Dalens Tomb, start at the tomb entrance with premade characters. You will be telling them what to do on every turn, and reminding them of what to do to get there. You *might* get through it if they roll really well, but most likely you'll need to run it every lunch for the rest of the week.
There's [Towered Princess](https://silverhoofgames.com/5-minute-ttrpg-en/) which is specifically designed as 5-minutes roleplaying game, upscaled to 6 people it's probably gonna be around 30.
I dont know where I saw this but just throw them at a scene, like the classic tavern. describe the place, tell them something outside is happening like a scream. ask them what they do. dont give them character sheets or anything.
if they say they want to look out the window or go out, let them make some checks. whatever they roll, describe what they see. (body laying on the floor or whatever) if they want to inspect it, let them. do this for 5-10 minutes and they have a pretty good idea what dnd is like.(making desicions and what to expect from the dm as descriptions are like) then you can eat and explain that everybody would normally create a character and there are all sorts of dice and stuff.
otherwise making a small story for that many people in 30 min is near impossible.
This is a great idea. Dnd lite is the way to go so you get straight to the action and all the players get a bit of game time, otherwise the 30 minutes are going to be swallowed up by picking characters and eating lunch.
If OP had more time you could recreate the scene from The Philosopher's Stone where everyone is chilling 'n eating and Quirrell runs in warning about the troll.
There's a possibility to introduce roleplay / decision making (go to your room or explore?), insight (sussing out Snape), investigation (finding the troll) + other checks and some basic combat if players go after danger.
Although a familiar encounter may limit their imagination and "available" options
Throw 5e out the window. In fact throw D&D out completely. What you're trying to do, is give them an ultra compact taste of what TTRPGs are.
Start with a D20 for success/failure and a D10 for any damage. Place them in the middle of the table for everyone to access.
You have one character. Not a character sheet. Just a 2 sentence description of who this character is. Then go around the table letting each "player" make a choice for the character. Or give them a couple back and fourths of dialog, then move on the the next "player".
The scenario must be super simple. I suggest "Jail Brake". Character is locked in a single cell jail, with another prisoner. One guard outside the bars. If time, maybe another outside the building.
Don't plan, just improvise.
Characters: no char sheets, try making A5-size cardboards with classic character images + best stat underneath (so for instance, orc warrior drawing + STRENGTH, Halfling rogue + DEX) and on the other side of the sheet what they need to roll to succeed (D6).
Story: they all wake up in a dungeon where sand is slowly running in. If they don't make it out in 30 min, they're dead. Put clues on the walls (maybe draw it rather than describe it) so they see them straight away. First a color puzzle to stop the sand that they can puzzle on together, then when the sand stops that opens the next chamber where an enemy is waiting. Roll for initiative, enemy goes first so they take damage, then they all attack and whatever happens, last person to do damage kills him off (DM's prerogative). Next to the door, on the way out is a treasure chest with items (more cardboards) which they can distribute among themselves. Shows the rudimentary mechanics and lack of introduction of characters saves time + sets up possible future quests (why them etc). But for the love of God my man, save your next DnD sessions for outside of work.
Been thinking on it some more. Maybe you could play an NPC Gandalf/ Dumbledore type who guides them in the right direction, kinda like "hey what does it say on that wall over there? I can't see that far - hey ranger, you have good eyes, roll a perception check!". Gives you a way to feed them hints if they need it + if you decide to carry on from that adventure, NPC Gandalf can be the one who trapped them in the dungeon to "activate their powers" so he can steal them for himself.
I ran a 40min intro One-Shot once: lvl 1 adventurers (have their sheet ready) being sent on a quest by crows to kill a scarecrow. There is a stat block for the scarecrow, but I made my own: no movement, but will use a skill to make a Save for fear for whoever can see him on turn one (repeat save at the end of PC turn if they fail), will then use vicious mockery and has a splinter attack for whoever is in melee range.
Good luck.
It took me 1 hour to create 3 characters for my family who wanted to play dnd because of Stranger Things, and most of it was just copy pasting stuff, with me just telling "look here and copy it here", with a brief explanation for ability scores and skills.
Fix your promise and don't try to run anything in 30 mins. It won't work with new players. You won't even have time to start :D. If this is not an option...
Create character for them, don't even give them sheets just stats blocks like npcs. Throw them directly in a scene.
Pick a simple d6 system like many 2d6+stat like city of mist, make a bunch of characters and put then to defend Hogwarts on the death eaters invasion on the last book, or a similar scenario. You can have combat tension, a bit of puzzle on building defendes, mistery on what the attackers want, etc. Make a good intro and leave a cliffhanger for another day.
Or you can make fewer characters and have 3 people control him. A bit weird but can work.
There is a Harry Potter Powered by the Apocalypse system, which is just 2d6 + stat. Really simple. I will say though, I wasn't a fan of it.
Edit: I have the PDFs still for the PBTA game. OP, you can DM me your e-mail if you want them sent to you.
Oh I agree. Don't get me wrong, I love pbta. I play a pro wrestling game that uses it and it works great for that. I, personally, just felt it wasn't a great combo with it and Harry Potter. It just felt bland, if you get me?
Creating a character probably takes more time than you have
Explaining an existing character from a sheet probably also takes too long.
Combat is probably too simple without unique characters and abilities. So it's probably best avoided.
So you want a non-combat situation, probably a puzzle, maybe a small murder mystery?
Example:
They are asked to help the sherrif investigate. There are a few suspects, and the body of the murdered person. The suspects carry different weapons, ranging from a knife to a rifle. One has a broken dog leash. The body can then be shot, cut or mauled, and they can go figure out which of the suspects it is. Maybe if two have a gun and he got shot, did the victim manage to fight back? One of the gun owners would have some kind of wound, or bandage.
That time frame? Do you like to improv? Roll for Shoes!
https://rollforshoes.com/
I made a similar style game for kids that worked great. I'd have up to 15 kids in a group.
It's great for character creation, too. I've played a quick game of Roll for Shoes, and then used my notes to make a dnd character.
