8 Tips for Dungeon Mastering Amazing One-Shots

Are you interested in trying out being a dungeon master, but are not sure where to start? Maybe you’re a veteran DM and things have gotten a little stale. Regardless of where you are, one of the best ways to start D&D or spice up your current Dungeon Mastering is with a one-shot. But how do you make a one-shot lively, timely, and fun? In today’s show, I’ll give you 8 tips to make your one-shots better, more fun and easier to plan.

Welcome to How to Be a Better DM. I am your host Justin Lewis and this is the show for Dungeon Masters old and new who just want every session to be better than the last. I’m here to help you plan better, and faster with less time, hassle and without spending anything (unless you want to).

This is the first episode of the show and as such, I want to extend my deep gratitude to you for giving it a chance. As you listen to these episodes, you’ll hear tips and techniques that will shorten your DMing learning curve, but these tips only work if you put them into practice. I know you’re likely listening as you’re driving to work, workout out, doing dishes or walking the dogs, but when the time comes to put these tips into practice, make sure that you do. That’s how you’ll grow.

Episodes will come out weekly every Thursday morning. For the most part you can expect these episodes to be presented by myself, but I will also have cohosts and guest shows as well.

At the end of today’s show, I’ll give a brief introduction to myself but I don’t want to waste any more time and I want to jump into today’s topic.

ONE SHOTS!

For the uninitiated, a one-shot is a D&D story that takes place throughout a single session. It’s a great opportunity for Dungeon Masters to experiment with the hobby, try new settings or rules, and let the players try new characters. Overall, it’s an amazing way to spice up your gameplay and introduce something novel.

When it comes to any session in D&D, you can either use a pre-written module or write your own, and the same rings true for one-shots.

Now for the rest of this episode, we’ll assume that you are choosing to write your own one-shot. These are some helpful tips to get it done in an easier way and to greater effect.

Tip #1: Talk with Your Players

I’ve done quite a few one-shots and I’ve done them different ways. I think you can choose to write the story and let your players make their characters to suit it,  or you can let your players make their characters and then make the one shot to suit the players.

Both have their pros and cons, but what you should do first is talk with your players. Find out what they would prefer and what sort of one-shot you think they would like. 

This also changes by context. Some of the one-shots I’ve done, I’ve made the one-shot specifically to work on making one-shots. It wouldn’t make sense for me to ask my players what they wanted.

So before you start planning anything, talk to your players. See what they want out of the one-shot.

Tip #2: Flesh out the Big Baddie

Each one-shot should feature some sort of conflict, most often against some creature. You can do one-shots that aren’t necessarily against an actual creature. In those cases, you’d be fighting a force of nature (think a natural disaster) or the creation of some sort of creature (think a cursed dungeon full of traps), but most of the time you will pitt your players up against some sort of creature.

In order to have a really good one-shot, you should flesh out the Big Baddie a lot. This is primarily for the narrative aspect of the game. You want your players to feel that the villain is real. So dive into their back story. Make them have true motivations. 

Anime does this really well where almost every NPC has some sort of history and wants and wishes. You’ll never find a minor character in an Anime series that isn’t apparently willing to be the main character if given enough screen time.

When working on your villain, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is it this creature truly wants?
• Why wouldn’t they take an easier path?
• How have they changed over time?
• What would stop them from wanting to achieve their specific goal?

These questions should help you formulate the baddie in a way that feels real and helps you roleplay them.

Tip #3: Location Location Location

Another tip to improve immersion is to focus on the Location. In real estate, they say Location, Location, Location. In part, they say that because you can’t normally pick up buildings and move them, but it also rings true because where you are determines a lot about your life and experiences. You will meet the people you meet and do some of the activities you do because of your proximity to them.

In D&D, the setting is as much a character as the actual characters. Flesh out the location to be able to make your players feel like it is a real place. Don’t forget to involve the five sense, focusing on pleasant and unpleasant sensations. If your party is walking through the desert, they should feel the heat of the sun overhead. If it is windy, they should be able to smell the scent of deeply fresh air.

