. It
always amazes me how much time this ends up saving over the course of
a session. For a massive mega dungeon this isn't always possible,
especially when using 3D dungeon tiles. However, you probably aren't going to
be running a massive mega dungeon in 4 hours. If you can't get all of
the rooms ready ahead of time, get as many as you can and have the remaining rooms planned out. With fewer rooms it's easier to
remember, and you'd want to have notes ready as well. This goes for
more than just the arrangement of tiles. You'll want to have well
organized notes ready if you are like me. It speeds things up, helps
me immensely, and at such a smaller scale tends to be easily
manageable. The less amount of time looking at rules, the better.
The Ending
The ending is very important for a one-shot. You aren't building to
something in the future like you can do in a normal campaign. This is
where all the build up throughout the adventure was leading. It's now
or never. Now, I'm not saying that you should always give your
players exactly what they want. Most of the time you probably should
come close, but ironically giving your players exactly what they want may not be what your players want. Making it just slightly different
enough to have a bit of a surprise often works well from my
experience. It's the idea of giving your players what they want even if it's not the specifics they would have told you. Again though, you'll need to know your players. The ending doesn't necessarily always need to be
completely satisfying from a writing and character perspective. It
needs to make sense, be shaped by your players through their actions,
and bring satisfaction to your players. What would satisfy the
player's character and what would satisfy the player do not
necessarily align. Some character's players even create characters
that they want to be unsatisfied and lead to tragic results.
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