The Novie Dungeon Master: A Quick Guide To A 10 Minute One Shot
Mithic Realmz Newsletter #0016
So You Forgot To Bring Your Stuff For Today’s Game…
It happens to us all. At least once.
No actually, I’m ADHD and it happens to me all the fucking time.
You will do this and forget your stuff & often as well, even if you are not neurodivergent.
But today, you were biting at the bit to present your NEWLY crafted, 1st time, Imma going to BLOW their socks off one shot to your players!!!!!!
But you left your shit at home.
Fear not….
Preparation makes a good DM, and you can build a one-shot game in 10 minutes or less
I do this by making it really simple and it goes in hand to make it EASY on myself as well.
I work on 3 basic aspects almost like writing a script for a movie;
So first I work on whats my structure? Goal? - Plot? - Opening?
Secondly, I work on what’s today’s game style? Combat? - Social / Narrative? - Strategic or Adventure?
Finally, I work on what’s today’s game logistics? The Big Bad of the one-shot (for a combat style) the Goal Giver NPC (for a social / narrative) or a General, Duke or NPC Lord (for a Strategic / Adventure style)
I write out one or two sentences for each then start to ‘colour in’ more detail. This is handy if you pull a couple of NPCs or stat blocks for a creature or your BBEG of the one-shot session. If you have at least your 5E books with you, a quick look-up will help. But fear not even if you have forgotten these for your session, a quick search on the internet will save your bacon.
Whats My Structure? Goal? - Plot? - Opening?
Working on ‘what’s my structure?’, I myself, like to work from an end goal, then work towards the start. Or if your more linear in your structure, simply do a start - middle - finish.
The idea is to obtain the over-arching result of opening/plot/goal. Here are a few examples;
A dying wizard leaves you a map to go and Slay a dragon, to capturing the hoard of Dragon treasure.
Your PC’s local town mayor decrees you to capture the hold of the Kobold’s, therefore stopping the kidnapping of the town’s citizens’ and returning them home.
You helped a Thieves Guilds Master in a previous adventure so they request help to end the infighting between two rival thieves guilds, therefore negotiating a truce and deciding who gets to run the underworld of the city.
The Duke of <insert Kingdom name> quests your party to defend against a siege sacking of the local mountain tower, therefore saving the citizens from the denizens of hell.
The Head Sheriff of the city of the PC’s home asks for assistance from the PC’s to stop the Vampire continuing its reign of terror in the City, therefore saving the citizens to help bring you status, titles, etc.
The setting up of your opening/plot/goal gives your 1-2-3 start to flesh an outline of the one-shot.
What Today’s Game Style ?
This is simply your chosen thematic for the games one shot, overlaid on the games structure.
Combat? - Social / Narrative? - Strategic or Adventure?
Your one-shot will encompass some or all of these 3 themes.
For example;
The structure of ‘You helped a Thieves Guilds Master in a previous adventure so they request help to end the infighting between two rival thieves guilds, therefore negotiating a truce and deciding who gets to run the underworld of the city’ does lend strongly to a Social / Narrative Centrepoint.
The structure of ‘The Duke of <insert Kingdom name> quests your party to defend against a siege sacking of the local mountain tower, therefore saving the citizens from the denizens of hell’ heavily skews towards Strategic / Adventure, most likely with a heavy dose of combat
The structure of ’Your PC’s local town mayor decrees you to capture the hold of the Kobold’s, therefore stopping the kidnapping of the town’s citizens’ and returning them home’ lends heavily towards combat, with option for some social / narrative & strategic / adventure?
How you lead with your cues as DM and how the players react and play will determine the main thematic of the one-shot.
What’s Today’s Game Logistics?
This will most likely take up most of your 5-10 minutes as you quickly determine NPC’s, creatures / monsters, a map or locale and perhaps a BBEG for the one-shot.
If I have no info at all, I may do the following to determine the above
NPC’s if working for or with the party I have at least double the highest ranking PC in terms of all abilities, HP, spells, armour, weapons, what ever your NPC is expected to have. Their weapons will be of the best and highest quality and they will have the max HP for their level / class. This is also on the very rare occasion your PC’s decide to derail the adventure and attack the NPC expected to work with them!!!!
