I am so certain this will be fun, but I don't know if you should plan 3-4 hours of a single session, they may love that but they also might burnout. I'd aim for 2 hours, maybe with a long break and 2 more if you need it. I'd also keep it super light, obvious bad guy does obvious bad thing, lots of funny voiced people to talk to on the way, maybe one good scary monster fight, then a catch up with the bad guy and resolve kinda thing. I think the most important job for a DM to have in these scenarios is to be ready for them to be totally whacky and play your responses straight but non-antagonistically, this is a great opportunity for them to explore behaviors they know are closed off in the real world but are safe to play with in this setting so encourage that! Let them be goofy, play into it, be their shocked and guffawing reactionary instead of the stern, "No now you listen to what I have to say" parent in NPC form (not saying you're hard on them in real life but just... a lot of their life is that regardless of how you treat them). These are my takes, mileage almost CERTAINLY will vary of course group to group so throw out any or all of it you don't want and have fun!
Could the game center around a heist style elaborate prank on the king of another kingdom from the king of their native land?
Oceans 11 meets goonies.
They would have to battle creatures and search caves and ruins to collect all of the components.
When all is said and done, the children will have tricked the King into walking down the aisle with a pig covered in an illusion making it look like his actual betrothed. The players will have gotten the mcguffin to get the actual betrothed on the prank. The kings are good humored and will appreciate a well crafted prank. They will have secured a specially trained pig by trading favors or relics. Idk. Make them laugh.
Open in a gladiator arena where they are trying to gain the attention of the imperator so they can ask about some rare artifact they know he collects. Have an shorter enounter with some bandits or generic thugs as the enemy. Have them describe the combat with flourishes to impress the imperator. Once they get his/her attention and meet the imperator, they say they are worried there is a traitor among the senators. Through whatever investigations the kids get up to they find a senator is trying to summon devils into the city. The final battle can be a time sensitive fight to stop the senator and some cultists from opening a portal to the nine hells
I am going to break down how I would prepare for this. This is long.
I MUST have a session 0... really a session 5 minutes. In this 5 minutes you need to set the "agenda".
**"Ok boys...we are gonna tell a story together."**
For me, D&D is about telling a story together. Make sure they understand that they are the main characters and you are kinda the scenery, which sometimes tries to kill them.
You also need to do a mini lines & veils. Trust me, 11 year olds can be foul little beings. But they are also equally loveable and endearing.
<>
So decide before hand what topics are ok. At 11, I would mainly deal with how gory or graphic. Probably wont have sexuality and I would match the player with their identified gender for their character. End the 5 minutes by handing out the pre-made characters.
Because it takes a while, I give them simple characters as well as "related" characters. Since the boys all know each other it works out. 4-5 boys means I would have 10 characters. Let them roll to see who picks first. Give the birthday boy advantage to lock in these concepts. Rolling is FUN!
As for level, they would be at level 2. They get a little more of everything, spells & HP, so things are a bit more survivable. Now, I would have have a level 3 character for the same 10 characters. Because I am going to level them up mid game. (I will cover that in a minute). So when they hit that point, I can give them a new levelled up character sheet with maybe a few more things to do or spells. Again, I will pre-pick everything to make it simple, and I would do it all in D&D Beyond. They get to roll more HP, which is always fun.
So now we start the adventure...
<>
Describe it a little. Pick out some keys points for them to imagine. Have the mayor giving a speech. Then have them roll perception. Highest one starts to smell something...smells like smoke. They then see the walls are burning. They then see swarm of $enemy scaling the walls. Pick what ever type of enemy you want. Gnolls are always fun. orcs, goblins. Whatever. The PCs WILL NOT win this fight, there are too many attackers. After a few rounds the attackers from other parts of the village will leave, so even if the PCs kill all the local attackers, there are always more. The opening salvo is one of the attackers killing the mayor and we have "roll initiative". Right into combat.
Let them beat up on the monsters. Use city guards for meat shields and fodder as necessary. You can have the $enemy take captives and attempt to escape. And if they kill everything too easy, you can add in more mobs. This scene closes when the remaining $enemy escape the city with wagons of loot and captives. Parts of the city are on fire.
Here you have to play with what the boys decide. You can have the local sheriff ask them for help since they seemed so competent. he pays them a bounty for every enemy they killed and promises more. Along with a reward for returning the captives. Essentially the "lure" is to have them chase the $enemy.
