Earth Day one-shot ideas - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Earth Day one-shot ideas

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Omnirahk_half-Rahkshi
Mar 14, 2009 21:13:59 I'm thinking of running a one-shot game around Earth Day, and I'd like to just brainstorm some adventure ideas. Hopefully other people will find something inspiring as well. So here's some ideas I have so far:

1) "I Need a Vacation." This is actually a one-shot I've already worked out, and its plot fits in well enough to an environmentalist theme. It uses a friend's homebrewed setting, which is essentially 'Magic comes back to the world, but not all places are equally affected. Our college is one of the hot spots, and we're students dealing with the changes, classes, and being an elite task force (because geeks make the best heroes. They've studied it all their life. Especially the RPG club geeks.' This adventure has them on a vacation on spring break. Since the heroes recently saved the president's daughter (president of the college, not of the country, mind you), they got a free 2 week trip to the Bahamas as a thank you. [Side note: the setting is based on our actual college, and the NPCs referenced so far are also real people that we all know - or at least know of and recognize]. Arrival. Day of relaxation. Wake up the next morning and the place is frozen over. [Side note: our college gets snow as early as October, and it's sometimes lasted into early May.] Attack by chillborn zombies, half-starved ice-themed beasts, etc. Discovery that an iceberg freed by global warming is now in the bay. White dragon aboard. Adventure.

2) DragonMech game. It's my favorite 3rd party setting. Not well thought out yet, but it would more or less be defending an elven forest against the expansionist Legion, which currently is sending in huge steam-powered mechs and clear-cutting for fuel.

3) Spelljammer game. I have no clue how to make this work, but damn I think the setting's awesome.

4) Generic fantasy game with druid, warden, barbarian, and shaman composing the party. Or mostly. I'd honestly want to throw in a draconic sorcerer just for kicks. Maybe a desert adventure and finding an artifact rumored to be able to restore life to the land. It's an unnatural desert, of course. Feels Dark Sun-esque now, doesn't it?
#2
narkeleth
Mar 15, 2009 9:07:36 If you are doing a One shot create woodland creature PCs centaur saytr pixie elf etc and have them go after a green dragon and his followers whose poison is corrupting the forest driving the treants insane killing trees etc.
#3
Omnirahk_half-Rahkshi
Mar 17, 2009 9:43:08 Hmm.... that's definitely doable. Heck, I could more or less steal the adventure from Draconimicon I: Chromatic Dragons. There's an adventure for facing a green dragon feylock. The PCs could be serving a rival fey lord (one less devoted to slaughter).
#4
pigknight
Mar 17, 2009 17:39:25 Say it with me:

Giant Tree of DOOOOOOOM!
#5
gregt_314
Mar 17, 2009 17:55:11 My best advice for one-shot games:

(1) Either combat or plot, not both. You can't tightly control combat length in D&D and it's not compatible in a single session with a well paced beginning, middle and ending. So do a dungeon crawl, or a story, but don't try to fit both in.

(2) Good one-shot concepts can be sold with a single sentence. If you can't make people want to play in it with a single sentence, it's either a poor concept or too complex for a one-shot.

(3) Have an ending in mind before you start. Particularly:

*If you're a beginning DM or D&D's all you've ever played (roughly equivalent positions) then set clear victory conditions, i.e. game ends when the dragon is dead, and have no more than three equally clear steps which are necessary to reach that position. In Delve format this means two to three encounters, then a boss fight. In RPG + combat format it means two to three "scenes", one of which is a fight, then a climax. In pure narrative, you're talking three acts.

*If you're a more experienced DM, set a clear character arc for each character at the beginning of the story. Time a first, second and third act, and make sure each character arc has a significant moment in each act. Your game's done when all the character arcs are resolved. When a character arc is resolved, shuffle the character offstage - resolved protagonists step back and let those that remain finish their story.