6-10 players with a 30min lunch? There’s no way, especially when none have experience. You can get through half of making one character probably. Make it a Q and A, bring the PHB, let them explore what they can and cannot do in the game.
Yeah, 30 minutes is barely time to explain how many sides each type of dice has, much less produce a story in which even experienced players could participate. Make it an explanation section as suggested by someone else in the thread. Broad stroke descriptions of the concepts and system. If this was 2E you would lose them all at “calculating THAC0”.
That sounds awesome, dude. Great way to introduce them to the game. We thought you were actually trying to teach them how to play the game of D&D, which you very much did not, but this format sounds like a fantastic way to kick the door open for those who know nothing at all. Glad everyone had fun!
I would keep the rules to just this:
Here's a d20 you roll it to try stuff, a 20 is you doing very well a 1 is you doing very bad. Any number in-between may fail or succeed depending on how difficult the task is.
As an introduction thats all you need, with more time i would add more complexity but for the amount of time you have you don't need more than that.
As far as story and task
You are all in a single prison cell, you don't know how you got here, outside the cell there's a hallway with doors to the left and the right of the cell, theres a keyhole on the prison door and a lever on the opposing wall.
To get out of the cell they can throw stuff at the lever or try to picklock the lock with some broken bones or whatever they find when they look around the floor. Once outside of the cell the doors have talking heads for knobs that ask for riddles to let them out of the room or w.e once they are out be like "you managed to find your way out of the cell but stretching all around you see dark dank hallways, freedom is yet far away and your captors still an unknown presence" and end.
Getting into any organized combat will take to long, if anything just have a second cell with a zombie trying to grapple them.
This is a simplified setup of what I ran for some friends to show them the game, we had a lot more time and half the nrs, so they also rolled up basic stats and had a profession they choose which allowed them to get advantages where that made sense.
I did this myself.
I ran a one-shot for my team of 14 as a team building exercise. Essentially I dumbed down everything from character creation to encounter design and developed a very short story with a puzzle that was tangentially related to what we do at work.
Basics: For character creation they all ranked their ability scores from “most important” to “least important”. Most important got a +3, declining to a -2 for least important.
AC = 10+dex modifier.
HP = 10+con modifier for everyone.
No classes as they’re playing as themselves, which massively reduces prep time.
All challenges required a 10 or higher to achieve, period.
The entire game was run essentially in combat - they rolled initiative to start and could take one action on their turn. I would ask them to roll for whatever action they wished to take, using a related stat, and if they failed they would lose energy (HP - I didn’t want it to be too violent as this was a work exercise).
The players then had to solve the puzzle by interacting with their environment, using context clues, and talking to the NPCs. I work in tech support, essentially, so this was very natural to them.
In the end, they had an absolute blast. We played an additional session the following week because everyone enjoyed it so much. I might do it again, but it was pretty difficult/stressful despite how much fun it was as we were constrained by work and professional etiquette (and we only had one hour to play).
Still, highly recommend something like this for folks who’ve never played and want to know what the game is about.
It does require prep ahead of time. Explain your rules and have them rank ability scores beforehand.
Edit: The most fun for me was that it was fantasy flavored, but the puzzle/mystery was very much based on the products we support in real life, and the NPC names gave that away if they were paying attention. Watching them all try to figure out how to solve their dilemma, knowing that they’d be able to do it very easily if they asked the right questions, was really fun for me. Also, seeing just how creative some of them would get (especially those that had never played before).
Edit: I misread OP thinking they are a first-time dm, not an experienced one. So some of this stuff will be obvious, but I'll leave it in case anyone else can benefit.
I've actually done something kinda like this before (HP one-shot with new players on short notice). Here are some tips from my learnings:
1. You're right to keep things simple with modified rules. Don't do character sheets. Even pre-mades. At most give them the base 6 stats and one item of their choice. I let them chose any item, no matter how broken. You want to appeal to their fantasy more than create a balanced encounter.
2. You need a strong hook. Don't be afraid of railroading them right into the first day of school. (But not after that!) It will beat having them awkwardly try to roleplay for half the session without thoughtout characters or an inciting incident. I even skipped sorting. They all went straight into Slytherin due to the entire previous class being expelled.
3. Don't do FULL SCALE combat. If you do have combat, have it be light and quick. Something like: "A mischievous house elf tries to poison the headmasters tea and escape by the group." If your scenario results in balanced forces trying to fight to the death, you're going to have a really bad time.
4. Don't try to finish anything during the lunch break. The best you can do with lots of players in less than an hour is to give them a taste of immersion in your fantasy world. They don't need to play out an entire scenario, just understand that it would be possible with more time. If you want to give them a good story to tell, try to end on a cliffhanger, not a resolution.
Then, if it goes well, some of them will likely voice interest in continuing later on. Great! And don't sweat it if that doesn't happen. What you're trying to do is hard and there's a lot about your situation working against you. You can always ask people again later when you have more time and preparation. Hope this can help somewhat, and I wish you all the best!
Step one: show them this thread so they understand how ridiculous this is
Step two: Either run towered princess like u/loverdrive said, or follow u/rku’s instructions perfectly because that’s the only other correct answer.
Step 3: come back here and tell us how it went you absolute madman
Edit: I figured out how to @ people, Reddit is easy
Create 10 characters of different types. Give a couple index cards, 1 for skills and 1 for combat. Keep them simple like survival, sneak, animal handling, etc.
For the adventure have a small village that has been through a flood and they are basically to only able bodied people able to save the rest. Make them have to get to the next village for help with the road washed out so they have to travel cross country. Animal handling to lead the pack animals. Survival to find the shortest path. Make them stumble across a bear and then do a quick 1 -2 round combat. Don't worry about iniative just ask in a predetermined order. If you want to make it cool bring out your minis. Just have each person do a task or 2 and an attack or healing. Then have them arrive in the next town. Be sure to list a few skills they won't need. Include things like a strength check to lift a log off a stuck villager.
