Great GM - How to run a rpg one shot session - Game Master Tips RPG 

I've needed this for 20 years! I've never managed to make a one-shot turn out to be less than 3 sessions

I'm a campaign DM and just started running 2 hour one shots for the library where I work so this is a great help!

"Bollocks to that!" Yes, to anything that gets in the way of having fun.

I need this video and the video on how to create and plan a one-shot. I got double-dared to run something at a convention.

I would like to say, as a new dungeons and dragons player who has had to learn the game and then transition rather quickly into teaching it to the people I have corralled to play with me, I find your channel the most informative and your mini-lectures the most engaging. Thank you.

Great advice! I ran a one-shot for the first time recently. Gave them 4 characters without spell-casting and threw them together with simple motivations: "You are goblins on the hunt for great treasure for the Big Boss. However, you lost your food cart in a river, and your pack-ogre is getting hungry...and you all look appetizing. You see smoke on the horizon and the sounds of merry-making." The group then massacred a group of bunny-people (yum!), took their magic sword, then set off to the bunnies' nearby holy-site. Started running out of time and suddenly corridors were collapsed and the boss chamber was ahead. They won, then discovered the loot...Deck of Many Things! One-shots are a great way to use magic items that can ruin campaigns :P

You know, funnily enough, I think the old 'Dragon Strike' VHS casette story actually makes a great example of a one shot. You can find it on RU-vid but it is basically: 1. An attack happens at a feast hosted by the king. 2. An elf (a PC) shows up wounded with a story of a stolen artifact. 3. Heroes go to the castle. 4.One or two battles against a single monster happen, a magical door is found. 5. Evil sorcerer is fought, killed, artifact is retrieved. 6. Peace returns to the world.

I've been searching for a while for any tips on making a one shot, then I remembered this channel exists. To any new DMs or future DMs reading this comment, this is the most helpful channel you'll ever find for D&D tips. He's better than Puffin Forest, XP To Level 3, even Runesmith.

The moment when you said, "then you can take a breather *sigh*, I slammed the like button.

I'm less than 5 mins into this video, getting ready to run my first one-shot that I'm making based off my current campaign where I'm a PC, and I'm sooooo glad that a) I found it and b) the 121 was something I'm doing instinctively 😭😭 this is amazing

Brilliant, simple and inspired. As a brand new DM and someone who is also new to D&D and who is trying to get something together for a taster session for a group of new players, (who I'll also have to teach to play), this is exactly what I needed. Thank you. Subscribed.

This was so refreshing to hear. Making my own one-shot for some new players to be added to our group and I was definitely overthrowing it. Thank you.

This was such a good video. As a new DnD player who gets very carried away with story/world building, I needed to have points and notes to create less complex one shots so that I can practice DMing. I watched this video twice. Great channel, mate. Thank you.

today i ran what i consider to have been the most challenging game in all my years of GMing: 6 PCs, 3 hours (someone even voiced he will have to leave on time), 5 of which were complete newbies (aside from ~15 min 1on1 before) and 1 still relatively unexperienced player. it was completely remote (roll20) so part of the time had to be spent to explain the technical basics there as well (~15 minutes) and these were are all colleagues (in fact it was officially labeled as team event) so of course i wanted it to go down well. and it really did, thanks specifically to this very video! writing down the exact target times in my notes (like 15:45 to 16:30 for obstacle one) was extremely valuable as a guideline and the 121 approach really made it feel like a well-structured story. there was still a little bit of room for the characters to have their fun little 'offtopic' moments as well. things that really helped me to put this approach into practice: - lots of experience improvising (who would have thought) - mindset to potentially leave things out of the adventure, no matter how interesting or cool they might be (their time will come, eventually) - railroading significantly more than usual (in this case this made a bit more sense anyway since a lot of the players were new and didn't have that much agency on their own), of course without making it too obvious - being a lot less strict regarding what is allowed to happen e.g. compared to a campaign. the fact that these are basically throwaway characters means you can go wild with giving them powerful buffs or dramatic setbacks and these things turned out to be well worth the risk in this case. also: being very generous about their fate in the epilogue is not a problem - committing to an easier set of rules and cheating at almost every turn for the sake of the story/atmosphere (probably would not work as well with more experienced players) Additional things i consider to have been a good idea (and are probably covered in other videos): - prepared a few tailored aspects for each character to specifically bring up in order to give each player their share of time to be in the spotlight a bit, feeling like they actually make a difference in the story. it really helped to know their characters ahead of time in order to find things that matched them well. - also made sure all of them had at least one memorable moment during the adventure (might happen on its own but worth to keep track of it because players might be left out otherwise) - a backup plan which i did not need but i think was good to have: if someone would have died earlier on, i planned to let them control an interesting allied monster that did not show up before, so basically a backup character with a special role in the story so it doesn't feel like being artificially shoved in

I watched this, then ran a one-shot perfectly on schedule afterwards for Halloween last year! Thank you for your advice! I also especially like that this channel doesn't assume its viewers only play a single popular game ( *cough* D&D *cough* ), the content seems more flexible and comprehensive compared to other channels.

