10 D&D Session Ideas You Can Slot Into Your Campaign

You know, there are some concepts you see done over and over again? There's probably a good reason for that. Sometimes you just need a simple concept for a session to run for your party. Well, let's reach into our back pockets for some stock sessions on the off chance of that happening.

And just for the record, something being a common thing doesn't make it bad. These things get used over and over again for a good reason.

TWs: The sheer suggestion that your gaming session can be a bit derivative and still be good. Oh, churl.

10 - The Festival Session

Any kind of festival. Your party is in the city and there's a big festival of some sort going on. Celebrations! Maybe some kind of a contest. Often overlaps with the Tournament Session that will come up later on in this entry.

Typically the stakes of a session like this are going to be social, or monetary. I ran a session recently with my Astrallis group (oh, that's a can of worms, stay tuned for more about Astrallis later) where they competed in a game show to gather a bunch of money so that they could buy parts for a robot rumble type competition they were invited to later.

The festival is going to be a good low stakes fun time usually, and a good excuse for you the DM to drop a lot of worldbuilding. Your players are likely to be super patient about this in this instance because festivals are steeped in lore more often than not.

9 - The Beach Session

The beach session in an anime serves as a break after the characters have just been through something incredibly harrowing. When things have been tense for a while, a beach episode is a great thing to swing back around to.

Again, this is going to be a low stakes session. I wouldn't advise running these two back to back, but some fun in the sun is always a good time. There are also a ton of nautical monsters you can throw at your PCs while they're on the beach!

8 - The Murder Mystery Session

Someone has died and the PCs have to figure out whodoneit! It doesn't actually have to be a murder, you can always run 'who stole the crown jewels' or something like that. The point is there has been a crime and the session is figuring out who did the bad thing.

Now, you might have a party that gets it too fast. In which case you can make it a big extended chase to catch the culprit. But if it fires off right, this is one of my favorite session types.

7 - The Cooking Contest Session

Doesn't have to be cooking, but anything the PCs can get into as a team that you can run as an extended skill challenge. Assume it is cooking: you get to introduce the contest, what they win if they win, who they're playing against, and then your PCs get to make decisions.

They tell you what they're making and why, and then you ask each one to tell you which of their skills they're using to help win the contest. Then you can dramatize the judging, have multiple rounds if you need to stretch for time, and a good time will be had by most.

6 - The Romeo and Juliet Session

I'm a big sucker for this one. Two NPCs are starcrossed and can't be together and the PCs have to help them find a way to run away together or make their folks okay with it or something like that. Two nobles whose union could stop a war is a good one. Maybe each is a member of a species that's at war with the other.

It could start off looking like one kidnapped the other and the party shows up and finds out they just ran away together and there's about to be a huge fight...I love love stories, okay?

5 - The Fancy Ball Session

I love seeing adventurers in finery. Seeing how characters comport themselves at a fancy party is fucking amazing to me, especially barbarian types. They get invited to a gala of some sort, maybe a play, maybe the queen's birthday. But things get opulent, they get to rub elbows, collect quests, and...I'm going to be honest, sometimes I combine this one with the murder mystery.

Actually that's what Steven did for our first episode of Quill and Sword and he pulled it off magnificently.

4 - The Phobias Session

Listen. Players love being able to show shit about their characters. Throw a bad guy at them that mindwarps everyone into a worst fear scenario for each of their characters and your players will love you. It gives them agency over what happens in the session and lets them showcase something about their backgrounds. A+, let's go.

3 - The Flashback Session

I just made a bunch of points about phobias up there, and all of those apply to flashbacks too. I will add this; if you go trekking through other people's memories and the rest of the party gets to see it, it leads to a lot of really excellent RP moments especially if you have a very roleplay heavy party.

And there's not a lot of prepwork on your part.

Oh, but do warn your party first. Give them time to prepare for it.

2 - The Tournament Session

The party either enters a tournament as a group or individually. Sometimes they end up fighting each other. You get to play with brackets and some of the fighters going up against the PCs can just be generally nasty about it.

Yeah, this is usually super fun and if you do go the individual route there's plenty of spotlight for everyone to go around!

1 - The Wedding Session

There's not always a character in a romance, so you can't whip this one out just whenever. But if you have two PCs romancing each other, or one romancing an NPC, it can be really fun to play the wedding.

Of course, something has to attack it because wedding services are boring. But the party afterward is a good time, you get to have your PCs describe cakes and formalwear, it's the best part of the fancy ball session and the Romeo and Juliet session.

So yeah, if you need something to prepare in a hurry, it's totally fine to reach for one of these!

Fortune Favors,

Robin