What would you expect from 5e one-shot?

This is kind of interest check and kind of research. Or just sharing my feelings about one-shots.As a player I'm used to analyse what I like and what I don't. Here is what I think as a player:How about you? What could you tell about your pros cons on one-shot content. What differentiate a good, involving one-shot from a boring one? Perhaps I can run a one-shot just like you prefer it?!

P.S. Please also share with me any posts or videos on the topic.

I think the 5 Room Dungeon is a great example of a One Shot.

Coping a little from the link below
Room One: Entrance And Guardian
Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge
Room Three: Trick or Setback
Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict
Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist

https://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/

I tend to run one-shot as an intro to a system or to my style, and play in the for similar reasons, so what I want out of them is a showcase of the system/to know if I want to continue playing games with the DM

(This is due to our rpg club basically running lots of intro sessions I used to run for to bring new players into the hobby, and each campaign run through the society is encouraged to do a one of so people can try out the system and the DM)

So I tend to expect a mix of everything. A but of social at the start to introduce the concept of role playing. Give the players various optiin to find the 'dungeon/goal' so they don't feel railroaded, work with their ideas even if uts not a plannned one,

The a bit of puzzle/dungeon to showcase different ways you can solve problems, like with skills checks, and yes combat.

I get where you ar going with the final boss but I find for newbies it really works (especially the greater cliche of it being a dragon) as it generates excitement.

I can't answer for people who play one-offs for the sake of one offs. I'm a campaign girl throyg and through :p

Looks like you might want to look into other system and (maybe) adapt them? Maybe a bit more investigative driven?

I ran a Shadows Over Sol one shot with people completely new to the hobby and, true fires were shot, but they didn’t have to 😅 it was mostly about making players distrust each other and figure out their secrets.

No final boss, NPCs that are meant to just die so not that much social interaction, and the ending is up to how the players deal with each other.


Easy to adapt the spaceship into some old ruins

With a one shot I like a little bit of fighting. A little bit of exploration, and some role playing that doesn't get tedious. You need good clues as to what is the direction you want your group to head to. With a few reminders so that they stay on task.

In a one-shot I would like a 1-2 puzzles and 2-3 encounters. And I would like to have it above lev 5

Well, it seems like none of the suggested ideas really align with what GreyWord said they're interested in 😄 I do think that that is at least partially because Grey's thoughts seem to go a bit against the "classic" D&D expectations, so maybe CESN has the right idea by suggesting to look a bit into other systems.

I did about 40+ DnD one shots the last 12 month on roll20, because some groups merged, all of us wanted to test this and that and nobody was in the mood for DMing a campaign. Level 3-20 adventures.


My takeaways so fare have been:

- Be generous as a DM. It is a one shoot.
After this evening these decisions aren't significant ever again. Even more so if you play with newbies.
If they want to do the epic backflip from the back of the dragon as a bonus action, allow them to do it. If they want to play a tempest cleric of Thor in the forgotten realms, permit them to do it. If the fey wanderer hasn't any connections to fey, but follows the moon goddess instead - accept it. If the Echo of the Echo Knight is an "Echo animal friend" - grant them that!
It's no multi year campaign where such decisions suffer consequences for years to come.
It is all for one pleasant evening.


- Mix it up story wise.
Not every time: first the story hook with its mystery/murder/mcguffin, ... second the fact finding/follow the trail/leads/breadcrumbs, ... and then the end fight.
We did thrilling chases, huge mass battles, cineastic battles (roll your highest attribute and everything above 10 is the number of enemies you kill - discribe how you do it!), (air) ship battles, been thrown into a heist right from the start.


- Be as creative with you character as a player.
Do the drunken minotaur mage, the nasty high elf barbarian, the what ever you've seen yesterday on TV that sparked your imagination. It is a one shot. The most entertaining idea wins! Or don't and test the broken build you always dreamed of testing.
It is a one shot, play what ever you want.
Even if everybody got the same idea: 3 Bards and 2 fey warlocks? Best adventure ever. 2 clerics and 2 sorcerers? Hold tight DM!


- If it is PnP: bring props.
Hourglass, stuffed animal, cheap 3D puzzles, wooden models, ... always a hoot. People will remember the toy much better than any plot you spent hours on thinking through. Believe me. *g*


- If you offer to do a high level one shot, let them do high level shit.
Nothing is more of a let down, then thinking about your level 15 bladewilding mage for 3 days and nights - then it is a pure social/puzzle adventure with no chance to shine with your skills/spells/specialties.


- Don't disappoint your players. Give them something to shine.
(Without a fight some classes/characters will be useless. It is DnD, after all.)


