How would you use this riddle in your campaign?

So I’m gonna be running a one shot on Halloween for my D&D group and I’m trying to think of questions to ask myself to help with writing it (and any other one shot in the future)

The questions I have so far are:

1. What story do I want to tell?
2. What is the theme? (Whodunnit, Romance, Heist etc)
3. What is the setting? (High Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Noir etc)
4. Am I using pre generated characters?
5. What level are the characters?
6. What are the encounters?
7. How do I expect the story to end?

Are there any other questions that you can think of that would be helpful in writing a one shot?

Also the intention is for this to be useful for anyone who is wanting to write a one shot, so feel free to steal the idea!

Edit to add: Dyslexia strikes again with the title of the post 🤦🏻‍♂️

Hi everyone! This is a continuation of my previous post discussing what type of villain would be at the center of my Murder Mystery.

While the initial choice was between having the killer be either a Werewolf or a vampire, one user actually gave me a rather interesting suggestion: having a vampire frame a Werewolf for these murders.

I think it's an interesting and memorable enough twist for a party with varying degrees of experience and I imagine if I develop this further, this One Shot could lead into an interesting mini campaign if I decide to return to the setting. This incident begining some sort of Underworld Turf war between the City's Vampire Coven and Werewolf Pack the Party needs to intervene in.

With all that said, I do have a new question I've never really dealt with before; How would a vampire pin a murder on a Werewolf?

Now, immediately, i had the simple solution of, "oh, the Vampire's a changeling" but that feels like a cop out. Upon investigating the crime scene, like in any good mystery, I want the players to potentially get an idea that this is not adding up upon a high enough investigation roll.

While I think I can make an investigation scene like this work with normal people, I am a bit lost with supernatural creatures. They have entirely different rules, both in general culture as well as in this game specifically, so if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

So far, I only have a few thoughts. Maybe these can help as a jumping off point:

● Tufts of black hair are littered about the crime scene. Upon further inspection, the unkempt nature fits that of a canine rather than that of a man.

● Deep, long scratch marks are etched into the brick and cobble stone surrounding the body. Perhaps on a nat 20, a player very knowledgeable on Lycanthropes can notice the shape/ depth does not match that of a Werewolf's Claws.

● The victim's body is pale, uncharacteristically, so.

● The victim could be decapitated or have a severed forearm that's nowhere to be found. Whatever is missing was where the vampire siphoned the victim's blood from, removing it viciously both to hide the evidence and simulate a Werewolf attack.

I hope all of this makes sense, lol! Please let me know what you think, and I would love to hear your insight!

I made a one-shot for Halloween! I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks!

Few magic items are as closely tied to witches as a flying broom, so I thought Halloween would be the perfect time to share a little collection of them!

Brooms of the Witching Hour introduces 11 enchanted flying brooms compatible with 5E (2014) and 5.5E (2024), ranging from Uncommon curiosities to powerful Very Rare items and a Legendary multi-elemental relic.

Each broom has its own appearance, magical abilities, and unique flight characteristics. Fly through enemies in a trail of burning cinders, descend upon them with the luck of a black cat, pass through walls in spectral form, summon flying brooms for your coven, or unleash elemental devastation from the skies!

The collection is FREE until Halloween! I've included most of the pages here as a preview, so feel free to grab the complete manual on DMsGuild and use these brooms in your adventures. Have fun!

And if you're looking for a spooky adventure to run this Halloween, I've also just released The Red Tithe, a 75-page folk-horror one-shot featuring an isolated village, ancient sacrifices, custom monsters, and three difficulty tiers for characters of levels 3-4, 10-11, or 17-20.

My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E is also live now! The campaign includes a physical hardcover, as well as printed editions of my previous manuals.

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or on r/JonnyDM!

Happy Halloween, and enjoy!

its supposed to be more puzzle focused and not combat focused

The situation

A bell rings inside a foundry, followed by another, then a third. Nobody is touching them. A visible silver ripple jumps from one suspended bell to the next, making each ring once as it passes.

Orven Dask, the bellfounder, is scrambling along an overhead maintenance gallery. He points to an enormous cracked bell hanging above the open loading doors. If the ripple reaches it, he says, the entire thing will fall.

There are six intermediate bells between the workbench and the great bell. The ripple has already crossed two when the characters enter the situation. The workshop is packed with chains, tools, spare metal vessels, hanging counterweights, and places to climb or maneuver.

What is actually happening

Orven once captured the great bell's first toll in an enchanted glass vessel so he could preserve its original resonance for future tuning. The bell later developed a severe crack and was taken out of service. Minutes ago, Orven accidentally shattered the vessel.

The imprisoned toll escaped as a magical echo. It can pass through open air and ignore obstacles that would stop a creature, but it is attracted to resonating metal. Whenever it enters one of the smaller bells, it is briefly held there while the bell vibrates. Then it continues toward the bronze that originally produced it.

The great bell's damaged mounting will not withstand another full resonance.

Run the pressure

The echo advances about one bell per minute. Its path is visible as a silver ripple in the air, and the ringing makes its current position unmistakable. As it gets closer, chains tremble, tools rattle across the benches, and the overhead gallery begins to sway.

Orven can often predict its next stop by listening to the changing pitch, but he cannot get ahead of it alone. His help is useful rather than essential: the characters can see and hear enough to work out the route for themselves.

If the echo reaches the original bell, a deafening toll fractures its support brackets. Several tons of bronze crash through the loading platform and into the alley beyond.

The complication

The obvious response is to silence all the bells. That is exactly the wrong thing to do in advance.

