10 Reasons to Do One-Shots as a Dungeon Master

You and your companions make your way down the trail. You’d left the other companions a day or so ago. Now you’ve been traveling with Hipam and Cojari and frankly, these have been some of the calmest days in the previous months. Your other companions had made some very questionable decisions. Assassinations, lycanthropy, starting fights that were unwarranted, yes they were your friends, however, your conscience has never felt so good. 

“So what can you tell us about your uncle Judir?” Cojari asks in his deep and soulful accent. 

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know the man very well. My father never mentioned Judir.”

“Well how do you suppose we can convince him to join us?” asked Cojari, ever the practical one.

“Good question. We’ll have the next few days to figure it out. He’s stubborn. I know that. So we better have a good argument when we get there.”

So what would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. You’re here because you want to become a High-Class Dungeon master, crafting unforgettable stories for yourselves and your players as you guide them through games of Dungeons and Dragons 5e. I’m here, to help you do that. Whether you’re a noobie or a veteran, I can help. My name is Justin Lewis and today I’ll be your dungeon master on this journey of story crafting. If you’ve been around the game for a while, you’ve no doubt heard the term one-shot. You’ve also undoubtedly heard some controversy around one-shots, namely, are they worthwhile? Can you create fun one-shots? Are they just a waste of time? Why does gas cost so much? Oh, wait, no that last one was just my inner thoughts escaping. Anyways, today, I’m going to give you 10 reasons why I think you should give one-shots a try. I love doing one-shots and if you’ve been listening to this show for a while, you know that you can actually have an opportunity to play a one-shot with me or my counterpart, Tanner Weyland as your DM. Regardless of whether you sign up for that or not, I highly encourage you to try one-shots yourself. Here’s why:

1. Explore new environments

One of my favorite reasons for doing one-shots is the ability to explore new settings. Sometimes I see cool ideas on TV or in movies and it makes me want to try it out. For example, I’m a fan of the Netflix series based on League of Legends called Arcane. The series is in an arcane-punk setting that is similar to steam-punk. This would be an amazing setting to explore and in a one-shot, you can without too much commitment. I’m also a fan of StarCraft and think that would be another cool setting to explore.

1. Explore new rules

Doing one-shots is also a great way to pick specific rule sets you aren’t comfortable with and then put your story in. For example, I am not extremely familiar with the rules associated with being underwater or being on a different plane. A one-shot is a great place to make yourself learn those rules. Or have you ever had someone with lycanthropy? Or vampirism? One-shots are great places to figure out how to do that. It’s a low-commitment way to get it all figured out.

1. Explore new challenges

It’s also a great way to force yourself to do new challenges. Maybe you don’t necessarily do puzzle? Maybe you don’t force your group to split the party? One-shots are perfect opportunities to make yourself learn how to deal with those challenges. Or maybe, you’ve never done a group bigger than 4 or smaller than 4. Try a new experience and force yourself to learn and grow in those challenges.

The last few days of travel were uneventful. There was a small troop of goblins that you encountered, but Hipam cast a large spell and was able to scare the troop off. Perhaps you’ve misjudged that little one. When you first met him, he seemed naive and perhaps a little unprepared for the wide world around him. Living all your days in a monastery will do that to you… Well, you suppose he didn’t live his whole life in Summit Hall. There were the days before his parents were murdered by the Fire Cult.  Hipam seems a little more serious now. You don’t whether that’s due to the mission you’re on or the days spent in the Drow prison. Regardless, you better keep an eye on that one.

Your thoughts are interrupted as you finally enter a small clearing with a large log cabin. Gentle smoke rises lazily up from the chimney. The cabin seems to have undergone some major repairs and renovations. 

“I thought it would be longer before I saw you again little bear.” a deep and rhythmic voice says. You think about how similar Judir’s voice is to Cojari’s, or at least Cojari’s new voice.

“We’ve come back Judir, to come get you.”

“I told you boy, this isn’t my fight.”

What would you like to say?

1. Work on succinct storytelling

Stories are when something specific happens. Note how I said something and not something or even everything. Storytelling naturally highlights the best and most salient parts of a series of events and presents those events to the consumer in a pleasing way. In order to do that effectively, you do need to work on telling stories succinctly. What better way to Practice that than to force yourself to tell An interesting story within the confines of a single session Of D&D. One-shots help you get a better sense for session planning and short but effective storytelling. In my last one shot, I dialed what I normally plan back and I ended up being a little short of my target length, but it was still fun and better than going over or having to cut it short. One shots force brevity and pithiness.

