I would pull out a pre-gen adventure I’m familiar with, spend a little time talking about character creation (for all its flaws I actually think how the starter kit does it with a little set of pre-gen characters they can pick from is a really good way), and just sort of wing it keeping it a little bit light on rules and big emphasis on having a strong start + giving them freedom to fuck around / not expect them to stick purely to the DND mold of behavior. I’ve had really good results with this though, as long as it’s an exciting world for them I could see it going really well.
In Shadowrun the intro scenario was a shoot out at a convenience store. A simple one encounter with minimal story to introduce the mechanics. They called it a food fight, and it is how I introduce new plays to pretty much any system now. DnD: a tavern brawl breaks out…
Premades are great for instant play, but if they want to get more invested, the food fight is also a great way for them to get to know their class mechanics too.
I’ve been doing this for a while, so I’ve got old modules saved in my head. I also know generally what is required to run a successful one. What I would personally do is say “Yeah, sure. But I’ll need a bit to get ready. Give me 30 minutes.” I would then use a tool like 5etools to whip up a bunch of pre-generated characters and hand them out. If I had my printer handy, I’d print them. Then I’d run them through something like the Delian Tomb that Matthew Colville made (youtu.be/zTD2RZz6mlo?list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs…), a simple orc or bandit raid on a town, or whatever else I thought was cool in the moment.
I hope that helps. I’ve been DMing for over ten years now and playing for almost twenty, so Idk how well my technique would work for you.
I wing it. You know that sensation of DM scrambling you feel when your party goes off the rails and is somewhere doing something you never expected?
I just DM a short session in that way.
I tell them what they are, race/class wise, then ask them to think about what kind of person this is, and to act like that person. I don’t use sheets, just scrap paper and some dice, and the plot that I take them through is probably going to very closely resemble an episode of a show or the intro to a movie I’ve watched recently. I follow the actual rules insofar as they are convenient, but what I’m really doing is just trying to show them what role playing feels like.
Curses like eternal hunger and eternal thirst would ruin people’s lives, same for everything tasting like one thing (disgusting or otherwise). Undead food would be quite gruesome if it were to wake up after being eaten. Even right before, or during.
Roll over and check to see what time it is on my phone. If it’s within 20 minutes of when I get up, I’ll probably go ahead and shower and make breakfast. If it’s more than an hour before my alarm I’d definitely try to go back to sleep.
You’ve got four friends over. They don’t play D&D, or any TTRPGs. They spot your cabinet full of awesome D&D minis, and your cool poly dice, and say ‘hey could we play now?’ What do you do?
As someone who played Runescape and designed a Necromancer Cook specifically because of that, I am prepared!
The Culinaromancer’s tools of trade are the tools of the magic, a component pouch of ingredients that are specially crafted over years of hard work and diligence to the craft of magic.
Animate Dead using the skeleton of a freshly finished meal, imbuing into it the seasoned anger at how the nobles dared to salt it! Send that chicken after them for revenge! (While I am aware that animate dead specifically says humanoid, I had asked and my DM had permitted it, and also you are writing a story like you said so it works). Your master chef uses one of those old styled seasoning wands, a little cannister on a handle that you dust the special bone dust and seasoning that your magical craft is fueled by, forming the entity.
If you want to purely have it be D&D related, the Abyssal Chicken familiar would be perfect as the familiar of choice, tasting like a chicken but having the truly delectable presence of the Hellish realms behind it’s beak. Truly a master chef’s ultimate familiar signifying the willingness to dive to the harshest worlds for the best ingredients.
For some fun flavoring of spells, Toll the Dead as a cantrip, but it is the dinner bell being heard that echoes into the soul, reminding them that they are the meal tonight. The trusty cleaver brought out and cooked with the burning green fire to cook the meat as it carves it from the bone, a beautiful flavor! False Life is powered by alcohol, the seasoning that you spritz over the meal that empowers you with the strength to go further on. A dried pepper is brought out and added to the delectable meal as you breathe Dragon’s Breath, applying a dragon’s touch to the meal. Want to ask the dead how they want to be cooked? Sprinkle some of your graveyard dirt and basil blend before igniting it, letting the lovely aroma that only the dead can bring flavor the corpse as they can speak what they want to be cooked as for your people. Perhaps you want to make a creature be dead before preparing the feast, so that in the middle it returns to life before dying once more, letting the fear of sudden death add that delicious final seasoning, a truly delectable final meal! And of course, if worst comes to worst, feel free to grab your trusty chicken’s heart you keep on hand for adding that bit of flavor of dinosaur blood, and bring a nightmarish fear of being cooked poorly to these wretched souls who dare get in the way of your meal.
Maybe a cannelloni cannon? Cause/cure [light/moderate/greater] gastrointestinal distress? Maybe flavor a spell that’s just called Cheese? Lots of fire magic I imagine.
You could call fireball “lighter fluid mishap” or something I dunno.
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