Sometimes a player can’t make it to the session, and sometimes all the players need to be there for the next session to make any sense — it’s the age-old curse of D&D tables for time untold.
Well, instead of postponing the session again, why not run a one shot for the players who can make it? Or, better yet, why not let them all fight to the death in a battle royale of epic proportions…
A D&D battle royale is a great way to have some fun when you can’t progress the actual campaign for one reason or another, and when you don’t reaaaaally want to put together any sort of dream sequence one-shot adventure.
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Because, really, when your players are fighting each other, all a DM has to do is manage the controls on the battle map and play referee as the party hacks itself to pieces.
But it’s not nearly as simple as just placing the party on an open field and leaving them to their own devices — not if you want people to stay awake through the session, that is.
So here are a few things that DMs should consider when crafting a Battle Royale session for their players:
Include items
Scattering items around the map both adds a potential edge for characters who might not have otherwise had a chance going toe to toe with the party’s frontliners, as well as gives a reason for otherwise-wary ranged attackers to put themselves at risk.
Create a dynamic map
Include places to hide, various degrees of cover, and some closed doors that may just be hiding even more of those interesting items. You don’t want everyone hunkering down and shooting each other out of their hidey-holes, but giving the players at least something to work with will definitely make movement a lot more interesting.
A center area that is constantly offering boons or dangers also adds a bit of spice to the situation, as well as gives DMs a little agency to work with if they feel like the playing field may need a tad adjusting.
Give yourself a way to damage everyone
There’s no denying that combat can take a long time in D&D. Things can often slow down, and what a DM may have thought to be a 2 to 3 hour Battle Royale is dragging into the 4 or 5 hour territory. Usually, when combat starts to get overlong in a D&D session, the DM can just fudge some HP and give the party that well-deserved final blow. Or they can have the monster run, or attack recklessly, or any number of things.
But when it’s just the party fighting the party, it’s going to keep on going until there’s only one left. Having the DM incorporate some way that allows them to damage everyone (somewhat equally, ideally) is a great way to ensure that the session doesn’t drag on for so long that the players begin to lose interest.
And a way to bring them closer together
I don’t mean emotionally. I mean have the edges of the battlemap fall away, or push in, or — in Call of Duty Warzone’s case — have an ever-shrinking circle of safety inside a huge cloud of deadly gas. Sure, the players can still go into the Out of Bounds area… but they won’t be there for long.
This, much like the previous point, forces the players to change up their tactics and actually move out from whatever bunker they’ve holed up in.
Give them temp HP up top
While this might seem a little counterintuitive to the reasoning for the above two points, 5 or 10 temp HP to start with isn’t going to delay the inevitable for too long, but may just give the players a sense of safety — which could encouraged them to go out into the open after that item and really kick things off in a gloriously bloody way.
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