The 5 BEST One Shots I've Ever Run!

Find a variety of one page adventures on my patreon: bit.ly/34FHwjT
One shot adventures are an excellent way to introduce new players to the game, take a break from an ongoing campaign, or get freaky!
In this video I'm telling you about why I love one shots and telling you about some of the most memorable ones I've ever run.
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[@IcarusGames]

Stuck for something to run for game night? Check out my book, A Night of Adventure Volume 1. This book contains seven one-shot adventures designed to be as easy to run as possible without any prep. Each adventure includes summaries of each section to give the game master a quick overview of the upcoming scenes, as well as frequent read-aloud boxes, reminder boxes, and design notes to give game masters more context on events. Each adventure is complete with a map by Dyson Logos. Get your copy here: bit.ly/3DzRyla

[@Sabotender]

one of my favorite one-shots that i ran: Just after finishing a dungeon and leaving, i told my players that i needed a short break and wanted to do a one-shot with something different. For the one-shot i game them pre-made characters and ran a basic murder mystery. During the mystery the players quickly learned that there was more to it than just a murder, there was something otherworldly going on, and they suspected some kind of cthulu cult. Slowly i started introducing more and more "wrong" things, breaking physics, forgetting reflections, etc.and the more the players focused on the abnormalities, the more the townsfolk got annoyed that they were not solving the murder. Throughout the whole one-shot, i also subtly kept telling them that they didnt feel like themselves, i told one player that his wife wanted a divorce because "he had changed", i told another that he had a massive hangover and generally just didnt feel like his life was in order. Eventually, the players realized that the world was fake (due to the wonky physics and repetitive behavior of the NPCs) and that they were somehow just acting out a given role (them not being themselves), one of the players even realized that he was basically playing one of the other player's characters from the main campaign. When they all come to this conclusion, i told them that the earth shook and the sky shattered, and they all woke up on the ground, outside the dungeon they finished last main session, with an enchantress looming over them. "How did you break my spell?!" she yelled, as she was about to stab one of the players. They quickly dispatched of the enchantress and realized that the one-shot was actually a mind-control dream spell thingy that was cast on them, and that all of them had indeed been playing each other's characters. Seeing their reactions was epic :D

[@timelessadventurer]

This sounds so fun!!!

[@HouseOfChaosUK]

What a fantastic idea. Great work

[@okashi10]

I love that twist!

[@CaptainMorgen77]

I'd love to do something like this, but my PCs know each other's characters/classes too well. The moment I handed them the "pre-made" characters, they would immediately be like--oh, this is such-and-such's sheet. Otherwise, I love the idea of this session. :)

[@fealnort2583]

Ho my. keeping this idea for sure.

[@DiceDragondnd]

00:00 Rant about one shots 4:22 1st One shot "Facility 42" 7:27 2nd One shot "Jojo's Bizzare Adventure" 12:08 3rd One shot "Langdale's Favorites" 15:12 4th One shot "Happy Death Day" 20:17 5th One shot "Village of Strandford Icarus Way" yir welcome!

[@joanarafaelaferreira6716]

I'm new to D&D and so is my party. I'm the DM. One shots are really helping us to understand the game and the rules, and to understand our style of game! I recommend it for new players

[@wetsocks9952]

We made a one shot campaign with portals. It's basically like gates to other worlds and we can switch between dm's while keeping basic characters. The rules of each world may change based on dm ruling. One dm has us roll another d20 on a fail and based on a DC we either miss the shot or if you damage your items like a crossbow. Another dm makes the crit fails bounce off of things or you drop your item. We've had LOTR, jurassic world, eldrich world game show, gnome ran maze game, and several anime based portals.

[@KoiPondDreams]

The carnival one shot sounds FANTASTIC! Im definitely going to set something up like this! Thanks so much for the ideas! Cheers mate!

[@IcarusGames]

Glad you found it inspiring!

