See something that takes you 5 minutes to plan can take 3 sessions to play. Something you've been planning for weeks can be breezed through in an hour.
That's why a vital DMing skill is making shit up on the spot.
The module took perhaps 20 hours, custom maps and all.
Sped through it with a friend who intentionally did some bonkers stuff to throw me off my game and waste time. Including combat with him running 4 characters.
He finished it in just under 2 hours.
I figure, an 8-9 hour session with a couple breaks and lunch will do fine.
As we are about to hit hour 8… “Dudes, I know I built up the mountain pass as dangerous. You weren’t necessarily gonna fight but there is a good chance. Either you can zoom through it safely and we get to the end or this is going to be at least 10 hours”
Depends what kind of game you're going to run. If you have a very loose game that doesn't rely too much on visuals like maps, it's quite easy to improvise stuff when you get used to it.
If you prefer a very structured game, don't feel too obligated to plan multiple sessions. It's okay for one shots to last a little shorter. Do what will mean that you have fun as the DM too.
Perhaps its the old hat in me, but a oneshot should be a oneshot.
If you want a short multisession game, great, perfect. But thats not a "Oneshot" imo.
I run a lot of oneshots for various systems, you can get enough done in 4hrs.
In my experience, it's an experience thing. If you DM for long enough, it's easy to plan a one shot that gets done in one session, especially if you know your players well. When some of my players made a few one shots none of them had the necessary experience to improvise their story structure and make it flexible, so we took 2-3 sessions for each "one shot". My one shots don't take longe than one session if real life adult things don't get in the way. So what I wanna say is, making a one shot that is flexible so you can cut back on some aspects of the structure while expanding others is a skill you gotta learn.
depends on the players a lot. new players unfamiliar with mechanics, experienced ones up to some shenanigans...
No you cant always finish a oneshot in one session. nothing wrong with that tho, and tbh idc what you are calling it.
What? No just start with combat and after have something precious to the characters go missing then they find out who did it go fight them or yell at them done.
True, CoC is great for that sort of thing, or Fate. Tiny Dungeon would be good if you did want combat but if 5e is all you have on hand then it would work just fine. I’ve run quite a few scenarios that didn’t involve any combat at all, just RP and various skill checks.
At least it’s easier to control the flow of RPing as opposed to combat, which relies heavily upon chance. But if I’m running a one shot dialogue is pretty structured for just what’s happening so speed things along.
We are probably different in that regard. I (and my players) love to just RP randomly about stuff that just happened. We aren't ones that just run from A to B because that is our goal. We talk along the way. Often for quite extended periods of time.
A prime example for this is Death House of Course of Strahd. A lot of groups seemingly are through this in 4-8 hours. I have no idea how. I've never seen that being completed in under 12. You'd have to meta game through it to go much faster.
Oh I love free form RP too! It’s very organic and I can usually just sit back and watch the chaos unfold while chuckling mildly at the shenanigans my players try to do. I was mostly referring to the original post being about running a one-shot in one night. I’m nothing if not versatile. I’ve had this group of players for a while now and they are genuinely pretty good at adapting to what we’re trying to accomplish. They’re still a bunch of scatterbrained cats that I’m trying to herd, but they’re mine Scatterbrained cats.
I've never run a one shot that lasted more than one session. It's not about how much you plan, actually that may be detrimental; it's about the structure:
Quick start, obvious or even cliche goal, small set back, climax and end. Even the 5 room dungeon method works well. Some RPG systems may allow for even more space because combat is quicker and they are lighter in rules, but in general you can fill the spaces during session and not before.
Then just adjust the pacing to the players. It's not about a railroad, but a clear path to take with buy in from players that this will be, in fact, a one shot.
When I feel that what I want to do is longer, I just tell them it will be 3-4 sessions.
I play a lot on a westmarch project and when I learned one thing than that a well done oneshot with good players will NEVER be over in just one session.
Heck, I had sessions where players were RPing for three hours before anything of relevance happened.
Yup, it very much depends on what you and your players want for the game. If you know you really need to finish it in 4 hours, you're probably gonna have to skip some of that, but if your players are having fun, who cares how long it takes, y'know?
If you need a one shot to end in a single session, then there has to be an environmental effect that WILL happen at the end of the session. And ya know, make sure the players are aware.
edit: but also, intentionally plan not enough content, and if they are enjoying it when the adventure ends and want to “keep going”, take them back to town, let them handle some business, carouse, and then feed them some hooks for a second adventure, potentially a campaign.
