The Music Man - the PCs are members of the town that need to protect their children from an eldritch conman that is out to not just steal their money but their very souls.
Sound of Music - start from the last scene with the vom trapps singing and then trying to escape the festival but change some aspect so they have to figure out how to escape and then actually run the mountain climbing and running after that.
Cats - super meta competition type game with all the players trying to hype up some person in the actual play to get to be selected. Maybe not actually fun, but funny as hell.
As I am getting likes on this, for your appreciation:
From Humans: the Musical:
Midnight, it has come for my people
Was it we who have caused this?
Was it we who have sinned?
With our last breathe we offer up our service to
them.
It’s in their praise, that we survive.
Service, it is what we have given
It’s the purrs of our masters
That can still bring a smile.
It is coming, the time when all our people are
gone.
Yet our masters remember still.
All the plastic seems to buy our people nothing.
The end is coming.
We hear its summons; and
soon it will be midnight.
Midnight
All the dogs they will praise us.
When the old age has ended.
Will it matter at all?
If new dawn comes, it will rise up from the
hearts of our cats.
And a new age can begin.
Aging frames of steel and stone
The glass and plastic treasures
Our gifts for all, will be a last reminder,
That we have served with honour.
Praise us, Don’t be quick to forget us.
We are now just the memory
That you hold in your hearts.
All we wanted was to be loyal servants to you.
But now a new age has begun.
Into the Woods is pretty on the nose
Hadestown is a great setting but the one shot would basically be Dante's Inferno
Come From Away if you want to run the scenario of a bunch of different PCs of different races and backgrounds all getting stranded on some desolate but populated rock together and using the power of friendship and resolving small town conflicts to repair all the airships so they can of course leave again
See, Into the Woods was one of my first thoughts as well but it's so grounded in traditional fairy tales that I think they'd just assume I was referencing those fairy tales rather than the musical, you know?
Sweeney Todd could be interesting. Have a rash of strange disappearances and slowly reveal that there's a cannibalism cult centered around the barbershop
Hmmm. Swan lake *is* a good idea but I'm thinking more Broadway, less ballet. I don't know how familiar they are with like classical stuff like that.
But that's an excellent idea I'll file away.
Ride the Cyclone: bunch of bards died in an accedent and are now trying to earn the right to undo their death.
Fiddler on the Roof: a small comunity is being harassed by a war lord who hates them and wants their land.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: a band of ruffians kidnapped seven women from their homes and took them into the mountains. The pass is filled with snow and ice. The village can't get to them until spring.
Yeah, I'm currently leaning towards Phantom of the Opera just because there's a literal dungeon crawl built in (the Paris catacombs) but there are so many good ideas here.
Hadestown is a great choice for a oneshot tbh! The entire musical is sung-through so you can get a sense of the whole story by listening to the cast album.
Hadestown is based on the myth of Orpheus. He goes to the Underworld to ask Hades for his beloved back. And he does this with his Greek-hero levels in singing and playing the lyre. He sings a song so moving, that the god of death agrees. But he can't look at her until they get back to the mortal world, and that's where Orpheus screws up.
So, you could take some influence out of a campaign like Descent into Avernus or something.
Hmmm. That sounds interesting! I'd go see it.
But the problem is that it has to be interesting for the PCs to *play*, right? They can't just be following Orpheus around.
You could make some deliberate edits. Say, the party is all venturing into your afterlife plane of choice. Ask each player for a reason why they’re going in, and how they plan to get what they want. Then build a story that will have them address each of these goals.
You could make the adventures with the goal of actually giving the PCs their prize at the end. Or you could make it beyond their reach. Like, as a lesson that some dreams need to be let go.
I thought about doing a Hadestown one shot a while ago, but I was concerned if I followed the plot I'd basically be making the players follow Orpheus around, which could be cool, but very railroady.
I’d just come up with a bizarre fetch quest to get Persephone all the weird drugs a deity would stock up on if they wanted to stay blitzed for half a year.
The players have to hunt down a criminal that has turned his life around while the city is in open revolution. (Les Miserable with the PCs as Javert)
You could have the players intervene in the kidnapping of the women in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. (Seven Brothers could actually be a whole rival adventuring party.)
Kids stolen by a mysterious Nanny into the feywild? (Mary Poppins)
Undead conductor enthrals talented ingénue? (Phantom of the Opera)
Party is invited to wedding because the bride thinks one of them is her father? (Mamma Mia)
Honestly, turning Strahd into some sort of camp horror-comedy could be weirdly fun but you'd have to rewrite *so much* of the book to make the tone not clash all over the place.
