While lots of GMs, myself included, love a good long campaign to run my players through, sometimes you’re looking for a shorter adventure that takes just a session or two. It could be that the players need a break from the main plot, or you want to test a new RPG, or new PCs, or you’re putting together a one-shot for some guests.

It’s with this in mind that I will be posting some of my own short adventure ideas. My goal is to post one-per-month – sort of a Session of the Month (SotM) – though life may intrude from time to time.

I do have some design goals for these sessions:

Most will be system-agnostic, though not genre agnostic. A fantasy-based adventure should be adaptable to D&D, Pathfinder, Dragon Bane, etc. To do this, I will avoid prescribing stat blocks or using property-specific monsters or classes. A tribe of barbaric humanoids could be humans, orcs, hobgoblins, or whatever works for you. The village witch may be any particular class (if using a class-based system) that can perform the expected duties of the witch NPC, which will be described.

The sessions should have some flexibility for the strength level of the adventuring party. If there is a pack of wild beasts threatening travelers in the area, you can set an appropriate size of the pack to present the desired challenge your players will face. The adventure will focus on the role the pack plays in the adventure rather than its exact makeup.

The adventure should be location agnostic. Although I will provide location names, NPC names, and other names that may suggest certain locations or cultures, these should be changeable to fit into a world you already use. If you don’t use the common Western Europe theme for your world, feel free to change the wolves to hyenas, the village of Winterdale to Baraka, the mayor to an alcalde.

And, if it wasn’t clear enough already, these adventure shorts are here to help you have fun. If they only provide inspiration, if there’s a name you like, whatever, take it and make it your own. You aren’t beholden to maintaining the purity of any of these. And if you think of a cool change or have feedback from your own usage, you are encouraged to share it in the comments.