1. Work on Pithy Roleplaying

Speaking of being Pithy, one-shots force you to get your role-playing right on the first time. Either you get it right or it takes up valuable time from other integral parts of the story. This assumes of course that you have some sort of time constraint. Most DM’s do have that time constraint and to be frank, it’s called the short attention span of players. Because of this, your roleplaying has to convey the important plot information as well as give the players a glimpse of the NPC you are trying to portray. Honestly, One-shot roleplaying can be much easier than other roleplaying opportunities because you don’t have to worry about repeating NPC’s too much. You can go crazy with an NPC with the knowledge that the players won’t see them again. 

1. Breaks from your campaign

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the campaign I am running can be somewhat stale. Or maybe it’s me that gets stale. Either way, stepping away and doing something else helps me to come back to the campaign with fresh eyes. I get the fact that once the session is done you’re doing something else, but I’ve also noticed that doing other stories helps me come back to my original story and see it in a new light and have fresh energy for it.

1. Play-test HomeBrew content

Home-brew content can be pretty hard to dial in. Sometimes you make items that are way too powerful and other times, the stuff you give your players isn’t where you want it to be. For example, in my campaign I had my players do a side quest where they go into a haunted mansion. I set up the mansion to almost exist in a pocket dimension and in order to ascend or descend the stairs to the next levels, the characters had to drink a potion that “faded” them. After they were “faded” they had to drink “revivification” potions to become normal again. I hadn’t playtested the “revivification” potions so when the players got more than they need to be normal and had a surplus I had to come up with some features of the potion on the fly. Suffice it to say, the potions were way overpowered and I was happy when the last extra potion was drunk.

1. Work on spotting and fixing plot flaws

I’m a big fan of the Youtube Channel, Pitch Meetings. I think the concept is brilliant. If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s the premise. A man pitches movies to an executive who spots flaws in the story of the movies and the writer then just glosses over the flaws without fixing them. It’s hilarious.

Well, you and I need to learn how to do something similar. We need practice spotting and not laughing at but fixing plot flaws. In a way, you and i should treat ourselves as both the producer and the writer of our D&D stories. We need to ask the hard questions and poke holes in our stories so we can find the solutions to those problems. In my last one-shot, I was constructing the scenario and for some reason, it wasn’t quite working. I was stumped. Then I asked Tanner for some help and he helped me see a plot flaw and overcome it easily. Whether you use someone else or yourself, you gotta develop this ability to look critically at your stories. Because one-shots are a little more contained than other stories you can do that a little easier. That’s why you should do one-shots.

1. Allow your players to work on character ideas

Thus far, all of these reasons for why you should play one-shots have all been for you the DM. But what about your players? How do one-shots affect your players? Positively.

Most D&D players can create a new character very easily because they have so many creative ideas swimming around in the think-tank of their brain. In a way, they are the DM of their character, trying to write an interesting story and help add to the collective cognitive experience that is Dungeons and Dragons. 

By engaging in one-shots you’re allowing your players the opportunity to work on writing better characters. Creating a backstory is fun because you get to essentially explain why any given D&D character is insane, cooky, bold, angry, fat, sloppy, scarred, or almost any other adjective. By playing one-shots, you give your players this chance to hone their creative abilities.

1. Allow your players to work on role-playing 

Similar to number 9, your players need opportunities to practice their role-playing capabilities. Not every one of us is born as thespians or performers. In fact, in my own case, role-playing might be one of my weaker areas. The only way to actually improve is to practice. Players also get into a routine and it’s much easier to reassess and reactivate those roleplaying muscles when you break their state, put them in an unfamiliar situation, and force them to start asking themselves questions like, “What would this character do?”

Try one-shots as a way of encouraging players to act out characters that are different than their normal campaign characters. You’ll be surprised at the growth you see in your players.

“The blood of our fathers and of our children.”

Those were the words you said. Somehow, those were the words that changed a stubborn man’s mind. Judir is a child of the north as much as you are. Perhaps more. His blood runs wild with the strength of generations gone before him. His stubbornness runs almost as strong. Yet, somehow those words overcame that. Those words that you weren’t supposed to know changed him. How did you know those words? It doesn’t matter. He’s with you now and now you need to figure out the next step. As you trudge forward on the path, you ask, “So what is the plan now?”

Hipam responds, “Well mate, I suppose we need to assess how strong your brother’s hold is on the Kingdom.”

“We also need to create an army from nothing…. Maybe your relatives up north can help.” Cojari adds

“Without dying first…” Judir grumbles as he pets his enormous Bear’s head.

All good points. Well, it’s time to figure it out. 

Thank you for listening to today’s episode. We could not do this without you. We are so grateful for you and your support of us. We want to support you too. If you get an opportunity, reach out to us on Instagram and let us know how we can support you and your quest to become the world’s greatest DM!

We’ll be back next week but until then, let’s go ahead and roll the initiative.

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