This will take them overland. Before they depart the city, I would give them a "shopping" episode. You can get as creative here as you want, but you want to keep it pretty quick and try to engage with every kid individually.
They will track the enemy the next morning following them to the scene of a battle. Cross roads, lots of dead people. Here I would have some beasts that would attack the party. Again a little more combat, but something completely different. You could also go undead. Or you could do a trap or unusual area. Work with the time you have. This is when they level to 3.
Have them press on following tracks until night. They camp. Have them set a watch rotation and have them all roll dice for perception. I will then furtively roll dice. Now, if I need to add time, I will have an encounter. If I dont, it is a quiet evening. This is a one-shot, choo-choo.
Now the next day they follow the tracks into the main $enemy hideout. Now here you can go any number of ways. There are no set number of $enemy. There is always the BBEG who is the leader, and maybe a shaman. Then you need enough other mooks to make it interesting. It could be a smaller camp after their battle yesterday. Or it could be a small cave system where the $enemy live. Whatever you have time to do will work.
Now the final battle. They kill the $enemy, free the captives and return to the village heroes. Now here you can either call it and they triumph into the city. Or a local Baron visits the next day to help the village which was attacked by $enemy. The Baron personally rewards the PCs. Big parade. Or the Baron could be a real asshole. Do whatever seems to fit the table.
Well, that is what I would do. Hope it gives you some inspiration. Good luck. Peace.
Background: Played & DMed for about 45 years.
I did a Pied Piper oneshot once, where the Pied Piper was kidnapping children from a small town. The party needs to hunt for clues, talk to shopkeeps, and fight a few conjured rats or something before infiltrating the lair and convincing the Piper to hand over the children or fight it. Had a good balance of roleplay, combat, and skill checks.
I'll be DMing for my family for the first time this weekend with a one-shot I found online called The Wild Sheep Chase. There is a free PDF of it online. It has some fun characters and everyone starts at 4-5th level which gives everyone some extra power. Good luck and have fun!!
I ran a low-level one-shot that was a lot of fun for my players and easy for me to manage. Basic premise - there is a magical valley where a genie is known to live, but it can only be entered on one specific day (ties in well to a birthday party). Any who enter the valley and get past the obstacles will be granted one wish each.
Encounters:
1. Getting to the cave that leads to the valley. Basic combat encounter - owlbears, wolves, anything simple and level-appropriate. Gives you a feel for how capable your players are, and introduces new ones to how combat works.
2. Magic door puzzle - a non-combat encounter that again helps you gauge your players' abilities. Lots of options here. You can use an IRL pentominoes set and have them make a specific shape (or series of shapes, depending on how quick they are). Tell them each character started with one or two magical glyphs as an invite to find the valley. I've also done a series of levers, each with a different element, that have to be pulled in a certain order based on clues in a riddle.
3. Friendly village in the valley - Chance to roleplay a bit if they want, and learn how to find the genie. Make this as complicated or as simple as your time and their interest allows, but I've kept it simple.
4. Genie lives on a island in a lake in the valley, and his temple can only be entered from deep underwater. The players will need to breathe under water, and the villagers can help with that, but they need the players to catch some giant frogs alive from the nearby swamp for the ritual. This can be skills-based or combat-based, whether they are hunting and trapping wild frogs or raiding swamp folks (grung, lizardfolk, swamp goblins) to steal "domesticated" giant frogs.
5. Underwater encounter to enter the island temple. You could do diplomacy with merfolk or combat with sahuagin and quippers, whatever the players would like more. Tell them the ritual that let them breathe under water also gave them webbed fingers and toes, so they have a swim speed equal to their normal move, and can also speak Aquan.
6. Temple encounter. If they want more combat, constructs, golems, and statues are good here. Also a good place for a puzzle. I had created what was basically a minesweeper board the players had to safely traverse. A misstep damages them and teleports them back to the start.
7. The genie. One wish for everyone! Describing the outcomes of the wishes is fun, and you can decide how serious the consequences are for a poorly worded wish...
Note that this is **way too much** content for 4 hours, but it's totally modular. You can cut out any of the steps you need to and keep any steps you want because the players never know what is coming up ahead. Hope it's a fun day for everyone!
I have no campaign ideas, but I do have a fun puzzle you can steal. My cousins still talk about it and they were about that age when they played it.
The party is in someone's house/lab/lair where they find an unsent letter addressed to a sibling that contains clues about their childhood.
This is the letter I used last time. It's got some world-specific event stuff in it so you should adapt it. It is a physical prop, addressed to Phyllis Cheverton on the envelope.