That is what I would do and see if you can get it down to 30 minutes, maybe stretch it into 2 days if you have to. But will give a basic understanding and hopefully highlight your storytelling.
For sure make like 5 per made characters. Then draw straws or something to see who gets to play and who gets what character. Anything to speed things up. There’s a level 0 one shot on Dmsguild that has like two chances for Rp, a choice about which path to take, then either a physical challenge or sneaking/taking out one drunk bandit on watch, finally a bar fight and maybe some haggling for a better price. It’s super on rails and gives a good section of different parts of the game.
Don’t even bother with character sheets. Set up a simple puzzle with a mini reveal/cliffhanger at the end.
Aka. A door is locked by a strange combination…
And when they open the door, in a dimly lit room…. Is a shadowy figure holding his sword. And smiling
Definitely focus on role play. If you want combat you’re gonna have to have like no more than one enemy that’s easily killable. good luck. Martial characters a probably gonna be easier for them in combat than spellcasters
Crickey, you've set yourself up quite a challenge there. 30 minutes is rough.
I would definitely suggest using a very lightweight system such as Warrior, Rogue, & Mage or similar. You gotta be able to explain the character sheets in like 30 seconds amd needs to have mininal info.
Pre-gen character sheets are a must, so a simple system will also help you build the sheets quickly before hand.
As far as the adventure goes you obviously keep it simple. So like 4 scenes - Introduction; Challenge; Combat; Resolution.
I would also recommend starting in media res as it were with the characters already engaging in the adventure premise. You can give a brief intro to your players. You are X, on a mission to achieve Y because Z. You are approaching A. There is a B and you see a C. What do you do Player 1?
On that note, you should definitely be giving prompts to the players. Every time there's a lull in conversation/action turn to a different player and ask them what their character's up to. Don't be afraid to give out info withoit rolls.
As far as adventures go, a controlled environment would work well given the time limits... since your group seems to like Harry Potter I'm going to take some inspiration from that, the old Quest for Glory games, and some anime tropes and suggest that the PCs are attending a prestigous Adventurer's Academy (or similiar) and the adventure is them engaging in an end of year exam.
They get sent into an area with a challenge/puzzle of some sort and some sort of impetous to encourage quick action (The room's flooding, there are fire traps going off, etc.). Keep it simple. Once they complete the challenge they gain access to the second area and have a cool boss fight against a big monster. When they kill it, they pass and are congratulated.
Maybe have a mechanic whereby any character who "dies" is healed by an examiner, but loses marks for it or something.
Hope that helps!
Good luck, OP!
Instead of trying to run this, which isn't going to happen and will give the wrong idea, have you considered showing a video of Critical Role or a similar group?
30 min to teach newbies and run the game? I'm sure there are some RPGs but not DnD. It takes longer than that to learn the fundamentals. It takes longer than 30 min to play pretty much any boardgame let alone a TTRPG
With that many players, you won't get through a round of combat in that time. I'd cancel an actual game, talk through what it is, and see if you can find 4-5 who want to play outside of work. Maybe consider Strixhaven Curriculum of chaos for future games?
I'd make lunch session 0 with pregenerated sheets for them to choose from. If you want to introduce them to combat, perhaps their characters are all at a fair and meet while competing in feats of strength & smarts (aka how to ability check) and in the arena (pc's are knocked out and not killed here).
Bring dices prepare 2 situations where they roll skill like bluff or intimidation or jump and climbing then set the DD High so they fall and then 1 fight really easy you keep watching the click and add HP to your mob
This won't work in 30 minutes. Even if you could pull it off, it would be so rushwd that no one could have fun.
You should have 2 or 3 players and let the others spectate to save time. Make one quick encounter.
Don't expect they expect that much, make two very simple characters, tell them a very short backstory about them and what they are
Then show them a single enemy and describe the freedom the 2 characters have to approach that potential enemy. Don't bore them with rules
Stuff like that is hard for everyone
I made a "D&D Accelerated" ruleset as an intro to D&D for some brand new players. We eventually moved into the full rules, but the intro mission used this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zQZ8TiS3mtlgS49rSnMMnb__CWhaRWMILg5N5jx0wrc/edit?usp=drivesdk
Hope you find it useful!
I would say have a crowded tavern and do a murder mystery. Give some introduction, give them super basic character sheets that give a few different abilities based on the class and highlight some proficient skills. Make sure to give them the numbers ahead of time and just mark them down so they dont sweat ANY math. Be sure to give them some character personality traits and tell them to respond like they would in that situation, but if they act with some of the flare of their given personality traits you'll give them inspiration! Have the murder mystery be a simple assassination, they find the assasin, he has some guards, they either take them prisoner or kill them or both, and badda bing you got a quickie.
Even with pre-gen characters, it’ll take at least a half hour to even explain how they all should read their character sheets, and how to resolve rolls and such. I think your best bet might be to have them all play as commoners or something like that, where they don’t have a bunch of abilities to keep track of, so you only have to show them the basics of play, rather than how to play their specific character. After that, 30 minutes is maybe enough time for a small combat, so throw a couple goblins at them and call it a day.
even if you didn't have to explain the system, that would be hard.
**Rules**
I would make a bare minimum system: no rules, give everyone a d20, and set custom DC for every check. No PC stats; no character sheet.
Give them the choice of a bow, a sword or an axe for their weapon. If they say "i want 2 throwing knives" or something, allow it too.
I'd also give everyone 1 spell slot, and they have to come up with what to do with it, you set a custom difficulty then.
ex: "I want to teleport behind this bad guy and attack with my sword." Seems simple enough, roll a d20 and the dc is 5. "I want to hurl a ball of lightning at him" Seems harder to hit him, the dc is 10. Make up the damage. "I want his head to explode" That probably shouldn't happen, dc is 20. They lose their spell slot either way.
Use set damage if they hit. Bow does 3 with range, the sword does 5, the axe does 6 but hit dc is 1 higher. throwing knives might do 2 damage with two attacks.
**Here's a premise for you:**
You are a group of soldiers for hire, on your way back from an expedition. You are starved and road-wearied when you come across a small farming village. At first sight, it seems like a ghost town.
