Conducting a one-shot is one of the best ways to introduce players to the Dungeons & Dragons TTRPG or for savants to have a round of quick fun. After all, the fast and directed nature of a one-shot allows Dungeon Masters to tailor-fit a short story into a condensed Dungeons & Dragons experience - a far cry compared to the more demanding and long-term campaign. And what better way to drag friends into a one-shot than during the holidays?
Thankfully, playing D&D over the holidays doesn’t mean stories still need to be about finding magic artifacts, slaying dragons, and saving children from evildoers. With the right perspective towards planning, a Dungeon Master can build a one-shot around a holiday without any trouble at all!
10 Check The Date
While anyone can build a holiday-themed one-shot anytime, it may help to consider the time frame involved when creating the one-shot. Aside from having a Valentine’s-related one-shot outside February be a bit less romantic, there’s a lot that could be explored depending on the context of the target day of the one-shot.
It’s more interesting if the Dungeon Master considers the timetable involved. For example, a romantic one-shot that happens a day or so before Valentine’s Day is a great way to introduce stories about rescuing couples or reigniting the fires of true love. Meanwhile, setting a one-shot after Valentine’s Day could be about salvaging a ruined date or wedding, or even about exploring legends of star-crossed lovers.
9 Get The Main Cast Around Popular Figures
Given the context of the one-shot being about a holiday, it’s not entirely wrong for Dungeon Masters to completely use famous characters and figures as NPCs or even part of the main cast. For instance, a St. Valentine could be a spirit from the higher planes asking assistance from the party’s Cleric, or perhaps spirits of the holiday’s murdered Valentines asking the party to help them achieve closure in their martyrdom. Likewise, a frost giant could be Santa Claus instead.
Using popular figures as part of the main cast of the one-shot can make it much easier for Dungeon Masters to develop a plot and make it easier for players to feel a sense of relation and familiarity with the one-shot. This makes it much easier for players to get acclimated to the game’s setting.
8 Consider Creating Pre-Generated Characters
Considering that players are getting themselves into a one-shot about a holiday, it may help to create pre-gens or pre-generated characters for them to use. That way, they can simply study the pre-gens character sheet and their base motivations so they know how to act getting into the story. This approach greatly helps groups of players who simply want to play immediately without the stress of thinking about character creation. Pre-gens are usually composed of the standard tanks, stealthy rogues, intelligent spellcasters, and dedicated healers.
While this approach works for most one-shots, this is especially useful with regards to holiday-themed one-shots that are most likely a one-time deal. Dungeon Masters who also want to establish relationships with NPCs and other characters on the get-go can rely on pre-gens in order to immediately set up emotional hooks, which are perfect for murder mysteries and other social stories.
7 Build Themes Around Morals
A lot of holidays are built around tradition, and a lot of traditions are built around the morals they’re meant to exemplify. In a general sense, Christmas uplifts the spirit of gift-giving and love for family, whereas Thanksgiving highlights giving thanks and communal spirit. Despite the frights, Halloween has a lot to do with paying respects to the departed and helping them pass on to the afterlife or even sending words of wisdom to the living. A successful holiday-themed story may want to highlight any of these morals. For instance, a Valentines-themed one-shot could be about romance.
When done, this gives the one-shot a general mood or tone that they share with other stories related to the holiday, even if the one-shot is more action-packed than the rest. The general mood doesn’t also have to be apparent everywhere in the one-shot and may only shine in big moments.
6 Grab An Overall Atmosphere
Aside from themes, a holiday one-shot most likely has a prevalent atmosphere depending on what the holiday represents. It’s perfectly plausible to give in to the stereotypes associated with the holiday when making the setting, as this gives way to an environment that players will almost always recognize.
For instance, Halloween-themed one-shots could always revolve around horror and horror tropes - vampires in old castles, murder mysteries, and even eldritch horrors. In the case of Christmas, environments could be snowy, at a time close to a giving-thanks festival, or even the case of helping Santa Claus deliver presents.
5 Consider The History Of The Holiday For Hooks
A lot of holidays often have roots in various parts of history and culture, be it through a legend or a myth. A good example of this is Valentine’s Day, which originally came from the Roman feast of Lupercalia. The “Valentine” people know of today only came to light when Emperor Claudius II executed two men named Valentine on February 14 across different years. The Catholic Church would eventually honor their martyrdom through St. Valentine’s Day. Years later, Pope Gelasius would combine Lupercalia and St. Valentine’s Day, with the years eventually emphasizing the holiday as one about love.
With this in mind, Dungeon Masters on the lookout for worthwhile holiday-themed one-shots can use the origins of these holidays and incorporate them into their one-shots. This can take the form of NPCs taking names of historical figures, events in the one-shot copying the sequence of myths and legends, or the entire one-shot being a recreation of the holiday’s origins.
4 Sprinkle Surprise Trivia As Background Details
There’s a lot going on around the holidays that not everyone is aware of, and Dungeon Masters can use this to their advantage when developing settings for their one-shots. In fact, while players may already be aware of how certain NPCs may act due to their origins in the holiday’s lore, certain elements of the background and the setting may be lifted from trivia about the holiday that not everyone is aware of.
In the same Valentine’s origin story, surprise background details may even be included in the plot, such as a murder mystery involving victims of similar names, or a crisis involving an ancient festival. Finding obscure details of holidays and transforming them into plot points and background details can make developing a one-shot much easier for DMs.
3 Use An Existing Module As An Inspiration
To those having a bit of difficulty executing a concept into a workable one-shot, it wouldn’t hurt to look at a module that has the general layout of a prospective DM’s holiday idea and see if they can tinker it to work with their design. Modules online are great resources of inspiration, especially since their formatting can be easily copied and modified to fit another particular setup. Things to take note of are exposition and general plot flow, environments and descriptions, NPC dialogue and merchants, maps and general layouts, and especially monsters and encounters.
Dungeon Masters can look at official modules and lift short segments from larger stories such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist or even Curse of Strahd. However, there is a lot of Adventurer’s League content that can accommodate the length of a one-shot across multiple levels, considering its tier-based ranking system.
2 Direct The Plot To Drive The Experience
Remember, this is a one-shot specifically tailored for a holiday, so chances are this won’t continue over the long haul. Regardless if this is a one-shot sprawled over three sessions or just a one-time deal, there’s no need for Dungeon Masters to stress over a lot of details. As such, it helps to confine the one-shot in a small area to allow players to focus their attention there instead of wandering off elsewhere.
This also means it’s perfectly fine to take the reins and railroad the party a bit into how the experience should exactly go, especially since it’s very likely that the one-shot has a specific direction. However, remember that it still helps to give players a degree of freedom as to how they want to approach things, so DMs who want to apply this advice should think of multiple options for players to choose from that lead to outcomes that still steer the plot to its intended direction.
1 Make It Pun-tastic For Players
One of the hallmarks of a holiday-themed one-shot is the blatant inclusion of familiar holiday elements into the story, “reskinning” any semblance of a fantasy plot to fit the context of the holiday. If the Dungeon Masters has players who love going with the flow, they can take this craziness further by making the holiday one-shot pun-tastic: add all sorts of holiday puns into the characters, encounters, plot lines, and even dialogue itself!
A Christmas-related villain in a one-shot could use the same level of icy puns that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mister Freeze used in Batman & Robin, and the DM can use the same principle to an NPC they want to serve as the mascot of the one-shot. Despite the potential of being corny jokes, puns will definitely add an air of appeal and quirkiness to the one-shot.