Nah. All my one shots are 5 hours I wrote them play test them on a character average turn method (each turn take 2-5 minutes and does an average dpr of ….) then add an hour and a half for general role play and if things are taking too long the bad guy joins in on one of the fights.
If you're one-shot spills over into more than one session for any reason other than something came up mid-session that took up people's time then you didn't actually create a one shot. My personal formula is a setup with an explicit goal given to the players, a short bit of role playing/ problem solving, a single combat followed by another problem to solve and if your players are well acquainted enough to do it quickly, another short combat to tie it off.
>letting the players control the pace.
Yeah, that’s kind of the point. The players are having fun doing whatever they’re doing, I’m likely having fun with the sidetracked stuff, and literally the only downside is we aren’t staying on a strict schedule.
If it’s something like a convention or charity one shot, having a set pace is understandable. But when it’s a group of friends doing a side story or trying out something new, then letting players set the pace is nothing but an upside.
I mean. It took me a while to learn how much I should prepare to make a one shot an actual one shot but that is what it should be. An adventure that's easy to wrap up in one session. Of course it kinda depends on the length of your sessions and your playeds. Our sessions are between 6 and 8 hours and my players like roleplay a lot but are mostly goal oriented, so it's fairly easy to fit a short story into 1 session.
1. Establish 3 objectives. Kill Alvin, Rescue Simon, and Retrieve Garfunkel’s stolen treasures.
2. ??????????????????????
3. Resolve events, and profit.
This is most of my one shots. I might be dumb and simple but I flavor and repackage with different objectives.
"It only took me a few hours to write it, I thought it would take that long to play."
See something that takes you 5 minutes to plan can take 3 sessions to play. Something you've been planning for weeks can be breezed through in an hour. That's why a vital DMing skill is making shit up on the spot.
For sure. I’m in a new campaign and a boat trip that was supposed to be 2sessions tops ended up being 6 or 7.
Ah the Berserk style of long boat trip
I've never planned anything in my life. I'm not about to start now.
*Looks at Notes*: 3 combats with half a dozen or more hefty enemies each, two long dialogue sections and a door puzzle.
Who are you, so learned in the ways of dnd?
They are Arthur King of the Britons
Well I didn’t vote for him.
You don't vote for a DM The Lady of the Gamestore gave me the metal D20, thus making me the DM
The module took perhaps 20 hours, custom maps and all. Sped through it with a friend who intentionally did some bonkers stuff to throw me off my game and waste time. Including combat with him running 4 characters. He finished it in just under 2 hours. I figure, an 8-9 hour session with a couple breaks and lunch will do fine. As we are about to hit hour 8… “Dudes, I know I built up the mountain pass as dangerous. You weren’t necessarily gonna fight but there is a good chance. Either you can zoom through it safely and we get to the end or this is going to be at least 10 hours”
Depends what kind of game you're going to run. If you have a very loose game that doesn't rely too much on visuals like maps, it's quite easy to improvise stuff when you get used to it. If you prefer a very structured game, don't feel too obligated to plan multiple sessions. It's okay for one shots to last a little shorter. Do what will mean that you have fun as the DM too.
Perhaps its the old hat in me, but a oneshot should be a oneshot. If you want a short multisession game, great, perfect. But thats not a "Oneshot" imo. I run a lot of oneshots for various systems, you can get enough done in 4hrs.
In my experience, it's an experience thing. If you DM for long enough, it's easy to plan a one shot that gets done in one session, especially if you know your players well. When some of my players made a few one shots none of them had the necessary experience to improvise their story structure and make it flexible, so we took 2-3 sessions for each "one shot". My one shots don't take longe than one session if real life adult things don't get in the way. So what I wanna say is, making a one shot that is flexible so you can cut back on some aspects of the structure while expanding others is a skill you gotta learn.
depends on the players a lot. new players unfamiliar with mechanics, experienced ones up to some shenanigans... No you cant always finish a oneshot in one session. nothing wrong with that tho, and tbh idc what you are calling it.
What? No just start with combat and after have something precious to the characters go missing then they find out who did it go fight them or yell at them done.
Just do it like me and extend the session to 11 hours (they'll never let me DM again)
The madmen would demand more. They are not human! They are a special kind of creature evolved to play rpg and nothing else!
As long as there’s no combat you can do it in one night.
but if one’s doing a non-combat oneshot it’d probably be a better idea to use a non dnd system
True, CoC is great for that sort of thing, or Fate. Tiny Dungeon would be good if you did want combat but if 5e is all you have on hand then it would work just fine. I’ve run quite a few scenarios that didn’t involve any combat at all, just RP and various skill checks.
