One shot ideas

[Wazoodust]

I'm interested in running a 5E one shot for FGCon7, but I've been drawing a blank for ideas, I'm a little confused as to how many encounters and type to create if I do have a flash of inspiration.
So far I've thought about starting at 1st level, but the drawback is for a 1shot that'd be a little boring, or a higher 3rd to 6th so the PC's can have some fun with the characters. I'm confidant I can create a playable module with pergens for something like this. I guess what I'm asking is , 'is there a guideline to figure out time/ encounters/ level/ number of PCs?

Any story ideas would be a plus too, kinda like to go with a horrorish style since we'll be close to Halloween.

Also as an idea, would a storyline with guidelines to populate it violate any of the copyrights with WoTC? You'd not be distributing their materials this way and would have to have purchased or created them to use in your own campaign.

I'll stop here before I ramble on much further

[Zacchaeus]

Heh, I was going to point out this thread here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25466-FG-Con-7-Random-discussion-thread/page3) and this one (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25686-Newer-ish-Player-looking-for-Weekday-DnD5e-Game&p=228390&viewfull=1#post228390) but I see you participated in those :)

I don't really know what to add to the advice those luminaries already gave you. I'd suggest starting a little higher than level one but not too much otherwise the characters can get a little bit too complicated if you have very new people in your group. However higher levels do give you a lot more flexibility when it comes to encounters.

Usually from what I've seen people generally run 4-6 players which is a good number. Any more and you might get overwhelmed and pacing could be a problem.

As advised in the other threads aim for 3 hours play but assume 4. You'll pack in maybe 3 encounters in that plus a bit of puzzling, story etc. I'm sure you remember taking part in FGDaze and unless I didn't make it memorable enough use what I did as a template. :)

As for inspiration for a story, well that's something that's down to you. If, like me, you have a bunch of D&D stuff stretching back decades then there'll be something in there. If not then it's time to lock yourself in a darkened room until you come up with something :)

[Mask_of_winter]

While eating a meal at a local tavern one of the character chews on something harder than a stew should be. Turns out he/she just bit into a red ruby the size on a plum. In walks a scruffy man and his lackeys. "nobody leaves this town until all my jewels have been returned to me"

Is he bluffing? Who is he?

Go!

[Wazoodust]

As advised in the other threads aim for 3 hours play but assume 4. You'll pack in maybe 3 encounters in that plus a bit of puzzling, story etc. I'm sure you remember taking part in FGDaze and unless I didn't make it memorable enough use what I did as a template. :)

Your's is what is making me want to do this, Thank you for the ideas. (I'm in a darkened room now !). I enjoyed your game in FGDaze and thought the story was great but don't want mine to be cookie cutter either, hence the ideas thing. I'd guess if anyone else out there is in a similar situation they may be able to get some ideas from this too.
Am undead theme is high on the list being Halloween and all. This and Masks's idea already have some things bubbling up. I tend to think big picture and have a hard time finding a starting point sometimes.
Time to crack open some books and do some research too !

[Morgentaler]

There is a bunch of adventures here. https://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/

What I've done is create pre-gens with their own quirks and motivations and just plot em in.

[damned]

It is only a one shot adventure. It can be cookie cutter and no one will mind in the slightest. Some players will likely be new to FG and some may even be new to RPG so don't think you have to come up with something brilliant that no one else has come up with before :)

[Goltron]

You could make a one shot about a group of adventurers that run into trouble whilst travelling to a nearby town to participate in the annual "dice games" convention. Bit of a 4th wall thing.

[Morgentaler]

You could make a one shot about a group of adventurers that run into trouble whilst travelling to a nearby town to participate in the annual "dice games" convention. Bit of a 4th wall thing.

Id play that..and as the DM would direct something to my character regarding info to the game.

"The voice in me head telling me that I don't see anything that direction"

[Wazoodust]

There's a good chance I'm going to use that, Thanks

[Crymoricus]

While eating a meal at a local tavern one of the character chews on something harder than a stew should be. Turns out he/she just bit into a red ruby the size on a plum. In walks a scruffy man and his lackeys. "nobody leaves this town until all my jewels have been returned to me"

Is he bluffing? Who is he?

