One-Shot Reaches 100th Session
"We could probably spend another 10 hours talking to one of the 4 NPCs."
Local gaming group, known to friends and acquaintances as The Five Amigos, reached a landmark 100th session of a one-shot that started over 2 years ago. The feat marks the longest any member of the group has played in a serial game. “I once played in a group that lasted about a year,” says newcomer to the group Elaine Groose. “But this one-shot designed to last 4 hours has lasted much longer than that.”
The adventure in question, “A Trivial Jaunt to Plainville”, can function as a stand alone adventure, but was mostly intended to be filler according to its author Jens Olverbach. “I wrote it to be bland, generic, so that it could be easily placed inside a larger campaign setting,” says Olverbach. “If it wasn’t for the random encounter table, I’d say it’s only good for about an hour or so.”
The entire group celebrated the achievement, complete with a themed cake and an extended session, but newcomer to gaming James Leifwich might be the most proud of the achievement. “This is my first time playing (Dungeons and Dragons),” says Leifwich. “And the flexibility of this one-shot has been perfect. Maybe one day I’ll be ready to join a regular campaign, but it seems so intimidating to commit to something for that long. For now I’ll just keep playing this one-shot every week.”
The group’s founder, Josh Actson, has enjoyed the immersive world and endless lore that the one-shot offers the players. “Sure, we could follow the bread crumbs and face the main antagonist,” admits Actson. “But there is a whole world to explore in this sandbox. We could probably spend another 10 hours talking to one of the 4 NPCs.”
The game’s dungeon master, Ellie Duehan, isn’t as excited about the situation. “I wish they would end it,” says Duehan. She doesn’t want to ruin the experience for the other players, but for her the game is starting to drag on. “At first it was fun trying to milk as much as possible out of these 3 pages. It was a challenge. But now they’re trying to write a biography of an NPC I just made up.” The silver lining for Duehan is that her efforts have been well received, both in the group and from those outside of it. “I’m actually compiling everything together to publish. It’s too much for one campaign, but I think I could spread it out over several books.”