- Make it an interesting fight.
Bring on interesting things. Environment (Lava pools, elevators, traps, sinkholes, moveable walls, the pursuit of a carriage, riding a giant turtle/dragon/tanker, ...), layer actions, area attacks, every round one row of fields is eaten by fire = room gets scarce, ...
Make it rememberable instead of just throw some dice to battle HP down.


- A good one shot can be a brilliant two-shoot,
but things should have an end. Hardwon victory & fame or crushing defeat and TPK. It doesn't matter. A definitive ending is important. :)



All of the above may not necessarily be true for every table/group/gathering, just my 2 cents. :]

By the way: more Dnd 5e one shots please!!! *g*

All great suggestions by fellow DMs. Useful stuff, thanks. Still hope to hear player's feedback. And players interest in a one-shot here on gamersplane. So far only @soises seems to be interested

I loved playing in the one-shot you ran on here as a prelude to ToM.

As a player, I’d love to play in a tier 3+ game, and really get to finally try out some of these high level abilities/spells.

Would also love to take on challenges that are more significant, with powerful foes that have major consequences.

I enjoy creating quirky characters, so games where there are a bit of social interaction where a unique character’s voice can be played out sounds fun.

All my one shots have been done as a player on my side. Sorry if I was unclear.

All of the above mentioned points I hope to find in a one shot. (Generous DM, clever character concepts, divers fights, ...)


And I agree with grifters post above this one a 100% as well. :]

Thanks for your feedback again. I'm working now on a concept for a one-shot that would feature:
1. 5e LVL 10 (well maybe 12 if players insist) PCs with 5,000 gp, three uncommon magic items, one rare item, normal starting equipment
2. Contain a number of challenges of different types (social/deception, puzzle, cover-ops, etc.) with option to skip some of them and even come of with your own shortcuts to break/avoid any
2'. For PBP I would even encourage party split to let each PC shine on what he is best at.

3. Failing each challenge will trigger a combat
4. Final BigBoss fight. Preferably Extra-Huge-Boss :)
5. High stakes of mission success - preventing "end-of-world"

Will be hiring soon, stay tuned. Meanwhile - any more feedback or ideas appreciated.

Oooh. High level!!!

This sounds great! Very interested.

Please make it 13 and fullfill a wet DnD dream of mine! XD

I would love to see how 5E goes at a higher level than 1 or 2... lol

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

I will add my voice to liking high-level one shots (tier iii and iv). It's so rare that a campaign that starts at level 1 gets past tier ii, and I've played so many characters that never got past 3rd level. Nice thing about a high-level one shot is that it's not a big deal if all those world-shattering high level powers actually shatter some of the world. Won't be coming back to it.

As for specifics? I want some fighting, for sure. Most D&D classes are built around what they can do in combat. I don't want a one-shot to be too sandboxy. There's only so much time in the one shot, and I don't want to waste a lot of it just talkin in circles about what the party wants to do.

An advantage of a boss fight at the end is that it's an opportunity to really push the envelope with a deadly encounter. If characters die in the boss fight, the players still got to play their characters through the whole session. But if you put a really deadly encounter in the middle of the one-shot, you could TPK your group half-way through, which would leave a bumpy ride for the rest of the session (if there is a rest of the session). The alternative, I guess, is not having any extremely deadly encounters, which is actually fine sometimes. But sometimes not. Depends on the players.

For me, I generally want there to be more than just rote combat or purely functional social interaction with no flavor to it. I want the game to give me a feeling of actually interacting with part of the fictional world and not just checking off boxes to progress the scenario. To that end, I think the GM's handling of the scenario is more important than the actual scenario itself.

Even a straight forward, cliched scenario setup can be fun and interesting if the GM injects personality into the NPCs, and especially if they play off the personalities of the players. With that being said, I think being able to make meaningful choices is key. As OP said I simply hate when DM ask us to make decision if we go left door or right door when both doors are exactly the same and there is no way telling what could be behind them..

Give me an environment with meaningful things to interact with. It's okay to advance from one pre-scripted event to another, but give open ended choices on how to deal with the pre-scripted event or at least open ended choices on how we advance from one to another. Don't give me one obvious choice of where the scenario is supposed to advance and no other meaningful descriptions and then ask "Do you want to go there?" If the choices are between "continue playing the scenario or do nothing", then the GM might as well just automatically advance the party to the next spot rather than asking.

Finally, while not strictly necessary, some kind of twist in the middle or towards the end can be really fun in a one shot. One recently memorable scenario I played was a prison break, where we kept hearing about these infamous criminals who were also being held in the prison. When we inevitably ended up confronting them, it turned out one of them was just really dumb and super strong. He had this reputation for being this evil serial killer, but ultimately he just wanted to hug everyone and accidentally killed them with his strength. That gave us the opportunity to try to convince him to go hug his boss, and it turned into a fun bit of hot potato where his boss would try to send him right back at us for hugs.