[Channel Teaser] How I Ran An Epic One-Shot For 13 Players
And Lived To Tell The Tale A group of friends and I recently had the
idea to create a one-shot for 12 players. The idea was that we would split the players
into 3 groups of 4, have 3 DMs that could run the groups simultaneously, then bring
them all together for a massive boss battle with 12 players and 3 DMs at one table. In the end, we ran for 13 players as someone
else wanted a part of it. This is, at first glance, a terrible, horrible,
no good, very bad idea… but it worked surprisingly well! Stage 1: The Hero's Ascension So we met each group 2 days before the event
to build characters. We had decided to build at Level 14, specifically
because one of the DMs wanted the possibility of someone playing Abserd. No one played Abserd. A few players already had characters in mind;
some had done up character sheets already. For those players, it was mostly rolling stats,
enjoying the atmosphere, and helping other players with their characters. Some of my favourites included:
A Shadow Sorcerer using the spell point variant A PAM-Sentinel Eldritch Knight with a Scottish
Accent An Arcane Archer who dual wielded hand crossbows
A changeling Arcane Trickster/Moon Druid multiclass A firbolg Grave Cleric of Concordia (a Homebrew
goddess in my campaign setting, goddess of all Clerics)
A centaur Swords Bard from the player who has made 3/3 of his characters centaurs. They always have the same name, but a different
personality and class. We think they must be related, despite not
living in the same campaign worlds. The DMs had also made 3 backup characters
in case we had over-tuned something and the worst happened. Once PCs were made, it was nearing 6pm, the
session having started around 4. Not wanting some of our first-time players
to leave without getting to play, we had designed a few shorter basic quests to bring the parties
together. The kingdom of Isselnier is at war. Resources are spread thin. In this hour of desperation, an agent of the
crown has approached each group to deal with certain supernatural incursions that cannot
be otherwise dealt with in this time of conflict: A duke has revealed himself to be a powerful
vampire, and the players have tracked him to his castle where they must kill him before
more people are turned or killed. The demons of the abyss have opened a gateway
into the material plane at the most opportune time, and with no other defence available,
the party must stop the invading fiends. A group of corrupted celestials are rumoured
to have desecrated an ancient temple in the desert and taken up residence within. This is the quest I DMed, and I can honestly
say that people do not get to use celestials' stat blocks enough! A deva, a ki-rin, and a planetar were under
the command of a devil named Hassatan, who was just a normal lizard stat-wise. He escaped alive… Each of the groups made it through 2-3 encounters
themed around this challenge. The environment and progression was left to
each DM themselves. Afterwards, each group was given a selection
of magic items: 1 common, 3 uncommon, and 1 rare per person in the party, to be split
as they saw fit. Stage 2: The Victory Feast Having completed their respective goals, the
parties returned to the capital city of Isselnier, which shared the same name. A great feast was to be held in the central
courtyard of the city, open to prince and pauper, hero and healer alike. Among those attending were King Siegebert,
a loud man that I can't imagine as anyone other than Brian Blessed; Lady Tania, advisor
to the king and adventurer enthusiast; and Professor Gambledore, archmage of Maremole's
University of Pact Magic and Lizardfolk Druid Practices (a.k.a. Horsewort's School of Eldritchcraft
and Lizardry). During the festivities, some of the more perceptive
folk began to notice strange phenomena occurring. Electrical sparks shoot off of metal cutlery,
corners of tablecloths rising and blowing in a nonexistent wind, and a faint rumbling
that grew louder and louder over time. Soon, this rumble caught the attention of
all as it aggressively rose in volume. Everyone braced themselves, expecting something
- anything - to happen… and then all went silent. Ominous though the silence was, one attendee
had yet to notice. King Siegebert finished his joke at the high
table: "... and then I said, 'Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?!'" With a loud crack, a Githyanki skyship appeared
over the city, and red dragons began to disembark in droves. Gambledore cast what appeared to be Meteor
Swarm, but it had no effect on the ship as a psionic shield absorbed the blast. The players and nobility began to brainstorm. There were 4 clear tasks that needed to be
completed: defend the city, get the shield down, get up to the ship, get inside the ship. The chief priests of the Cathedral of Concordia