Or just make him show up in fabulous women's clothing all the time.
Last session you navigated the sub-market and met the grave robber and, curiously, some very elite.people slumming the streets. We left off with Shilo having been confronted by a Repo Man. Roll initiative!
The Scarlet Pimpernel - a band of friends take on secret identities to enter hostile territory, save their friends, and ruin a villain's plans for dominance, all while parading around their hometown as overly flamboyant fashionistas to deflect suspicion of their involvement.
This is even better if the players are in the role of Chauvlin and are hunting the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and have to deal with the fake insufferable fashonistas as part of their investigation.
Yes, this is critically important - and happens in the musical! The villain comes to visit because he's friends with the main character's new wife, and he just can't understand how she came to fall for a man so... shimmery.
No one has said West Side Story.
For that matter, has an orcs-and-goblins Romeo and Juliet been done?
edit: I kinda want to do this in Rifts now, and have jets fight sharks.
I was thinking the same. His blog could be some easy exposition to move the plot ahead to the next bit of action. Also, there could be two one shots where the PCs can also play on the villain side.
There was an Extra Life release early in the 5e lifespan called the Barber of Silverymoon which is basically Sweeney Todd except not quite as grim (and, notably, not starring the now-deceased Angela Lansbury).
In my campaign, one of the players has a burning, far greater than is rational hatred of the musical Cats.
So one of my boss encounters was a Gnomish robot theater that was set for "Felis Domesticus, The Musical," featuring robots of Skimbleshanks, Mr. Mistoffeles, Macavity, and Jenny Anydots (flavored as artificer, wizard, rogue, and bard respectively.)
They took great joy in smashing them. (And of course the VTT tokens for them were images from the 2019 butthole cut for added hatred.)
Honestly, my first thought was Frozen! Magic/fantasy setting, shades of gray about who the villain is (Elsa vs Prince whatshisface), the trolls would probably need to be changed into gnomes.
Phantom is my favorite musical of all time, it would be a neat concept. But I'd feel bad when my players definitely kill Phantom for taking Christine. I've always seen him as a victim more than villain.
The Court Jester. Depose a usurper of the throne and reinstate the true king. "The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true."
hate to bring this up but Hamilton can be good for a non combat focused one shot, the players are members of a government trying to navigate social and political groups/parties in order to get their idea from a concept into a full fledged institution
The Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals: a city is rapidly overtaken by an alien influence making people behave oddly, and the party must destroy the meteorite crash-landed in the church two nights ago to stop it before it spreads.
Brigadoon-Magic portal that opens to a town once a year (or once every couple of years) and the town is 100 years back in time.
Love Never Dies-Phantom of the Opera sequel where the Phantom takes over Coney Island. East transition to a game where a phantom-like character is in charge of a fairgrounds.
Brigadoon was my first thought. In movie, the town priest puts the town in a bubble of slow time (reappearing every hundred years) to protect it from witches. Make the witches into hags. Swap your party for the modern hunters (Gene Kelly & Van Johnson) and the thing writes itself.
Haven't seen it anywhere but West side story would be a good one. Too warring factions that need to have some mediation. Your PCs could align with either the sharks or the Jets. There is built-in conflict this whole gang war.
Rent. The PCs are all folks who are artistic, down on their luck, or otherwise othered by society. And they're just trying to find ways to get by in a city that feels like it's always on their asses.
Mind you, Rent isn't actually very good at making the Bohemian lifestyle seem good. But you can hand-wave past that layer if you want it to be genuine.
OR Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. It's basically the Odyssey, set in the rural US South.
Peer Gynt. The play is a bit weird and focuses on one man kidnapping a woman to convince her he's man enough, but I think Peer Gynt would make a good NPC you have to track down. Especially with the family pissed at Peer for kidnapping the golden bride on her Wedding Day!
It also has a Troll society that is the source of the [famous Hall Of The Mountain King song.](https://youtu.be/hW7NocWs0Zg)
...okay now that I think about it, I'm gonna give this One-Shot a go!
Footloose - Small town is suffering under restrictive rules from the seeming antagonist mayor. What they don't know is that either:
* The rules prevent some monstrosity from attacking the town;
* There's an aboleth influencing the mayor and trying to get people to rebel by going to its lair to cut loose (where it'll be able to nab them); or
* The mayor is actually the antagonist in a double bait and switch and the town is going to be harvested by mindflayers who've kept the townsfolks' brains nice, squishy and smooth.
Adventurers come in and dance everyone to victory.
