How to Write a One-Shot D&D adventure — with my DM, Jesse Jerdak!

Grab the "Bard Behind Bars" adventure on my website: ginnydi.com/calendar And keep up with Jesse on Twitter: twitter.com/JesseJerdak

"You don't write "The Story", you write the story that will happen if the players don't involve themselves." Definitely the best writing advice.

Jesse is an actual goliath?? Jesse: *talks* Jesse is an actual goliath.

I always love Ginny's videos, but Jesse was such a soft spoken guy with a lot of great advice. I'd love to see more of the both of you in the future.

It’s like a halfling doing a colab with a half orc and I’m here for it 😂😁

If keeping it brief is a priority, I don’t think there’s a problem with DMs using NPCs to subtly hasten roleplay. Also, a lot of my baddies in one shots are glass cannons: low health, high damage. This keeps the stakes high and the combat snappy. We tried a streamed 1-Shot and it became a 5 part mini campaign. Wasn’t a problem, we had a good time and in the end that’s what matters.

I got so excited when I saw this was a collab with Jesse! Your "Jester's Mom" collab is partly what got me into Critical Role, and Jesse and you are both such awesome and kind people.

I highly recommend running Bard Behind Bars!! It was super fun to run, and my players still talk about the characters :)

Between this man, and Travis Willingham….I’m surprised that giant buff dudes are gettin down with DnD and the atmosphere of the game. It’s truly a bridge builder for all kinds of people. So thankful for this game and the people that play :)

My preference for how to write one shots: FIRST: write it with the intention of over preparing SECOND edit it WAY down into something punchy and fun to read THIRD add some easily findable appendices in the back that still HAVE all of the extra useful information you cut. Some gms will for sure use it, but no one needs it to have fun. I'm really inspired by the pathfinder 2e rulebook- you can run a whole campaign with just like, 1/3rd of the chapters, but the other 2/3rds are there if you have questions, and are very well organized and indexed so you can find the niche mechanics FAST if you want one. It really feels like it was layed out page by page specifically so you can quickly reference it at the table. I love it, lol

One thing I asked to my followers when writing down a one-shot for other DMs was: "Do you prefer a single solution to the situation, or multiple suggestions?"; everyone chose the second. So I ended up not deciding whether those "spirits of the forest" were just funky little pixies or something more gruesome - I gave both the light-hearted scenario and the grim one, in order to let each master feel free on how to run things.

I have never written or wanted to write anything of my own for D&D but this makes it seem super achievable! I'm now terrified and excited to write something for my table!

I got the PDF for the one-shot and I can see how the advice Jesse is giving here was applied to it. It was very malleable, with the pieces able to be put together in different orders depending on what the players try to do. I really liked that. The encounters were pretty clever too.

"You don't have a lead-up" is key for time. It's a one-shot, and players shouldn't feel railroaded by the premise. I've started a couple with "You've all been hired to do this job" and had no complaints, because everyone understands that I've prepared something specific, and it isn't a campaign.

30% combat, 30% RP. 30% problem solving. The other 10% is exposition.

Yeah I do have to agree. The most important part of a one-shot is letting the players know the tone first. Don't spoil much but let them know how combat or roleplay heavy it is. It maximizes fun.

I wish this was around when I was making my Call of Cthulhu one shot that Jesse actually played in. Having him there to help us keep things moving was the saving grace for my nerves! There's so much good advice and content in this video! Well done and thank you for taking the time for answering our questions~ 💕

I think that the ideal "one shot" should be designed to be short-and-sweet, but with various options to extend to a full-blown campaign if everyone really gets into it, and if the DM has the creative juices to run-on with the direction that the players choose.

This is so lovely and informative. It’s also like seeing Iris and Gladiolus together in real life.

Well, this video dropped at the exact perfect time. I'm about to fly back home and run my very first in-person oneshot in less than 48 hours! My friends and I have always played online since we started in 2020, so this is a big deal. This video will definitely help lol. Also love the new intro! It's an absolute delight.