had the idea that ringing the mithril bell that hung in the tallest tower may disrupt
the shield (it would, because *plot* (emphasise this word). Lady Tania claimed to have a method of transport
to the ship, but required a special item from her quarters at the castle, at this point
cut off from them by Gith. She claimed there was a secret passage to
the castle that they could use. Gambledore announced that he owned an artifact
called the Cannon of de Rolo that he won off a bespectacled, silver haired man in a game
of chance, as well as an Apparatus of Kwalish to fire out of it, which were both at the
University. Tasks assigned, the group split into 3, the
guards and mages took up defensive positions, and the game was on. Stage 3: The 3 Quests Now, I was DMing Lady Tania's quest, and I
only got vague details about the other 2. But I was involved in the planning, so I know
what was supposed to happen, and I did hear some of the highlights. Stage 3a: The Fat Lady Rings, a.k.a. Take
Me to Church On the way to the Cathedral, the group is
waylaid by a Young Red Dragon and two Githyanki Warriors. The centaur Bard I mentioned earlier did his
bardliest on the dragon, rolled a Natural 20, and was quite unsurprised when it did
not work anyway. Standing in the shadows, anyone with a Passive
Perception >25 notices a solitary Drow standing in an alleyway, staring motionless at the
skyship, waiting for something, though the party has no way to reach them. They also see a flash from the shield as if
something just tried and failed to break through it. Travelling on to the cathedral, they meet
some priests carrying the bell away, trying to save it from possible raiders, and convince
them to give it to them to use. Once at the cathedral, the party is confronted
with a statue that had stood on the site since before there was even a cathedral there: a
statue of a badger-headed angel, that on their entry comes to life, announces itself to be
named Kethis, and accuses them of stealing the bell. Immune to reasoning and logical thought, the
angel attacks. The party runs. They get the priests to the bell tower and
send them up to start ringing, while they ran for their lives and drew Kethis away from
the priests. Kethis is a homebrewed creature by one of
the other DMs; not sure what he can do, but I hear it is probably for the best that they
ran. Stage 3b: The Cannon of de Rolo, a.k.a. Ook
Before they leave, the party is told the way to the School, that the Apparatus of Kwalish
is in his office, and that the cannon is on the top floor of the library tower. He warns the players not to anger the librarian,
and not to kill him if he attacks them -- only subdue, as he is the only one who knows where
some of the oldest books are. The party fights through hoards of Githyanki
on their way to the University. Once inside, they seem safe, as it is not
being attacked yet. They get the apparatus, spend a minute or
two learning how to use it, then head to the library. On the ground floor of the library, they find
an Arcanaloth and a Mezzoloth stealing arcane tomes. The shadow sorcerer goes for the "You seem
to want these books, what would happen if I burned them?" method of negotiation, and immediately gets
hit with a Finger of Death. Professor Snadagast, a lizardfolk Druid hiding
on a higher floor, tells the party that the librarian is not currently in one of his rages,
not having heard about the attack. At that moment a crashing of glass is heard
as a red dragon flies in through the roof of the library, before being absolutely destroyed
by a creature on the top floor. Afterwards, an ape-like screech echoed throughout
the library. When the party arrives on the top floor, they
were confronted by Hairian Scarrian, the librarian: a 10ft tall giant gorilla spellcaster. He. Was. Angry. He used an Androsphinx's stat block with a
few spells changed out, and spellcasting ability switched to INT (with the actual score numbers
also swapped). We got all 3 roars off! One of the party members actually died fighting
the librarian. The shadow sorcerer had a Wand of Wonder,
and became charmed. The wand created a cloud of butterflies around
his ally when he targeted them with it. Though seemingly harmless, when Hairian knocked
him down with a Legendary Action, no one could see that he was dying until it was too late. The player did not actually mind his character
dying, as he was quite happy with the backup character he got to use: a Githyanki Barbarian/Fighter
that was on that dragon that just died, and has suffered severe memory loss due to impact. He remembers he was fighting, but not his
name, or what side he was on. Two of the party members squeeze into the
Apparatus and fire it out of the Cannon de Rolo. The others have magic items that allow flight,
so they can follow. Stage 3c: The Cloak of Mordenkainen, a.k.a.
