My small town local library wants to host some D&D game days.  This would be advertised to the public as "D&D for Beginners" or "Come Learn to Play D&D".  Unfortunately, the library has limited staffing and hours, so it would need to follow this format:

- The library schedule would permit only one D&D game day a month, for 4 or 5 months. It might expand beyond that.  But it might not.
- That once a month game day would most likely be held on a Saturday afternoon for 3-4 hours
- Most likely D&D 5e would be the rules set, but to keep things simple we may just use the D&D 5e free Basic rules.  No feats, no multiclassing.

I would be the DM, but I'm not sure exactly what kind of adventure(s) to run.  Should I just run a few one-shots?  Is there a published adventure that would nicely fit into the format above?

I would most likely use a bunch of pre-gens, as character creation can eat up too much of our limited time.

If you were running D&D 5e one day a month for 5 months, at a library for strangers (who may or may not return each session), what kind of adventures would you run?  And if you have specific published adventures in mind for this sort of thing, please let me know.

I think Crawford is writing a Lemiwinks campaign for 5.5E.

That amount of time with those constraints, I'd run one medium-short adventure with an episodic structure. Or if you prefer, a few mini-adventures with a loose connection.

For my current campaign, I write some 2 page locations with a theme, very minimal descriptions, and no more than 2-3 possible encounters.  I use them for glue or transition short adventures, or sometimes to make the world seem more real by having side-quest type things loosely tied into the major happenings.  With shorter time, I'd use nothing but those.

With that structure, you can easily have slightly more material than you need, without it hurting anything. Let the party find more than one thing to tangle with immediately, and use plenty of cross-location clues to rapidly bring all the locations to the players attention.  That part won't matter if you get completely different groups from session to session. If you do get returning regulars, though, it will give them a taste of what something more involved might be.

Finally, you need to allow for wildly varying party sizes and abilities.  For that reason, I'd probably start everyone at 2nd or 3rd level, so as to minimize or eliminate entirely the chances of leveling during arc.  Plus, you can always do some of those shorter adventure chunks as suitable for smaller or larger groups, and then telegraph that fact in how you present them in the game.

I'm running something much more open-ended and continuous than what you described right now, but it is 3 hour sessions that happen every 2 to 3 weeks, with occasional skips.  I get anywhere from 3 to 12 players. 

This sounds like exactly what Keep on the Borderlands is for.

Doesn't matter which version, just use the relevant 5E stat blocks.

As a suggestion, and this will require extra work but may increase the library staff's interest, make the adventures tie in to fantasy literature. Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain for the adolescents, Howard's Conan stories for adults, Larry Niven's Warlock Wheel universe, and of course Tolkien's Middle Earth. I'd look through the library's fantasy fiction section first so that you can have immediate tie-ins.

I have run rpgs in public for years and this is the best advice I can give:
-start with a one-shot, get a feel of the crowd.
-be patient, some people don't get it and need extra help.
-be prepared, some people fit the stereotype of unwashed contrarian that has no grasp of social cues. (I really, really hope that you can avoid this, it is a demoralizer).
-once you get a couple of small encounters in and get a feel of the crowd then you can expand from there.
-pre-gens are a great idea and people will probably be more accepting of this than you think. I leave name, gender, those type of details blank and put the sheets face down on the table, what you grab is what you get.

Best of luck!

Even more than a home game, you want to prep in a way as to reduce page turning to a little as possible.  Here's a few things that I learned and I hope help you out.

- Work out rules with the library so that if you need to kick someone out they will back you up.

- Use a dice tray and require everyone use it.

- Consider using common dice for all players.  If you do, try to make up three identical sets where each die size is a different color.  That way when a player is having a hard time picking the right die you can just say "the blue one."  Also, you can tell the players not to touch dice after the roll. 

- Do up a cheat sheet that has all the rules for combat including turn sequence, conditions, movement, and modifiers. 

- I recommend the extensive use of 3x5 cards.  Loot and items get their own cards with descriptions.  Each planned and possible random encounter should be on a card with bare bones stats for each monster. Do up a number of NPCs for shop keeps, hirelings, etc. so that you can draw one and keep moving.  Get a cheap 3x5 card box and dividers to keep the categories separated.  (I have run multiple sessions with nothing more than my 3x5 box and the cheat sheet.)

 

My experience with small town libraries is that during week days they are used by non-traditional school children (home school etc.), and during the night by AA meetings and similar.

I like the idea of starting the group out with the freebie Basic 5E rules. Once you open up the Player's Handbook you start to have a very different experience. Let them play with core classes and races for a while, then maybe give them the extra PH options later if they seem to want more choices.

I have had a lot of success running DCC RPG modules with 5E. (Make sure they are #66 and above -- the ones for DCC and not the older d20 or 4E ones.) The neat thing is that each one can be run in 1-2 sessions, and they feature unusual monsters and such. A really creative product line.

I'll first echo some of the advice already given about... use the free rules on D&D Beyond only (or the 5.5 SRD if its available by the time you play), make sure the adventure has a defined start and finish in that four hours but with the possibility of a future month's adventure teased like an MCU post credit scene to bring players back potentially if you're not running the same scenario, and bring some CHEAP basic minis and tiles to help completely new players visually acclimate to the idea of an RPG instead of jumping headlong into theater of the mind. 

The final thing is to be on the lookout for Karens whether of the original Satanic Panic religious variety or the more modern (audience) purple haired wokescolds who want to force their fetishes into a family friendly game.  Both will be looking to shutdown the sessions potentially if they don't 100% align with their ideologies.

Quote from: RNGm on March 17, 2025, 09:55:11 AMThe final thing is to be on the lookout for Karens whether of the original Satanic Panic religious variety or the more modern (audience) purple haired wokescolds who want to force their fetishes into a family friendly game.  Both will be looking to shutdown the sessions potentially if they don't 100% align with their ideologies.

In running games in public in New Jersey and Idaho since 2014 I have never encountered either of these issues myself, the only negative interactions have been with the stereotypes of our hobby, which do exist. YMMV, and I hope it does, I just don't see either issue cropping up in a minor public setting because there is just not enough attention to be gained from a small group. I have run RPGs at a table right next to religious gatherings and there has never been a problem.