We all know how it goes. You’re young and full of energy, you play D&D five times a week for seven hours per session and three one-shots on the weekend.
Then life hits you and you start reducing the number of sessions you play, each of them lasting fewer and fewer hours until you start getting players dropping like flies left and right. One of them has unexpected events happening, another one gets sick, and you reschedule the sessions over and over. Even one-shots are hard to organize, and making one that lasts actually one session becomes suddenly very important.
I played and homebrewed a lot of one-shots in my DMing career, and, trust me, finding or writing one that actually lasts for one session of three to four hours, is a challenge.
In this post, I will show you what is my tested method to create one-shots that actually last three hours. Let’s dive in!
What is a one-shot
Before we learn how to create a one-session one-shot, let’s understand what is a one-shot.
A D&D one-shot, same as with any other tabletop role-playing game one-shots, is a very simple session that starts and ends in one session only. The entire story is concentrated in a few hours of game time and players can explore it in its entirety in a single session. Most of the time is very linear as well since there is no time for an open world to explore.
Put one more NPC, one more location, or one more encounter, and the one-shot will last one hour longer, potentially ending in two sessions or more.
The K.I.S.S. method
Keep It Simple, Stupid. That’s it. This, in short, is all there is about the method. Let’s break it down into parts and see what the elements of a short one-shot are, what you should put into it, and what you should avoid.
Character creation
Characters created by your players for a one-shot should be simple and not necessarily need to know each other beforehand. There’s no need for a long, deep background. Something along the lines of “I’m searching for my lost kids” is more than enough for the character. I, personally, don’t ask for a background story at all, or for personality traits, bonds, etc.
The characters are meant to vanish after this session, what’s the point of spending so much time trying to integrate their story into your already short storyline? If you extend it to fulfill the background of each character, you can easily end up with a short campaign of multiple sessions.
Have your players roll for their ability scores or use the standard array, the personality traits and flaws will come out as they roleplay their characters, there’s no need to write them down.
All the players need to decide is their race, class, and what kind of character they want to create. Is it a deep serious kind-of-person, or a quicky barbarian? They can role-play it like that and that’s all, they will be fun and interesting characters most of the time.
Setting and background story
Should you choose an existing setting like Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, etc. or should you use your homebrew setting?
That’s up to you. Either of them works, but the players should not need to read a PDF file in order to know the lore of the world. They are not involved in the story, they are not the ones who are gonna save this world, they are here for a simple single mission and then leave, never to be seen again most likely.
If you want to set your one-shot into your own homebrew world, make sure that the one-shot’s story is independent of your main storyline and that it can be played with no background of what’s going on at all, except a few lines that introduce the one-shot’s storyline.
Here is an example of the storyline for one of my one-shots:
Dalgram Starkhammer, burgomaster of the dwarves mining town of Dorbor, hired you as a SAR (search and rescue) team.
The 6th mining team sent last into the gems mine nearby never returned. The entrance collapsed and the miners could not find another way in.
Your party must reach the mine, find a way to enter, and rescue the miners. Additionally, learn why the mine’s entrance collapsed. The burgomaster claims that it was very secure and regularly checked.
There’s no background of Dorbor or the continent. The players don’t need to know about it and don’t care.
NPCs in your one-shot
Limit NPCs to the minimum number required for the story to work. My general rule is to have one NPC that is your quest giver, and eventually, one more social encounter with a second NPC, being that a shop owner, a guard, or someone else that can share important information.
If you put a tavern in your town and you mention it, be sure that the party will go check it out and spend at least 30 minutes talking to everyone there and none of them would have any relevant information for the story. It’s just time wasted and your one-shot will get longer and longer.
Have one NPC that gives them the main quest and tells them all the things they need to know in order to get started. Send them off to a second location, if you have the time for it. A shop to get some provisions or some other place to gather a bit more information would be a nice idea. Then set them on the way to the real deal.
Limit your combat encounters
Combat encounters should be limited to the bare minimum. In my one-shots, I usually have two combat encounters.
- Random encounter or encounter mid-way through the one shot.
- Boss encounter
I prefer putting an encounter close enough to the boss so that the players don’t have much time to rest before entering the boss’s room. This helps me drain their resources before they get to fight the Big Bad Evil Guy.
Have simple puzzles
I recommend having one puzzle for the players to solve before they get to the boss. The puzzle should be simple so that it can be solved rather quickly but not simple enough that it can be solved in five minutes.
You can use the puzzle ideas from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or make your own. With experience, you will learn to make puzzles that are not too easy and not too hard. So just keep trying and you’ll figure it out. Also, Reddit is an invaluable resource when it comes to puzzle ideas (and more).
Locations and maps for one-shots should be basic
Limit the locations that can be explored. The starting location of a one-shot should be simple and without too many places to visit or be sure that the party will visit them. If you put them in a town, make it as big as you want, but do not mention the amazing taverns, gambling rooms, shops, and brothels that are in there.
Send them straight to the location where they get their quest, and then try to send them off to your adventure location.
Speaking of the adventure location, try to find or create a map that is simple to navigate. If you set your story in a dungeon or a cave, make sure that is straightforward to the boss room or important encounters.
Usually, I have a single corridor that leads to a splitting point. Both of them will converge to the same place so it doesn’t really matter which one they pick but it gives them the feeling that they can choose their destiny. After that, maybe one extra room for a medium-to-hard combat encounter, and shortly after I put the boss room.
Look, for example, at this map by Elysium Cartography:
The players would enter the mine from the left side, go to the storage room on the bottom right, and then choose where to go from there. Regardless of where they go, they would end up in the top right room, and following the narrow path between the walls on the top, they would reach the boss room.
They can quickly explore the entire mine. Have one encounter in the top right or left room, maybe some secret items in the storage protected by a simple puzzle, or pieces of lore if you want, so that they understand what happened here, and that’s all. Exploring this mine will take easily a couple of hours.
Narrate the aftermath
This step is up to you. If you have time left for your one-shot session, have the party go back to the quest giver and collect their reward. If not, right after the boss fight, have them role-play between themselves for a few minutes, and as soon as they start heading back, stop them and narrate instead everything from leaving the place to collecting their reward.
Keep It Simple, Stupid
This is my K.I.S.S. method to homebrew one-shots or change existing ones I find online. I tested it with several one-shot sessions and they always last between three and four hours.
To recap:
- Characters should be simple, no need for backgrounds and traits;
- The setting should be independent and without any lore to read;
- Limit the number of NPCs that the party interacts with;
- Limit the number of combat encounters to two or three;
- Use simple puzzles, if you want to;
- Use maps that are easy to navigate and lead quickly to the boss room.
Although you will have the feeling that the story will last only 10 minutes, trust me, it will last a few hours. In your mind, it plays out smoothly and quickly, but the players are not aware of anything and will need to explore the story by themselves. It will take them a few hours to do this.
What is your method to homebrew short one-shots?
Did you play or homebrew a one-shot that ended up lasting several sessions? What made it so long?
What was the shortest one-shot you played or homebrewed?
Let me know in the comments below!
If you want to see this method in action, you can book a session with me both online or in-person, if you are in Bucharest!
