- Wait, sorry. - This is where he gives
me a kiss before- oh, nope. Aw, thank you. I love you! - Hello friends, Ginny Di here. And I'm here today with one of my DMs, Jesse Jerdak, who you may know from his own YouTube channel or from some of the videos on my channel. He was in Jester's Mom, but he was painted green. So, you might not recognize him. ♪ Jester's mom has got it going on ♪ One of the reasons why we're doing this specifically today, is
that Jesse actually wrote the one-shot adventure that's included with my
2022 calendar, Natural 22. The adventure is called Bard Behind Bars. If you wanna play or read or in any way experience that one-shot, you can get it with a deluxe edition of
my Natural '22 calendar. Or you can purchase the one-shot adventure as a PDF on my website. And I'll put the link in the
description and it's great. So, I asked on Twitter for
your most pressing questions about how to create one-shot adventures. And today we are going
to try to answer them. (upbeat music) What do you think are
the most important things to include in a one-shot adventure? - I start with an emotion
that I want to evoke with the entire arc. So, is it gonna be whimsical and fun, and quirky, and cute? Or is it gonna be sad? - Spoiler! Both for Jesse. - Or is it, is it a scary thing that is also whimsical and sad? (Jesse and Ginny laughing) - Some of those things are non-negotiable. Practically speaking, do you
think that a one-shot has to, or should include combat or
puzzles, or like a mystery? - I like to include literally
all of those elements in every one-shot I release. Even if I can't guarantee that the players are going to engage in those individual elements, I want them to be there,
for people that enjoy them. - One of the things that I really liked about the way that you
wrote Bard Behind Bars is that you have what is one of my favorite
puzzles that I've ever seen. You include ways that that puzzle can be
incorporated into the story even if the players aren't
interested in sitting down and working out a logic puzzle. - If a player is not great
at figuring out puzzles, their character might be. You know, that's the great
thing about those D20s is they can solve a lot of problems. - Let's dive into the stuff
that Twitter was asking about. I saw basically two questions come up over and over and over in the Twitter thread. The main one, the one
that came up the most was how do you manage time and predict how long a
one-shot is gonna take and prevent it from turning into a
two-shot or a three-shot or like... a five-shot, which I think happens to a lot of people. - Yeah. Typically, combat, you're talking a minimum of
45 minutes, every combat. So, if you throw three combats in there, you're looking at about
a three-hour adventure no matter what you do. And as far as pacing the rest of it, RP-ers gonna RP.
- Yes (laughs) - I like to add like, little notes. Hey, here's a good point for RP but maybe you don't have five hours to dedicate to this. So, you know, here's an NPC that can help move things
along just in case. - When I was working on the
mermaid one-shot adventure with my other DM Harlen, one of the things that I ran into when I was running that
adventure was my players really got into the roleplay
at the very beginning. And it was to the point where I was like, oh man! We really gotta
get them into the ocean to engage with the mermaids. The decision that I made,
which was made very easy by the way that Harlen had
put that adventure together, was to just nix one of
the NPCs completely. There were three different
NPCs you could interact with. And each of them had a
few pieces of the puzzle that would be helpful. And you didn't have to see all of them in order to put together those pieces. If they hit a point where
they're like, we got it, we've figured it out, they can move forward and
they're not missing anything by skipping all those NPCs. - I did that with Valestone, actually. Since I ran it for you the first time, I've run it like three times since. Every group skips a different NPC. It's really wild. It's great to have optional
content that isn't, you know, mandatory for your players
to progress. And, also so you can keep things snappy. - It sounds like it's crucial that putting together the pieces, that take you to the final encounter, not necessarily be linear. Because if it's linear then
it's harder to skip something. Would you agree with that? - Yeah. I mean, linear
is, it's a two-edged sword because also it gives your players a clear path of progression. So, as long as they know what's
next, they can go to that. But it is important that
they stumble over exactly what they need to stumble over. - Let's say your players miss
something really important or they skip something really important. How do you stay on your toes and make sure that they can still get the information they need to complete the one-shot. - I like to say this: no matter what they're looking for, everywhere they're looking,
that's where it is. If it's a note, a secret note with the key to the puzzle on it. They're not looking where