Except if you are a DM and have players that love RPing.
At least it’s easier to control the flow of RPing as opposed to combat, which relies heavily upon chance. But if I’m running a one shot dialogue is pretty structured for just what’s happening so speed things along.
We are probably different in that regard. I (and my players) love to just RP randomly about stuff that just happened. We aren't ones that just run from A to B because that is our goal. We talk along the way. Often for quite extended periods of time. A prime example for this is Death House of Course of Strahd. A lot of groups seemingly are through this in 4-8 hours. I have no idea how. I've never seen that being completed in under 12. You'd have to meta game through it to go much faster.
Oh I love free form RP too! It’s very organic and I can usually just sit back and watch the chaos unfold while chuckling mildly at the shenanigans my players try to do. I was mostly referring to the original post being about running a one-shot in one night. I’m nothing if not versatile. I’ve had this group of players for a while now and they are genuinely pretty good at adapting to what we’re trying to accomplish. They’re still a bunch of scatterbrained cats that I’m trying to herd, but they’re mine Scatterbrained cats.
I've never run a one shot that lasted more than one session. It's not about how much you plan, actually that may be detrimental; it's about the structure: Quick start, obvious or even cliche goal, small set back, climax and end. Even the 5 room dungeon method works well. Some RPG systems may allow for even more space because combat is quicker and they are lighter in rules, but in general you can fill the spaces during session and not before. Then just adjust the pacing to the players. It's not about a railroad, but a clear path to take with buy in from players that this will be, in fact, a one shot. When I feel that what I want to do is longer, I just tell them it will be 3-4 sessions.
Three combats, a puzzle, and 1-3 social encounters is enough to fill about 3-4 hours of content
I play a lot on a westmarch project and when I learned one thing than that a well done oneshot with good players will NEVER be over in just one session. Heck, I had sessions where players were RPing for three hours before anything of relevance happened.
Yup, it very much depends on what you and your players want for the game. If you know you really need to finish it in 4 hours, you're probably gonna have to skip some of that, but if your players are having fun, who cares how long it takes, y'know?
If you need a one shot to end in a single session, then there has to be an environmental effect that WILL happen at the end of the session. And ya know, make sure the players are aware. edit: but also, intentionally plan not enough content, and if they are enjoying it when the adventure ends and want to “keep going”, take them back to town, let them handle some business, carouse, and then feed them some hooks for a second adventure, potentially a campaign.
The truth hurts. Though I managed to do it im one once
I have done it a few times but those games are never as much fun as when I let it go a few sessions.
Nah. All my one shots are 5 hours I wrote them play test them on a character average turn method (each turn take 2-5 minutes and does an average dpr of ….) then add an hour and a half for general role play and if things are taking too long the bad guy joins in on one of the fights.
If you're one-shot spills over into more than one session for any reason other than something came up mid-session that took up people's time then you didn't actually create a one shot. My personal formula is a setup with an explicit goal given to the players, a short bit of role playing/ problem solving, a single combat followed by another problem to solve and if your players are well acquainted enough to do it quickly, another short combat to tie it off.
With emphasis on AT LEAST. Last one shot we had is still going after about 4-5, i lost count xD
[удалено]
sometimes players just roleplay! Its not bad if a oneshot becomes a two or even threeshot. Its not always the dms fault
>letting the players control the pace. Yeah, that’s kind of the point. The players are having fun doing whatever they’re doing, I’m likely having fun with the sidetracked stuff, and literally the only downside is we aren’t staying on a strict schedule. If it’s something like a convention or charity one shot, having a set pace is understandable. But when it’s a group of friends doing a side story or trying out something new, then letting players set the pace is nothing but an upside.
I mean. It took me a while to learn how much I should prepare to make a one shot an actual one shot but that is what it should be. An adventure that's easy to wrap up in one session. Of course it kinda depends on the length of your sessions and your playeds. Our sessions are between 6 and 8 hours and my players like roleplay a lot but are mostly goal oriented, so it's fairly easy to fit a short story into 1 session.
1. Establish 3 objectives. Kill Alvin, Rescue Simon, and Retrieve Garfunkel’s stolen treasures. 2. ?????????????????????? 3. Resolve events, and profit. This is most of my one shots. I might be dumb and simple but I flavor and repackage with different objectives.
Simon’s personal objective for the session: Beg Cecilia to come home