(4) I generally attempt to significantly creep out each player once per game, because I run horror more often than anything else, and that's good advice, but it's equally good to make sure that each player gets to do something that's just totally awesome once per game. Players will forgive a multitude of sins if they get to fight an enemy on horseback while the horse rides off the top of a skyscraper onto the wing of an exploding passenger jet. Seriously, it goes a long way.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Omnirahk_half-Rahkshi Mar 14, 2009 21:13:59	I'm thinking of running a one-shot game around Earth Day, and I'd like to just brainstorm some adventure ideas. Hopefully other people will find something inspiring as well. So here's some ideas I have so far: 1) "I Need a Vacation." This is actually a one-shot I've already worked out, and its plot fits in well enough to an environmentalist theme. It uses a friend's homebrewed setting, which is essentially 'Magic comes back to the world, but not all places are equally affected. Our college is one of the hot spots, and we're students dealing with the changes, classes, and being an elite task force (because geeks make the best heroes. They've studied it all their life. Especially the RPG club geeks.' This adventure has them on a vacation on spring break. Since the heroes recently saved the president's daughter (president of the college, not of the country, mind you), they got a free 2 week trip to the Bahamas as a thank you. [Side note: the setting is based on our actual college, and the NPCs referenced so far are also real people that we all know - or at least know of and recognize]. Arrival. Day of relaxation. Wake up the next morning and the place is frozen over. [Side note: our college gets snow as early as October, and it's sometimes lasted into early May.] Attack by chillborn zombies, half-starved ice-themed beasts, etc. Discovery that an iceberg freed by global warming is now in the bay. White dragon aboard. Adventure. 2) DragonMech game. It's my favorite 3rd party setting. Not well thought out yet, but it would more or less be defending an elven forest against the expansionist Legion, which currently is sending in huge steam-powered mechs and clear-cutting for fuel. 3) Spelljammer game. I have no clue how to make this work, but damn I think the setting's awesome. 4) Generic fantasy game with druid, warden, barbarian, and shaman composing the party. Or mostly. I'd honestly want to throw in a draconic sorcerer just for kicks. Maybe a desert adventure and finding an artifact rumored to be able to restore life to the land. It's an unnatural desert, of course. Feels Dark Sun-esque now, doesn't it?
#2 narkeleth Mar 15, 2009 9:07:36	If you are doing a One shot create woodland creature PCs centaur saytr pixie elf etc and have them go after a green dragon and his followers whose poison is corrupting the forest driving the treants insane killing trees etc.
#3 Omnirahk_half-Rahkshi Mar 17, 2009 9:43:08	Hmm.... that's definitely doable. Heck, I could more or less steal the adventure from Draconimicon I: Chromatic Dragons. There's an adventure for facing a green dragon feylock. The PCs could be serving a rival fey lord (one less devoted to slaughter).
#4 pigknight Mar 17, 2009 17:39:25	Say it with me: Giant Tree of DOOOOOOOM!
#5 gregt_314 Mar 17, 2009 17:55:11	My best advice for one-shot games: (1) Either combat or plot, not both. You can't tightly control combat length in D&D and it's not compatible in a single session with a well paced beginning, middle and ending. So do a dungeon crawl, or a story, but don't try to fit both in. (2) Good one-shot concepts can be sold with a single sentence. If you can't make people want to play in it with a single sentence, it's either a poor concept or too complex for a one-shot. (3) Have an ending in mind before you start. Particularly: If you're a beginning DM or D&D's all you've ever played (roughly equivalent positions) then set clear victory conditions, i.e. game ends when the dragon is dead, and have no more than three equally clear steps which are necessary to reach that position. In Delve format this means two to three encounters, then a boss fight. In RPG + combat format it means two to three "scenes", one of which is a fight, then a climax. In pure narrative, you're talking three acts. If you're a more experienced DM, set a clear character arc for each character at the beginning of the story. Time a first, second and third act, and make sure each character arc has a significant moment in each act. Your game's done when all the character arcs are resolved. When a character arc is resolved, shuffle the character offstage - resolved protagonists step back and let those that remain finish their story. (4) I generally attempt to significantly creep out each player once per game, because I run horror more often than anything else, and that's good advice, but it's equally good to make sure that each player gets to do something that's just totally awesome once per game. Players will forgive a multitude of sins if they get to fight an enemy on horseback while the horse rides off the top of a skyscraper onto the wing of an exploding passenger jet. Seriously, it goes a long way.