you think it should be. But maybe they're like, I want to rummage through
the kitchen drawers. Turns out it's there. You know, I want to look
in the couch cushions. Oh, there's a note in there. - I like that. Because then, you're not pushing the players
to do something specific. They don't have to feel railroaded. But they do sort of get the
satisfaction of being like, 'ah yes, I had a good idea. And I did indeed find the clue.' And that question of
railroading came up a lot in relation to this question. Basically like, how do
you keep players on track with still allowing them to feel like, they're the ones making the choices? 'Cause one of the things I've noticed in your one-shots is that you do a good job of picking a setting for the one-shot that is pretty contained. - Constraining the setting
is like, mandatory. You have to. Because if you
throw too much at folks, then they're going to explore in a lot of different directions and that's where your time goes. And if you don't mind making
a one-shot a three-shot, that's also okay. - The second most commonly asked
question in this thread was how do you get players or even just their characters, involved or invested in
the arc of the one-shot when you've just dropped
them right into it? - If you present a problem.,
they're gonna wanna solve it. Because other than that, they
can take their dice and... I don't know. What do
you do at that point? We're here to play D&D, friends. - When we all collect at
the table to play D&D, we are entering a good
faith agreement, as a group, that we all are here
to play a game together and that we wanna have fun with it. So, I also think it's okay
as a DM to just be like, listen, your characters care about this because like, that's the barrier to entry. - But if you present like, somebody that's clearly in distress or that there's a clear reward, or that there's a clear problem
that just you can't avoid. - A sub part of this question is like, how do you get the adventure
hook sort of on the table and out there quickly enough
to get everybody moving? 'Cause you don't really wanna spend the first 30 minutes
of what could maybe be only a three or four hour one-shot trying to convince people to participate. - You get to frame this. You get to set the stakes
right out the gate. Like, you're in, you as the author are in control of this. You don't have to be like, you meet in your favorite
tavern discussing drinks. - Well, and I think that's one thing that makes one-shots special
in comparison to a campaign. You don't have to have the
lead up if you don't want to. When I was writing an
adventure for Steamforged Games and I submitted my first
draft to my contact, he suggested to me that I cut, basically like, the first three paragraphs that I had written and was like, you wanna throw people in, in the action so that they are immediately engaged. And I ended up cutting a
bunch off the front end and starting the adventure with a combat. When I read it back, I was like, oh, this is
so much more interesting. Like you jump right in and
there's pressure on you and there's time constraints. And like, things are happening. How much combat should it even have? Like, how do you decide on a
combat to roleplay balance? - Depends on what kind of
adventure you wanna run. It can be just all combat. Some people love that. You know, bring your
weirdest, most powerful, most wildly min-maxed character to this. And let's just fight tough bad guys. Like, if that's the kind
of one shot you wanna make, let's do that. That's great. - And tell people if it's
gonna be that kind of one-shot. 'Cause I've definitely
played in some stuff where I show up with
like a dramatic backstory and like a roleplay-focused character, and then we just fight the whole time. And then I'm like, but she
has a troubled relationship with her sister, everyone! - That's actually a great point. Set the stage before the session. When you're like saying, hey, do you wanna do a one-shot? It's all about fighting. - I think you should err on
the side of telling people more rather than less about the one-shot because it's so easy for
someone to build a character that's not suited to it. And then you just end up with, sort of like, a frustrating game. I also think it's a good idea that you know what kind
of balance you want. And you think about that
when you're piecing together all the different sections. Because I do think it
can be easy to end up with a combat-heavy or
roleplay-heavy encounter by accident. - I always set up- And you, and Laura, am I allowed to gesture
to Laura over there? - No, it's against the law. Police! - ...have heard me say,
I use the Rule of Threes. I like to have 30% combat, 30%
RP and 30% problem-solving. So, pretty much anything that I write is going
to have that 30, 30, 30. And I guess it's 33%. - Yeah. What's the other 10%, Jesse? Someone asked us and I'm glad they did. 'Cause I wanted to ask it also, which is how do you conclude a one-shot in a way that feels meaningful when you know that these characters aren't gonna come back or
