Last October, I ran my first tabletop one-shot. I built a Sanity system based on Cthulhu Mythos rules. I was going for Eternal Darkness vibes. I set my campaign in a haunted, secluded mansion, and let four of my friends go exploring. They found undead creatures, minotaurs, and eldritch beings. They went through the mansion, and came out victorious. One of the characters fell unconscious once, and one of the other characters lost his Sanity, but they were able to save him with a “oops, we messed up” coin. They saved the world! They said they enjoyed themselves, so I planned for another one-shot this year. This year, seven of my friends explored a kooky hotel.

I learned a lot during the first campaign and wanted to elevate this year’s one-shot. First, last year’s campaign was way too linear. It was designed so they explored each room in a certain order. Early in the game they broke through a wall, and I let them. I tried not to say “no” to their ideas; only the ideas that did not make sense. The hole in the wall made sense. They could have gone through the hole in the wall, and skipped part of the mansion. However, they chose not to. This year’s one-shot, I created an open world, where they could tackle things however they wanted; they did not have to try to break through a wall to do so.

Second thing I learned: create encounters with “fun” in mind. Last year, I created a maze, and plopped their characters on opposite corners of the maze, and let a minotaur loose. I thought it was a cool idea, but I only created one rout. The minotaur found one player right away, and attacked them. It was a tough fight, and the player furthest away never got to fight. It was not a fun experience for anyone. This year, when I came up with ideas I always would think, “is this going to be fun.” If it was not I moved on to a new idea. This year, I ended up with three encounters that are not your usual tabletop RPG tropes, and everyone thought they were cool.

I wanted to have more NPCs. There were only two NPCs in my first campaign. Combat is great, especially in a one-shot, but I wanted my players to immerse themselves in the world. I created nine NPCs for them this time around, and they encountered all but one. I was also ready to have unexpected NPCs if they did something that warranted it. I tried to do voices for them, although I am not good at doing that. Putting in an effort makes a difference, I think. My friends said they enjoyed the NPCs in the game.

With the idea of having more NPCs, I also wanted more non-combat encounters. I ended up buying a book of traps and puzzles to help me come up with ideas. I came up with some cipher puzzles, and my friends got into it. I need to ask them about it, because I am not so sure everyone had fun with it. With that said, I did create multiple ways to get past the puzzles, but they choose the puzzle route. I also created a cooking challenge. Again, they did not have to participate in it; they could have done combat to get passed it.

Lastly, I wanted to continue the world built in the first campaign. I feel like I wrote too much story this year, but my friend’s did not say anything about it. I did dip a small easter egg about one of my friend’s character from last year in the campaign; all of the players appreciated it. One of character’s picked up a cursed sickle last year. I put that character in an encounter this year. I let my friend play his character, so he was actually playing two characters during the encounter. I also let him play however he wanted, so it was unknown to me how the encounter was going to resolve itself. It was awesome for me, and the players wanted to take him along with the group. I did not say no (at least not directly), but the character was useless in battle. They ended up leaving him to rest.

Since this year’s campaign was more open, I created multiple endings. They ended up getting the “good” ending, for lack of a better term. They saved the world from dipping into chaos. It cost them their sanity, but they were called heroes.

This year’s one-shot did not go perfectly. For one, I designed the campaign for five people, and I had two friends join at the last minute. Originally, I wanted to play from 1:00pm to about 10:00pm. Because of the additional people, it lasted from 3:00pm to 2:00am. We were exhausted by the end. I do not recommend going that long; in fact, eight to nine hours is also too much. Near the end, I was fudging my dice rolls in the players favor so they could get through combat quicker.

As a game master, calculating difficulty is an interesting endeavor. 5e has a table for it, but it does not consider your players’ classes, spells, and abilities. My advice is to make them more difficult than recommended and adapt your monsters’ HP during play. I did that a few times, and it went well. My friends still put up a good fight (sometimes going unconscious), but they did not get overwhelmed. The advice applies to non-combat encounters as well. With my cipher puzzles, I was not 100% sure of my friends’ ability to crack them. I made them hard, and offered them hints, much like an escape room. It worked out perfectly.

I am already planning next year’s one-shot. I have three ideas for the setting. The world is expanding, and I left a lot of mysteries for players to unearth. I will take what I learned, and make it an even better campaign.