Building Targets for Players Pt 2: My Guide to Making a One-shot

By: Jared B.

Welcome back! We are delving into how I build a one-shot. To recap, we have covered key tips including, planning around session time (typically one encounter per hour), limiting player distraction in short sessions, and keeping the plot simple but flexible. The example I am using for this article is a one-shot that begins with rescuing kidnapped maidens from spooky “walking pumpkins” in a locale I called Grimdark Wood, culminating in a boss fight with a Great Pumpkin. After the defeat of this larger pumpkin, it transitions to an unexpected encounter with a ghostly knight named Sir Howkin. At this point a social or combat encounter is possible. In the last article, I covered almost all of the social encounter options. So with that, we will pick up with the remainder of those options and show how this encounter can also go, should the players choose the combat route.

So Sir Howkin has been informed of the year, 1199, which is 229 years after the “died” date on the mausoleum from which he appeared. His face shows sadness, as he realizes that the “her,” which is his beloved wife whom he left to go fight in a now-forgotten war and demanded to be brought to him is long dead and buried somewhere. Not likely here or nearby. I am trying to build an emotional connection for the players. Want them to observe his emotions, even though he is a ghost or revenant, I want them to feel that “monsters” have feelings too. With him communicating through a spell-like message link, he can also convey his feelings. This goes to my GMing style. I like playing to the gray side of everyone and everything has the potential for great good or great evil.

With that said, the rest of the social encounter would play out as follows. He asks the players, “If you can at least bring me her locket I can rest.” This gives the players a solution for him to “rest” or just basically not be there anymore. This does not seem to resolve the missing maidens though. If asked about them, Sir Howkin does not seem to know anything. The idea here was that his presence and desire for this “her” as he remembered her, which was some 200+ years ago, had permeated out from the mausoleum into the surrounding vegetation. This manifests as the pumpkin creatures grabbing/gathering any young maiden that remotely fits the mental image that Sir Howkin had of his beloved. 

If the players agree to the request for the locket, he holds out his hand, palm up, and an image of a small closed locket appears. “It looks like this.. and it feels like it would be in that direction,” he messages and gestures in the direction that the party knows is the direction of the village that they came from. Assuming they agree to all that, he fades back into the structure from whence he came.

Now if running in the gray of monster personalities is not your GMing style or what your table enjoys, that is ok. That is where the combat option comes into play.

The two ways I see it transitioning to a combat encounter rather than the previously covered social encounter are: 

1) The way Sir Howkin comes out, if he comes out aggressively, weapon out etc, or 

2) The players do not wait for him to speak and just attack because he is a ghost. Obviously, if you and your table want to have a black and white view of ghosts/apparitions then you can lean into that with option 1. 

So the planned combat option is as follows:
Whichever way it is instigated, Sir Howkin will draw (or already has drawn, for option 1 above) his great sword. As he presents an aggressive front, 1d4+1 standard skeletons will rise from flat grave markers around the overgrown graveyard around the mausoleum. Also, 1d3-1 armored skeletons with long swords rise on each side of Sir Howkin, and an archer skeleton will be seen climbing to sit/stand at the top of the mausoleum. The archer is the standard skeleton stat block but with a short bow. All of this occurring directly after the fight with the large Pumpkin makes this a hard fight. The Players have a chance of winning, but it will be quite a fight for a level 1 party. 

The thought behind it being hard is that I originally wanted it to be a social encounter, but I planned for the combat option while making it hard to show it was not the ideal outcome. If you wish it to be the outcome, you can pull back on the number or strength of the skeletons and/or lessen the previous challenge of the pumpkin fight to make this fight just an evolved boss fight. 

All said and done, they defeat Sir Howkin and his skeleton soldiers, and Sir Howkin will fade back into the mausoleum. The door to the mausoleum can be opened with a lockpick set or brute force through Strength checks. You may want to draw your player’s attention to the door in some way. Possibly by having the handle/lock area become less overgrown, having Sir Howkin gesture to it, or even having it glow faintly, but in a way that a passive perception in the party would pick up on it. I have found that sometimes you have to point out the obvious to players, otherwise they miss stuff or overthink it and make it harder than it needs to be. 

Once they manage to open the mausoleum door, they find the missing maidens. The quest is complete and they can go back to the village to celebrate. 

Now, if they talked to Sir Howkin and agreed to retrieve the locket for him, this is the next step. 

They can return to the tavern where they took the initial quest unless more has been developed beyond the scope that I made for this location. This tavern is the only location of which the players are aware. Small talk can ensue with the barkeep, Rotus. If they do not ask directly, you can have Rotus give them tidbits about the lore of the wood that he knows, which is admittedly not a lot, including nothing about a Sir Howkin or a locket. But he would direct the Players “if they want to know more” to the village’s herbalist, Bethy Grim. He would give them directions to her hovel on the edge of the village and assure them that she is usually receptive to visitors. 

Again, this is one of those scenarios in which I intend to have a social encounter with Bethy Grim. However, I do have a combat encounter planned should the players go that route. 

But right now, it is getting late, the sun is dipping low behind the tavern, so we will pick this up in part 3! Thank you for reading! I hope I have helped and inspired you all to make your own one-shots. Next article, we will conclude this one-shot and my thought process behind creating it the way I did. Thank you all again. 

Game on!