Don’t forget to flesh out the history of the location as well. The village where the party stays has been around for a few hundred years, so there were naturally be history and legends within the town. Let the natural signs of life help develop the realism of your story.

Also, don’t let the setting be a vanilla one. Let the setting be another character in your story and your players will enjoy it much more.

Tip #4: Help Each Player Character Be Special

Every person wants to be the hero of their own story. One-shots are shorter so often people may make more outrageous characters. Don’t stile this creativity. If you have someone make a Kobold professor who invented the Pita Pocket, make that an advantage to that character. Wade into the craziness that your players will introduce. It gets more fun that way.

It also rewards your players for being creative. You always want to incentivize things that you want to be repeated. When players are creative, you should reward them so that they keep being creative.

Lastly, you want to make sure that for new players who are trying out a one-shot as their first taste of RPGs or D&D, you want to make their experience fun so they come back.

Tip #5: Do a Quick Run Through

For most things in life, being overprepared is never a bad thing. When it comes to one-shots, you can easily just have a quick run-through before the session.

This means you test out all of the technology and equipment you’ll be using so that when the time comes to use it, it works.

Having a cool piece of equipment or technology can be a nice moment of surprise for your players, delighting them and captivating them. But if you attempt one of these moments, and it doesn’t pan out, it can be worse than if you never introduced the magical moment in the first place. Be careful when using new tech.

Running through will also help cement the flow of things in your mind as well. It’s a better experience when you don’t need to check your notes to know the next major encounter. People want a polished experience that looks effortless and natural. The closer you can get to that, the better.

Tip #6: Bring the Energy

As the Head of the Table, the entire table is going to be keying off of you as they play. They will naturally mimic your energy if you have energy. Otherwise, if you give off a very low energy, the entire game will grind to a halt.

This means that you maybe plan a break or two in the game so that you can keep y our energy up. It also means you should be excited to play. If you aren’t excited, rethink whether or not doing the one-shot is for you. 

Let me also say that bringing the energy isn’t just being loud, emotional, or extra. It means that you give 110% percent of everything you have to the game. Bringing the energy means investing in the game. You can invest financially, but more importantly, you need to invest emotionally, and maybe even physically.

Tip #7: Remove Distractions

Along with investing in the game, you should make sure the game can be as good as it can be. As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to give the very best to the game if you have kids around that also need your attention. Consider either getting a babysitter or shortening the game.

Multitasking is a myth, especially when it comes to good storytelling. Remove all the distractions so you can have a much better game.

This also means that some of your players may need to revert to pen-and-paper character sheets so that they aren’t tempted to waste time and attention on their phones.

Tip#8: Invest and Commit

The last tip I want to share with you is that you have to commit and you have to invest. This is really the test of a great DM regardless of their experience and their resources.

How much are you willing to put into your game?

You’ll hear me say this often, but committing can make up for a lack of planning, a lack of experience and a lack of cool fancy gizmos.

When I say invest, I mean the same thing. What are you willing to do for your game? How does your game take up space in your mind when you haven’t devoted hours and hours to it?

When you look at the great DMs, you know they are 100% committed and that thinking of the game happens naturally throughout their day just because it’s important to them. With that much thought-time, they naturally think up cool story twists and new ways to add flavor tot he game.

Investing your mind and heart into the game and fully committing yourself are the true tests of dungeon master mastery.

Make the choice and invest.

You might be on the precipice of your first game or you may have already DMd about five thousand. No matter who you are, these tips will help you and push you on to being a better DM.

As I promised, let me tell you who I am. I have been dungeon mastering for about five years now. I’ve always been a fan of fantasy and nerd of science fiction. I love story, as most people do. This podcast is my way of digging into the magic of storytelling and helping those of you out there, who like me, want to be a better DM. We’ll learn together and you’ll teach me as much, if not more than I will teach you. 

More than anything, these episodes will open your eyes and mind to new ways of doing things. You won’t be stuck anymore and that will make being a DM that much more fun.

I can’t wait to see how you and I grow. As I said, we’ll have episodes every Thursday morning, so my friend, thank you for listening to How to Be a Better DM. Until next time…. Let’s go ahead and roll the initiative.

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