Design me a 4-hour D&D one-shot for {player_count} players at level {level}. I'm running it next weekend and I have one afternoon to prep.
PLAYER COUNT: {3-6}
LEVEL: {1-10}
SYSTEM: {5e / OneD&D / other}
TONE: {high_fantasy / horror_light / heist / mystery / silly}
SETTING: {generic / Eberron / homebrew_brief}
WHAT THE PLAYERS LIKE: {combat / RP / puzzles / loot / chaos}
PLAYER EXPERIENCE LEVEL: {first_time / mixed / experienced}
A SPECIFIC HOOK OR THEME I want included: {your_idea_or_'surprise_me'}
WHAT I DON'T WANT to run: {horror_real / time_travel / 5_combat_encounters / political_drama}
DELIVER:
1. **One-line pitch** (the elevator version).
2. **Setup** — how the party gets there + why they care. Under 100 words.
3. **Act 1 (45 min)** — introduction + first complication. Specific NPC names, locations, what the players see in 60 seconds of arriving.
4. **Act 2 (90 min)** — the meat. 1 combat OR 1 puzzle OR 1 social challenge + 1 reveal that changes the goal.
5. **Act 3 (45 min)** — climax. Has a 'choice that matters' moment.
6. **Resolution (15 min)** — what happens after, with branching by player choice.
7. **3 NPCs** — names, voice cues, what they want, one quirk each.
8. **2 enemies / threats** — stat block summary OR refer to MM page.
9. **3 'if the players do X' contingencies** — for the typical chaos.
10. **A piece of treasure** that's not just gold.
11. **A backup encounter** in case Act 2 ends 30 min early.0 copies·0 saves·1 views
250 words·1,443 chars
Sample output
4 players, level 3, 5e, heist-comedic, generic fantasy city, players love RP + chaos, mixed experience, theme: 'they're hired to steal something that doesn't exist yet'.
Pitch: A failed inventor hires the party to break into a competitor's workshop and steal the prototype of the world's first reliable mechanical clock — except the prototype hasn't been built yet, and they're being asked to steal the plans, the components, and the inventor, in that order.
Setup (90 words): The party is approached in the Crook & Quill tavern by Mira Aspenhall, a former clockmaker recently expelled from the Guild of Pendulums for 'innovating without permission'. She offers 500 gold and an introduction to the Thieves' Guild for one night's work: steal the contents of her rival Otho Kell's workshop — specifically the half-built prototype clock that, if Otho finishes it first, will get him knighted. She insists the clock 'shouldn't exist yet' and wants the team to make sure it never does. She doesn't fully explain why.
Act 1 — The job (45 min): The party meets Mira. She gives them a hand-drawn map of Kell's workshop on Cogswain Lane, which is in the watchmakers' quarter. She explains there are three things to grab: (1) the prototype clock, half-built, in the workshop attic; (2) the design blueprints, in a locked cabinet on the second floor; (3) ideally, Otho Kell himself — alive — because Mira wants him to know she beat him. The party can decline #3.
First complication (15 min in): a city watch officer named Sergeant Cobble approaches the table mid-conversation. She's not investigating them. She's there to drink. But she sits at the next table. Players must finish the conversation with Mira without being overheard. Skill challenge (DC 13 stealth/insight, succeed 3 of 5).
Act 2 — The break-in (90 min):
the workshop is a 3-story townhouse with a workshop on ground, living quarters on second, attic on third. Otho lives alone with one assistant, Bess Whittle. Both should be asleep at 1am when the party arrives.
Parameters
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FAQ
Print the room layout on one piece of paper, the NPCs on a second, the contingencies on a third. You'll run a way better session reading 3 short pages than scrolling a Google doc on your laptop. The prompt targets Claude Sonnet and lives in the Writing & Content category on mycopyprompt.
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Encounter 1 (combat-lite, 25 min): the workshop has a clockwork guard dog (re-skin of a Tiny Animated Object, +3 to hit, 14 HP, can summon 3 mechanical mice that swarm). It activates if the front door is forced. Side door has a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) DC 15 lock.
Encounter 2 (puzzle, 25 min): the blueprints are in a locked cabinet with a 4-digit gear combination. Clue: a poem on the wall references 'the only date the Pendulum Guild celebrates' — the players can roll History (DC 12) to learn the founding year, then convert it to a 4-digit combination. (Year 1247 → 1-2-4-7.)
Encounter 3 (social, 25 min): Bess Whittle, the assistant, wakes up. She's not a fighter; she's nineteen, terrified, and holding a candle. The party can knock her out, lock her in a closet, or — the path I'd nudge — actually talk to her. Bess reveals: Otho didn't invent the clock. SHE did. Otho is taking credit. She's been planning to leave him for months. She wants the prototype to go with HER, not to be destroyed by Mira.
Reveal: this is when the party realizes they're caught between two scorned innovators, neither of whom is the hero of their own story.
Act 3 — The choice (45 min):
Climax: Otho wakes up. Confrontation in the attic next to the prototype clock, which is impossibly delicate (DC 14 to handle without breaking it).
Player choice that matters: The party must decide who walks out with the prototype.
No option is wholly right. Let the table argue.
Resolution (15 min):
NPCs:
Mira Aspenhall — voice: clipped, dry, smiles only when satisfied. Wants Otho humiliated. Quirk: keeps an elaborate pocket-mechanism in her hand that she fidgets with constantly.
Otho Kell — voice: pompous, expansive, slow. Wants to be famous. Quirk: refers to himself in third person when nervous ('Otho doesn't think this is a good idea').
Bess Whittle — voice: quiet, fast when scared, surprisingly steady when she stops being scared. Wants to be left alone with her work. Quirk: instinctively looks at clocks every 30 seconds.
Enemies:
Contingencies:
Treasure beyond gold: The 'unfinished prototype clock' itself — useless mechanically, but if a future game has a 'travel back in time / influence the future' hook, this is a meaningful artifact. Also: Bess's small set of clockmaker's tools, which give +1 to mechanical Intelligence checks involving small devices.
Backup encounter (if Act 2 ends early): A group of three Pendulum Guild enforcers (Bandit stat block, MM 343) bursts in mid-heist looking for Bess — the Guild suspects she's about to leave with the prototype. The party has to decide whether to defend Bess or let her get taken.