Summary
InDungeons & Dragons,one-shotsare considered quick, single-session games. Oftentimes, players will make fresh characters to try out and play with different abilities and perks. It doesn’t really have toendwith a one-shot. If everyone at the table enjoyed the concept and the characters, there is nothing stopping everyone from continuing thegame into a full-on campaign.
One-shots are a great way to take a little break from the main game, experiment with odd builds and concepts, and overall just unwind. It is also a great place for a DM to try out new ideas and rules before incorporating them fully.
Updated on February 3rd, 2025 by Chad Thesen:Players are always on the look for their next fun adventure. Luckily, storytellers are only limited by their imagination. We live in an age filled with great ideas to be inspired by, and there is nothing wrong with heavily leaning into an idea or concept and then making it your own. This article has been updated to feature 3 new campaign ideas. These include: The party being contestants on a cooking show hosted by a group of cultists, remnants of a great calamity that combines both post-apocalyptic elements with fantasy ones, and a Murder Mystery on a flying train.
22Dungeon Kitchen
The Ultimate Culinary Gauntlet
This idea is set in a world setting involving the players as contestants in a high-fantasy cooking-style gameshow. However, this is not like the cooking game shows we know. Players will have a round where they need to source ingredients from any of the surrounding biomes. This can include Phoenix Eggs, milk from giant goats, and fruit that only grows from within the walls of an active volcano.
There are also the other contestants to worry about, as one of these groups might attack the player’s party to take their ingredients as their own. Skill checks can involve rolling intelligence to know what each judge might like, survival to know where to find it, and having the group’s skill monkey perform all manner of elaborate skill checks to prepare the ingredients in an optimal manner. For extra tension, the GM could have some kind of monster eat the final ingredient they need in a single gulp. This means getting it back before it is digested.
21Remnants of a Fallen World
Blending Post-Apocalypse with High Fantasy
Both D&D-style high fantasy and the post-apocalyptic wastelands you’dexpect from a setting like Falloutare two very common archetypes for tabletop roleplaying campaigns. These can be sandy wastelands, or even frigid arctic ones. Players could have a great calamity befalling a stereotypical high fantasy world setting. This has left the world in ruins, with floating islands, mutated mythical monsters, and magic behaving more wildly than ever before. Players are survivors in these magical wastelands, which are now fraught with more danger than ever before.
This lets the GM turn common dynamics between races on their heads, such as Goblins and Humans being able to live in complete harmony and see each other as truly kindred spirits. Having a world-ending catastrophe means they can write all manner of events that have happened and create a world setting where players can constantly be surprised by what might turn up — especially with how much magic has gone haywire. Players can have it that spells no longer consume spell slots, but each cast now has something completely unexpected happen. This makes casting spells have players need to first weigh the risk if they should.
20Murder on The Azure Express
A Classic Murder Mystery on a Flying Train
A lot of people love to host elaborate role-playing parties without the need for dice and miniatures. This can include hosting a murder mystery party where guests need to guess who the killer is. For this campaign, the player’s characters will be guests of a flying train making its cross-continental journey, when one of the other guests is brutally murdered. This gives the GM a great excuse to pull out as many tropes and oddball characters as they can conceive to keep the players guessing who the culprit is, and why.
Of course, drama unfolds when one of the player characters suddenly becomes the prime suspect due to a false claim or planted evidence. Throw in a hot-headed police constable and a climactic finale on top of a train high up in the sky, and you have an unforgettable experience in the making. Just be sure to plant plenty of red herrings, plot twists, gasps, and, of course, a “but why did you do it?” moment.
19A Tiny Conundrum
Why Is Everything So Large All Of A Sudden?
This concept is fairly simple and can start in almost any way. For example, the party is gifted a bottle of some expensive whiskey, and all partake in a tasting. However, after a few moments, everyone begins to realize that they arerapidlyshrinking.
And not just to goblin size, they gettiny.All of a sudden,players have to navigatethe world from the perspective of a house mouse. In this world, even a large cat can be as dangerous as a raging lion, and players need to find their way back to their normal sizes.
18A Goblin Run
Villain games can be quite a lot of fun and showcase a side of characters that is usually veiled in shadows or portrayed in a very particular light. It takes a bit of finessing to make it really work, but it’s really not that hard to embrace the inner goblin.
Games likeOverlordrevolve around the villain archetype, oftentimes leaning into the antihero side of things. Regardless, grabbing a group of friends and roleplaying as a bunch of sheep-stealing goblins can be surprisingly fun and bring a whole new perspective to an otherwise basic scenario.
17A Heist
Stealing Is Fun
Is it overused and cliché? Sure. Is it still fun and tantalizing? Absolutely. There’s just something about planning out an elaborate heist that brings a lot of enjoyment to people; especially when everything inevitably goes horribly wrong.
There are limitless ways to structure and frame a heist. A Lich’s phylactery, an annoying king’s treasure, a dragon’s hoard, a shady casino’s vault, and even a bride who is being married off for a political reason. There is no shortage of things to steal, and there is no end to players’ creativity in doing so.
16Horror Episode
Dim The Lights
While there are other great TTRPGs to specifically facilitate the horror genre,D&Ddoes surprisingly well at is also. After all, it’s all about the atmosphere that the DM can bring to the table, how well they can paint the picture, and the feeling of bone-chilling anxiety.
There are plenty of terrifying creatures and monsters that can be used to great effect. From classic ghosts and hags to boneclaws and false hydras. Lights, music, and sound effects are also incredible tools to help the DM build tension and put their beloved players on edge.
15Flashback
Find Out The Villain’s Backstory
This can be a little risky to pull off, but it is absolutely worth it. It’s best if players don’t even realize they’re in a flashback until the very end of the game. DMs can focus on particular aspects of the story that they want to showcase, putting players in the very front seat of history.
They can join the epic battle against an ancient evil, which echoes in their current campaign. Or witness the beginning of their BBEG’s villain arc, or perhaps even be a part of the reason they became this way. This can be a powerful storytelling element, but it should be treated with care.
14Pirate Race
What Are You Willing To Do For Treasure?
Piratesare always a hit at almost any RPG table, whether their players decide that they would rather pillage the open seas than help out villagers or hunt for infamous ships and ruthless captains.
However, one of thetropes most associated with piratesistreasure. In a one shot, it could be that a famous treasure location has been discovered and the news has spread like wildfire, alerting pirates and adventurers of all calibers. Will the party be able to get there in time? Will there be obstacles thrown at them by the opposing crews? What even is the treasure in question?
13Arena Championship
Last Team Standing
Thousands of years later,gladiatorsare still quite popular, both in stories and in the media. These deadly tournaments are still portrayed in different films, TV series, and anime. Adapting such a plot toD&Dis extremely easy and viable, and there are a great many ways to do so.
From being forced to fight by Devils to a noble tournament hosted by a retired adventurer, there are plenty of ways and places to set up a gladiatorial arena. With other famous adventuring groups, interesting terrains, or battle conditions, it can be a great combat-oriented one-shot.