be used for anything else. - I think what you need to do is give them the carrot that they're
efforting towards, right? What is the carrot? Is the carrot the story? Is it the adve- is it the
friends we made along the way? - Oh, it is. (Jesse laughs) - You know, this is an
interesting thing to hear you say, because I think with Valestone,
without spoiling anything, a lot of the way that
that adventure arc moves, just naturally, is towards an ending that's gonna be very
bittersweet for people. - That comes back to one of my very favorite
pieces of D&D advice. And it's that you don't write the story. You write the story that will happen if the players don't involve themselves. - I like that thought process too. The idea of you know what will happen if the players don't do anything. And then, whenever the
players do make a decision, all you have to do is determine how that's gonna impact the existing arc. One of the things that threw
me is at the very end of- so I keep talking about
the mermaid one-shot. It's the most recent one-shot I ran. - That's okay. Let's talk about it. So, at the end of the mermaid one-shot, my players were looking for loot. And I was like, we're about to be done. Like, I don't know what to do with this. Should I give you a loot? Does it matter? How do you use loot in
a one-shot if you do? - You want your loot to be functional. So, if you give it to them in
the middle of the adventure, then they can play with it. - Last question that I wanna address here, which I think is not gonna
be relevant to everyone, but let's assume that
you're writing a one-shot for other DMs to run, not
just for yourself to run. - Yeah.
- How do you do that? How do you write something that other DMs are gonna know
enough about it to run it, but not so much that you're unloading a ton of information on
them that may overwhelm? - This is a great one for
us, I think specifically, because you've seen my writing style. It's like a lot. It's like, I write, like
a love letter to the DM. And then you help me edit some stuff down and you're like, none
of that was necessary. (Ginny and Jesse laughing) - But in a loving way.
- Yeah! - I think this really
speaks to the kind of DM that you are too personally, which is that you're an over-preparer. That's just like who you are.
- Yeah. - And I think you can see that in the way that you write one-shots and a lot of DMs might really love that. They might really love that you give them a lot of information. I think you can also easily
go the other direction and not give DMs enough information. And that can also be really
hard to run a one-shot from. - Or easy, because then they
have a lot of creative control. I don't know. I think I try
to over-manage other DMs. - Well, this is something that, I mean, this is something you and I talked about with the Bard Behind Bars adventure. Because I... I did cut a lot of what you wrote
for that adventure! - Which is good, by the way. - But I think that made us a really good duo for that adventure. Because I think you came to the table with a ton of really creative ideas and a really clear image
of how you wanted each, sort of like, scene or
interaction to feel. And I was able to pare it down in a way that allowed DMs to
create that same feeling without necessarily using
all the same dialogue. So for me, what I found helpful when editing down Bard
Behind Bars was to ask what's the goal of all of this text, you know?
- Yes. - And how can we communicate
that same information in a way that allows more freedom
for the DM who's reading it. - You know, I think maybe less is more. So, I actually really appreciated Ginny's edits on Bard Behind Bars. And you should definitely look at it 'cause I'm very proud
of the material within. - What other people can
take away from this, this interaction we had over
Bard Behind Bars is that, hey, If you're writing for other DMs, it might be a good idea to have someone read it over and edit it. Somebody who has strengths that are different from your strengths. Big thanks to Jesse for
talking with me about this. If you are interested in the
Bard Behind Bars adventure that Jesse wrote, and
then I deleted 15% of, you can find it as a bonus printed booklet with the deluxe edition of
the Natural '22 calendar. Or you can get it as a PDF on my website and I'll put those links
in the description. Also, if you want to
play Jesse's one-shots, Eve of Fall or Valestone,
I will link those too. - So I'm working on a whole gaming system with maybe like, also a self-contained one-shot called Capybattle in which everyone plays
a sapient capybara. - The world's largest
rodent! If you don't know. - They are the world's largest rodent It's got its own system,
its own combat rules. And it's hilarious. I
think it's very funny. I will be tweeting about it a lot. We are going to stream a capybattle game here very, very soon. - I wanna be a capybard. - You're gonna be a capybard? - Can I be? Is someone already a capybard? - Not yet. - Okay, it's me. Dibs. Ummmm.... great. - I think we made a good video.
- I think that's it. - I think we did it. Yeah.
- That was fun.
