When is a one-shot not just a one-shot? When it’s the introductory adventure to your setting, full campaign, or RPG system! One shot—or single-session adventures—are a great way to introduce new players to your world. They can onboard new players or GMs to a new (or new to them) system. But it can’t be just a throwaway, one-off dungeon delve. You have to create a satisfying short mission, and set the hook for something more—whether that’s hinting at a bigger campaign story, or showcasing the best of what your system has to offer.
Focus on the hook of your setting
The idea of an introductory one shot is to hook players—so use your world’s hook or USP (unique selling point) you’ve already prepared! For example, if your setting is about vampires, your players better meet (or become) a vampire pretty quickly. If sky pirates is the name of the game, get your PCs on a ship! By giving them a taste in the one shot, your players will be able to tell if this setting is for them. And you’ll be delivering on the promise of your world’s elevator pitch from the get-go.
The same is true of your mood and themes—whether you’ve chosen grimdark or noblebright, the feel of your world should be crystal clear to your players. You can deliver this mood and tone through characters, items, monsters and NPCs, but one of the best ways is scene locations.
For example, if you’re doing gothic adventures, make a list of locations that would reinforce that theme—like abandoned mansions, graveyards, and mausoleums. Cyberpunk adventures should have a healthy spread of megacorp lobbies, neon-flashing dive bars, and biotech workshops (as an example). If there are iconic locations unique to your world—say the Godswood in
Game of Thrones, or the air temple sanctuaries in
Avatar: The Last Airbender—you might want to include those too.
Pick a plot that connects to something important
Find something very significant that has recently happened in your world. It doesn’t need to be general knowledge yet, but it needs to be important enough that your players will want to either fight it or be part of it. For the plot of your one-shot, create a story that is part of this event. For example:
| Main conflict |
Plot of the oneshot |
| The supervillain has risen again |
Destroying one of his low-level henchmen’s schemes |
| A war has just broken out |
Rescue refugees, or report critical reconnaissance information to HQ |
| The undead have risen in the North |
Take a scouting party to gather intel |
| The existence of a great treasure has been revealed |
Discover the exact location of the treasure and report it to your superiors - or keep it to yourself. |
Arrange to start with a bang (if it’s genre appropriate)
There’s a reason that action movies start with explosions, and murder mysteries with the dramatic discovery of the victim. The aim is to get the audience hooked and firmly placed in the genre and mood, as well as the action.
Chances are that your introductory adventure will be starting from level 1. That doesn’t mean your players need to fight rats in a basement or do menial chores in your oneshot, though.
Amazing GMs often kick off campaigns with an epic scene to set the tone—be it the epic spectacle of a dragon fighting a sky giant (your players could help evacuate the burning inn!), or a ship being attacked by an undead Kraken (in which case just... run!). Even though the players won’t be able to fight something of that magnitude, it will deliver the punch of power and the aspiration that these are the conflicts they may one day be ready for.
Introducing a major villain or piece of world conflict from your worldbuilding meta is a great way to get your players excited about the stakes of your world, and have a vision of how big things can be. Even if your players are just fighting a small piece of it (like clearing out one of the many recent infestations of goblins) they feel they’re doing something bigger.
Just a note that this approach isn’t appropriate for all genres. Some require a subtler touch, or a slow burn, and some story formats and genres, like investigation or noir, usually have a calmer, more moody and intriguing opening.
Don’t over-explain irrelevant background
Especially in a first adventure, you may be tempted to explain a LOT about the campaign setting up front. A more experienced adventure writer will try to work this worldbuilding exposition information into alouds, scene settings, NPC motivations, and items. This is good in general (remember to show, don’t tell!) but be aware of cramming too much irrelevant information into the one shot in the first place. Be careful not to answer questions they haven’t even had a chance to ask yet. Even the most cleverly crafted exposition will turn your players off if it’s not directly relevant to the story and scenario they’re exploring.
Spotlight different characters
Regardless of your system or setting, different characters will have different skills and specialties. Make sure you honor that by arranging different kinds of challenges for them to overcome—or challenges with multiple resolution options. For example, in DnD that might be:
- Strength challenges, like opening a stuck door
- Dexterity challenges like picking a lock
- Constitution challenges, like withstanding poison
- Intelligence challenges, like understanding a code or puzzle, or remembering a piece of lore
- Wisdom (Perception) challenges, like spotting traps or tracks
- Charisma based challenges, like interrogating an NPC
Keep it simple
A simple, well-told story has more impact than something you need a conspiracy board to understand.