Slime Time Broadcasting Yay! My quest! Here we go! My group had a 5th player, which was fine;
we hopefully had the encounters balanced for 5 players + the NPC. The players followed Tania to an unassuming
wall which, once she muttered the command phrase formed a glowing circular glyph, shattered
into several pieces, seemingly having developed a fault after a long time out of use. I pulled out a few cut up pieces of paper
with parts of the glyph on them and the players solved the puzzle in real life. This caused the glyph to open. Loudly. A doorway into a small chamber with a ladder
leading down underground was revealed. Once down there, the players were ambushed
from behind by a Githyanki Supreme Commander who heard the noise and, frankly, did not
think this ambush through. The wall closed behind them on the 3rd round,
plunging the room first into dim light, then into darkness. But she was dead already so it did not affect
the fight. Going deeper, the tunnel became slimy. The ground and walls were slick, and the terrain
difficult. Some of the higher-Intelligence members of
the group began to receive mental messages, snippets of musings on the presence of a powerful
mind, an alliance, a long awaited opportunity, and 6 little mites to be dealt with first. They arrived at a long, metal bridge, across
an open cavern, so long that even with one of the party members holding a bullseye lantern,
and bright and dim light each covering 60ft. They could not see the far end. Nor could they see the walls, the ceiling,
or the bottom of the pit below. The Eldritch Knight lit a flask of oil and
dropped it. After several long seconds, they saw the light
go out. They never heard it hit the bottom. Tania told them that this bridge was over
an underground reservoir that the city used for drinking water. The bridge had no rails or walls, and was
also covered in a similar slime, though this was more sticky than slick. The party cleric, who had obviously watched
the episode of Critical Role where something all too similar occurred, suggested a rope
to tie the group into a people chain. Insert Jurassic Park reference here. Using full movement and dash on a bridge that
was difficult terrain meant 30ft per round. Each round the telepathic voice, seemingly
amplified by the bridge, rung out as sound and psychic energy, as the party heard the
megalomaniac-style ramblings of whatever was down here. Wisdom saves all round! Every round! It was a lowish DC, so they were mostly fine. But eventually, one cracked. And so the goblin Rogue stood catatonic for
the round, and had to be carried by the Paladin. There was only one other failure crossing
the bridge, right at the end. The goblin booked it off the edge of the bridge
5ft from the other side of this 200ft long trek. PSA: ropes are a good investment for any adventuring
party. The next room had a gargoyle in it. Not the monster, just the water feature. Water poured out of its mouth down through
a grated area of floor. Or rather, it did, until an Aboleth tentacle
broke through the grating and ripped the head clean off. Then it climbed into the room, accompanied
by 9 sahuagin of varying types as the room began to fill with water. The Eldritch Knight cleared 4 sahuagin with
a single Fireball, then succumbed to the Aboleth's Enslave ability. The wizard then cast Banishment. So long Aboleth, we barely knew thee. All the enslaved Sahuagin and the Eldritch
Knight were released, not that it mattered much, as the party had just incinerated half
of their companions and were going to pay. A massacre of various fishmen and fishwomen
swiftly followed. Each round, the water level rose by 5ft, but
the party got through and climbed the ladder out. At which point, I heard that the others had
completed their quests, and went full cutscene mode. Quick explanation of safety mechanism that
stops the water flooding the castle. Quick explanation of how Banishment left the
Aboleth stranded in the Plane of Water as the wizard held concentration on it for the
full duration. Quick description of dash up to Lady Tania's
quarters and grabs a sparkling robe of stars and blue and red. Quick answer to the question "What is it,
what does it do?": "The Cloak of Mordenkainen. He was a great wizard, the cloak is said to
grant incredible spellcasting prowess. This one is a replica though. But, y'know, aesthetics is important for these
kind of things!" Quick run up to the castle roof. Tania transforms into her Adult Silver Dragon
form, the human-sized cloak still visible tied around her neck, cue "Aww!" from some
of the players. Quick description of chaos in the city below,
and of the badger-headed angel who they can see chasing the other party through the streets,
cue a "What the hell?" from the players, and a "That's what I thought!" from me. They swoop down and save the others. Quick description of how a cannon goes off
behind them, and a metal barrel flies through the air and smashes a hole in the ship, pursued
by a Broom of Flying and whatever else the party is using to fly up. ON TO THE FINAL BATTLE!! Stage 4: It's the Final Beatdown! (kazoo music)
We get everyone into the same room. It is crowded, but not too bad. The players are reminded of how they all got
to the ship. We tell them that the Apparatus of Kwalish
is basically unusable in its current condition, then describe how as Lady Tania in her dragon
form lets the party down, she is ripped from the edge of the ship by an Adult Red Dragon,
and they fall spiralling until they smash into the bell tower below. The bell stops ringing, the shield comes back
up. We tell the players that if anyone has Catnap
prepared, now is the time to use it. About 6 players take a spell-assisted 10 minute