Go!

Lol, sign me up!

[Mask_of_winter]

Lol, sign me up!
Watch for my game offerings for FG Con 7. There will be plenty of that! ;)
Would be great to get to game with you.

[Wazoodust]

Also as an idea, would a storyline with guidelines to populate it violate any of the copyrights with WoTC? You'd not be distributing their materials this way and would have to have purchased or created them to use in your own campaign.



OK, seems like the main point of my question has been answered very well, Thank you everyone.
The question I had here is can someone build a story/map and then just say, the MM and PHB are required to use properly, and then notes like

Room 1 ) put 6 skeletons in the coffins, treasure should be 30 gp and a potion of healing
...
Room 6 ) Put 3 trolls and a beholder here, no treasure
etc.

Would that infringe on any copyrights? (If you created the maps and stroryline yourself then you should be able to distribute them freely)

[Nylanfs]

Other than beholders are WotC claimed IP, so "big floating eye" thingy

[Trenloe]

OK, seems like the main point of my question has been answered very well, Thank you everyone.
The question I had here is can someone build a story/map and then just say, the MM and PHB are required to use properly, and then notes like

Room 1 ) put 6 skeletons in the coffins, treasure should be 30 gp and a potion of healing
...
Room 6 ) Put 3 trolls and a beholder here, no treasure
etc.

Would that infringe on any copyrights? (If you created the maps and stroryline yourself then you should be able to distribute them freely)
You could go further than this - you could build up the encounters using the 5E MM creatures and FG would just export the link to the 5E MM library module when the module is created (using the FG module export functionality (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Library#Module_Export)) - needing the MM library module to run the adventure or providing enough detail for the GM to manually enter monsters as needed.

See the attached for an example I quickly threw together.

All of the references in this module are directly to the MM module - no IP (other than the "Beholder" name) is included. For example (the following code is auto created when the module is exported):


<npclist>
<id-00001>
<count type="number">6</count>
<link type="windowreference">
<class>npc</class>
<recordname>reference.npcdata.skeleton@DD MM Monster Manual</recordname>
</link>
<maplink>
...

It kinda looks like this:


Map with links enabled.
Link to a story entry that has details and links to other FG objects: The encounter with auto placement of tokens and the treasure parcel.
The room description story entry plus a link to the encounter. And a bonus spelling mistake! ;)


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/5E/5E%20Example%20Dungeon%20module.jpg

[Nylanfs]

Rite Publishing's The Breaking of Forstor Nagar is a great short adventure.

[Trenloe]

Rite Publishing's The Breaking of Forstor Nagar is a great short adventure.
It's a great adventure, but too long for a convention IMHO.

[Wazoodust]

Mainly I was thinking this could be a way to get community built adventures into the hands of DM's with minimal work and no copyright infringements, There are a limited number of things a DM that is inept at coding and or PAR5E (such as myself) is able to run. I'm fairly sure there are some people that have developed good adventures and are timid to share them due to the copyrights, this could be a way to do that without stepping on anyone's toes

[Trenloe]

Mainly I was thinking this could be a way to get community built adventures into the hands of DM's with minimal work and no copyright infringements, There are a limited number of things a DM that is inept at coding and or PAR5E (such as myself) is able to run. I'm fairly sure there are some people that have developed good adventures and are timid to share them due to the copyrights, this could be a way to do that without stepping on anyone's toes
I agree. Which is why I did the quick test module in post #14 above. Download it and have a look.

[Mask_of_winter]

Another cool one-shot was released here: https://imgur.com/a/lnRiC

And you know, there's no coding needed. You populate your FG with encounters, maps, npcs, stories, items, parcels and you type /export . You can then make your own adventure module. As long as there is no copyright material in your module you can share it.

[Wazoodust]

Damn you're good Trenloe !!
Hope this is something that lets DM's share some material, I'll do my best at it once I get up to speed on the FG software a bit more.

[Mask_of_winter]

Look what just came out! https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WOTC5EDDEX301

[damned]

What follows is my opinion only.

