My son turns 14 next week, and although he seemed to want to completely ignore his birthday, he suddenly decided he wants me to run a level 12 D&D session for him and his friends. His D&D friends who've been starting half a dozen D&D campaigns over the past few months since they discovered D&D.

I'm not that big of a D&D fan though, so I first proposed Call of Cthulhu, WFRP, or maybe something in space, but he says he doesn't want to learn a new system (well, what about me?) and he wants something with spells. Spells in space might be okay.

So I guess it's going to be D&D. So I need to familiarise myself with it enough to blow them all our of the water, because I don't want to do something average for a birthday one-shot. But what?

My idea so far: A dragon is terrorising the land. The land is in panic and sends its biggest and most legendary heroes to kill it, but they don't return, and the dragon continues. So they send the B Team: the PCs. Approaching the lair, they have to go through a bunch of tunnels or caves, where they find the remains of the previous expedition. Some dead, some trapped, some enslaved perhaps? And they should give some clues about what they can expect. Clues that they absolutely need to take on the dragon.

So I need ideas for that! What makes this dragon too hard for a 12th level party, and what weaknesses does it have that might help them overcome it? I also feel inspired by The Hobbit with the arrow shot at Smaug's one vulnerable spot; how do they find out? I'm also inspired by the 16HP dragon idea from OSR: once they've figured out how to hurt it, it shouldn't take too long to kill it. Of course I have no idea how to balance an encounter in D&D5...

Of course it still has to fit in a single session. It has to be short but awesome.

And I suppose I need a map. Does anyone know if @dysonlogos has a suitable map for a dragon lair that's accessed through some tunnels? (His map style would contribute a lot more to the awesomeness than if I made it myself, I'm afraid.)

If anyone has helpful advice for me, I could really use some.

#rpg #ttrpg #oneshot #dnd