Each intermediate bell attracts the echo and briefly slows it. If a bell is muffled before the echo arrives, the sound simply bypasses it and heads farther along the route. Show this directly: Orven stuffs cloth into one bell's mouth, and the silver ripple skips that bell entirely.

The party needs to use the resonance as an opportunity, not eliminate it indiscriminately.

Possible approaches

Trap the sound during a ring. Get to a bell while the echo is still vibrating inside it. Wrap the rim, immobilize the clapper, or otherwise damp its resonance at that exact moment. The trapped sound dissipates. Doing this before the echo arrives does not trap anything; it removes a delay.

Redirect its path. A large metal vessel, spare bell, or suitable hanging counterweight can provide another resonant target. Striking an object with a suitably deep tone can attract the echo away from its usual path. A diversion is temporary, however: the characters must use it to bring the sound into reach of a trap or it will resume seeking the great bell. Repeated strikes also consume precious time.

Interfere with the magic. Dispel Magic can unravel the escaping enchantment. Silence placed directly over the moving echo destroys its ability to sustain itself through resonance. But putting Silence ahead of it, over bells it has not reached, can remove the delays and accelerate the danger.

Prepare for failure. If interception is no longer realistic, reinforce the great bell with chains, braces, or magic and evacuate the loading area and alley. The final toll still strikes with enormous force. Strong enough reinforcement might prevent the collapse, and evacuation can prevent casualties even if the mounting fails.

The encounter works best when players can understand the pattern through what they observe and choose their own solution. The critical distinction is simple: silencing a bell before the echo arrives speeds it up; damping a bell while the echo is inside can stop it.

Greetings everyone!

We are Drias Guild, a small independent group made up of three Italian guys, founded with the goal of writing and publishing one-shots and campaigns for D&D 5e/5.5e.

We've just released our first oneshot: Raven Mood's Carnival, a horror adventure designed for 3–6 players of 5th level, with an estimated playtime of 4–6 hours.

The party finds itself at Raven Mood’s Carnival, the infamous traveling freak show created by Frederick Raven Mood, where street performers, extraordinary creatures, merchants and monsters of every kind gather from across the realm. They soon discover, upon entering the terrifying “Hellish House of Frederick Raven Mood,” that the carnival is merely a ruse orchestrated by Mood himself to kidnap the unfortunate...

The module includes:

• A 15-page adventure
• 18 original illustrations (NO AI)
• 2 maps
• 7 tokens
• 3 original minigames that can be reused in other campaigns
• 1 puzzle
• 1 customizable invitation ticket for your players

If you want to support us you can buy it on DMs Guild!

For generations, the isolated village of Hollowmere has sacrificed one of its own to keep an ancient horror imprisoned beneath Saint Harrow's Church. Now a blood-covered survivor has fled the village, claiming that everyone is dead. Something has gone terribly wrong, and the adventurers must uncover what happened before it's too late.

The Red Tithe is a 75-page dark fantasy and folk-horror one-shot adventure for D&D 5E (2014) and 5.5E (2024), designed for 3-6 characters and approximately 4-6 hours of play.

The adventure combines investigation, exploration, roleplaying, moral dilemmas, and challenging combat as the characters investigate an abandoned village, encounter monstrous creatures, and uncover the truth behind a centuries-old tradition.

What makes the adventure different is its multi-tiered structure. The same story can be played at three separate level ranges:

• Tier I: Levels 3-4
• Tier II: Levels 10-11
• Tier III: Levels 17-20

Each tier features appropriately scaled encounters, DCs, and a different manifestation of the main antagonist, the Blood Moon Beast.

The manual also includes 6 custom monster stat blocks, 3 battle maps with 8 total versions, and 4 tokens for tabletop or VTT play.

Whether you're looking for a Halloween horror one-shot or a dark adventure to integrate into your ongoing campaign, The Red Tithe is designed to work in either setting.

I've included several preview pages, maps, and one of the monster statblocks in the images!

You can find the complete adventure on DriveThruRPG!

My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E is also live now! The campaign includes a physical hardcover, as well as printed editions of my previous manuals.

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or right here on r/JonnyDM!

We're AAW Games, the publisher of Ashes to Venom.

This preview includes adventure material, locations, maps, and an encounter from the starter. Ashes to Venom is a short level-1 adventure with six ready-to-play drow heroes for both 5E 2014 and 2024.

In occupied Hopeholme, the party must recover a secret dossier from ruined Niss Manor and smuggle it past the Coalition. Their cover story is salvage; their real work is rebellion.

The complete digital starter is free with email signup:

https://adventureaweek.com/after-the-fall-presale/#starter

I've always thought Pandora's Box would make for a fantastic item in D&D, so for my latest project, I decided to turn it into a fully playable 5e artifact, trying to preserve both the original myth and its potential as a major plot device.

The box has several interesting properties. While closed, it grants its bearer powerful protection, but opening it even slightly releases lesser evils that can afflict nearby creatures with various conditions. Opening it completely, however, is another matter entirely: it unleashes a catastrophe upon the world, potentially bringing plagues, wars, famine, or other disasters.

There's also a curse that gradually tempts its owner to open it, making it particularly dangerous even in the hands of otherwise sensible adventurers.

One aspect I especially wanted to explore is Hope, which remains trapped inside the box. In the original myth, its significance is surprisingly ambiguous, and I think that opens up some fascinating possibilities for a campaign. Perhaps Hope is a benevolent spirit capable of reversing the devastation, or perhaps its continued imprisonment serves a much more mysterious purpose.

This is one of the artifacts from my 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E Kickstarter, which is currently live! The book features hundreds of items inspired by Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Asian, and many other mythological traditions, with both their original lore and playable mechanics.

You can find the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mythoschronicles/300-mythological-items-for-5e-and-2024

Have a great day!