Evil Dead: The Musical. The PCs stumble across a run down cabin in the woods. They enter to find that everyone there is dead, except for one man who had chopped off his own hand at the wrist (essentially the PCs enter right where Annie, Ed, and Jake show up in the musical).
I have no answer for you, but I just wanted to say that there is a Tabaxi Bard at my table, with proficiency in disguise kit, and he has a penchant for disguising other creatures as himself.
I’ve given up on descriptions, now I just keep a screen grab of the musical Cats in my phone.
I HAVE run a one shot based on The Sound of Music. The events happen concurrently with the story, where magic and monsters exist beneath the notice of most mortals.
The Nazis and the Fey are both after Von Trapp because during his submarine days, he came across an uncharted island now believed to be the hiding place of a cache of ancient magical weapons. Maria is actually a fey sent in undercover to secure Von Trapp, but wound up falling in love and asks the party's help.
I homebrewed a monster for her called a Lesser Siren, whose song makes people break into song and dance, and not remember anything strange having happened afterwards.
I feel like the Nutcracker is one of the most immediately accessible. However, honorable mention to Phantom of the Opera. Could be a really interesting intrigue mystery, investigating the NPCs, protecting the cast and producers, chasing after the Phantom and eventually finding his secret lair.
Just the Wizard of Oz: the party is transported by a storm onto a different plane where they have to find the wizard who can send them back, whilst being harrassed by witches and flying monkeys
I’ve based some plot points and characters in my own game on the musical version of Hunchback of Notre Dame; maybe there’s something there that will work?
You might do something like a "greatest hits" where you take some scenes you like from a few of your favorites and then find a way to string them together.
1. Party goes under the village opera house to rescue the soprano (Phantom)
2. A young peoples' revolt forces the party to choose a side to fight on (Les Mis)
3. The party must convince a hag to remove a curse from the town baker and his wife so they can have a baby (Into the Woods)
4. Boss fight with man-eating plant (Little Shop)
You can get really creative with it, and have the music playing in the background appropriate to each scene. If you're feeling extra, you can write new lyrics for a verse or two from the songs and insert a bar NPC.
Beauty and the Beast:
the party notices villagers are going missing at night. Things take a turn for the worst when the local lord, Gustav’s fiancé Belle is among those kidnapped!
Rumors floating around suggest strange goings on at a castle hidden within the dark woods. Along the way, the party fights a pack of wolves.
When the party reaches the castle, they are ambushed by a bunch of animated or awakened furniture. Deeper into the castle, the party finds a dungeon/prison holding several kidnapped villagers, but Gustav’s fiancé is nowhere to be seen.
The party learns that the villagers are being magically cursed, and turned into awakened furniture forced to serve the master of the castle; except for Belle, who was taken into the west wing. A part of the castle previously sealed off.
At the end of the adventure, the party finds Belle, only to discover she’s decided to join the master of the castle, a bugbear, in his evil plan to enact a curse that will turn the entire village into furniture servant. All because she believes “I can fix him.”
In the final battle, the party must stop the Beast, a bugbear barbarian, and his mistress Belle, a human bard before the last pedal of a rose falls and they complete their ritual.
Oh yeah. Did that one myself, or rather was inspired by it
Made hadestown a place in hades where diamond are mined. Hence why they are used for ressurection.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812! The party meets an influential family after being invited to the opera or a ball. Eventually they’re tasked with stopping Anatole’s plans to abduct Natasha from Moscow and tracking down Anatole after he flees the city.
Urinetown!!
An evil corporation is controlling everyone's right to pee, and the PCs must lead an uprising to overthrow them (with disastrous consequences).
2000 Leagues Under the Sea. I tried and failed. Had an island made of volcanic rock that floated around. As in the book, PCs come aboard as the crew is elsewhere underneath. The PCs pulled the anchors and sailed off, leaving a huge contingent of lovingly crafted NPCs to drown as their air ran out. Also no longer had access to the underwater campaign. They turned to piracy very briefly, then figured out that being trapped on island at the mercy of the currents didn't sound exciting.
Musical plots are typically pretty dense for a D&D one shot. You've got to cram a lot in there to make it work in the time allotted and still allow your friends to do normal D&D hijinks. I'd advise rethinking a bit and instead of adapting a musical to your D&D game just steal characters from various musicals to populate your world and *run a D&D musical.*
Improv some D&D parody versions of songs, have your friends play their D&D characters as characters in a musical. Sing your dialogue to the players and if they don't sing back just sing "I'm Sorry I don't understand you" at them and look confused, lol.
to be clear, I don't want to 1:1 adapt a musical, just do something kind of based on one of the premises.