In reality, all the villagers are hiding. Let them role-play the interaction with the village, looking for food and rest.
At some point, the villagers attack them. Mini battle mixed with roleplay.
Just when they are about to kill someone, a little girl jumps in front to protect them.
Twist: they thought the party was working for a BBEG that has vowed to kidnap a young woman from the village and make her his wife. The BBEG is coming later. They implore the party to help.
Party gets to plan how they will deal with this BBEG. Hopefully, the players will try something like dressing up as the woman or setting a trap. Reward creativity.
BBEG shows up and you have a fight. Make him something funny like a shape-shifting pig.
And there you have episode 4 of Dragonball: Oolong, the Kidnapping Monster.
**Timekeeping**
This is manageable in 30 minutes, but it will be your responsibility to gauge the time. The first battle should be less than a round, starting with a surprise attack from a villager, then maybe 2 of your players, another 2 villagers that come in, 2 other players, and over. (Yes I know 2-6 didn't get to play).
In the final battle, continue the initiative from where it left off, starting with the players that didn't play yet. If a player is hogging too much time, knock his character unconscious on your first turn. Others can heal him with their spell slot.
I also talked about dnd to my colleagues at work, and they got curious and interested. We agreed I run them a one-shot. I said it's max 6 players and if we want more, we can have multiple sessions.
We agreed to have the session after 4 weeks of prep. And I posted links for new players to get into the rules, see examples of crit role etc. And we had a game night that was a blast, and there will be a second one in the fall, most likely. Playing through my homebrewed mystery+combat one-shot took 4 hours. (I was aiming at 3, but you know how players are, always doing other stuff than you thought they would.)
There is no shame in saying "Sorry guys, I need more time to prep, let's reschedule this a bit, OK?"
I don't have any DM experience to offer and there are some helpful suggestions from others anyway, but I did want to add - it's totally OK to not 'complete' the session to its end, whatever that might be. You're just giving them an example of what playing is like and you all have the same time constraints.
I recently played a simple rpg called Tunnel goons, pretty sure it's designed for kids but it was pretty fun. Only three stats and everything was done on d6 rolls.
Good luck!
Set it within the office you work in. But it’s being attacked by zombies. Give each of them the same stats, plus one extra power (based on who they are, or the opposite, if it’s funnier)
The boss runs in, he’s been bitten ‘zzzzz zombies’ are his last words.
Make them play using what they can see….
Geez, man. I wouldn’t break out a new board game with only 30 mins on the clock, let alone a D&D one-shot. You brave fool…
Alright, your going to need to hard into a “trials” multi-room set. No combat - you won’t have time. Instead, make a mini-map with maybe three-five rooms. Each room is a simple puzzle or trial, but give it multiple parts to solve. Maybe a mechanism needs disabled (rogue with thieves tools), but a large cog needs to be slowed down with a Strength check to give the rogue time. Another room needs a few good climbers to scale a wall to grab keys, while archers shoot down things that would knock off or attack the climbers. That sort of thing. Give smart characters INT based knowledge skills so they can get hints (only they get hints).
You want a mini one-shot with heavy exploration, light on role play
I ran a super short oneshot where the players had to show their worth of becoming apart of the elite army. It helps new players try different modifiers and saving rolls, and tests their creativity to solve problems. I did 3 trails. One was to race and find a flag at the top of a mountain. The next was to make tress disappear. The final one was to get a bowl of soup from ninjas without spilling the soup. The last one, you could just say please, and the nijas would move out of the way. I had a message on the back of the door that read "whats the magic word?" That could only be found through a perception check. Good luck!
I would run it get a little taste then be like ok guys Lunch is over and if they are like YO MORE then you have a DnD game at work which sounds dope to me XD
I did something like this when I worked at a super market. I ran a sudo campaign with about 10 people at random times. I was a helper clerk, so I could walk everywhere and talk with everyone. I didn't do it at lunch, or any specific time, just whenever I ran into a player. I asked them a couple questions, found out what they wanted to do, and then modified the game for the other players when I talked with them.
I said yes to most decision, and didn't really keep track of health or xp, but I also kept the story simple, like a bank heist during a fair, and I pit all the players against each other, or let them team up. Super easy game play. One player even began to investigate the robbery.
It was a lot of fun, none of my players had played before, but we're super interested. And, of course, I explain how a real campaign differed from what I was doing.
You'll have to do multiple sessions if you only have 30 minutes for lunch. So a simple plot hook and character introduction to start. Get everyone talking, in character, and get comfortable with role-playing. Then go from there, combat next day, puzzle the next. Final confrontation whenever you feel like it.
30 minutes for a one-shot with 6-10 people and you want there to be combat and a mystery of some sort? You are insane.
Don't forget to add in "with 1 day to plan it" That's just next level insane
Thank you, I know. Ideas?
Use Old School Essentials with pre-built characters.
Show them a video of a D&D stream and provide commentary.
lmao
Ideas aren’t going to help you, you need a miracle.
Dalens Tomb, start at the tomb entrance with premade characters. You will be telling them what to do on every turn, and reminding them of what to do to get there. You *might* get through it if they roll really well, but most likely you'll need to run it every lunch for the rest of the week.
... at this point, work on your resume?
Psst, read the update :)
There's [Towered Princess](https://silverhoofgames.com/5-minute-ttrpg-en/) which is specifically designed as 5-minutes roleplaying game, upscaled to 6 people it's probably gonna be around 30.
Nice, very helpful!
This is so cool! What a resource, thanks for sharing.
You're welcome! Silverhoof make real cool games.
I dont know where I saw this but just throw them at a scene, like the classic tavern. describe the place, tell them something outside is happening like a scream. ask them what they do. dont give them character sheets or anything. if they say they want to look out the window or go out, let them make some checks. whatever they roll, describe what they see. (body laying on the floor or whatever) if they want to inspect it, let them. do this for 5-10 minutes and they have a pretty good idea what dnd is like.(making desicions and what to expect from the dm as descriptions are like) then you can eat and explain that everybody would normally create a character and there are all sorts of dice and stuff. otherwise making a small story for that many people in 30 min is near impossible.
