One shot large party game

[atomicwater]

Hello im throwing a d&d 3.5 party for my b-day and i do one every year because from what i find everyone enjoys it.
And this year im having trouble of making a one shot idea that will get my players interested at least. Im hoping somebody can give me some one shot ideas or tips any help will be greatly appreciated.
keep in mind im going to have 8+ people and the last time it was 11.
im thinking to start them at lv 5 -10 premades -with specific goals and allies, personality etc ..
things im looking to incorporate in the game is

• possibly a classic battle between good and evil
• at least a chance of pvp for rp reasons and fun
• challenging riddles ,traps ,things to make you think
• a fun challenge with twists and turns that has many opportunities for good rp and possibly backstabbing
• at least one player who plays a evildoer and one good person at least ,or teams of evil and good but no one knows who to trust etc..

if you cant get all of them its fine , all i need are some ideas and tips and again any help is greatly appreciated

 

[haakon1]

20 years ago in college, we thought about running a LARGE one-shot game of RECON. It's the RPG about the Vietnam War. The idea was to have multiple parties in different rooms of a dorm, communicating with each other by walkie-talkie, representing different groups in a large patrol. Each room would have it's own GM and a devil's advocate running the other side, and there'd a central room with an overall GM and overall people commanding the enemy and allied sides, coordinating the overall action with the room GM's.

We never actually did it, but it was an epic idea.

 

[Rootuser]

I had a group that was regularly 8-12+ players per session for about a year and a half and then after that we did a bunch of one-shots for another year after that.

A few thoughts for you:

1. If some of the players, not even all of them, are coming back for another year, reunite them with their old characters, IF those characters seemed to work for those folk. This will add a continuity for them of a character that worked for them. They will immediately be interested to see what happened to their character over the last year, this then leads you in to being able to tell a story that can then introduce other players.

2. A murder mystery is always a winner particularly if there is a reward (players will step on each other to get the reward) and if one of the players is the murderer, that can keep it interesting as well.

3. And old school dungeon crawl can be fine assuming you can get that many people to cooperate which can be difficult.

4. An adventure like The Siege of Kratys Freehold (Dungeon #33 I think) would be interesting because it is outdoors. You can have some of the players be the Kratys family, and some other players simply trapped there, waiting to bolt and leave the scene. You can also have another set of players play the attacking Orcs. This has worked for me in the passed.


Just some ideas.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Thaddeus Greybold, the retired, insanely wealthy master thief, is again running his prized Island of Horrors event.

Adventurers from around the world are gathering to his remote island to participate in the free for all, PvP event for one of Thaddeus' prizes! Who will the victor be this year?

Create something in the theme of "Hunger Games", a massive environment with dangers, traps and rewards. Players don't need to kill one another, so much as do better than the rest. Wizards using Scry and Illusion spells observe competitors remotely and project the event in front of spectators who can support the competitors that win the crowd's favor. Thaddeus, good natured in his old age, has even promised Raise Dead for any competitors who happen to fall while competing, allowing them to respawn and continue (although at a power disadvantage).

 

[gamerprinter]

While not for 3x specifically, rather designed for Pathfinder, Rite Publishing offers some one-shot adventures for the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG), including a free one-shot.

Frozen Wind (for 5 each 5th level players) - this is the FREE one-shot, there are 8 included pre-gens, I'd probably add more frozen zombies and maybe increase the yuki-onna CR higher to be a challenge to 8 players. Also note, among the pre-gens, there's only 1 paladin, and no other healers, which you'll want to maintain, as this is more a survivor horror adventure and if there's too many healers, it will lose some of the challenge effect.

Up from Darkness (for 5 each 7th level players) - a very deadly dungeon where the characters begin with amnesia on the bottom level, slowly gaining back there memories with each successful encounter, with a big twist for the end. This adventure might work as is for a large party of 5th level adventurers without having to adjust CRs nor increasing the number of opponents for the party.

Haiku of Horror: Autumn Bath House - a mini adventure or extended major encounter (smaller than a one-shot) in an authentic 5 story bath house that serves as tavern, inn, gambling house, bath house (the typical fantasy tavern for a Japan analog) and features a unique ghost, haunts and a powerful curse. The ghost comes in CR 6, 10, 14, 18, and 22, so is ready as an opponent for many varying levels of adventure parties.

Though I have a couple more one-shots, they are designed for lower than 5th level party, so wouldn't be appropriate for your needs.