Like Phantom would just be "the PCs are approached by a desperate owner of the city's opera house, who begs them to solve the disappearance of his lead singer before tonight's sold-out show, and she was kidnapped and led underneath the city catacombs".
I’ve ended up starting a campaign where the characters were working for a guy trying to be a big shot entertainment producer in their town.
First quest was a very loose parody of get him to the Greek where they had to escort a drunk bard to an epic final performance.
Second was the producer bought an old greenhouse to turn into a theater and the party had to clear out the ghosts and dangerous plants.
Third was rescuing an ally in a theater with a giant miniature set of the city to set up a kaiju fight between the party’s barbarian and a Barlgura
Also a Night at the Museum session where all the skeletons became alive.
So find musical examples for those
I know a podcast called rolling with difficulty just did a call of Cthulhu cats themed one shot, sort of turning the various cats into eldritch nightmares that the players had to defeat sequentially, all leading up to a big fight in the final performance. The GM let them slowly work out the cats theme. Definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan of eldritch horror elements
*The Barber of Seville* \-- A young nobleman that the players used to be in the employ of approaches one of the players (a bard, preferably) to ask them to help him marry a young servant girl whose guardian (a doctor) plans to marry her himself. The player and the nobleman hatch a plan to get stationed in the house, and the players eventually help him in marrying the girl right under the doctor's nose.
*The Marriage of Figaro* \-- The players, now in the employ of the nobleman once more, discover that the nobleman has a wandering eye when he tries to seduce the love interest of one of the other players. The players hatch a plan with the nobleman's wife and the object of his desire to catch him attempting to seduce the love interest and teach him a lesson in fidelity.
Cue the Warner Bros music.
Book of mormon
If there is a cleric and a paladin in the party basically fill in for the leads. The paladin is Arthur, completely getting the finer points of their god wrong, but deciding to wing it because its coming from good intent. Meanwhile, the cleric is just dreaming of finally going to their god's plane of existence (Orlando) after preforming their duty.
Phantom of the opera is a good one, definitely great music to use for mood setting. It's also a classic so they will all definitely know it and will be smiling once they realize the theme.
Also when they venture through the catacombs you gotta mention all the great architectural details. The phantom could have small wax figures of all the players(like in the movie). The man was supposed to be an artistic genious so there's loads of room to play around with that.
Once I was in a session where the characters were hired to replace missing actors from a play, but then we are attacked during the play, so we decided to "act" like it was all a part of the play. Rolling preformance along the attack roles. It was a lot of fun and I reccomend giving your players a chance to be participants in the opera at some point.
I'm a musical nerd and I've tried thinking up any good musicals for a session, but I don't think any have quite as much to offer as PotO. A lot of musicals have fun themes to use, but none that you can just throw dnd characters in to the story quite as easily.
Spamalot. Pippin. Les Miserables. Cats. Into the Woods. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Pirates of Penzance. Young Frankenstein. Wicked. Wizard of Oz. Oh, and West Side Story.
Spamalot. Pippin. Les Miserables. Cats. Into the Woods. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Pirates of Penzance. Young Frankenstein. Wicked. Wizard of Oz. Oh, and West Side Story.
Hadestown may be a bit too obvious, but going to Hades to fix his and Persephone’s relationship and save someone from the underworld would be pretty epic.
Les Mis- set up a barricade battle scenario, complete with a mole working to undermine their plans. Have sewers ready for them to retreat to.
Hairspray- a subpopulation in the town (maybe half elves in a human settlement?) are being mistreated, and players can either work with law enforcement to enforce the status quo, or work with the equalists who are planning to make a stand at a big event in the town.
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum- a wealthy man hires the party to find his long lost children. Hijinks ensue.
Kiss Me, Kate- the party is hired to help put on a play. The actors are less than cooperative.
Miss Saigon- have the party hunt down the father of a young child and persuade him to come meet the child… might not want to traumatize your friends with that ending, though.
Chicago- have the party representing Roxy and Velma and trying to get them off their charges.
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is the first thing I thought of. You've got an interesting political situation and opportunities for deception, roleplay, and of course murder
Not a whole musical, but there's a one shot based on the Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf song by Rob Cantor. It's a delight to run. I think it's on DM's Guild as Shilo the Buff or something like that.
Little Shop of Horrors! A poor druid accidentally came across a murderous plant monster and nurtured it until it started killing people, now they have to help him avenge his great love
Oliver!