[@joystickanimations4367]

I did not run this one shot but I played it, we got to choose some goofy pre made gobblin character sheets and we were dropped into the campaign. First we found ourselves stranded in a snowstorm, we are cold and miserable until eventually we see the light of a fire coming from a nearby cave, inside we find a fat goblin sitting on top of a pile of luxury items with a warm fire roaring in the cave who call himself big boss, he tell us he will allow us to stay and get refuge from the storm if we steal some “cozy’s” from the nearby village. We agree and he hands us a list of luxury items that he wants us to steal and says he wants us to complete it in one hour, so the dm started the timer and we had to run into the village and begin our heist. We got into plenty of fun goblin goofiness and in the end we stole everything on big bosses list from plenty of very angry villagers, and big boss let us wait out the rest of that harsh winter enjoying the spoils from our heist. 10/10 would play again.

[@michellesloan466]

I think mini one shots are great for ending session 0 with because you can find out what the Player seems to react best to, what they enjoy the most, and gives them a really fun, experience to "wet their whistle" with.

[@fabiomagalhaes3737]

Cant thank you enough for your amazing videos and for yet again breaking my writers block, with some great One-Shot ideas! Definitely got me thinking of other movies and book scenes i can revamp and use! Would love to see more videos of one-shot/quest ideas or insight into plot points and plot hooks you use. Also looking forward to more Ashk Campaign Diary!!

[@IcarusGames]

I'm really glad you enjoyed the video and it helped defeat writer's block for the day :D

[@DCdabest]

One shots are a great way to trial out all those crazy adventurer ideas that you can't fit into a more formal campaign

[@IcarusGames]

Exactly! They are a great change of pace.

[@pure_pazaak1376]

Walkthrough creating a great one-shot when? love the channel btw :)

[@IcarusGames]

That's a good idea, I'll add it to the list.

[@Andrew-qt8dn]

I feel special! Great video bud! I'll definitely be keeping that ship combat in my back pocket. Fits in nicely with my arctic viking setting.

[@theundeaddaedra7584]

You've got a comfortable vibe for these videos. I clicked on a video I searched just bc I seen your face and remembered you

[@dungeonmasterdummies7050]

I am writing a oneshot for my instagram followers now, together with them. It's looking out to be a lot of fun! These tips helped me!

[@KumaKun123]

I'm running an intro to Dnd tonight, this video was perfect! Thank you so much!

[@IcarusGames]

You're welcome. I hope it helped in your game!

[@DocDoesGamingYT]

I spontaneously decided to run the level 5 one shot "The wild sheep chase" a while ago and it went great

[@IcarusGames]

I've heard good things about sheep chase!

[@DocDoesGamingYT]

@@IcarusGames it's short and sweet! I had a first timer in the party and he didn't have any problems whatsoever!

[@braydenlabute8444]

These are all great! For sure will come back to this!

[@Serinde_73]

Love every single one you mentioned. I would try to incorporate some in my campaign too. Thanks so much for sharing them.

[@IcarusGames]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked them :)

[@cuppleschristopher]

That last one though. I was worried about doing The Lich from Adventure Time for my group, thinking they’d catch on too soon. But you helped me over come it and say: “So what? Lean into it.” So now I’m trying to work out how I’m gonna get the Finn Sword in there...🤔🤔

[@jackalbane]

The “take a break” cutaway got me. Cheers!

[@O4C209]

Awesome stuff. Love it. Subscribed.

[@cyberhonk2999]

I swear every video of yours I watch is more bearable than any other dnd channels

[@IcarusGames]

Thanks CyberHonk! I'm glad you've enjoyed the videos. I'd be interested to know what makes you think my videos are more bearable?

[@phresh9361]

Thank you for these. Amazing stories.

[@IcarusGames]

Glad you enjoyed 😊

[@wemustuplift]

Great Video!!!

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Agreed, one shots are good for new players.

[@Simon-sn9qt]

Love the video

[@Dillonx37]

I have recently stumbled upon your channel and i love the content. But i happen to see in one of your videos you had custom drinking rules. Could you make a video on your custom rules they seem super interesting. Thanks for the great work.

