D&D as a party, birthday or team event

Running D&D as an event (a birthday, a group of friends who keep saying they should try it, a work team looking for something that's not another trivia night) is a different job from running a campaign, and it's worth being clear about what it involves.

What it looks like

One session, three to four hours, characters made in advance so nobody spends the first hour reading. A story written to finish inside the session with a real ending. Everybody plays and nobody watches. Online in Discord and Foundry VTT, which for a group spread across cities is usually the only way it happens at all.

What makes these work

• Assume nobody has played. The session is built for people who have never rolled a die, and the rules arrive one at a time, when they're needed.
• Six is the ceiling. Past that, half the group is spectating. A large group is better split across two sessions than crammed into one.
• Somebody has to own the invite. Groups fail to book because everyone assumed someone else was picking the date. Pick the date first, then ask who's in.
• Say what the tone is up front. Comedy heist and grim horror are both good evenings, but a group expecting one and getting the other isn't.

Where these go wrong

Two ways, mostly. A group of eleven, where the quiet six never speak. And a work event where attendance isn't really optional, people who didn't choose to be there make it harder for the people who did, and no Dungeon Master can fix that from inside the game.

What it costs

We publish our numbers rather than quoting privately. A private one-off table is a flat $300 online for up to six players, and a work or team event is $500, which covers a planning call before the date and a written recap afterward. Both are on the pricing page next to the campaign seats, and both sit under what the event studios charge for the same evening. If a group wants something outside that shape, ask and you'll get a straight number before anybody commits.

If it goes well

The common outcome is that two or three people from a party session want to keep playing. That's worth knowing in advance, because it's easier to keep a group together the week after a good session than a month later. Openings in running games are listed on the campaigns page, and how long a campaign really lasts covers what continuing would commit anyone to.