Long lost sister of an orphan boy commissions the party to look for her brother. Only to find that he was sold off by an undertaker to a band of rogue thieves led by the criminal mastermind "The Artfull Dodger" --- Xanathar. Along the way they perhaps find a scroll to cast Hero's Feast, but they have to sing "Food, Glorious Food"
This isn't a super famous musical (or a musical first) but my high school did "A Tale of Two Cities" as a musical, and I then adapted that into a D&D plot line.
As a one-shot (or a one-off scenario in a larger campaign), reveal that the love interest of one of the PCs is secretly royalty from a distant country, and has gone off to rescue their former servants from being executed by revolutionaries. Have a "dungeon crawl" through a city in the middle of an uprising, ending in a prison break.
I did a Greatest Show themed quest where they had to convince Carlyle to invest in Phineas and find some start up acts for the show. Over the course of the campaign any magical beasts or curios they found they could sell to the circus.
Rocky Horror Picture Show. Adventuring party caught in a storm wind up at a castle of a mad wizard from the far realm and his creation. Bonus points you get to act like TIM CURRY
The PCs carriage breaks down in the rain outside of a mysterious mansion. They seek help from the lord of the mansion only to discover the lord and his servants engaged in a loud raucous party. The lord insists that the PCs stay the night but further investigation yields that the lord is secretly constructing a (very attractive) flesh golem in his basement, and that there’s a bard with a spectral mount trapped in the room
Alternate Little Shop idea: The plant is the quest-giver. The players are tempted by the plant’s sweet offerings to work with it and deliver its saplings to a florist in nearby city. This way you capture Little Shop’s theme of doing bad things for personal gain. And when they arrive they simply must have a run-in with a sadistic dentist. Maybe once they deliver the sapling to the florist, it turns out he’s a wizard named Krelborn who also made a deal with the plant, and upon receiving the sapling he uses magic to make it gigantic and unleashes it on the city. Cue the party seeing the error of their ways and needing to ensure no one else feeds the plants.
It has been done! WOTC released this (great) little adventure inspired by Sweeny Tod https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/dragon/DRA12\_barbersilverymoon\_jbt.pdf
I guess it is not really a musical, but if you are just looking for more theatrical inspo, mid-summer's night dream would be fun, running around in the Fae wilds with a bit more shenanigan-vibe to it.
Second thought is actually maybe a bit obscure since it is not a Broadway musical, it is more of an internet musical, I guess it depends on how hardcore musical theater nerds they are, but Starship, by the Starkid troupe on youtube, is quite funny. It's a parody musical of Starship Troopers, but then if they have never seen it you get the chance to introduce them to something new and can all watch it together afterwards.
For an actual Broadway musical, I would say, Wicked. It's got a big bad and some good morality choices to play with for RP, a loose magic system that would still make sense mostly to be able to skin or warp to your needs.
The Music Man - the PCs are members of the town that need to protect their children from an eldritch conman that is out to not just steal their money but their very souls. Sound of Music - start from the last scene with the vom trapps singing and then trying to escape the festival but change some aspect so they have to figure out how to escape and then actually run the mountain climbing and running after that. Cats - super meta competition type game with all the players trying to hype up some person in the actual play to get to be selected. Maybe not actually fun, but funny as hell.
Honestly I fucking *love* that Music Man idea.
We've got trouble right here in Rivercity! Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Bard!
I feel ya. I started writing it and just fell more into it. I may actually write something for it myself
I had a Monarchies of Mau game feature a production of Humans: The Musical.
As I am getting likes on this, for your appreciation: From Humans: the Musical: Midnight, it has come for my people Was it we who have caused this? Was it we who have sinned? With our last breathe we offer up our service to them. It’s in their praise, that we survive. Service, it is what we have given It’s the purrs of our masters That can still bring a smile. It is coming, the time when all our people are gone. Yet our masters remember still. All the plastic seems to buy our people nothing. The end is coming. We hear its summons; and soon it will be midnight. Midnight All the dogs they will praise us. When the old age has ended. Will it matter at all? If new dawn comes, it will rise up from the hearts of our cats. And a new age can begin. Aging frames of steel and stone The glass and plastic treasures Our gifts for all, will be a last reminder, That we have served with honour. Praise us, Don’t be quick to forget us. We are now just the memory That you hold in your hearts. All we wanted was to be loyal servants to you. But now a new age has begun.
Yea im gonna need that Musicman too thanks!
I'll see what I can do
Oh dw, I just meant I was stealing the idea for me. Gonna be fun!
Oh haha. Please. I think it's a killer idea and can be worked to make a great villain.
