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Greetings everyone. I've been writing posts about the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game for a while now, and it's very important to me that they are actually usable and tangible examples. Because it is necessary to give tips that people who will read these articles can actually apply. I don't want it to be like recipes that don't give any information and tell a story.
Long story short, if you have decided to read this article, I will talk about what you need to do to prepare for your first DND or other RPG tabletop game. In tabletop games, being a game master is actually not a difficult thing. It just requires preparation. That's why I will share what you can pay attention to while making this preparation. I have played games with many groups as a dungeon master for a few years. I hope my experience will be useful to you. Let's get started.
First of all, a one-shot dungeons and dragons game is a kind of game where you can sit down with your friends for one evening and finish the game in the same evening. Usually the stakes are low and fun. Players can try out character concepts they want to try out, or people who are dungeon masters can try out new concept games. It's a type of game where you don't want to spend a lot of effort but still want to play short adventures that you think are cool. It usually takes 3-5 hours. It does not require excessive attention like a big game. The history of your characters is not very important.
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1. Choose Your Theme
The theme of a game is very important. In one-shot RPG tabletop games, you need to think carefully about your theme, that is, what kind of experience you want your players to have. If you want a horror theme, you need to make a note of that. Prepare some candles. Arrange a dark and dim room. Choose your music accordingly. If you want to play a game on the theme of bank robbery, that will be completely different. Maybe, you want to play a game set in space. But remember that the games we call one-shots are 3-4 hour games. Space themed game can take a long time for example, depending where you are starting at.
All the experiences I have had so far have been that the games I prepared for 3-4 hours usually extended to 8 or more hours. Maybe, it has something to do with the fact that my group likes to chat and want to know the life stories of all the NPCs they see. For this, I recommend you to be determined after choosing your theme. Do not expand. Keep it simple.
We will prepare accordingly as well. The theme I will choose today will be a tavern fight.
2. Choose The Story Of The Game
Choosing the story of your Dungeons and dragons game doesn't mean you have to write it from start to finish. Never do that. You just create conflict and your work is finished. Choosing the story is as simple as thinking about the main events and the goals of the NPCs behind these events.
Based on the examples above, in a horror setting, the story might take place in a graveyard. One of the characters could be a gravedigger, and in order for this man to feed the horror element, you can talk about him in a calm and slow voice, you can mention that his movements are strange.
The main story could be hunting the shadow creature in this graveyard. It doesn't matter who your adventurers get this quest from. Start at the entrance of the graveyard and say that they received this mission from their grandpa and it is scooby doo now. Say it is from old rich mysterious man and it is horror now...
Another example is the robbery theme. This time you might need to think of a lot of NPCs. What is the bank like? Is it one of the western banks, like in the old movies or is it more like a bank in the Witcher 3 world. What other customers are inside? Is there only one safe or is there more than one teller working? How is the security? Are there protection spells, etc. You need to ask yourself and answer these questions.
The topic I chose today, as I said, will be a tavern fight, so I want my players to start comfortably. The NPC list in the tavern is as follows
- Tavern Owner: Drungar Redbeard (Male Dwarf with a Red Beard and Grunting Speech)
- Waiter: Yueva (He is a male human and is very thin, almost like a dory and speaks rapidly)
- Hector (A Human-Fighter Hunter and good with a bow. During a fight, he uses things in the tavern that he can throw from a distance, such as dishes and torches).
- Lamir (Halfling-Monk A halfling who likes close combat. His biggest trick is hitting people in the crotch).
...and more If I have more time.
As you can see, it is useful to take notes from a few NPCs as you prepare. This will help shape your topic. In the one I chose, the event will take place as follows;
"Suddenly Hector and Lamir start arguing in the tavern. Hector claims that his money was stolen and starts shouting that the thief is a halfling. Then the whole tavern gets mixed up and a lot of people suddenly start fighting."
3. Give a Purpose to The Players
If you don't give your players any objectives, you will just play a dungeons and dragons game where dice are rolled and damage is counted. For this, I assume you have 3 players. You can write the following 3 objectives as a note on a piece of paper. Or if there are other goals you set yourself, you can write them down. You can give them to these players randomly, or you can fold the papers and put them in a jar and ask them to pick them.
This way they will feel more connected to their own destiny and their own character. Players appreciate the decisions they make the most. Here are some example objectives;
- One of the players must enter the back of the tavern and steal a very expensive spice from the kitchen.
- One of the players must be the last one standing during a fight in the tavern.
- One of the players must find the best of the brawlers and bring them into the group for the next mission for goblin hunting.
As you can see, you can play 3 different games at the same time with 3 different objectives. This prevents your game from being ordinary. It makes your players think of creative things. For example, if the task of stealing the expensive spice in the kitchen falls on the muscular, burly barbarian character, a great fun awaits you. On the other hand, if it comes to the rouge character, then you will decorate the liveliness of the tavern rooms with the rouge secretly stealing; in the back; while fight is still going on in the tavern.