Wow, I accidentally did it just about right in my adventure today. We did run over at 4 hours going into the showdown... but they had a great time breaking into the castle via the classic sewer pipe trope so I'll take that as a win for myself! Tomorrow the showdown with the vampire spawn who is currently hanging out on the ceiling 30 feet above the Party in the Great Hall. Great ideas for structure and pacing! Thanks so much.

Ive been DMing for 4 years now, but every now and then i come back just to refresh the concepts and remind myself that its not as hard as it feels before you start a session!!!!

I intend to run a one shot for my friends, first time DMing for a group of people, only ran a simple adventure one on one before. Am I doing this right? Intro. The characters are on their way carrying a simple macguffin to neet an NPC. An ambush in an alley, an opposing force tries to take the macguffin! The party defeats them, then proceeds to the NPC. Obstacle 1. The NPC informs the party the macguffin needs to be taken to a specific place in a remote location. Wilderness is harsh, and the party needs to fend off wild beasts and deadly weather. Obstacle 2. The party arrives at the location, which is a ruin filled with monsters. Bish bash bosh, a few traps triggered and ghouls slain. Showdown. The altar for the macguffin is guarded by a mage who intends to prevent them from delivering the macguffin. Once dealt with, the macguffin is placed on the altar and, gasp, plot twist, they unleash something sinister; they've been tricked from the start. Potential for future adventure is there, if my players (and I) find the game so fun we want to continue.

I have to say this is one of the best videos I have watched on this subject. How am I only just finding your channel. Thanks.

This helps so much thank you. This gave me inspiration to do my own one shot after a few months of playing.

Your content is always so helpful. Thank you for making my players a little less unhappy :)

121 and the time template is so useful! Thank you so much!

Thank you! I’d love to see that video you talked about at the end! I’m about to DM for my very first time and these were some really helpful hints! I’ll be DMing a prewritten one shot. I can see how it follows the 121 method. Thank you for your insight!

Thank you! This really helped, for my first time playing I’ve gone through 7 sessions of Mines of Phandelver and now I’m already doing a one shot to give the dm a chance to play. Super nervous but I get to tailor the story to introduce the race I want to play next in his larger campaign.

After a bad session this changed everything in my approach to one-shots, thanks so much

Ran my first 1 shot and this video was extremely helpful.Thank you for posting this. The players had a fantastic time.

This helps a lot :3 I'm planning to be a GM, and I'll be running a one-shot. The tips you've given, are really helpful, and I'll keep that in mind.

Oh my god this is the most helpful thing I've seen in a long time

Great video! I really appreciate the tips on how to keep the action going and how to avoid players from hogging the time.

Actually very helpful and simply laid out, particularly for someone who is new to d&d and dm-ing. Thanks!

thanks for this clear, useful video! i've clicked on several videos before yours and none of them were as useful as this video.

This was so helpful. I'm writing my first ever one shot and I have a much better idea of pacing after this.

Great vid, really good advices and tips! Will take the 5 second rule with me on my first oneshot next week :)

You are awesome! I want to build a one shot with no to little experience and just your 15 min vid made it possible that we had 3h of fun with no major problem time and story wise! Again, awesome tips!

this is so incredibly useful for a subplot session. going to try this out in an hour and a half from now!

Hi I wanted to comment, so as to tell you how Informative and helpful I found this video. Thank you for your efforts.

Great help! Thank u. Leveled up my evil / world-and-FCmechanics-tutorial OS

As always, very helpful!. Gonna use this tips for running oneshots on my store. Thanks!

I would love to see that video you mentioned on running a module in 3 hours!

I made the mistake of starting my players in the next town over because that was where the last one shot left off and they wanted to continue the characters. They spent the first half hour arguing over who was going to drive the cart and then the next half hour putting on a show for the owner of the mansion the oneshot took place in. Its probably gonna end up being a 3-4 shot. Starting in the middle of battle is a great idea

this is gold. thank you.

Helpful video man, thanks!

My GM is letting me run a one shot so that he can play a character. I’m watching your videos for wisdom haha! Great tips mate!

this is what i was looking for. I'm preparing a 8 ppl one shot. I was wondering about the pacing, so thanks for this : ) now...I asked a friend to be a co-dm. so now I'm trying to divide the work in a meaningful way. I may be stuck there. still got about 18 days to prepare.

Thanks for this video! This will help when I try a Steampunk PEG one shot (trying to adapt it to for The Muppet Show).

