Web DM Podcast 244 - Desert One Shots, High Tier One Shots, and Going Out with a Bang

Hello DMNs! In the immortal words of David Lynch, if you can believe it, it's Friday once again! We've got a fresh new podcast for you answering your questions - several are about one shots/single session planning, and the art on this episode is inspired by our first question AND it's a piece that will be in our book, Weird Wastelands. It's called "The Angry Sun" do you like it? We dig it. 

As always, DMNs, we want to hear from you! Give us your questions, your feedback, tell us what you're having for lunch. Whatever it is, we are here for you. Take care.


Time stamps:
12:59 - Glen Mazurek: I have been trying to get my dad to play D&D for years, we finally got a beer the other day and he expressed genuine interest in it. Said he only wants to play "with people who will really bring it" 

So I assembled the best 3 role players I know, got all the table toys between us. I'm so excited. 

Pops direct quote " I want to play in a world where water is the treasure." 

So I'm going to run a loose homebrew version of a dark sun-esque post-apoc desert hellscape. 

Their mission is to figure out why a local moisture farming village hasn't laid their water tribute to the party's warlord. 

It's a 3 days travel across desert to the village. How do I make carry weight and water needs and scarcity matter, in a fun way that fits a one shot? 🤔 

23:01 - John: I have been inspired by the new Giant-Options Unearthed Arcana to run a one-shot (maybe two-shot) adventure to do some playtesting of the class for my D&D group. The sessions will take place in a new corner of my own homebrew world that has a Conan the Barbarian/Savage Land sort of feel. The players are creating brand new 15th level characters to give them access to the entire suite of subclass features. Everyone involved is hyped for this story, but this seems like a lot of heavy-lifting to playtest some feats and subclasses. How would y'all recommend running a playtest of this kind of content.

27:21 - John again!: The new Barbarian can grow Large, then Huge at later levels, but there's no specific discussion of scaling damage with size, even though everything the PC wears grows with them, including their weapon. I feel WotC has been very uneven with this topic. Enlarge/Reduce gives the player + 1d4 damage per hit, Rune Knight gets + 1d6 per turn that scales up as they level, p.278 of the DMG says to add a damage die for monsters commensurate with weapons their size. The player and I agreed to add 1d4 per hit at Large and 2d4 at Huge, concluding that p.278 of the DMG applies to monsters due to the inherent imbalance of action economy. How would you rule it at your table?

31:38 - KM: If any of you were a magic user of some sort, what sensory effects would your magic have? Would Pruitt's magic smell like chai? Would Jim's magic sound like the chittering of centipedes? Would Emma just be a dwarf that grumbled about how magic was cockamamie? I can't help but wonder.

36:25 - Ashley Smith: I have an idea for a way to end my ongoing sandbox campaign that involves an ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny type apocalypse cascade happening to Realmspace. The idea is that every looming threat in the lore coincidentally happens on the exact same day and chaos ensues as every super powerful entity vies for control in a world that's tearing apart. Are there any looming dooms in forgotten realms lore that I probably haven't heard of or that you think are cool?

41:06 - Rocky Choi: What step by step process would you go through to create a high level dnd 1 shot? (Between level 15 - 20) What, if any restrictions would you create on the use of specific magical items to maintain game balance at high levels?

47:59 - Andy S: I am about to start a D&D 5e campaign where one of the main focuses will be on exploring a massive abandoned battlefield. Basically, the Goblins, Orcs, and Dwarves had a huge decades-long war where they just kind of ground into each other. During the war the combat magic the Goblins used was so strong they blew open a hole into the Underdark, and there was so much death and despair they accidentally opened a portal to the Shadowfell. Does anyone have any good reading recommendations information on what these big battlefields are like after the battles have ended? I am especially interested in how they "recover" over time. Thanks!