short rest. Now is probably a good time to mention that,
throughout the quest, any time someone was incapacitated, we have been taking note of
it. Those 6 players now join the ranks of the
Rogue who went catatonic on the bridge, and one other character from a different group. As I hastily wrote out sheets to track all
the HP in the battle ahead, the other 2 DMs described the scene. Bodies of Githyanki warriors strewn across
the floors of corridors, no real resistance as they delved deeper into the ship towards
its power source. As they arrived at the entrance to the room,
they saw a group of 2 Drow warriors; and 5 Mind Flayers - one with a much larger mass
of facial tentacles, a Ulitharid, and one with much paler skin in a dark robe, an Alhoon,
the last seemingly under the distrustful gaze of the Ulitharid as it completed some rituals
around whatever was powering this particular Gith ship. The ritual complete, the glass covering shattered,
and up rose an Elder Brain. After a brief telepathic Big Bad Evil Guy
speech, something something destruction domination etc, all the Illithids simultaneously spun
around and attacked. We collected initiative rolls and had everyone
sit in that order for ease of management. We asked everyone if they could plan their
turns in advance, then turns would have a bit of a time limit on them if too much umm-ing
and ahh-ing happened, and if they would keep talking as quietly as possible when not taking
an action so we could hear each player on their turn. And so the battle began! An early Hold Monster from the Wizard was
cut off with the Elder Brain's "Break Concentration" ability. A lot of Mind Blasts went off, and several
people got stunned. The Paladin's summoned Griffon steed died. When the Drow were killed, they released 2
Intellect Devourers. Some Greater Invisibility was cast and Sneak
Attacks were had by all. Yes, someone got their brain eaten by a Brain-Dog. We brought the player behind the DM screen
to run his now Intellect Devourer-controlled body as an enemy. When the Elder Brain believed the party near
defeated, he seized the opportunity to turn on the Alhoon. Unfortunately for him, the players had not
damaged the Alhoon even once that fight, and he immediately made a Star Wars: TFA reference
and cast a 5th level Scorching Ray into several Mind Flayers. A couple of other players were knocked unconscious,
the Gith Barbarian/Fighter backup character failed 3 death saves. I think the Shadow Sorcerer got a Natural
20 on one of his. The Brain-Dog controlling the PC crawled out
of its host once it died and was hit through the base of the ship by one of the party members. We noted that it hit Gambledore in the head
as he finished off a group of Githyanki on the ground. Eventually, the Elder Brain was brought down. Seeing this, the Alhoon tried to Plane Shift
away. But the Wizard got the Counterspell; we forgot
that Innate Casting has no components, but it did not matter. The Ulitharid got his Plane Shift Countered
by the centaur Bard, and in the end, only one Mind Flayer made it out alive. The Grave Cleric got a Revivify off on the
character who died to Brain-Dog. Yay! At this point, Kethis, the badger-headed angel
from earlier burst through the ship's hull. After a loud proclamation that he would destroy
them all, he was smashed through the opposite side of the ship by a Red Dragon that was
chasing him. Then since they had a diamond left over, he
went over to their dead Githyanki backup character, used Revivify on him, and pushed him out of
the ship at the same time. And so it was that that player died 3 times. Stage 5: The Out of Character After Party
Once we ended the game, and everyone calmed down from their celebrations, we gave out
some slips of paper we had printed off, with a space to vote other players for certain
awards we had created. They each had a little disclaimer on the bottom,
in the style of the ones in the front of each official book. We had told the players there would be prizes,
but to avoid metagaming, the only one we told them the name of was "Best Roleplaying". We had some of the prizes available as per
party, awarded by the DMs. Others were determined by player vote. A few of the categories were:
Best "How-Do-You-Want-To-Do-This" Worst Luck
Most Likely to Seduce a Dragon Least Likely to Go on a Quest Again
Most Likely to Cast Fireball on Themselves Most Likely to Overthrow the Governing Monarch,
Establishing a Communist Regime and Ruling over Isselnier with an Iron Fist
Most Likely to Become a Lich MVP of the Final Battle
The prizes came in the form of plastic drinking cups with a label stuck to the side of them
in Rainbow Comic Sans, filled with various sweets. Overall This is the kind of thing people are quick
to point out is not going to work. In general, I agree, for a normal campaign
this would have been hell. But the amount of fun I had as a DM running
this mess was the most I have had in ages. All the players loved it, some have asked
when the next one is?! And I am considering it! Even the first time players picked up enough
rules to play, have fun, and not really get outshone by the ones who have been playing
longer. I would encourage anyone who wants to try
something of this scale to do so if you can get enough people to run it! 10/10, would DM again. Thirteen players and three DMs, amazing. Despite the challenges of that many players,
the DMs managed to craft a game for new players and veterans alike. Have you ever played in a huge game like this? Please let us know and comment below! Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel,
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