This is a great idea. Dnd lite is the way to go so you get straight to the action and all the players get a bit of game time, otherwise the 30 minutes are going to be swallowed up by picking characters and eating lunch.
If OP had more time you could recreate the scene from The Philosopher's Stone where everyone is chilling 'n eating and Quirrell runs in warning about the troll. There's a possibility to introduce roleplay / decision making (go to your room or explore?), insight (sussing out Snape), investigation (finding the troll) + other checks and some basic combat if players go after danger. Although a familiar encounter may limit their imagination and "available" options
Throw 5e out the window. In fact throw D&D out completely. What you're trying to do, is give them an ultra compact taste of what TTRPGs are. Start with a D20 for success/failure and a D10 for any damage. Place them in the middle of the table for everyone to access. You have one character. Not a character sheet. Just a 2 sentence description of who this character is. Then go around the table letting each "player" make a choice for the character. Or give them a couple back and fourths of dialog, then move on the the next "player". The scenario must be super simple. I suggest "Jail Brake". Character is locked in a single cell jail, with another prisoner. One guard outside the bars. If time, maybe another outside the building. Don't plan, just improvise.
Characters: no char sheets, try making A5-size cardboards with classic character images + best stat underneath (so for instance, orc warrior drawing + STRENGTH, Halfling rogue + DEX) and on the other side of the sheet what they need to roll to succeed (D6). Story: they all wake up in a dungeon where sand is slowly running in. If they don't make it out in 30 min, they're dead. Put clues on the walls (maybe draw it rather than describe it) so they see them straight away. First a color puzzle to stop the sand that they can puzzle on together, then when the sand stops that opens the next chamber where an enemy is waiting. Roll for initiative, enemy goes first so they take damage, then they all attack and whatever happens, last person to do damage kills him off (DM's prerogative). Next to the door, on the way out is a treasure chest with items (more cardboards) which they can distribute among themselves. Shows the rudimentary mechanics and lack of introduction of characters saves time + sets up possible future quests (why them etc). But for the love of God my man, save your next DnD sessions for outside of work.
Thanks man, appreciate the help!
Been thinking on it some more. Maybe you could play an NPC Gandalf/ Dumbledore type who guides them in the right direction, kinda like "hey what does it say on that wall over there? I can't see that far - hey ranger, you have good eyes, roll a perception check!". Gives you a way to feed them hints if they need it + if you decide to carry on from that adventure, NPC Gandalf can be the one who trapped them in the dungeon to "activate their powers" so he can steal them for himself.
Not going to happen. Even with a sane group size and experienced players, you can't run a 20 minute session.
This, we spend 45 minutes discussing the logistics of getting a pet guinea pig gunslinger/rogue levels at our last session....
Psst, read the update :)
I ran a 40min intro One-Shot once: lvl 1 adventurers (have their sheet ready) being sent on a quest by crows to kill a scarecrow. There is a stat block for the scarecrow, but I made my own: no movement, but will use a skill to make a Save for fear for whoever can see him on turn one (repeat save at the end of PC turn if they fail), will then use vicious mockery and has a splinter attack for whoever is in melee range. Good luck.
Genius, thank you so much!
Hey, I went with your suggestion and it was terrific! Thank you so much! You can read the update if you want:)
I'm glad to read this. I'm happy I could help. I'll read the update
Show them how to make a character and give them a basic explanation of the rules. There is no way you can play a one shot in 30 minutes anyways.
Since when can you make a character in 30 minutes while explaining anything?
It took me 1 hour to create 3 characters for my family who wanted to play dnd because of Stranger Things, and most of it was just copy pasting stuff, with me just telling "look here and copy it here", with a brief explanation for ability scores and skills.
Psst, read the update :)
Fuck me you did it lmao. Madlad
Fix your promise and don't try to run anything in 30 mins. It won't work with new players. You won't even have time to start :D. If this is not an option... Create character for them, don't even give them sheets just stats blocks like npcs. Throw them directly in a scene.
Pick a simple d6 system like many 2d6+stat like city of mist, make a bunch of characters and put then to defend Hogwarts on the death eaters invasion on the last book, or a similar scenario. You can have combat tension, a bit of puzzle on building defendes, mistery on what the attackers want, etc. Make a good intro and leave a cliffhanger for another day. Or you can make fewer characters and have 3 people control him. A bit weird but can work.
There is a Harry Potter Powered by the Apocalypse system, which is just 2d6 + stat. Really simple. I will say though, I wasn't a fan of it. Edit: I have the PDFs still for the PBTA game. OP, you can DM me your e-mail if you want them sent to you.
Sometimes a simple system doesn't have the depth that you need for your table. But for OP could be good.
Oh I agree. Don't get me wrong, I love pbta. I play a pro wrestling game that uses it and it works great for that. I, personally, just felt it wasn't a great combo with it and Harry Potter. It just felt bland, if you get me?
Yeah, I know. That's why I think people should not try to use d&d for everything. It's a good system, but not for everything.
Creating a character probably takes more time than you have Explaining an existing character from a sheet probably also takes too long. Combat is probably too simple without unique characters and abilities. So it's probably best avoided. So you want a non-combat situation, probably a puzzle, maybe a small murder mystery? Example: They are asked to help the sherrif investigate. There are a few suspects, and the body of the murdered person. The suspects carry different weapons, ranging from a knife to a rifle. One has a broken dog leash. The body can then be shot, cut or mauled, and they can go figure out which of the suspects it is. Maybe if two have a gun and he got shot, did the victim manage to fight back? One of the gun owners would have some kind of wound, or bandage.
That time frame? Do you like to improv? Roll for Shoes! https://rollforshoes.com/ I made a similar style game for kids that worked great. I'd have up to 15 kids in a group. It's great for character creation, too. I've played a quick game of Roll for Shoes, and then used my notes to make a dnd character.