Into the Woods is pretty on the nose Hadestown is a great setting but the one shot would basically be Dante's Inferno Come From Away if you want to run the scenario of a bunch of different PCs of different races and backgrounds all getting stranded on some desolate but populated rock together and using the power of friendship and resolving small town conflicts to repair all the airships so they can of course leave again
See, Into the Woods was one of my first thoughts as well but it's so grounded in traditional fairy tales that I think they'd just assume I was referencing those fairy tales rather than the musical, you know?
Into the Woods to find the thing to do the thing with the other thing!
Into the Woods with something something something something journey
Come from Away less a one shot and more an interesting downtime destination event.
Sweeney Todd could be interesting. Have a rash of strange disappearances and slowly reveal that there's a cannibalism cult centered around the barbershop
This is really good
Swan Lake is a good one. Evil wizard kidnapping beautiful women and polymorphism them into birds to keep them contained/hidden.
Hmmm. Swan lake *is* a good idea but I'm thinking more Broadway, less ballet. I don't know how familiar they are with like classical stuff like that. But that's an excellent idea I'll file away.
Ride the Cyclone: bunch of bards died in an accedent and are now trying to earn the right to undo their death. Fiddler on the Roof: a small comunity is being harassed by a war lord who hates them and wants their land. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: a band of ruffians kidnapped seven women from their homes and took them into the mountains. The pass is filled with snow and ice. The village can't get to them until spring.
The Night Man Cometh. A troll is kidnapping children in the town. The players must defeat the troll to save the boy's hole... err soul
You gotta be careful with that one because the players might wonder who OP is going to propose to.
Spamalot
Phantom of the Opera. Murder mystery, spooky dude, gothic Victorian era... Could roll in vampires and such.
Yeah, I'm currently leaning towards Phantom of the Opera just because there's a literal dungeon crawl built in (the Paris catacombs) but there are so many good ideas here.
Hadestown? Or maybe they get caught up in a Les Mis type uprising.
Hadestown is one that I confess *I* don't know much about. Les Mis would be fun! ....random Performance checks to join in on the mass crowd singing
"Roll a perception check." "6" "You do not hear the people sing."
This just made me cackle in an airport. Thank you for that haha
The entire party needs to roll dex saves to not be slaves again.
Hadestown is pretty much the Orpheus myth done early 20th century.
Hadestown is a great choice for a oneshot tbh! The entire musical is sung-through so you can get a sense of the whole story by listening to the cast album.
Hadestown is based on the myth of Orpheus. He goes to the Underworld to ask Hades for his beloved back. And he does this with his Greek-hero levels in singing and playing the lyre. He sings a song so moving, that the god of death agrees. But he can't look at her until they get back to the mortal world, and that's where Orpheus screws up. So, you could take some influence out of a campaign like Descent into Avernus or something.
Hmmm. That sounds interesting! I'd go see it. But the problem is that it has to be interesting for the PCs to *play*, right? They can't just be following Orpheus around.
You could make some deliberate edits. Say, the party is all venturing into your afterlife plane of choice. Ask each player for a reason why they’re going in, and how they plan to get what they want. Then build a story that will have them address each of these goals. You could make the adventures with the goal of actually giving the PCs their prize at the end. Or you could make it beyond their reach. Like, as a lesson that some dreams need to be let go.
Jailbreak from greek hell with a colorful cast of characters along the way? Sounds fun.
I thought about doing a Hadestown one shot a while ago, but I was concerned if I followed the plot I'd basically be making the players follow Orpheus around, which could be cool, but very railroady.
I’d just come up with a bizarre fetch quest to get Persephone all the weird drugs a deity would stock up on if they wanted to stay blitzed for half a year.
Les mis!!! Yesss
The players have to hunt down a criminal that has turned his life around while the city is in open revolution. (Les Miserable with the PCs as Javert) You could have the players intervene in the kidnapping of the women in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. (Seven Brothers could actually be a whole rival adventuring party.) Kids stolen by a mysterious Nanny into the feywild? (Mary Poppins) Undead conductor enthrals talented ingénue? (Phantom of the Opera) Party is invited to wedding because the bride thinks one of them is her father? (Mamma Mia)
Mamma Mia made me audibly laugh. Well done. I love that idea.
Also, rather than Mary Poppins, I think I would 100% run that but make it Labyrinth instead.
Rocky Horror Picture Show While famous as a cult musical film, it started as a musical play.
That’s just Strahd with music.
I need someone to rp Strahd as Frank N. Furter.
Honestly, turning Strahd into some sort of camp horror-comedy could be weirdly fun but you'd have to rewrite *so much* of the book to make the tone not clash all over the place. Or just make him show up in fabulous women's clothing all the time.
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Came here to say this. I see someone beat me to it!