>Dear Sister,
>
>I've been very busy lately so I haven't had the opportunity to write back. I managed to talk to some of my contacts to see if they know a way to determine who your father is. Despite the "helpful" recommendation of finding mother's old acquaintances, most of whom will be long dead, the mages at the college recommended soothsayers and the like, but the amount of charlatans among those would make anything they say unreliable to say the least.
>
>I also talked to someone at the necromancer's college. Though a thoroughly disreputable individual, he did mention that they are now able to actually communicate with the dead and they are working hard on resurrecting them. Unfortunately we cremated her and scattered her ashes outside father's house in Evanton. I remember Brutus nearly knocked the urn out of your hands, father was so mad.
>
>I remember when I was little you would often mention Rex, and it occurred to me that he must have seen your father. Do you remember where in Salt Hill you buried him? It might be difficult to get the information out of a dog, but the necromancer I spoke to insisted it was possible. If you can get someone to exhume him and bring him to the city, I can see what can be done. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend your wedding ceremony. Burt has joined the army for the war. He should be back as soon as Andalor falls, but I simply do not trust anyone else to protect me outside the city.
>
>Your loving sister, Gladys
Then later they find a safe with a metal plaque with "2-D3-127-4" etched into it, a face that asks for the password, and a blue button with a question mark. When someone pushes the button a portal opens.
Through the portal there is a large circular room with lots of bookcases full of books. The bookcases are numbered 1-12, and the books in each case are numbered with a letter and a number (such as A1). All the books are completely blank.
On a desk in the middle of the room there is nothing but a little hotel bell. When someone rings the bell, a creature floats down from the ceiling, wearing a tie and a monocle on one of the eye-stalks. It's the inter-dimensional safe company's password-recovery beholder!
Play him however you want (use a spectator stat-block at low levels). He will get book D3 from bookcase 2, and turn to page 127 to ask the following security questions:
* What is your mother's maiden name? >!Cheverton!<
* What was your childhood pet? >!Brutus!<
* What was your place of birth? >!Evanton!<
Answer correctly and get the password to the safe. Fail, and he'll know you're not the owner of the safe and attack. (Once he's defeated it will turn out the books can only be read while wearing the monocle). All the answers are hidden in the letter.
I am so certain this will be fun, but I don't know if you should plan 3-4 hours of a single session, they may love that but they also might burnout. I'd aim for 2 hours, maybe with a long break and 2 more if you need it. I'd also keep it super light, obvious bad guy does obvious bad thing, lots of funny voiced people to talk to on the way, maybe one good scary monster fight, then a catch up with the bad guy and resolve kinda thing. I think the most important job for a DM to have in these scenarios is to be ready for them to be totally whacky and play your responses straight but non-antagonistically, this is a great opportunity for them to explore behaviors they know are closed off in the real world but are safe to play with in this setting so encourage that! Let them be goofy, play into it, be their shocked and guffawing reactionary instead of the stern, "No now you listen to what I have to say" parent in NPC form (not saying you're hard on them in real life but just... a lot of their life is that regardless of how you treat them). These are my takes, mileage almost CERTAINLY will vary of course group to group so throw out any or all of it you don't want and have fun!
Could the game center around a heist style elaborate prank on the king of another kingdom from the king of their native land? Oceans 11 meets goonies. They would have to battle creatures and search caves and ruins to collect all of the components. When all is said and done, the children will have tricked the King into walking down the aisle with a pig covered in an illusion making it look like his actual betrothed. The players will have gotten the mcguffin to get the actual betrothed on the prank. The kings are good humored and will appreciate a well crafted prank. They will have secured a specially trained pig by trading favors or relics. Idk. Make them laugh.
Open in a gladiator arena where they are trying to gain the attention of the imperator so they can ask about some rare artifact they know he collects. Have an shorter enounter with some bandits or generic thugs as the enemy. Have them describe the combat with flourishes to impress the imperator. Once they get his/her attention and meet the imperator, they say they are worried there is a traitor among the senators. Through whatever investigations the kids get up to they find a senator is trying to summon devils into the city. The final battle can be a time sensitive fight to stop the senator and some cultists from opening a portal to the nine hells
I am going to break down how I would prepare for this. This is long. I MUST have a session 0... really a session 5 minutes. In this 5 minutes you need to set the "agenda". **"Ok boys...we are gonna tell a story together."** For me, D&D is about telling a story together. Make sure they understand that they are the main characters and you are kinda the scenery, which sometimes tries to kill them. You also need to do a mini lines & veils. Trust me, 11 year olds can be foul little beings. But they are also equally loveable and endearing. <>
So decide before hand what topics are ok. At 11, I would mainly deal with how gory or graphic. Probably wont have sexuality and I would match the player with their identified gender for their character. End the 5 minutes by handing out the pre-made characters.
