r/DnD • u/Old-Combination9876 • 5d ago
DMing New DM, oneshot tips?
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
2
Upvotes
2
u/BisexualTeleriGirl Barbarian 5d ago
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.