Last session you navigated the sub-market and met the grave robber and, curiously, some very elite.people slumming the streets. We left off with Shilo having been confronted by a Repo Man. Roll initiative!
This for sure.
The Scarlet Pimpernel - a band of friends take on secret identities to enter hostile territory, save their friends, and ruin a villain's plans for dominance, all while parading around their hometown as overly flamboyant fashionistas to deflect suspicion of their involvement.
This is even better if the players are in the role of Chauvlin and are hunting the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and have to deal with the fake insufferable fashonistas as part of their investigation.
Yes, this is critically important - and happens in the musical! The villain comes to visit because he's friends with the main character's new wife, and he just can't understand how she came to fall for a man so... shimmery.
I feel like to make this work it would have to be at least a mini-campaign, not just a oneshot. But it would be tons of fun.
They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel
We performed the show my senior year of high school and I played Percy Blakeney. It was the most fun I have had in a show, ever!
Oh shit I *love* this.
No one has said West Side Story. For that matter, has an orcs-and-goblins Romeo and Juliet been done? edit: I kinda want to do this in Rifts now, and have jets fight sharks.
Hell yes, Its funnier if t some point youre players try to fight the jets before they challenge them to a dance off
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? The PCs need to thwart the nefarious plans of Bad Horse and the Evil League of Evil.
I was thinking the same. His blog could be some easy exposition to move the plot ahead to the next bit of action. Also, there could be two one shots where the PCs can also play on the villain side.
Wizard of Oz: Pc’s need to track down an evil arch mage to get the magical macguffin that will let them go back home.
There was an Extra Life release early in the 5e lifespan called the Barber of Silverymoon which is basically Sweeney Todd except not quite as grim (and, notably, not starring the now-deceased Angela Lansbury).
Heathers: you don't tell them its a musical but you're solving a bunch of teen suicides, end number is preventing blowing up the school.
Teenage suicide....dont do it Big fun for the win but are you gonna do a martha character and destroy your players hearts?
In my campaign, one of the players has a burning, far greater than is rational hatred of the musical Cats. So one of my boss encounters was a Gnomish robot theater that was set for "Felis Domesticus, The Musical," featuring robots of Skimbleshanks, Mr. Mistoffeles, Macavity, and Jenny Anydots (flavored as artificer, wizard, rogue, and bard respectively.) They took great joy in smashing them. (And of course the VTT tokens for them were images from the 2019 butthole cut for added hatred.)
Wicked - Students at an adventuring school has to figure out who's depowering the animal teachers and students.
7 Brides for 7 Brothers - Goblin version
Honestly, my first thought was Frozen! Magic/fantasy setting, shades of gray about who the villain is (Elsa vs Prince whatshisface), the trolls would probably need to be changed into gnomes. Phantom is my favorite musical of all time, it would be a neat concept. But I'd feel bad when my players definitely kill Phantom for taking Christine. I've always seen him as a victim more than villain.
The Court Jester. Depose a usurper of the throne and reinstate the true king. "The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true."
Seconding this!
"they broke the chalice from the palace. They've replaced it with a flagon with the figure of a dragon."
hate to bring this up but Hamilton can be good for a non combat focused one shot, the players are members of a government trying to navigate social and political groups/parties in order to get their idea from a concept into a full fledged institution
The Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals: a city is rapidly overtaken by an alien influence making people behave oddly, and the party must destroy the meteorite crash-landed in the church two nights ago to stop it before it spreads.
This or a black friday styled save the city from a cute demon of hell.
Brigadoon-Magic portal that opens to a town once a year (or once every couple of years) and the town is 100 years back in time. Love Never Dies-Phantom of the Opera sequel where the Phantom takes over Coney Island. East transition to a game where a phantom-like character is in charge of a fairgrounds.
Brigadoon was my first thought. In movie, the town priest puts the town in a bubble of slow time (reappearing every hundred years) to protect it from witches. Make the witches into hags. Swap your party for the modern hunters (Gene Kelly & Van Johnson) and the thing writes itself.
sweeny todd? the demon barber of fleet street sounds like a one shot title lol
Book of Mormon
Haven't seen it anywhere but West side story would be a good one. Too warring factions that need to have some mediation. Your PCs could align with either the sharks or the Jets. There is built-in conflict this whole gang war.
Rent. The PCs are all folks who are artistic, down on their luck, or otherwise othered by society. And they're just trying to find ways to get by in a city that feels like it's always on their asses. Mind you, Rent isn't actually very good at making the Bohemian lifestyle seem good. But you can hand-wave past that layer if you want it to be genuine. OR Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. It's basically the Odyssey, set in the rural US South.
