Today, we’re wrapping up my current series of articles on Dungeons & Dragons — let’s talk about the different types of stories you can run.

To gloss over quickly — the easiest way to run a game is to use pre-made stories found in campaign books. Dungeons & Dragons puts these books out fairly regularly; they tell a single story, and players follow along that storyline, generally taking the characters from early levels to higher levels as they go. This works really well if you want to have a lot of the structure of the world and combats already in place.

But I know that, for a lot of people, myself included, when you start as a DM, you have ideas for stories already in your head, and you want to tell those stories and have the players shape them with you. When I got started, I didn’t want to do one of the campaign books, and I was willing to take the time to create my own world. I found that there are a couple of different ways you can run this type of game: either by playing a campaign or a one-shot.

A campaign is going to run over a long period of time. Characters will grow stronger, relationships will be defined, and backstories will be dug into while the players progress through an epic arc. Something like our Dungeons & Flagons podcast is a great example of a campaign. I have general ideas/stories for large, earth-shaking events and resolutions, which the players and characters are just now starting to find out about, and it is going to take a long time to get through the story, defeat the biggest bad guys, and be the heroes that these characters (or other ones that they roll up as their original ones die off) are meant to be.

A one-shot, on the other hand, is a self-contained story that can take place in about two to five hours. These games are generally much more directed. The players are told at the beginning what their mission will be, and they get to play through that bit of a story. Usually, players don’t roll up their own characters for a one-shot, as character generation can take a couple of hours if you really delve into it. So a DM will come prepared with several different characters that the players can choose from, and those characters then make up the adventuring party that busts into a dungeon to chase out the goblins who have set up camp there, or free a town that is being harried by a harpy. They don’t level up; though you are telling part of the characters’ stories, it’s really only a snapshot.

Both styles have their advantages. A one-shot is great for introducing the game to people who haven’t played before. They can find out if they like it and if they would want to invest the time to join a full-on campaign. It’s also much easier for the DM; you’ll only need to come up with a couple of combats, and some sort of main challenge for your players to overcome. Those elements, along with a small town or small area of land that is really easy to make up on the fly, are all you need for a one-shot.

On the other hand, the advantages of a campaign are that you can tell a story that has much greater depth, and that allows for much more growth of the world and characters in the game. It really allows you to stretch your storytelling muscle a lot more and come up with creative situations to put the players in. You also have the ability to allow the players to pick what happens in the story more, because they can go anywhere in the world you’ve created, and you can put anything you choose in front of them.

So which is better?

Depends on your group. For a group of new players, I’d recommend a short game of some sort, like a one-shot or a story from a campaign book that will last a couple of sessions. That is what I did with the players who make up Dungeons & Flagons. To start, we played a story about assassins trying to solve a mystery that lasted three or four sessions. It was a good way for the players to get their feet wet by starting at a very low level and getting a feel for the mechanics of the game. Alternatively, you can start with a campaign. However, I think one big thing about jumping straight into a campaign, especially with new players, is that you’ll have help them along more. For example, it’s cool to recommend that they roll a nature check about an owlbear they encounter in order to learn some information about it. Or to recommend a perception check when they go into a room where you know there is a trap. You don’t do it all the time, but plan to help the players along from time to time, and be willing to teach.

What prep do I need to do?

For a one-shot, I’d really recommend just going with a story that is pretty simple. Adventurers saving the town from some monster that is hidden away in a cave, tower, dungeon, etc. is really easy to do. Go with a simple setup to for the action — a quick fight against minions, a challenge of some sort, and the boss fight. That’s all you need for a good one-shot.

For a campaign, one of the best spots to start is to ask the players what type of story they would like to play. If all of your players really want to be a bunch of detectives in a city, make a story that’s driven that way; if they want to be explorers of a new world, build that story. You have plenty of room to put your twist on a story that has the potential to last from half a year to multiple years. Then, spend some time going through my first post on this Dungeons & Dragons series about world-building. The main thing is not to overwhelm yourself; keep it simple and let it build slowly over time. Flesh out towns, terrain, and NPCs as you need to, so that even though you’ll need to do some prep before each session, it’ll stay balanced and sane.

If you have specific topics that you’d like to see discussed regarding Dungeons & Dragons, comment below, or let me know on Twitter and I’ll gladly do more articles on the topics that you suggest.

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