Tips on Running a One-Shot

There are different reasons to run a One-Shot - needing a break from a longer campaign, finding an awesome pre-made short adventure you want to run, or even letting your usual GM be a player for once. Either way, One-Shots can feel like a breath of fresh air and introduce different ways to have fun. The overall key is to keep your players engaged and let everyone at the table, including the GM, have as much joy as possible. Here are some things to keep in mind, and tips on how to deal with them. 

TIME MANAGEMENT 

First, you should have a rough idea of how long the session will be. Whether you know it can’t go longer than 4 hours due to a strict time constraint, or you know your group sessions generally go on for 5-6 hours, having a reference for total time is a big help. Next, take the story you have in front of you and divide it up into rough time segments. This is dependent on the time of story it’s going to be, and the preferences of your players. Let’s say for instance that the story is split between 3 parts with the last part being an epic fight that you know your players are going to love. If you have 4 hours, you might want to devote 1 hour each to the first 2 parts, so you can have a longer fight at the end. Either way, these time segments aren’t hard deadlines; rather they will act as guides so you know during the game whether your pacing is right, or you need to adjust.

And remember that you are wholly in charge of the pacing. If you find the game is moving too quickly, you can slow things down by introducing an NPC that doesn’t want to cooperate with the group’s objectives or add more enemies/obstacles to a fight in order to lengthen combat. 

On the opposite side of the coin, if you find certain parts of the story are dragging, there are ways to speed things up. Sometimes during social or exploration encounters, the players just can’t seem to come to the conclusion you need them to. It’s okay to drop far more obvious hints, or even to intervene and point clues out to them. If it gets way out of hand, don’t be afraid to time jump. For instance, if the party is stuck on an interrogation scene, you can jump ahead by stating, “After another 30 minutes of your high Intimidation skills, he ends up confessing that he hid the stolen goods at his home along Floren Road. You’re confident you’ve gotten everything you’re going to get out of him.” 

Remember, this isn’t a campaign session that could be more of a sandbox world. You have a certain amount of time to run the players through a beginning, middle and end to a story. 

EXPERIMENTATION 

One way to add excitement to a One-Shot is to introduce variant rules. Adding Homebrew or variant rules for a session during a campaign can easily feel clunky and confusing to players. But these one-off sessions are perfect for that. You can test ideas that you’ve always wanted to try, or come up with new ways to solve what you feel is an issue in your campaigns.

Not every experiment over the years has worked for me, but in this way, I’ve been able to come up with variant Inspiration point rules, changing how long Rests take, and moving a Healing Potion consumption from an Action to a Bonus Action.

Besides rules, you can also experiment with the way you operate behind the DM Screen. I’ve simplified monster stat blocks, which helped that side of combat flow faster. I’ve also developed new random tables for loot, encounters and NPCs.

Of course, all this experimentation is to make the game “better” for everyone involved. Sometimes, the results can be obvious. But either way, it’s a good idea to discuss how the changes went with the group afterwards. If everyone loved it, then transitioning those ideas into your campaign can be seamless. Or if it didn’t quite work, the players may have an idea on how to alter it for next time.

“The easiest advice I can give on engaging your players is to give them exactly what they’re craving.”

GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT

The easiest advice I can give on engaging your players is to give them exactly what they’re craving. Especially if you’re in the middle of a lengthy campaign, a palette cleanser may be what’s needed. Sometimes, they don’t want to hassle with story points and want to be placed in the center of a gladiator pit to fend off a horde of adversaries. Other times, they may want a Sherlock Holmes type mystery with clues and puzzles; and very little combat. 

These changes in pace can energize both you and your players. They can also possibly spark ideas for your on-going campaign if you find everyone around the table clamoring for more. 

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

Finally, make sure you’re very clear on what type of session you’re running, and what you need from your players. Let them know if there are any time limitations or if you may have to push the story ahead if they run long. Be up front about, and also hype up, any rules you plan on experimenting with during the session.

As for the players, give them all the information needed to create characters that will fit in well with the theme, genre, and playing style. Send them the link to the “Tips on Playing in a One-Shot” article to guide them.

CONCLUSION

Just like most “Tips” or “How-to” articles, there is a general theme of COMMUNICATION. Ask what your players would like if you don’t already know, tell them clearly what you plan to do, and then talk about how the session went afterwards. Overall, the goal is for everyone at the table to have fun playing this game. So make those adjustments needed in order to meet that goal. Good luck!