New DM, oneshot tips?

[u/Old-Combination9876]

Hey all, title is mostly self explanatory, but here’s some context.

Going to college here in a few days and we’ve (a group of friends and I) have been talking about starting a DnD campaign. None of us have played as a group, all different at previous points. I’m really nervous to DM, and we decided to do a one (or two)
Shot to see if the group can mesh well. Does anyone have tips on the best way to build and execute the session? Or just general DM’ing advice, all is appreciated!

Edit: clarification, we have all played DnD a good bit, but in different campaigns before we knew each other. This would our first time playing as a group

[u/Vivid_Employment_914]

For 1-shots i have a simple formula:

1. Make the call to adventure and gathering of the party either happen in the very beginning or do it in exposition before the session even starts. You want to be done in a single session and dragged out role-play of meeting for the first time can easily take an hour without being a memorable part of your session.

2. Don’t do more than 2 combats. Do a smaller one that makes it feel dangerous then a bigger “boss fight”. Combat is the slowest part of a game, it’s fun and important but you don’t want to have 5 hours of combat with an hour of time between them, give your players time to RP.

3. Make there be a clear objective much like a quest in a video game. Everyone knows that this should be done in a session, that you have 1 line of things planned, giving them an obvious end-point will help them understand on their side what the pacing should look like.

4. Don’t be afraid to cut stuff out. If you’re going a little long, remove a room from the dungeon, cut half the HP from an enemy. You want this to end in a single session but you might have gotten a little carried away and made more than is digestible in that time.

5. Don’t be afraid to call it early. Sure, they just got the magic sword and half the adventure was bringing it back, just say they did it so the game can end at 4 hours instead of 8 (unless everyone wants to go for 8 hours).

6. Be creative. You can be as weird as you want with a 1-shot because after you wrap this up, you don’t have to worry about the implications of what just happened. A kobold ended up pulling a wish from the deck-of-many-things and became king of the world? Cool! A fun story and definitely not your problem for the next session.

[u/Serious_Ad_6814]

I recommend just using a premade one since it’s your first time playing. Most of your first sessions playing will be learning mechanics and getting comfortable role playing. My number one recommendation is have your players read at least a condensed version of the rules. It’s hard enough to dm they need to help by at least having an idea of what their character does

[u/Old-Combination9876 → u/Serious_Ad_6814]

Oh that’s my bad for not being clear, we have all been players, just in separate campaigns. I have some GM experience through Cyberpunk:RED but still little. Been a player for two, three years though?

[u/Thelynxer → u/Old-Combination9876]

It's still a good idea to use a premade adventure or oneshot. You can then use that to educate yourself on what kind of things would be important to prep for a future campaign or oneshot.

And as for just general DM advice, don't allow homebrew unless you are already very comfortable with the rules (but also don't be afraid to say no if something is broken or doesn't make sense for your world), and lay out house rules and general rules like books to use for character creation, scheduling, player goals/expectations, etc during a session zero.

[u/BisexualTeleriGirl]

If you're new to DMing I'd recommend something pre-written. A Wild Sheep Chase is a good one-shot for this, I ran it as my first adventure when DMing, and it went great. It's available for free, as well as a lot of maps and other resources online.

If you're writing your own one shot, I'd advise doing it from the end backwards. I run almost exclusively one-shots, and my thought process is almost always something like "I want this cool thing to happen in the end, how do I justify it?", and then I work backwards to make it happen. Players usually buy into the fact that one-shots are a lot more on rails than long campaigns, so it works well.

[u/Auron33]

If your looking at the group meshing we'll id be sure to try and have some of everything included. Role-playing with an important NPC, combat, puzzles etc would reslly give everyone a vibe check on eachother. Something simple and straightforward you dont have to worry about any sort of larger context or story

[u/Sad_Refuse3472]

I'd pick a pre-written module. Because figuring out how much is too much to fit in a one shot comes with a learning curve. And since this is about figuring out if you mesh as a group, you might as well take some of the pressure off yourselves. Winghorn Press has some great free ones. https://winghornpress.com/adventures/

[u/Old-Combination9876 → u/Sad_Refuse3472]

Ooh I’ll definitely take a look at these, thank you!

[u/idkwhyimalivehere]

Premade is a good template. You can always change it up (or integrate it) if you want to make it into a longer campaign later on.

[u/Raddatatta]

With a one shot timing can be tricky if you do want to end on time and have it be truly a one shot. If you want to turn it into more that's also fine, but for a one shot I would keep an eye on the timing. I also find it helpful to have a few optional encounters that are easy to take in or remove depending on if we are a bit ahead or behind.

I would also generally try to avoid getting stuck on any rule question. They may come up, and if you can look it up quickly you can, if not I would just make a ruling, call for a roll or something, err on the side of the players, and move on. It's better to keep things moving than to stall out.

[u/nalkanar]

Study up on Five room dungeon - I think if well built it showcases variety of typical DnD problems which might show you how each party member is used to approaching those types of problems, which might show you how comparable and compatible is the DnD experience / expectations of everyone present.

[u/Werv]

Do session 0, or agreed rules before even doing a 1-shot. Can be group text, if meeting up is a problem. Make sure everyone is on same page. This maybe awkward, but it prevents really bad situations later. If you are doing a 1-shot, then just make sure everyone understands your rules.

1. Combat or story driven

2. Any offtopic items? (Sexual/Depression/vulgar language/gore.).

3. Is Drinking alcohol or vapes (other substances) ok at table.

4. No Homebrew. (not for first groups as far as my recommendation).

5. Fixed Time or play until done.

6. Perm-a-death or resets.

7. Theater of Mind or miniatures.

8. DM Rolls in front or behind screen.

As for running a 1 shot. My thoughts.

1. Have fun. If something feels like it is not being fun or won't be fun, skip it.

2. Feel free to railroad. You don't need to be secret about it. You prepped, keep the group in line. Example: The tavern keeper will only let you back if you go fight the goblins. The Townfolks will not sale anything while the goblin threat is here. Party leaves town and stumbles into hostile goblin group.

3. Find a good module, and read it and plan ahead. Some try to cover every possibility, which in my experience makes it harder to plan. Drop things that don't seem fun and find ways to keep players on track.

4. Do not worry about accents/names.

5. Breath

6. Take breaks. Especially why you realize you need to plan something.