Before you print your homebrew one-shot: the 10-minute SRD check that caught a real error

I built a free 5-page one-shot preview for first-time DMs using only SRD 5.2.1 open content. Before I exported the PDF, I checked every rule paraphrase and monster number against the official SRD 5.2.1 document. The check caught a real error — one I had carried over from memory.

The Wolf. In the SRD 5.1 version I remembered, a wolf's Bite forced a DC 11 Strength saving throw or the target fell prone. In SRD 5.2.1, there is no saving throw: a Medium or smaller target hit by the Bite simply has the Prone condition. Same monster, different rule — and the old version would have made the first fight in my preview harder than I designed it. An extra save on every bite, for a table of brand-new players.

That is the whole point of the check. It is not about rules-lawyering. It is about not shipping a first fight that plays differently from the one you balanced.

The check I ran, and would run again:

1. Monster stat blocks, line by line. Not from memory, not from a wiki summary — from the SRD PDF itself. Attack bonus, damage dice, and every trait sentence. The Wolf took two minutes; it was the only stat block with an error, and that is exactly why the check matters. One wrong line in the first encounter is the one your new DM will actually use.
2. Conditions, in the SRD's words. My quick cards list 12 common conditions in one line each. I wrote each line from the SRD condition definitions, not from how I describe them at the table. "Prone" means what the book says, not what sounds right.
3. DCs and numbers the players will hear. Typical DCs on the quick cards, the scaling for 3–6 players in the encounter — every number a DM has to say out loud got checked against the source.
4. Attribution, on the page. The CC-BY-4.0 attribution from SRD 5.2.1 p. 1 is printed on every page of the PDF. If you use open content, the attribution is part of the work, not a footnote to add later.

What the preview is: a Session Zero checklist (14 items), first-fight quick cards, and an original opening, "The Broken Bridge over Firefly Creek", with the first encounter fully statted (two goblin minions and a wolf). It ends right after that first encounter. Free, printable, A4:

https://github.com/alapha888/dnd-one-shot-shidu/releases/tag/trial-v1

The same preview is also available in Simplified Chinese from the same release.

If you run it with a new table, I would like to know what broke — the checklist, the cards, or the encounter balance. That is the feedback that decides whether the full adventure gets made.