If you have encounters on the way or in the game setting, you will need stat blocks for your various creatures.
A quick way I determine CR ratings and XP (add another creature XP level for each level of a player, ie a 3rd level character will engage a quick challenge creature of 75 XP) for encounters is to do the following (2-4 encounters should be fair if the theme is combat-heavy);
Quick challenge = XP is 25 per creature. Creatures are CR & HP of half level or less of the PC’s. Total no# creatures do not exceed total party members + NPC helpers.
Creatures have no special skills / abilities
Fair challenge = XP is 35 per creature. Creatures are CR & HP of one level or less of the PC’s. Total no# creatures do not exceed total party members + NPC helpers + 2.
Creatures have a special skill or abilities
Hard challenge = XP is 50 per creature. Creatures are CR & HP of double the level of the PC’s. Total no# creatures do not exceed twice the party members + NPC helpers.
Creatures have special skills or abilities
Deathly challenge = XP is 150 per creature. Creatures are CR & HP of 2 to 2.5 the level of the PC’s. Total no# creatures do not exceed 2.5 times the party members + NPC helpers.
Creatures are known for several special skills or abilities
Stat blocks I determine by the type of creature that would make sense for its type of attacks as well as its damage (this is assuming I cannot use my books or search on the internet!), such as a bandit would have a bow or longsword as a weapon (1d8), a large lizard would have bite/claw/claw as an attack (1d12/1d6/1d6), a ghast would radiate fear (saving throw vs Constitution) and a successful claw or bite would cause paralysis + damage (1d8/1d8).
The stats for your BBEG I would do the following;
Humanoid based -
Class based
Double the level & double the HP+50 of the highest PC
At least one Magic weapon
One magical ability (if not a spell caster)
May likely also have underlings or minions
Non-Humanoid based -
Classic type based (Dragon, Demon, Undead, Large monster, Reptilian, Giant, creature humanoid, any creature type that does not use a PC class type, etc)
Double the level & double the HP+50 of the highest PC
At least two magical or natural ability weapons
May have multiple attacks
May have natural defence/abilities.
A sketch or pre-made map, locale, dungeon, area of your chosen focus.
Putting It Altogether, An Example?
Here is how I would do a quick 10 minute one-shot. Players are assumed to be 5th level.
Goal / Plot / Opening
An old wizard tasks your players to find a dark creature Knight, to return a magical ring it stole before the Death Knight opens a portal of to the nightmare dimension!
Players are advised the knight of darkness is holed up in an abandoned keep with floors below. Adventure awaits the party with most likely a final combat.
Creatures
18 death knights on the 3 floors below until the party reaches the Knight Of Sorrow.
Death knight (XP 150)
Undead
AC 14
Cleric turn table - 9 (2d6) turn only
no # appearing 3-5
HP 45-50
darkvision 120’
sword - ebony, radiates cold and a successful hit causes 1d10 freeze damage and 1d8 necrotic damage. Saving throws vs Constitution for half damage.
Mind magic, fear, sleep, poison, geas, etc have no effect
The Knight Of Sorrow (XP 500)
Undead
AC 17
Cleric turn table - 12 (2d6) turn only
no # appearing 1
HP 110
darkvision 120’
Radiates fear for 30 feet, save on CON or flee for 60 feet
Bastard Sword - ebony, radiates cold and a successful hit causes 1d10 freeze damage and 1d8, Necrotic damage. Saving throws vs Constitution for half damage.
Special - Power word Kill - save Constitution - 4 or fall to 0 HP
Command undead - Skeletons, zombies, ghouls within 120 feet
Mind magic, fear, sleep, poison, geas, etc have no effect
Ring of Asmodeos - Open a portal to the Realm Of Nightmare once per year. Portal remains open for 2 minutes, 20% a 1-3 creatures of nightmare will notice the portal and enter.
Map of the Keep (free version - https://www.patreon.com/posts/castle-dython-61152942)
Further Resources & Curated Content
Free one-shots to get you started - 25+ adventures
Ebooks - loads of ebooks on Drive Thru RPG