Not every group can meet at regular intervals. Maybe some players want to try a different system, or play a different character type for a few hours, or get out of their genre comfort zone. Whatever the reason, one-shots are the answer! By downloading a complete adventure, you (or your GM) have an entire, playtested adventure with pre-generated characters (or guidelines for building your own) in a ruleset supported here at Nerdhaus Games.
DISCLAIMER: None of the rules presented here are official supplements for the games in question. Neither the authors nor Nerdhaus Games claim any rights to these systems, and will not distribute or tolerate attempts to distribute the base game rules outside of official channels. Please support game designers, publishers, and retailers.
Nerdhaus One-Shots
The Pontchartrain Inquisition (Fate)
When a group of college friends go missing during Spring Break on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain, the police only have one suspect: the lone survivor of that fateful road trip. As their tale unfolds, ever stranger details are revealed when even the gamemaster doesn’t know who the survivor is!
A modern day survival horror flashback inspired by Ludo’s “Lake Pontchartrain” for 3-4 players.
DOWNLOADS: The Pontchartrain Inquisition (Fate) | Author’s Notes available @ Nerdhaus Games itch.io Store
Running on Empty: Tales from the Road (Ten Candles)
This collection of modules will prompt grim tales of desperate survival out in the Dark. Only mad men and children would accept every story as the gospel truth, but it is true that strange things happen out on the road. Draw that line for yourself after you’ve spent some time outside Citadel walls.
Post-apocalypse ghost stories in the Running on Empty setting for 3-5 players.
DOWNLOADS: Running on Empty – Tales from the Road
Forget It, Jake. It’s ToonTown (Fate Accelerated)
A human private eye, formerly assigned to their sister department in ToonTown, find himself embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the City of Loon Angels at the height of a crackdown on a changing entertainment landscape against muckraking journalists, opportunistic studios, and the grasping glove of the toon underworld as he takes a case that threatens the peace between humanity and toons.
A toon noir inspired by Who Framed Roger Rabbit for 3-5 players.
DOWNLOADS: Coming Soon
Downloads
Adventures aren’t the only material available around here! I am releasing a series of modules that are designed to plug into any campaign to broaden and deepen your connection to characters and story and give you a jumping off point for your own work. These inspiration modules will be available right here to provide a framework to take your campaign to the next level.
Visions by Heart & Spade
Instead of using standard dice and tables as with most games, this system generates life events and visions via a deck of playing cards. These cards are meant to be used as aides to the storytelling experience and the visions they foretell can be adhered to or disregarded at player discretion.
It is intended that this card draw inspire the player to explore their character’s life outside of “adventures” with how they react to new happenings revealing something about them as a person. This system works best in settings where supernatural or psychic phenomenon are already established.
DOWNLOAD: Visions by Heart & Spade
Razors of the Demon Barber
Only found as a pair of exquisitely made razors in an inlaid storage case, their scales chased in silver and never showing signs of age despite long periods of storage or lack of use. Tradition maintains that the razors are named Vengeance and Salvation, but only their bearer can tell them apart. These razors have a dark past and only share their greatest powers with a worthy successor to the Demon Barber whose reign of terror ended with his mysterious disappearance.
These are a pair of magical weapons suitable for assassins, thieves, and other unsavory cutthroats in a D&D 5E campaign. Written as a tribute to the musical Sweeney Todd, these are my take on threaded items in Earthdawn: magical items that grow along with your character and invite you to follow in the footsteps of the icons who gave them their power.
DOWNLOAD: Razors of the Demon Barber
The Matt Harrop Collection
Dread modules written by Matt Harrop and Angela Robertson.
MHAR0 – The Curious Murder of Artemis Hume
Twenty years ago, Artemis Finchley Hume, a rich woman, fell from the roof of the Hume estate located on Crow Island off of the coast of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Many suspected murder but no evidence of foul play was ever found. Afterwards, her husband Oliver Hume shunned his wife’s family and continued to enjoy the luxuries of the idle rich. Now he too has passed on. The surviving family members have all gathered for his funeral and reading of the will. Will the questions of Artemis’s death be laid to rest? What other secrets will be revealed? Find out in… The Curious Murder of Artemis Hume.