It’s tempting to feel like complexity equals excitement, but remember that your players are still learning your setting, and possibly the system too. There’s a lot they don’t know, so introducing complicated additional elements will cause confusion, not excitement.
Try to skip weird extra mechanics, redundant scenes and locations, or anything else you can streamline. If you add optional encounters, make sure the story still works if they are skipped. After all, the first session in a new campaign setting will be full of questions, doubly so if the players are new to the system too, and your oneshot may turn into a two-shot even without extra combat!
If you’re writing for other GMs, help them!
When you’re writing a one shot for yourself, there’s a lot you can take for granted. You know that the villain is connected to the secret cult, for example, and therefore speaks the Ancient Language. You remember the additional rules for grappling, or fall damage, like the back of your hand.
If you’re writing for other GMs, especially if they’re new to both the setting and the system, help them by annotating your oneshot. Add in quick references to rules and lore: in World Anvil you can add expandable containers, mouseovers, or sidebar references, or straight up link to the rules presented on other pages! This helps the GMs absorb information as they’re preparing to play, and acts as a quick reference during the game.
Another good thing to add is a cheat sheet of the most important information they’ll need—for example, quick rules for combat, interrogation, or difficult terrain.You can tailor this to the challenges you’ll be adding to your oneshot, or make it generic to your system and setting.
Integrate opportunities for continuing to a Campaign
Once you’ve finished your introductory oneshot—pave the way for more! Consider a few plot hooks related to the oneshot that the party could explore, to develop what you’ve started into a campaign. But make sure the oneshot is self-contained too, so that if your players aren’t interested it still feels satisfying to end!
For example, you could introduce an NPC (such as the quest giver) that will need the players’ help again in the next campaign. Or, if you feel like your players will want to continue, you could have your players discover that the mystery they solved actually leads to even more, bigger questions!
Create Pregens (or a quick character creation process)
Pregenerated characters, or “pregens”, are a great way to get your players immediately into the game. There are various tricks you can use to hook pregens into your oneshot—for example, giving them unique abilities, items or backgrounds designed to solve the problems you’ve designed. This can be helpful for ensuring that all characters are spotlighted. Just make sure that 1) your players have a choice of who they play and 2) if one pregen isn’t in the game, the story can still continue.
But the reason pregens can really help you with your introductory one-shot is because they can introduce and establish the setting, and their archetypes show the “kind of fun we’re having”. In a high magic setting, at least one of your characters should be a magic wielder; and in cyberpunk, at least one should have biotech. If you’re playing pirate games, have a navigator, a cook, and a captain. You can introduce or represent important deities or organizations by having Pregen characters aligned to them, or against them, in a meaningful way.
If you don’t want to create pregens for whatever reason, or you want to give players a choice between pregens and their own original characters, then make sure you support your players with an easy character creation process. If you’re using your own new system, or you’re heavily adapting a preexisting system with house rules, players may need a lot of support to create something that makes sense. You may need a dedicated character creation session zero with your players, for example.
Give your players a primer
And speaking of session zeros, a great way to get your players both hyped for the game and oriented in the setting is with a player primer.
A player primer is a 1-2 page document that sketches out—in words and images—the critical information needed to play in the setting. Think of it as the stuff “everyone knows” in the world. For example, a Game of Thrones player primer might include information about the world (long, weird seasons), some information about the major political powers (the king, the local lord, and his banner lords) and some other major landmarks (the Wall, King’s Landing). It may include a current rumour or two (such as legends about the White Walkers, or the wildlings are crossing beyond the Wall).
Playtest, playtest, playtest!
Once you’ve written your adventure—congratulations! If it’s just for your own table, you’re done. But if you’re hoping to share your setting with others, maybe even publish it, then you’ll need to playtest that adventure. After all, you need to know how it fares in the hands of other GMs and players.
Check out our guide to playtesting your oneshots!
Now you have all you need to know to write an effective introductory one-shot. And World Anvil has a lot of tools to help make doing it easier. Whether your goal is getting a table full of players to commit to a full campaign, or getting gamemasters to unleash their own imaginations in your RPG system, a one-shot is your most powerful weapon. Take aim, and give it your best (one) shot!