Did not like this first, it didnt really came to play, However, now stressed and planned an one shot for new playrs and ppl to boot, It the best thing ever seen! gratz! we will have a succesfull, time enjoying some chaos!

I’m running my first oneshot for some friends today. It’s also my first time seriously DM’ing, and I made the mistake of starting to write the story yesterday. I’m still not done and I’m TERRIFIED. I have no clue what I’m doing and I’m scared my players are gonna get bored. So, yeah. This is... not gonna end well.

Great advice... I'm writing my first one-shot and my first completely original adventure. I have grandiose ideas which are waaaay too complex for a one-two session max adventure, but I'm going to use your structure to make a simple adventure which touches upon the big concepts I wanted to have in the story. ---keep it simple, silly :-) -I'm over achieving a bit though--I will give my players a critical choice early on which will determine their path toward the end goal. My plan is to make the material for both paths, and whichever one isn't used I could use in another campaign or one-shot.

I'm a first time DM trying and I'm going to run a one shot soon. This video was a great help. Thank you so much. 💜

I've ran a few one-shots before and time is always an issue, I've tried most suggestions and tips but never in such a structured and thought-out way. I already feel much more confident!

Thank you so much for this! I am new to D&D ( even though I used to play other table tops 17 years ago), and I am thinking of trying my hand at being a DM and running a one shot for my husband and I was worried about how I could make an hour or two long session, while still following all rules religiously. It's nice to know that I can bend rules to fit a time limit! Now I just need to come up with a simple enough story that's engaging and follows your rules.

Great video! I would love to see a video soon on running modules.

I always do the countdown with my players. But give them a bit more than 5 seconds XD I usually count ten in my head and if they haven't told me I'll count to 5 out loud

I'm running my first ever game soon with some players who have never played in this style so I figure I'll start off with a One Shot so we can all learn and adjust together before starting a full campaign over multiple sessions.

I had honestly wondered why people played OneShots as it seemed to me like you wouldn't get anything done! Based on this video, is totally rock one out if I found one run like this! Sounds awesome!

My first time as a DM and second time playing will be (if I'm lucky) in a week. I'm planning on running a one shot and I already have some stuff planned, but I wanted to make sure that I was on the right path. I really hope this goes well

Damn awesome video man, consider me a fan haha

Great video! Thanks!

This is perfect, thank you so much!

These videos are so helpful

Awesome value! Many possible applications.

I'm planning on doing a 1 hour one shot Adventure. There are kids coming over and will leave in an hour, so I want to run a short 1 hour adventure full with combat, understanding the story enough to keep you interested, enough for you to understand the concept of the game, and enough for you to want to buy a DnD package yourself. I'll keep these 3 hour one shot Adventures in mind, but I need something super fast paced. Maybe it's just combat and leveling up and more combat and then chasing the bad guy and fighting him in a showdown with over simplified and over the top combat that is hard enough to feel gritty but still winnable while making you feel like a bad ass. That's my idea anyway.

great video! thanks!

Great tips, thanx

Very useful insights and practical tips. I've only recently gotten into D&D and am trying to write up a one-shot in order to give our (forever) GM the chance to play. This was very helpful. Thanks!

Good stuff. I'm going to demo a game at the local game store at some point, and while watching your video I've been reviewing my notes and man, I have waaaaaaaay too much going on to fit into the allocated time. Looks like I have some re-writing to do! Thanks!

I will use this strategy shortly

Amazing advice thank you! I am designing my first one shot and this was awesome!

Thanks for this video... I am very weak when it comes to running one shots. I tend to run long campaigns, one of which just ended... I will definitely try my hand at this 121 method this weekend for my friends who are addicts to my DMing lol.

I did a one shot with my regular group and I wish I had watched this. It slowed down a couple of times. I also tried to put too many tough bad guys in a row. Instead of two confrontations there should have been 1, then a chase, then 1 more of the tough baddies. Live and learn!

I listen to these videos while doing other things so I miss out on the body language. When you stop talking (like at 4:09) I always think you also stopped moving. It's kind of funny that my brain works that way. Psychology is fun.

I needed this advice so long ago

Nice job

I would love to have this guy as a GM

I'm a new dm and I told my players, "hey I was thinking about dm'ing some one shots before starting a campaign." ... yeah, there was also a friend there who had no idea about dnd... she thought we were going to a paintball without her lfmao.

Campaigns need to be clear and simple too!

Great tips!

I just started this, and I already believe I'd be a much better GM if I had this guy's voice alone.

What's your thoughts about running a series of connected but separate one-shots?

One-Shots certainly have a lot of weaknesses, but compared to how I run campaigns they allow me to give the players a lot more freedom to influence the way the One-Shot plays out and influence the story in its entirety because there is no plan going on in the background.