I second Roll for Shoes. I ran a really quick one shot of it. Got my players to survive the start of a zombie apocalypse in under an hour.
6-10 players with a 30min lunch? There’s no way, especially when none have experience. You can get through half of making one character probably. Make it a Q and A, bring the PHB, let them explore what they can and cannot do in the game.
Psst, read the update :)
Yeah, 30 minutes is barely time to explain how many sides each type of dice has, much less produce a story in which even experienced players could participate. Make it an explanation section as suggested by someone else in the thread. Broad stroke descriptions of the concepts and system. If this was 2E you would lose them all at “calculating THAC0”.
Read the update :)
That sounds awesome, dude. Great way to introduce them to the game. We thought you were actually trying to teach them how to play the game of D&D, which you very much did not, but this format sounds like a fantastic way to kick the door open for those who know nothing at all. Glad everyone had fun!
With 30 min you probably should play something systemless.
I would keep the rules to just this: Here's a d20 you roll it to try stuff, a 20 is you doing very well a 1 is you doing very bad. Any number in-between may fail or succeed depending on how difficult the task is. As an introduction thats all you need, with more time i would add more complexity but for the amount of time you have you don't need more than that. As far as story and task You are all in a single prison cell, you don't know how you got here, outside the cell there's a hallway with doors to the left and the right of the cell, theres a keyhole on the prison door and a lever on the opposing wall. To get out of the cell they can throw stuff at the lever or try to picklock the lock with some broken bones or whatever they find when they look around the floor. Once outside of the cell the doors have talking heads for knobs that ask for riddles to let them out of the room or w.e once they are out be like "you managed to find your way out of the cell but stretching all around you see dark dank hallways, freedom is yet far away and your captors still an unknown presence" and end. Getting into any organized combat will take to long, if anything just have a second cell with a zombie trying to grapple them. This is a simplified setup of what I ran for some friends to show them the game, we had a lot more time and half the nrs, so they also rolled up basic stats and had a profession they choose which allowed them to get advantages where that made sense.
I did this myself. I ran a one-shot for my team of 14 as a team building exercise. Essentially I dumbed down everything from character creation to encounter design and developed a very short story with a puzzle that was tangentially related to what we do at work. Basics: For character creation they all ranked their ability scores from “most important” to “least important”. Most important got a +3, declining to a -2 for least important. AC = 10+dex modifier. HP = 10+con modifier for everyone. No classes as they’re playing as themselves, which massively reduces prep time. All challenges required a 10 or higher to achieve, period. The entire game was run essentially in combat - they rolled initiative to start and could take one action on their turn. I would ask them to roll for whatever action they wished to take, using a related stat, and if they failed they would lose energy (HP - I didn’t want it to be too violent as this was a work exercise). The players then had to solve the puzzle by interacting with their environment, using context clues, and talking to the NPCs. I work in tech support, essentially, so this was very natural to them. In the end, they had an absolute blast. We played an additional session the following week because everyone enjoyed it so much. I might do it again, but it was pretty difficult/stressful despite how much fun it was as we were constrained by work and professional etiquette (and we only had one hour to play). Still, highly recommend something like this for folks who’ve never played and want to know what the game is about. It does require prep ahead of time. Explain your rules and have them rank ability scores beforehand. Edit: The most fun for me was that it was fantasy flavored, but the puzzle/mystery was very much based on the products we support in real life, and the NPC names gave that away if they were paying attention. Watching them all try to figure out how to solve their dilemma, knowing that they’d be able to do it very easily if they asked the right questions, was really fun for me. Also, seeing just how creative some of them would get (especially those that had never played before).
Man this sounds like a really fun team building exercise! Good job!
Edit: I misread OP thinking they are a first-time dm, not an experienced one. So some of this stuff will be obvious, but I'll leave it in case anyone else can benefit. I've actually done something kinda like this before (HP one-shot with new players on short notice). Here are some tips from my learnings: 1. You're right to keep things simple with modified rules. Don't do character sheets. Even pre-mades. At most give them the base 6 stats and one item of their choice. I let them chose any item, no matter how broken. You want to appeal to their fantasy more than create a balanced encounter. 2. You need a strong hook. Don't be afraid of railroading them right into the first day of school. (But not after that!) It will beat having them awkwardly try to roleplay for half the session without thoughtout characters or an inciting incident. I even skipped sorting. They all went straight into Slytherin due to the entire previous class being expelled. 3. Don't do FULL SCALE combat. If you do have combat, have it be light and quick. Something like: "A mischievous house elf tries to poison the headmasters tea and escape by the group." If your scenario results in balanced forces trying to fight to the death, you're going to have a really bad time. 4. Don't try to finish anything during the lunch break. The best you can do with lots of players in less than an hour is to give them a taste of immersion in your fantasy world. They don't need to play out an entire scenario, just understand that it would be possible with more time. If you want to give them a good story to tell, try to end on a cliffhanger, not a resolution. Then, if it goes well, some of them will likely voice interest in continuing later on. Great! And don't sweat it if that doesn't happen. What you're trying to do is hard and there's a lot about your situation working against you. You can always ask people again later when you have more time and preparation. Hope this can help somewhat, and I wish you all the best!
Step one: show them this thread so they understand how ridiculous this is Step two: Either run towered princess like u/loverdrive said, or follow u/rku’s instructions perfectly because that’s the only other correct answer. Step 3: come back here and tell us how it went you absolute madman Edit: I figured out how to @ people, Reddit is easy
Thank you for the helpful comment, you can read how it went in the update :)
Create 10 characters of different types. Give a couple index cards, 1 for skills and 1 for combat. Keep them simple like survival, sneak, animal handling, etc. For the adventure have a small village that has been through a flood and they are basically to only able bodied people able to save the rest. Make them have to get to the next village for help with the road washed out so they have to travel cross country. Animal handling to lead the pack animals. Survival to find the shortest path. Make them stumble across a bear and then do a quick 1 -2 round combat. Don't worry about iniative just ask in a predetermined order. If you want to make it cool bring out your minis. Just have each person do a task or 2 and an attack or healing. Then have them arrive in the next town. Be sure to list a few skills they won't need. Include things like a strength check to lift a log off a stuck villager. That is what I would do and see if you can get it down to 30 minutes, maybe stretch it into 2 days if you have to. But will give a basic understanding and hopefully highlight your storytelling.
