Upcycling content - campaign vs one-shot sessions

I gave myself a challenge recently of setting one-shots for other groups in my main campaign world because in theory there are lots of locations that have been visited once where I did a bunch of set up work already and they could just be lifted and replaced, right? Well, not quite so simple but hardly impossible.

The key factors I found are:
- Motivation changes
- Incidental locations
- NPC backgrounds
- Timing

The specific situation I used was a buried but intact temple of Bane.

Motivating people to get stuck into a location for a one-shot vs a long campaign is a different thing. Multiple locations I have from the main campaign had strong motivators for the party to go there and get involved - along with limited objectives - typically rescues or specific retreival missions, very rarely exploration for the sake of it.

This also means that locations used in the campaign had very little attention paid to treasure and 'side' locations because the party was focussed on the 'central' elements - nobble the cultist in the main chamber of the cathedral, find the most direct path through a location to retrieve something, etc.

The other element that requires tightening or simplifying is the factions involved - with campaigns you have leeway to feed information in and have it make sense only later but for one-shots it needs to be focussed or people will get lost.

Finally, on the same note of simplification, timing needs to get checked and potentially tightened too - where a campaign can happily over-run and come back the next session, for one-shots, particularly open table one-shots where you may not have the same players again, this needs to get done first time.

Solving these
- Motivators just requires a clear, self-standing hook that makes sense in a one-shot basis, this is easy but needs some thought as it does not exist to start
- Incidental locations requires a touch more focus, thinking through them and putting in details
- Strip things down to just the 'now' layer that they are dealing with for their present interaction with the situation.
- Work through how the situation is likely to be interacted with, pay attention to your on-ramp to make sure it does not take up too much time. Feel free to wing it if you have lots of experience doing that but if not think through how folk get involved, what combats if any folk could get involved in.

The test case of this was a Temple of Bane originally prepared for a level 9 3.5e party in my home campaign getting retooled as a T1 one-shot for 5e. At the one shot the party ended up being a trio of cleric (Kendra), bard (Giovanni) and sorcerer (the Boy, presenting as rogue).

Answering a call for adventurers, our party are briefed by Cpt. Shandry of the Thenya City Watch that their old sergeant Wilfred Wake went missing treasuring hunting in the undercity, seeking the wealth of the lost Temple of Bane. Presumed dead until some captured cultists revealed they had seen someone matching his description when they were hiding out at the Temple, Shandry feels honour-bound to send someone to go look. Since the Boy knows the undercity somewhat, they begged some provisions and set out the next day while most of the city was attending the old Dukes funeral.

Following Shandrys directions they made their way to the recently found Temple, entering through a secret passage. Searching around they find Liza, a graveyard nymph, sorting bones and Giovanni strikes up a rapport. Following her directions they make their way to the Low Altar, struggling past the lode-stone doorway into the dreadful presence of the Low Altar. Giovanni poked around, rousing some skeletons that the party put paid to before braving the psychic claws of the stairwells to the High Throne.

Emerging into the High Throne they find a slain deathkiss beholder and extensive signs of battle damage and blood loss. Giovanni pokes the rippling pool of darkness in the centre of the space and feels weird afterwards. They poke it again and their eyes become opened, seeing in the darkness as if in bright day. As the Boy snoops around they find a rich doorway and after matching the tapped patterns from within, Wake is found.

Sleep deprived and stumbling on his feet from keeping control over the temple masters rod he found, the party escorts Wake back out the way they came, finding the Low Altar teeming with a dozen skeletons. Fighting their way out, despite the lode-stone doorway, they assist Wake back to the Square Leader to meet Shandry.

Solving these
- Motivator - Go find my mate, I'll pay you
- Incidental locations - Added traps and monsters suitable for tier 1 on the basis that the place had been partially cleared already
- Strip things down to just the 'now' layer - only the old Banite traps and defences remain, the cult that had occupied the place in the interim is gone
- Timing - the journey to/from through the undercity was the 'fudge factor' to allow time management. In the end, briefing and prep took a while so the journey became uneventful to get straight to the temple. I had a hard stop for this one which I am pleased I managed to stick with ~ 10 mins to spare.