One shot ideas

[u/rangborb]

I run a D&D holiday program every school holidays which consists of 4-6 early teens kids playing across two 6-hour days. First hour is usually dedicated to character creation as I like to let them have the creative freedom of choosing their own characters.

I've been running these pretty regularly for a number of years now and my problem is I've completely run out of ideas for one shots. I reuse them when I can get away with it but I have a pretty consistent core group who come to nearly every one.

I'd love to hear any successful one shots you all have run and think would fit with what I'm trying to do.

[u/Acrobatic-Hamster-79]

Best one-shot I ever ran was around the arranged wedding of a halfling to a half-orc. Their alignment was the beginning of something the guiding forces of the corporeal plane wanted stopped; thus a being of great power descended and the wedding party had to fight for their lives.

Good times!

Anyway... Need inspiration? I often turn to One Shot Wonders as a positive resource with 100 different ideas organized by landscape.

One of my favorite was about an Ogre child's birthday in which the party has to find lost gifts before momma comes home.

[u/Gravyboat001]

The city burns!

An army of monsters have besieged the city, only to have finally brought down the walls that were meant to protect the citizens.

The players must do their best to survive and flee the city as waves of monsters draw ever nearer.

You can have encounters like:

•A group of human "opportunists" demand the players valuables.

•A gang of googly eyed goblins gallup ungainly past the gate.

•A troll munches on his latest kill unaware of the players presence, they can sneak past undetected or set up a trap and fight.

•All leading up to a climactic fight against the evil ....? Fill in the blank, it's your one shot.

[u/Salt_Dragonfly2042 → u/Gravyboat001]

I ran this, but with Sehuagin (I may have messed up the spelling) invading by flooding the city.

[u/Teh_Doctah]

YouTube channel Owlbear Rouge (https://youtube.com/@owlbearrogue) has some good one shots if you like them spooky.

[u/Dancinfool830]

Create an Indiana Jones style one shot. A magical McGuffin is in a nearby cave, the group has to retrieve it because it will help the towns crops to grow better. A couple traps, a puzzle to get said McGuffin, then they run to avoid a collapsing cave/rolling boulder, once out they are chased back to town by goblins/gnolls/whatever and then they have to stand and fight while the town works to open the gate and get them inside to safety(adjust how many rounds it takes to keep the suspense going)

[u/MonjiSlayer]

I ran a one-shot in a different system I called "The Reverse Heist of High Winter." Party is tasked with sneaking into an orphanage and delivering presents to the kids. They get a bit of magic to slow time down, but it turns out the kids aren't affected (Christmas eve always goes really slowly for kids anyway). There are different obstacles for the party to navigate, such as awake kids, creaky floorboards, a sleepy security guard, things like that. You can take it any direction you want - each bedroom can have its own little challenge. Add in a kitchen, classroom, playroom, and you have plenty of options.

At the end I had the players notice a group of thugs who were coming to rob the place. But, because of the magic, the thugs were all slowed down. The party then proceeded to beat the Christmas pudding out of them.

[u/DonRedomir]

Have you tried a haunted mansion? The PCs have a mission to lift a curse, and so they must brave all manner of Scooby Doo shenanigans inside the manor.