I run one-shot games for new players, and every time I watch a first-time DM
stall on the same three things: what to agree before play, what to roll in a
fight, and what to do when a player drops to 0 HP. So I made a free 5-page
preview pack for first-time DMs, using only SRD 5.2.1 open content:
- Page 1: a Session Zero checklist (14 items: logistics, characters, play style and boundaries), plus a 10-minutes-before-play routine.
- Pages 2-3: first-fight quick cards — D20 checks, typical DCs, how an attack roll works, 12 common conditions in one line each, and death saving throws.
- Pages 4-5: an original one-shot opening, "The Broken Bridge over Firefly Creek", with the first encounter fully statted (two goblin minions and a wolf), scaling for 3-6 players, and loot.
What I checked, and what I did not
Every rule paraphrase and monster number was checked against the official
SRD 5.2.1 PDF. One thing I learned while doing it: the 5.2.1 Wolf's Bite has
no saving throw — a Medium or smaller target simply has the Prone condition.
(The DC 11 Strength save was a 5.1 rule.) The CC-BY-4.0 attribution from
SRD 5.2.1 p. 1 is printed on every page of the PDF, and the adventure, place
names, and characters are all original — no official setting material, no
official art.
What this preview is not: it is not the complete pack. It ends right after
the first encounter, with a map pointing to a mill cellar that is not in the
preview. There is no price and no purchase link in the PDF. I am testing
whether anyone downloads the free preview first — if it gets 20 downloads in
7 days, I will build the full adventure; if not, I won't.
Download
Free preview (English, 5 pages, A4, printable):
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. The build script is in the repo if you want to see how the PDF is
made (Python + reportlab).
If you run it with a new table, I would genuinely like to know what broke —
the Session Zero list, the quick cards, or the encounter balance. That is the
feedback that decides whether the full pack gets made.
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