For the 54321 method I would count down from 6, because each round is 6 seconds.

10-round combat done in just 30 minutes? AHAHAHAHAHA :D Now really, last time we had 15-rounds long combat, it took nearly 6 hours. But that was caused a lot by DM being new to system, us being new to characters and because combat was complicated and challenging a LOT. We were actually supposed to loose and give up, be captured, but yep, one does not simply let drows and goblins capture him, fighting to death is really better way to go. But I digress anyway.

Very useful video! Sometimes I run one-shots to make players try new games. Yet the most time-consuming task for me is to guide them in the character creation process before the session even starts, since they don't know the rules and I have to explain them everything.

Guy, this is good stuff. Now I've got to figure out how to adapt it into more cinematic genres. Lemme 'splain: every year I run a one-shot Gangbusters game and it usually revolves around a murder-mystery or some kind of shoot-em-up gangster noir stuff. I know those are tough to come up with and run in the best of times but a one-shot? With clues and such? Tough.

I love your voice!

I'm going to be running a oneshot in a few weeks (thank God for conflicting schedules) so far the plot is the party gets hired to stop an occult ritual to summon an evil deity, and as they go in and either interrupt, sabotage or attack the ritual they learn that it was being done to counter the actual summoning. They return to their employer to be attacked by aberrations and as they navigate the building they stumble upon the summoned deity and have to put it down. In theory it's a pretty short story and has that little plot twist of "oh no we were the baddies" that I think would be fun. It's set for 13th level and the monsters are CR 10 or less, final boss is CR 15.

Hey Great GM, I hope in your thousands of great videos you didn't already post the answer (I coudn't find one so far). How do you combine the 1221 and the 4 Phase (Getting it, building it, etc.) Model? Do you have a method for that or is the one just for one shots and the other for kampagnes? Thank you for your great videos from Germany

Excuse my bad language but i chuffed to buggery that you've made this episode. tried to tackle this somewhat and aaaaalways give folks too much to do.

I am actually running a few games at a convention in a little over a week, and it will be my first time doing so. I personally would like to see your tips on that before I go diving in.

Something I have ruminating on in combat mechanics is, somethings have got to take more than six seconds to do. For instance, in my group we just fought off a bunch of cursed beings by lowering each of the characters out of a pocket Dimension at the end of a rope trick so they could shoot the monsters with their bows, or lob Molotov cocktails at the creatures. I figure there's no humanoid way that could be accomplished within six seconds, seeing as you have to physically lower them out, then physically pull them back in. In straight up combat, where you're swinging swords, yeah, six seconds should be all you need, but there have to be exceptions.

Could you tell me anything about your outro music? It's fantastic.

Invaluable.

Another thought: One shots are great in a regular campaign because it allows your players to play as other characters doing something else that can tie into the main campaign. So this kind of advice applies to people at cons and running regular campaigns. Further Explanation: My players play in the world of G.I. Joe, so you can have them take the role of other operatives finding something important (like vital intelligence) that will help them on their main quest (or hinder if they fail).

What additional caveats would you (Mr. How to be a Great Game Master) add to running a one-shot game for players entirely new to PnP RPGs? I don't think most of them are power-gamers, so I'm planning on running a primarily theater-of-the-mind game with as little number-crunching (to keep the flow going) with a time limit of approx. 1.5 hours (bc I am unsure how long they will remain immersed, as well as my own inexperience as a GM).

hi there, I got a question; In a previous video you gave some advice on splitting the party to ultimately have the party reunite. I was wondering if there are any exceptions to that for a one shot story.

This video is basically 2 years old but there is hope yet. How would I go about extending a one-shot into a short campaign that can be resolved in about 5 sessions. I just started DMing a campaign and then found out that i have to leave in 3 weeks and won't be able to contact my players for atleast 3 months, and my campaign that was supposed to take a few months now has to be condensed into 5 weeks

I've been thinking of running a horror/mystery one shot. How do you keep the tone of slow building horror and mystery while pushing them through the story? Also do you feel like putting an impossible obstacle in front of the players is okay in a one shot (as in a most guaranteed tpk )or would that take too much player agency away?

Have you ever heard of URealms? It's a well done(in my opinion) show that builds a world using mostly One Shots. I'd recommend anyone that wants to run lot's of these types of games to give it a watch. I'd personally like to hear what you think about the show. If you (or anyone reading this) are interested the show is hosted by BruceWilakers here on YT.

Sorry, a bit late to the game. Is it worth applying the 121 model within the 121 framework of a oneshot? (insert Inception joke here). So the first hour which is the "Introduction" has 15 minutes for discovery, a small (30 min) combat, and 15 minutes of transition / resolution? Or am I getting too complicated?

obsticles?