[@IcarusGames]

I'll have a video on some of my house rules coming soon, but a video looking at what homebrew rules I use would be good too. I'll add it to the list!

[@Dillonx37]

@@IcarusGames i look forward to it because i use a lot of homebrew myself. Wether its classes, races or rules i find it interesting. For example i removed attack of opportunity from the game so that it can no longer create those odd combat situations that just feel weird cause no one want to move. I then turned it into a feat that has special requirements to take it. But is available from lvl one if the player so chooses.

[@IcarusGames]

@@Dillonx37 That's similar to how Pathfinder 2e handles it, only certain classes get access to AoO.

[@Dillonx37]

@@IcarusGames sweet. I have never played that. Outside of my own built games D&D is really the only miniature game i have played. Thanks for everything keep up the great work and enjoy your day. I have a game to run in roughly 20 minutes.

[@brookewilliams4078]

I love the hot fuzz one i might have to use that XD

[@thebestmediocregamer]

great ideas and i’ll definitely be stealing some of your oneshots!

[@IcarusGames]

Steal away!!!

[@shoglittergeekgirl5735]

Stumbled across this vid looking for inspo for one shots and i am so borrowing and reskinning "Happy Death Day" - thank you x

[@viniciusjp]

I Love the idea of a fight versus the rock giant! How you do the fights? All vs monsters or 1 player vs 1 enimy? How use the casters in the fights?

[@IcarusGames]

I did a mix of both. Sometimes players would fight different beasts unarmed, but for things like the rock giant fight all the players took part fully armed.

[@minimanbeast1014]

Iv been struggling to come up with an idea for a one shot, i needed one for a new group of players

[@nevoyu]

The sounds of the characters poping in around 2:30 had me checking my phone becauise it came from the left sound channel and my phone is to my left, thanks :/

[@DCdabest]

Hot Fuzz in DnD sounds hilariously good fun. Genius moment! Did you have a sea mine?

[@LostWhits]

(Mumbles unintelligibly)

[@TimeAreChanging]

thank for the ideas dude, but i started laughing as i realized that the langdale map is magnimar from pathfinder 1e XD

[@IcarusGames]

Aye, if I can use a map from a published book that works for a homebrew location, why give myself more work lol. That was much easier before I started playing a desert campaign; not a great number of desert locations in published stuff.

[@charliealphatango11]

Thanks for this. I've been looking for a video where someone actually explained how their run shots run; essentially, a free set of one shot ideas fully fleshed out. Perfect!

[@aplunks117]

I’m a first time DM tonight and here I am lmao that intro was accurate

[@IcarusGames]

You've got this 💪

[@theblackneon5396]

Using a VTT, I've got a specific world set up for one shots, so I've already got several "pokemon generic battlemaps", and a ton of NPC's available. With this basic prep, you can pull any oneshot up at any time and run it.

[@Raylan.Hood16]

I also am using a video game world as the setting for my campaign. It's an underused resource imo

[@dinorocks4887]

Would you ever do a restaurants and retail/monsters of Murka one shot? Its a setting that is a parody of america and I think it would be really fun to watch/play

[@Satori2046]

Where can I get Facility 42 ?? I cant find any info on it : ) Much thanks :p

[@IcarusGames]

It was a homebrew one shot I made for my group, and has never been published unfortunately.

[@quosterking8809]

Ngl the first three seconds of this video called me out so hard

[@IcarusGames]

That's why the video exists 😂

[@quosterking8809]

@@IcarusGames thanks for the video man! Really saved my skin haha

[@IcarusGames]

Happy to have helped :)

[@DekarNL]

How long did these one shots take? Sounds like they were very long.

[@IcarusGames]

They ranged between 3-6 hours I would say, depending on how long we had to play on any given day.

[@dacova1e]

Aka vault 42

[@bksiegold3606]

did i just hear JoJo?

[@Alex-cu6pj]

You cannot have "a" medusa. You have Medusa or a gorgon. Medusa is a greek mythos character ;)

[@avery7270]

In DnD, you can have "a" medusa. And in DnD gorgons are armored bull monsters.