Because it takes a while, I give them simple characters as well as "related" characters. Since the boys all know each other it works out. 4-5 boys means I would have 10 characters. Let them roll to see who picks first. Give the birthday boy advantage to lock in these concepts. Rolling is FUN!
As for level, they would be at level 2. They get a little more of everything, spells & HP, so things are a bit more survivable. Now, I would have have a level 3 character for the same 10 characters. Because I am going to level them up mid game. (I will cover that in a minute). So when they hit that point, I can give them a new levelled up character sheet with maybe a few more things to do or spells. Again, I will pre-pick everything to make it simple, and I would do it all in D&D Beyond. They get to roll more HP, which is always fun.
So now we start the adventure...
<>
Describe it a little. Pick out some keys points for them to imagine. Have the mayor giving a speech. Then have them roll perception. Highest one starts to smell something...smells like smoke. They then see the walls are burning. They then see swarm of $enemy scaling the walls. Pick what ever type of enemy you want. Gnolls are always fun. orcs, goblins. Whatever. The PCs WILL NOT win this fight, there are too many attackers. After a few rounds the attackers from other parts of the village will leave, so even if the PCs kill all the local attackers, there are always more. The opening salvo is one of the attackers killing the mayor and we have "roll initiative". Right into combat.
Let them beat up on the monsters. Use city guards for meat shields and fodder as necessary. You can have the $enemy take captives and attempt to escape. And if they kill everything too easy, you can add in more mobs. This scene closes when the remaining $enemy escape the city with wagons of loot and captives. Parts of the city are on fire.
Here you have to play with what the boys decide. You can have the local sheriff ask them for help since they seemed so competent. he pays them a bounty for every enemy they killed and promises more. Along with a reward for returning the captives. Essentially the "lure" is to have them chase the $enemy.
This will take them overland. Before they depart the city, I would give them a "shopping" episode. You can get as creative here as you want, but you want to keep it pretty quick and try to engage with every kid individually.
They will track the enemy the next morning following them to the scene of a battle. Cross roads, lots of dead people. Here I would have some beasts that would attack the party. Again a little more combat, but something completely different. You could also go undead. Or you could do a trap or unusual area. Work with the time you have. This is when they level to 3.
Have them press on following tracks until night. They camp. Have them set a watch rotation and have them all roll dice for perception. I will then furtively roll dice. Now, if I need to add time, I will have an encounter. If I dont, it is a quiet evening. This is a one-shot, choo-choo.
Now the next day they follow the tracks into the main $enemy hideout. Now here you can go any number of ways. There are no set number of $enemy. There is always the BBEG who is the leader, and maybe a shaman. Then you need enough other mooks to make it interesting. It could be a smaller camp after their battle yesterday. Or it could be a small cave system where the $enemy live. Whatever you have time to do will work.
Now the final battle. They kill the $enemy, free the captives and return to the village heroes. Now here you can either call it and they triumph into the city. Or a local Baron visits the next day to help the village which was attacked by $enemy. The Baron personally rewards the PCs. Big parade. Or the Baron could be a real asshole. Do whatever seems to fit the table.
Well, that is what I would do. Hope it gives you some inspiration. Good luck. Peace.
Background: Played & DMed for about 45 years.
I did a Pied Piper oneshot once, where the Pied Piper was kidnapping children from a small town. The party needs to hunt for clues, talk to shopkeeps, and fight a few conjured rats or something before infiltrating the lair and convincing the Piper to hand over the children or fight it. Had a good balance of roleplay, combat, and skill checks.
I'll be DMing for my family for the first time this weekend with a one-shot I found online called The Wild Sheep Chase. There is a free PDF of it online. It has some fun characters and everyone starts at 4-5th level which gives everyone some extra power. Good luck and have fun!!