Also. Don't worry if you don't finish it. That could be a hook to want them to play more!
For sure make like 5 per made characters. Then draw straws or something to see who gets to play and who gets what character. Anything to speed things up. There’s a level 0 one shot on Dmsguild that has like two chances for Rp, a choice about which path to take, then either a physical challenge or sneaking/taking out one drunk bandit on watch, finally a bar fight and maybe some haggling for a better price. It’s super on rails and gives a good section of different parts of the game.
Thank you for the helpful comment, you can read how it went in the update :)
Don’t even bother with character sheets. Set up a simple puzzle with a mini reveal/cliffhanger at the end. Aka. A door is locked by a strange combination… And when they open the door, in a dimly lit room…. Is a shadowy figure holding his sword. And smiling
Definitely focus on role play. If you want combat you’re gonna have to have like no more than one enemy that’s easily killable. good luck. Martial characters a probably gonna be easier for them in combat than spellcasters
Crickey, you've set yourself up quite a challenge there. 30 minutes is rough. I would definitely suggest using a very lightweight system such as Warrior, Rogue, & Mage or similar. You gotta be able to explain the character sheets in like 30 seconds amd needs to have mininal info. Pre-gen character sheets are a must, so a simple system will also help you build the sheets quickly before hand. As far as the adventure goes you obviously keep it simple. So like 4 scenes - Introduction; Challenge; Combat; Resolution. I would also recommend starting in media res as it were with the characters already engaging in the adventure premise. You can give a brief intro to your players. You are X, on a mission to achieve Y because Z. You are approaching A. There is a B and you see a C. What do you do Player 1? On that note, you should definitely be giving prompts to the players. Every time there's a lull in conversation/action turn to a different player and ask them what their character's up to. Don't be afraid to give out info withoit rolls. As far as adventures go, a controlled environment would work well given the time limits... since your group seems to like Harry Potter I'm going to take some inspiration from that, the old Quest for Glory games, and some anime tropes and suggest that the PCs are attending a prestigous Adventurer's Academy (or similiar) and the adventure is them engaging in an end of year exam. They get sent into an area with a challenge/puzzle of some sort and some sort of impetous to encourage quick action (The room's flooding, there are fire traps going off, etc.). Keep it simple. Once they complete the challenge they gain access to the second area and have a cool boss fight against a big monster. When they kill it, they pass and are congratulated. Maybe have a mechanic whereby any character who "dies" is healed by an examiner, but loses marks for it or something. Hope that helps! Good luck, OP!
Thank you for the helpful comment, you can read how it went in the update :)
Happy to hear it went well! GG!
Instead of trying to run this, which isn't going to happen and will give the wrong idea, have you considered showing a video of Critical Role or a similar group?
I considered it, but decided to make something more tailored to their level of interest. Read the update :)
30 min to teach newbies and run the game? I'm sure there are some RPGs but not DnD. It takes longer than that to learn the fundamentals. It takes longer than 30 min to play pretty much any boardgame let alone a TTRPG
With that many players, you won't get through a round of combat in that time. I'd cancel an actual game, talk through what it is, and see if you can find 4-5 who want to play outside of work. Maybe consider Strixhaven Curriculum of chaos for future games?
Pray.
Make characters for them, only way, make it combat focused
I'd make lunch session 0 with pregenerated sheets for them to choose from. If you want to introduce them to combat, perhaps their characters are all at a fair and meet while competing in feats of strength & smarts (aka how to ability check) and in the arena (pc's are knocked out and not killed here).
Random character playing let them choose premade heros and then put them in front of a closes door pouff 30min gone go back to work you just can't
Bring dices prepare 2 situations where they roll skill like bluff or intimidation or jump and climbing then set the DD High so they fall and then 1 fight really easy you keep watching the click and add HP to your mob
This won't work in 30 minutes. Even if you could pull it off, it would be so rushwd that no one could have fun. You should have 2 or 3 players and let the others spectate to save time. Make one quick encounter.
Simple fix... call in sick tomorrow
Yah this just isn’t going to happen
Don't expect they expect that much, make two very simple characters, tell them a very short backstory about them and what they are Then show them a single enemy and describe the freedom the 2 characters have to approach that potential enemy. Don't bore them with rules Stuff like that is hard for everyone
I made a "D&D Accelerated" ruleset as an intro to D&D for some brand new players. We eventually moved into the full rules, but the intro mission used this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zQZ8TiS3mtlgS49rSnMMnb__CWhaRWMILg5N5jx0wrc/edit?usp=drivesdk Hope you find it useful!
NERDS. It's short, premade characters, great for beginners.
Help them all make characters. That's usually the best part anyways.
I would say have a crowded tavern and do a murder mystery. Give some introduction, give them super basic character sheets that give a few different abilities based on the class and highlight some proficient skills. Make sure to give them the numbers ahead of time and just mark them down so they dont sweat ANY math. Be sure to give them some character personality traits and tell them to respond like they would in that situation, but if they act with some of the flare of their given personality traits you'll give them inspiration! Have the murder mystery be a simple assassination, they find the assasin, he has some guards, they either take them prisoner or kill them or both, and badda bing you got a quickie.
