Running a Game like a 1-Shot [Part 1]

Running a game of dnd or any table top role playing game can be an arduous undertaking. The classic example of game sessions are ones that stretch on for three or five hours at a time.

However, as a DM, there is a way to structure your sessions to be quick and engaging. Even long form campaigns can use this method to help players feel like they are actually accomplishing something. As opposed to going from cliffhanger to cliffhanger.

You just need to remember The 3 Ws:

• Where
• What
• When

The 3 Ws

This part is very simple. Every story has a start, a body, and an end. As the DM, if you can frame the session in those terms, keeping track of where the story is and where it is going becomes far easier

• Where does the story start? Is it already underway (cold open), or is there a prompt? (call to action)
• What are we doing? What is the mission, purpose, etc.
• When does it end? How do the players finish the mission, or at least this part of it?

Beginnings can be safely one-note. Maybe its the continuation of a previous story, maybe its the start of a new adventure. Either way, get yourself situated with what you’ll first see when you sit down to play

Bodies are the heart of a story, that’s where the action is. That’s where the suspense is. Maybe what they learn and do, changes the end and re-frames the beginning

Ends are the completion of an event, so make it feel like it’s really over. Positive reinforcement, like loot, is a popular way of manifesting this

An Example

• Where does it start?
  In a cemetery, a local Druid has died

• What are we doing?
  Retrieving an heirloom from a forest shrine for the family of the Druid
  • – Using skills to get to shrine and out of woods before sundown
  • – Small fights to whet appetite
  • – Big fight to wrap up session, using skills mid fight can make it dynamic

• When does it end? Players have the heirloom and make it back to town