A 5e game had to be cancelled recently. And I was asked if I would be able to run a 1-shot in that time slot, as a filler. I agreed, but I refused to run 5e. Instead, I offered to run a B/X standalone session.

Some players knew B/X, (one of them knew it very well and is indeed the person who introduced me to it) others had never even heard the term, or seen these weird saving throws “Death”, “Paralysis”, “Magic”… and so the request for pre-gens was raised.

No problem in our day and age.

Ridiculously easy, even: I just let some free digital tools do all the work and threw out eight or nine characters. Then I copied them onto a Google doc and shared them with the players, all within 5 minutes (thank you, Ramanan and totalpartykill!)

Precious Time

We all know these 1-shots: when do they ever get done within the allotted time?
Rarely! So time, playing time, is of the essence for a 1 shot.

There is so little of it!

And this too was one of those games that end somewhere in the middle of things, with tasks half-done, and worse: it didn’t even get to any juicy parts to sell the system and its strengths to the new players. This can be just the way things go, but it can also be the result of a mistake.

In this case, the mistake is mine.

What did I do wrong?

or rather, let’s start with:

What happened?

The situation: A group of adventurers is missing, and our heroes are out to rescue them.

A group of 5 players and 2 NPCs rode into a town very close to the red X on their map, the place where a group of fellow adventurers had been headed. Those others, maybe they ran into trouble and needed urgent help, maybe they were dead and needed revenging – and maybe all that at that sweet red X on the map.

When has a red X ever marked an important spot?

Our heroes saw a couple of southerling mercenaries drinking in front of the Inn and promptly talked them into joining the group as additional henchmen. They didn’t have the money, but they promised the southerlings riches beyond measure, and they did it well: A hire-roll picked up three of the four mercs, so there was little point for the fourth to stay behind all alone in a foreign country. Thus all four were hired on the promise of a half-share.

Then the group spent the night in town, suspected the local temple of having abducted and murdered the missing adventurers, also suspected the local farmers to be part of a big conspiracy, and made plans to rob the temple on the way back. But not now.

From talking with a farmer they gathered that he knew nothing of any dungeon out in the wilderness. As far as he knew this red X was just at some random spot in the woods. What did he know? He knew there was the road to the capital, there was the border of the realm over there, and in the open wilderness beyond, presumably, a wizard tower. How far? Within a day’s ride, but beyond the White River, where the King’s Laws don’t count.

How to lose friends and abandon people

Obviously the players left the red X on their map for another day and rode the other way to find that wizard tower, convincing themselves that their friends might be captured and locked up there instead of at that red X, and if they weren’t they could still plunder a wizard tower.

On the way into the wyld they crossed a stone bridge but decided to inspect its underside and lost two of their mercenaries and one horse to the treacherous, slippery banks of the White River, and to its surprisingly strong current. Dead or alive, the two mercs and the animal were carried off into the distance, and the party decided to continue on the road instead of risking even more slipups along the waterway.

Avoiding confrontations

Well outside the Kingdom they met some orcs busy collecting firewood. They avoided a confrontation, missed the wizard tower, spent a night in the forest and returned, slower and more careful, and finally found the wizard tower – and bluffed/social engineered their way into it as guests, and with reason to hope to win the long-term trust of the master-wizard who owned the place. They simply had to spend the night in the fortress and speak to the bishop tomorrow.

Then our time ran out and the session ended.

What’s the problem?

Sounds fun, so what bugs you?

The fact that I made a big production out of wanting to run B/X, and then the resulting adventure never got to a point where it actually allowed the system to shine. System, in this session, did not really matter. It could have been any rules set. And so those players new to B/X didn’t learn anything.

B/X is fast and easy, and combat takes minutes, not hours like in 5e.
I would have liked to showcase this.
Alas, it was not to be.

What did I do wrong?

Now we are there.

Distance!

I started the adventure on the road, riding into a settlement, and there was still a ways to go to reach the dungeon. Even under ideal circumstances it would take half an hour out of my allotted three to even get to the place. Plenty of opportunities to go astray and get lost, given the open sandboxy style of play I insist upon; and even if the party simply hones in on the X and does what it came for, this is half an hour of predictable in the beginning that may be missing in the end, when it counts.

Travel

Even if the group had decided to go to the red X as planned, game time would still have been invested to get from A to B instead of exploring B already, and game time in a 1-shot is precious.

It is not a horrible problem, there are worse things.
But it is a pattern in my games – and maybe in yours as well.

My adventures almost always start at safe place A and the group has to make the active decision and actually go to B. I know, I am not the only one who falls into this trap, but giving the players so many options – basically a whole Kingdom and three roads to choose from – that’s just not what a one-shot is about.

Time is precious

It does set up the world and allows the players to get a feel for the lay of the land, the Kingdom, maybe the religion, it makes the world tangible. That may set a tone for a campaign, reveal background, allow for talk with NPCs … but time is short and a one-shot is not about world building.

Focus!

A one-shot should be tight and start in a high energy situation. Right at the entrance of the dungeon. Or at least dismounting at the place where the map shows the red X.
When the curtain rises, we don’t generally (although sometimes) see characters on the road on their way to the first scene, they ARE in the first scene.

Even a campaign can profit from such a starting point in medias res.

You can absolutely spend time painting the canvas and building the world, but probably not in the beginning, neither in a one-shot nor a campaign.

Mid-Year Resolution:

Start the next 1-shot – nay, start the next GAME – right in the middle of things, already at the entrance,
or even better, already lighting the torches before stepping inside.
It is still a sandbox, as the players can always decide to turn around and leave. But then the detour is on them, not on me.