A 1920s murder mystery for up to 6 players.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR0 – The Curious Murder of Artemis Hume | MHAR0 – The Curious Murder of Artemis Hume – Questionnaire
MHAR1 – The Aftermath…
It was supposed to be a routine flight out of Bernadette. Just a load of settlers bound for the waterworld Newhall. But then the Reavers struck and the Truthful James became an abattoir. The gorram safe rooms were easily breached and the settlers and their livestock were slaughtered. But a very few survived and now they are trapped on a drifting ship in the middle of the black. Can they make it back to civilization?
A science-fiction survival horror adventure set in the ‘Verse of Firefly fame for 6-7 players.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR1 – The Aftermath | MHAR1 – The Aftermath – Questionnaires
MHAR2 – Tsu-Nazi!!!
From the director of Sharkano and the writer of Sharkalanche comes TSU-NAZI! Can the small, sleepy pacific island of Palanaii deal with the preternatural disaster caused by secret North Korean atomic testing? See jack-booted radioactive Nazi zombies from a sunken submarine ravage bikini-clad tourists in this new American classic!
A B-movie horror flick for up to 6 players.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR2 – Tsu-Nazi!!! | MHAR2 – Tsu-Nazi!!! – Questionnaire | MHAR2 – Tsu-Nazi!!! – Palanaii Primer
MHAR3 – Legends of Heroes
The cheesy TV series Legends of Heroes appeared for only one season on the SciFi channel before being canceled. In the past couple of years, it has been embraced by a new generation of fans. For the first time in ten years the cast is reuniting and making an appearance at CON-Fusion, a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Gaming convention. As an actor, you’ve tried to escape the long shadows of the show and your role in it, but you never could. What could possibly go wrong when you have to interact with rest of the cast as well as the legions of Legends cosplayers…
A fantasy adventure in the style of Galaxy Quest for 4-5 PCs (with a bonus 6th option).
DOWNLOADS: MHAR3 – Legends of Heroes | MHAR3 – Legends of Heroes – Questionnaires
MHAR4 – Welcome to Red Rock
The Silver Springs bank robbery didn’t go according to plan and now you and your fellow desperados are being pursued by the infamous Marshall Duke Lamar. Luckily you all have heard of the town of Red Rock. It’s across the county line, they don’t ask questions, and the night life is to die for. All you have to do is get across the river and everything will be all right. Or will it??
A Wild West adventure where little is what it seems for 5-6 PCs.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR4 – Welcome to Red Rock | MHAR4 – Welcome to Red Rock – Questionnaire | MHAR4 – Red Rock – Map | MHAR4 – Red Rock – Map (B&W)
MHAR5 – The Fermi Paradox
It took the crew of the E3 Corporation survey ship twelve days to get to the Uranian system. It took them only two days to discover the answer to a 150-year-old question. But the answer could mean the extinction of the Human race! Find out the answer and more in… The Fermi Paradox!
A sci-fi mindbender for 5-6 PCs.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR5 – Fermi Paradox | MHAR5 – Fermi Paradox – Questionnaire
MHAR6 – On a Collision Course with Destiny
Five days ago, the battleship INV Righteous Destiny dropped out of Warp. It had been lost to the Warp for over 700 years and it is now on a collision course with the planet Scintilla, capital of the Calixis Sector. You have been hastily assembled at the behest of the Inquisition to investigate the mysterious vessel and its enigmatic message before the Imperial Navy obliterates it.
For 5-6 PCs. Set in the Warhammer 40k universe and powered by Dread.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR6 – On a Collision Course with Destiny | MHAR6 – On a Collision Course with Destiny – Questionnaire | MHAR6 – On a Collision Course with Destiny – Handouts
MHAR7 – Arbor Day, Bloody Arbor Day
Several years ago, your good friend Sam suffered a tragic accident and died during your yearly Arbor Day celebration campout and party. Their body was never recovered. You were all stunned. From then on it never felt right to continue the Arbor Day tradition and so it was canceled. Now you are all graduating from college in a month and you will probably never see each other again. What better way to celebrate your futures and your friendships than one last Arbor Day celebration. But the past never forgets, never forgives, and never dies…
Blood makes the trees grow. Kill! Kill! Kill!
An 80’s-style slasher adventure for up to 6 PCs.
DOWNLOADS: MHAR7 – Arbor Day, Bloody Arbor Day | MHAR7 – Arbor Day, Bloody Arbor Day – Questionnaire | MHAR7 – Arbor Day, Bloody Arbor Day – Title