Going even further than what Trenloe has proposed you should be able to create a self contained module if you follow these guidelines, manually creating the monsters within Fantasy Grounds.

1. Use only Generic Monsters - the Wizards do not own trolls and skeletons and giants and wererats etc.
2. Wizards do own things like beholders and other critters that did not exist elsewhere in other fiction. Even then - you can create a munster that is mechanically and visually similar (identical even?) and call it the Great Eye etc.
3. The Wizards do own their descriptive text though. If you created a Goblin into your NPCs, filed in similar stats and wrote a description for it (your description and not anyone elses) AND gave it a generic token or your own - you are able to use this critter. Do the same for the Troll and the Fire Giant. You cant do this for a Beholder or Mind Flayer or many other Wizards monsters.
4. Wizards cannot copyright the mechanics and rules.
5. Stats could be grey - copying them wholesale, as is, verbatim could well be a breach. In saying that - the goblins of common usage are smallish and nimble and neither particularly intelligent wise or good looking. The D&D stats reflect that. Yours can too. Making even a minor change would likely clear that up.

There are dozens and dozens of imitation D&D games because the copyright laws allow this.
So you could create and export a module that did not require the GM to have the MM to use it.
Many times a one shot might only have 3-6 different types of NPCs.

I am not a lawyer. This advice cannot be relied on in a court of law. Always do your own research. :)

[Trenloe]

If you follow what I did in the module above (post #14) then there are just links to the relevant creatures in the MM module. You're not distributing any of the stats, so you're OK.

[Wazoodust]

Trenloe has stated fairly well what I was suggesting, not replacing the FGor WoTC material, but rather using and encouraging the sale of it by requiring the links to the MM and PHB (and DMG when it arrives), 95%+ people are just gonna buy it anyhow, being as most people are probably either unable or unwilling to learn the coding or take the effort to create every monster and NPC for a module. These could even be sold inexpensively as generic modules if it got to that point, so long as the legal mumbo jumbo isn't encroached, further enhancing FG's funding.
Most people are probably in a similar situation as me, I have no issue supporting FG with some of my hard earned cash, but this is a hobby, we all need to keep dry and keep the lights on. Ultimately, more options should lead to more players and DM's... more licenses, mo' money!!

[Wazoodust]

Where'd you get that background at Trenloe? Me likes a lot !

[damned]

Where'd you get that background at Trenloe? Me likes a lot !

Wazoo - you will get an email soon with new sigs!

[midas]

5. Stats could be grey - copying them wholesale, as is, verbatim could well be a breach. In saying that - the goblins of common usage are smallish and nimble and neither particularly intelligent wise or good looking.

All my goblins are hot.

[Griogre]

I just want to comment that for *anyone* owning some version of a MM it is generally *very easy* to make a 5E adventure for personal use. You don't have to use par5e - and shouldn't take the time or effort - unless you just want to. One of the best features of FG is how fast and how little data input a DM *needs* to do to prepare an adventure once you have a monster manual and maps.

You just drag and drop the monsters into an encounter than then drag and drop the monster token from the monster encounters onto the map. For 4-5 encounters we are talking 15 minutes. I get the feeling that some people think you have to use pa5se or something and spend hours.

There are a lot of 5E Adventures out there in PDF form. As a DM all you need are the maps to run the adventure which you copy from the PDF into an FG campaign and the monster encounter list. As was mentioned above what these non-official adventures do is mostly use generic monsters with slightly different stats - and you know what?

For the generics, you *can* just use the *official* monster from the MM instead. So you drag and drop them from the MM - no data entry. These adventures often have a boss monster or so that's unique but it's not a big deal to find a similar monster out of the MM and substitute it or just find one like it and edit it.

You don't have to put any of the story text in the FG adventure if you are using TeamSpeak or something similar, just read it off the PDF. We are talking less prep time than for a face to face game. The thing about doing this is you can't share, but it is *fast* and easy. There are a large number of 5E PDF adventures out there too.

Par5e is a great tool, but it's primarily for building *reference* modules not *adventure* modules. It's a powerful enough tool that it can build adventure modules but it's generally like using a jack hammer to drive in a nail when you could just use a hammer. :p