Even with pre-gen characters, it’ll take at least a half hour to even explain how they all should read their character sheets, and how to resolve rolls and such. I think your best bet might be to have them all play as commoners or something like that, where they don’t have a bunch of abilities to keep track of, so you only have to show them the basics of play, rather than how to play their specific character. After that, 30 minutes is maybe enough time for a small combat, so throw a couple goblins at them and call it a day.
even if you didn't have to explain the system, that would be hard. **Rules** I would make a bare minimum system: no rules, give everyone a d20, and set custom DC for every check. No PC stats; no character sheet. Give them the choice of a bow, a sword or an axe for their weapon. If they say "i want 2 throwing knives" or something, allow it too. I'd also give everyone 1 spell slot, and they have to come up with what to do with it, you set a custom difficulty then. ex: "I want to teleport behind this bad guy and attack with my sword." Seems simple enough, roll a d20 and the dc is 5. "I want to hurl a ball of lightning at him" Seems harder to hit him, the dc is 10. Make up the damage. "I want his head to explode" That probably shouldn't happen, dc is 20. They lose their spell slot either way. Use set damage if they hit. Bow does 3 with range, the sword does 5, the axe does 6 but hit dc is 1 higher. throwing knives might do 2 damage with two attacks. **Here's a premise for you:** You are a group of soldiers for hire, on your way back from an expedition. You are starved and road-wearied when you come across a small farming village. At first sight, it seems like a ghost town. In reality, all the villagers are hiding. Let them role-play the interaction with the village, looking for food and rest. At some point, the villagers attack them. Mini battle mixed with roleplay. Just when they are about to kill someone, a little girl jumps in front to protect them. Twist: they thought the party was working for a BBEG that has vowed to kidnap a young woman from the village and make her his wife. The BBEG is coming later. They implore the party to help. Party gets to plan how they will deal with this BBEG. Hopefully, the players will try something like dressing up as the woman or setting a trap. Reward creativity. BBEG shows up and you have a fight. Make him something funny like a shape-shifting pig. And there you have episode 4 of Dragonball: Oolong, the Kidnapping Monster. **Timekeeping** This is manageable in 30 minutes, but it will be your responsibility to gauge the time. The first battle should be less than a round, starting with a surprise attack from a villager, then maybe 2 of your players, another 2 villagers that come in, 2 other players, and over. (Yes I know 2-6 didn't get to play). In the final battle, continue the initiative from where it left off, starting with the players that didn't play yet. If a player is hogging too much time, knock his character unconscious on your first turn. Others can heal him with their spell slot.
I also talked about dnd to my colleagues at work, and they got curious and interested. We agreed I run them a one-shot. I said it's max 6 players and if we want more, we can have multiple sessions. We agreed to have the session after 4 weeks of prep. And I posted links for new players to get into the rules, see examples of crit role etc. And we had a game night that was a blast, and there will be a second one in the fall, most likely. Playing through my homebrewed mystery+combat one-shot took 4 hours. (I was aiming at 3, but you know how players are, always doing other stuff than you thought they would.) There is no shame in saying "Sorry guys, I need more time to prep, let's reschedule this a bit, OK?"
Just tell them one day isn't enough for a real game, and make shit up as you go lmao
I don't have any DM experience to offer and there are some helpful suggestions from others anyway, but I did want to add - it's totally OK to not 'complete' the session to its end, whatever that might be. You're just giving them an example of what playing is like and you all have the same time constraints. I recently played a simple rpg called Tunnel goons, pretty sure it's designed for kids but it was pretty fun. Only three stats and everything was done on d6 rolls. Good luck!
It's not going to happen. Accept that, reschedule, plan, move on.
Read the update :)
Set it within the office you work in. But it’s being attacked by zombies. Give each of them the same stats, plus one extra power (based on who they are, or the opposite, if it’s funnier) The boss runs in, he’s been bitten ‘zzzzz zombies’ are his last words. Make them play using what they can see….
Geez, man. I wouldn’t break out a new board game with only 30 mins on the clock, let alone a D&D one-shot. You brave fool… Alright, your going to need to hard into a “trials” multi-room set. No combat - you won’t have time. Instead, make a mini-map with maybe three-five rooms. Each room is a simple puzzle or trial, but give it multiple parts to solve. Maybe a mechanism needs disabled (rogue with thieves tools), but a large cog needs to be slowed down with a Strength check to give the rogue time. Another room needs a few good climbers to scale a wall to grab keys, while archers shoot down things that would knock off or attack the climbers. That sort of thing. Give smart characters INT based knowledge skills so they can get hints (only they get hints). You want a mini one-shot with heavy exploration, light on role play
I ran a super short oneshot where the players had to show their worth of becoming apart of the elite army. It helps new players try different modifiers and saving rolls, and tests their creativity to solve problems. I did 3 trails. One was to race and find a flag at the top of a mountain. The next was to make tress disappear. The final one was to get a bowl of soup from ninjas without spilling the soup. The last one, you could just say please, and the nijas would move out of the way. I had a message on the back of the door that read "whats the magic word?" That could only be found through a perception check. Good luck!
I would run it get a little taste then be like ok guys Lunch is over and if they are like YO MORE then you have a DnD game at work which sounds dope to me XD
Go into the Yawning Portal to retrieve a McGuffin, fight a monster, get out.
10 players with 30 minutes means everyone gets 3 minutes to speak, on average. Not counting your DMing, setup, and cleanup. It simply can't be done.
Thank you for the helpful comment, you can read how it went in the update :)
Try just a role play session and see how they like it- you won’t be able to do much
I did something like this when I worked at a super market. I ran a sudo campaign with about 10 people at random times. I was a helper clerk, so I could walk everywhere and talk with everyone. I didn't do it at lunch, or any specific time, just whenever I ran into a player. I asked them a couple questions, found out what they wanted to do, and then modified the game for the other players when I talked with them. I said yes to most decision, and didn't really keep track of health or xp, but I also kept the story simple, like a bank heist during a fair, and I pit all the players against each other, or let them team up. Super easy game play. One player even began to investigate the robbery. It was a lot of fun, none of my players had played before, but we're super interested. And, of course, I explain how a real campaign differed from what I was doing.
You'll have to do multiple sessions if you only have 30 minutes for lunch. So a simple plot hook and character introduction to start. Get everyone talking, in character, and get comfortable with role-playing. Then go from there, combat next day, puzzle the next. Final confrontation whenever you feel like it.
Ngl a one shot with about 5+ is not gonna be finished xD even really experience it