The Thieves World series of anthologies were brilliant.
They were short stories set in a shared world. They were connected, but not directly. The short stories all (largely) stood alone, but all together they filled out a rich world. And if you were busy or had a limited amount of time, you didn’t have to commit to the while book; you could get a complete experience from reading one of the short stories and come back for more when you could.
That’s the principle that I’ve been using when creating one-shots for The Black Talon Society. Each one-shot can stand alone, but they also can be played as a sort of campaign. Or a mix thereof.
So starting this week, I’m running them Thursdays are running a week behind the Monday session, so if you want to be a completeist, there’s multiple chances. And because of the design, if you miss one, or want to replay a session with a different character, things will be different.
I’ve really enjoyed creating and running these adventures. With each scenario, I’ve not been satisfied with just "here’s a dungeon with Bad Things, go kill it." At the same time, I’ve been actively stretching my abilities in some way with each one. Whether running a large combat scenario, creating maps from scratch, or figuring out ways to keep things going without putting them .
You can find the schedule on my Start Playing GM page or at theblacktalons.com ; this week includes my "From Peasant To Paladin" introduction to playing D&D online if you’ve been curious but never taken the plunge yet.
I look forward to playing with you in the weeks ahead!