4. What is Spotlight in Dungeons And Dragons and Other Tabletop Games
The spotlight is really important on one-shot games because you only have few hours. You can think of spotlight as the moment when one player plays more than the others. Just like on a theater stage, sometimes actors come to the forefront. Sometimes they fall into the background. It is both your duty as a good dungeon master to share this spotlight equally to everyone and other players not to abuse their rights. Because everyone is there to play the game. You cannot play a healthy game with friends who think that; "others should talk for 3 minutes and try what their characters want to do, while I should talk for 10 minutes."
Many Dungeon Masters have experienced the rouge example I mentioned above. In this example, the character will not be able to steal a lot of spotlight because you will advance turn-based. But don't count steps for him, don't count actions. Just try to explain what's going on in a cinematic way, but don't let it go too far. After all, a turn is only 6 seconds. You can stretch it a little bit more for a character who's doing other things in the background, and maybe something they can do in 30 seconds is considered a round.
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5. Cinematic Scenes and Player Agency
Never, ever take away your players' freedom of choice. If they cannot decide, it is your job to give them options. But it is not your job to decide for them.
No dungeon master should make decisions for their players. That's why it would be great to randomly distribute quests. Imagine a rouge character has to be the last one standing in a tavern. He draws this paper as a quest.
You don't decide how to play. Maybe the player will want his character to hide, maybe he'll want to wait in the corner until everyone is tired. Maybe he wants to jump from the swinging lights into the middle of the fight and have fun. Try to help your players in any way you can. For example, he may want to shoot arrows at the strings of the lights and drop them on the heads of other customers. Don't get in the way of this. Even if you previously thought that the strings of the lights and the candlesticks are made of chains, that world does not belong only to you. Now that the question has come to you, the chains have disappeared and in their place shabby old ropes are holding the candlesticks. Give your player a chance and consider giving them an advantage for thinking of a good idea.
If a player wants to do a task in a cool way and rolls a failed die, i.e. rolls 1 on a d20 die, you can tell a comedy in a cinematic way. Or the character is very low on health and wants to sacrifice themselves. Then you can tell it in a cinematic way. But always remember that your players may have a preference. You can even ask them explicitly. "Do you want to tell us how it happened here?"
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6. Time Management in One Shot Games
Time is very important in one-shot board games. That's why I mentioned the spotlight. That's why there needs to be a clear mission and an objective that everyone knows. It's not a concept that is very open to secret games and passionate role-playing. Unless, you're playing a heavy role-playing one-shot. For example, a ball. At this ball, the goal of the players might be to meet people and get information from their mouths. But for this your players usually need a background. Questions like which guest is important and which guest is famous have to be answered in advance... and you have to think of threats for the ball. Therefore, it will not be easy to play a one-shot dungeons and dragons game based entirely on passion, lies and socializing.
That's why you should prepare as if your game will be over in 2 hours. Be sure that this time will already increase to 4 hours due to both the craziness your players will want to do in between and the conversations they will have among themselves. It might be good to think of one or two key moments. When you feel the game slowing down, have one of your players roll a die. If it's an odd, can there suddenly be a fire? If it's even, suddenly two city guards might come in and try to calm things down. The possibilities are endless. Still, it's good preparation to have 2 different possibilities. I am sure that in 4 hours you will not feel the need to use both of them and you will probably use only one.
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Final Thoughts
Your players will want to do things that you would never think of. You cannot be prepared for everything.
It will be very good for you to tell what is going on in the rooms with 5 senses, to have a few random NPC names at hand, and if possible, even to have a list where you briefly note what kind of characters these NPCs are.
It is also very important for a dungeon master to know a little bit about your players' characters. Talk about what kind of character they make and try to help them.
That's all I want to talk about today. I hope this article will come to your mind the next time you try Dungeons and Dragons or other similar tabletop games and that I have been able to help you a little bit.
Thank you very much for reading. See you soon.
Definitely a fun guide to read! I've been a part of a few one-shots before as a player and they are memorable! I get anxious when I think about DMing but the first step is always the hardest.
Thank you for sharing your expertise on running a 'One-Shot' as a DM.
That is exactly true but when you take the first step it is really fun 🙏🤗
The tips you gave can be a good guide for many people who are interested in dnd to start. Congratulations, sweetheart. I miss playing one shot. Thank you for sharing.
God can they ever. I am constantly doing a trick of smoke-and-mirrors, moving a shop or dungeon I designed that the PCs didn't play to a new location so it's not wasted.
That is actually a very good tip. That place we created for the other city, can be here because we need it now, and nobody will know 😄😄
Absolutely! I do (or did, it's been like 8 months since I added a post) a blog all about worldbuilding for TTRPGs and part of it focuses on how we can maximize the things we make.
If you're interested, the whole collection is here (note that the early posts need to be redone as I didn't have a good idea what my goal was at that point)
https://peakd.com/ccc/oblivioncubed/worldbuildingwednesdays-collection
Tengo muchos amigos que están más enm el mundo de las partidas de Roll, yo he jugado pero por uno u otro motivo no continúe aunque si disfrute muchísimo, es una gran experiencia y más si la persona que prepara la partida se toma el tiempo de crear un fantástico entorno e historia.
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