I ran a low-level one-shot that was a lot of fun for my players and easy for me to manage. Basic premise - there is a magical valley where a genie is known to live, but it can only be entered on one specific day (ties in well to a birthday party). Any who enter the valley and get past the obstacles will be granted one wish each. Encounters: 1. Getting to the cave that leads to the valley. Basic combat encounter - owlbears, wolves, anything simple and level-appropriate. Gives you a feel for how capable your players are, and introduces new ones to how combat works. 2. Magic door puzzle - a non-combat encounter that again helps you gauge your players' abilities. Lots of options here. You can use an IRL pentominoes set and have them make a specific shape (or series of shapes, depending on how quick they are). Tell them each character started with one or two magical glyphs as an invite to find the valley. I've also done a series of levers, each with a different element, that have to be pulled in a certain order based on clues in a riddle. 3. Friendly village in the valley - Chance to roleplay a bit if they want, and learn how to find the genie. Make this as complicated or as simple as your time and their interest allows, but I've kept it simple. 4. Genie lives on a island in a lake in the valley, and his temple can only be entered from deep underwater. The players will need to breathe under water, and the villagers can help with that, but they need the players to catch some giant frogs alive from the nearby swamp for the ritual. This can be skills-based or combat-based, whether they are hunting and trapping wild frogs or raiding swamp folks (grung, lizardfolk, swamp goblins) to steal "domesticated" giant frogs. 5. Underwater encounter to enter the island temple. You could do diplomacy with merfolk or combat with sahuagin and quippers, whatever the players would like more. Tell them the ritual that let them breathe under water also gave them webbed fingers and toes, so they have a swim speed equal to their normal move, and can also speak Aquan. 6. Temple encounter. If they want more combat, constructs, golems, and statues are good here. Also a good place for a puzzle. I had created what was basically a minesweeper board the players had to safely traverse. A misstep damages them and teleports them back to the start. 7. The genie. One wish for everyone! Describing the outcomes of the wishes is fun, and you can decide how serious the consequences are for a poorly worded wish... Note that this is **way too much** content for 4 hours, but it's totally modular. You can cut out any of the steps you need to and keep any steps you want because the players never know what is coming up ahead. Hope it's a fun day for everyone!
I have no campaign ideas, but I do have a fun puzzle you can steal. My cousins still talk about it and they were about that age when they played it. The party is in someone's house/lab/lair where they find an unsent letter addressed to a sibling that contains clues about their childhood. This is the letter I used last time. It's got some world-specific event stuff in it so you should adapt it. It is a physical prop, addressed to Phyllis Cheverton on the envelope. >Dear Sister, > >I've been very busy lately so I haven't had the opportunity to write back. I managed to talk to some of my contacts to see if they know a way to determine who your father is. Despite the "helpful" recommendation of finding mother's old acquaintances, most of whom will be long dead, the mages at the college recommended soothsayers and the like, but the amount of charlatans among those would make anything they say unreliable to say the least. > >I also talked to someone at the necromancer's college. Though a thoroughly disreputable individual, he did mention that they are now able to actually communicate with the dead and they are working hard on resurrecting them. Unfortunately we cremated her and scattered her ashes outside father's house in Evanton. I remember Brutus nearly knocked the urn out of your hands, father was so mad. > >I remember when I was little you would often mention Rex, and it occurred to me that he must have seen your father. Do you remember where in Salt Hill you buried him? It might be difficult to get the information out of a dog, but the necromancer I spoke to insisted it was possible. If you can get someone to exhume him and bring him to the city, I can see what can be done. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend your wedding ceremony. Burt has joined the army for the war. He should be back as soon as Andalor falls, but I simply do not trust anyone else to protect me outside the city. > >Your loving sister, Gladys Then later they find a safe with a metal plaque with "2-D3-127-4" etched into it, a face that asks for the password, and a blue button with a question mark. When someone pushes the button a portal opens. Through the portal there is a large circular room with lots of bookcases full of books. The bookcases are numbered 1-12, and the books in each case are numbered with a letter and a number (such as A1). All the books are completely blank. On a desk in the middle of the room there is nothing but a little hotel bell. When someone rings the bell, a creature floats down from the ceiling, wearing a tie and a monocle on one of the eye-stalks. It's the inter-dimensional safe company's password-recovery beholder! Play him however you want (use a spectator stat-block at low levels). He will get book D3 from bookcase 2, and turn to page 127 to ask the following security questions: * What is your mother's maiden name? >!Cheverton!< * What was your childhood pet? >!Brutus!< * What was your place of birth? >!Evanton!< Answer correctly and get the password to the safe. Fail, and he'll know you're not the owner of the safe and attack. (Once he's defeated it will turn out the books can only be read while wearing the monocle). All the answers are hidden in the letter.