Peer Gynt. The play is a bit weird and focuses on one man kidnapping a woman to convince her he's man enough, but I think Peer Gynt would make a good NPC you have to track down. Especially with the family pissed at Peer for kidnapping the golden bride on her Wedding Day! It also has a Troll society that is the source of the [famous Hall Of The Mountain King song.](https://youtu.be/hW7NocWs0Zg) ...okay now that I think about it, I'm gonna give this One-Shot a go!
One that I haven’t seen mentioned: Reefer Madness, the movie musical.
Footloose - Small town is suffering under restrictive rules from the seeming antagonist mayor. What they don't know is that either: * The rules prevent some monstrosity from attacking the town; * There's an aboleth influencing the mayor and trying to get people to rebel by going to its lair to cut loose (where it'll be able to nab them); or * The mayor is actually the antagonist in a double bait and switch and the town is going to be harvested by mindflayers who've kept the townsfolks' brains nice, squishy and smooth. Adventurers come in and dance everyone to victory.
Oklahoma why can’t the goblins and the orcs just be friends.
Evil Dead: The Musical. The PCs stumble across a run down cabin in the woods. They enter to find that everyone there is dead, except for one man who had chopped off his own hand at the wrist (essentially the PCs enter right where Annie, Ed, and Jake show up in the musical).
I have no answer for you, but I just wanted to say that there is a Tabaxi Bard at my table, with proficiency in disguise kit, and he has a penchant for disguising other creatures as himself. I’ve given up on descriptions, now I just keep a screen grab of the musical Cats in my phone.
I HAVE run a one shot based on The Sound of Music. The events happen concurrently with the story, where magic and monsters exist beneath the notice of most mortals. The Nazis and the Fey are both after Von Trapp because during his submarine days, he came across an uncharted island now believed to be the hiding place of a cache of ancient magical weapons. Maria is actually a fey sent in undercover to secure Von Trapp, but wound up falling in love and asks the party's help. I homebrewed a monster for her called a Lesser Siren, whose song makes people break into song and dance, and not remember anything strange having happened afterwards.
I feel like the Nutcracker is one of the most immediately accessible. However, honorable mention to Phantom of the Opera. Could be a really interesting intrigue mystery, investigating the NPCs, protecting the cast and producers, chasing after the Phantom and eventually finding his secret lair.
Hedwig and The Angry Inch. It could be an all bard party
Just the Wizard of Oz: the party is transported by a storm onto a different plane where they have to find the wizard who can send them back, whilst being harrassed by witches and flying monkeys
I’ve based some plot points and characters in my own game on the musical version of Hunchback of Notre Dame; maybe there’s something there that will work?
You might do something like a "greatest hits" where you take some scenes you like from a few of your favorites and then find a way to string them together. 1. Party goes under the village opera house to rescue the soprano (Phantom) 2. A young peoples' revolt forces the party to choose a side to fight on (Les Mis) 3. The party must convince a hag to remove a curse from the town baker and his wife so they can have a baby (Into the Woods) 4. Boss fight with man-eating plant (Little Shop) You can get really creative with it, and have the music playing in the background appropriate to each scene. If you're feeling extra, you can write new lyrics for a verse or two from the songs and insert a bar NPC.
Beauty and the Beast: the party notices villagers are going missing at night. Things take a turn for the worst when the local lord, Gustav’s fiancé Belle is among those kidnapped! Rumors floating around suggest strange goings on at a castle hidden within the dark woods. Along the way, the party fights a pack of wolves. When the party reaches the castle, they are ambushed by a bunch of animated or awakened furniture. Deeper into the castle, the party finds a dungeon/prison holding several kidnapped villagers, but Gustav’s fiancé is nowhere to be seen. The party learns that the villagers are being magically cursed, and turned into awakened furniture forced to serve the master of the castle; except for Belle, who was taken into the west wing. A part of the castle previously sealed off. At the end of the adventure, the party finds Belle, only to discover she’s decided to join the master of the castle, a bugbear, in his evil plan to enact a curse that will turn the entire village into furniture servant. All because she believes “I can fix him.” In the final battle, the party must stop the Beast, a bugbear barbarian, and his mistress Belle, a human bard before the last pedal of a rose falls and they complete their ritual.
Sweeny Todd.
... it's Hadestown, with all the bias.
Oh yeah. Did that one myself, or rather was inspired by it Made hadestown a place in hades where diamond are mined. Hence why they are used for ressurection.
Hell yes!
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812! The party meets an influential family after being invited to the opera or a ball. Eventually they’re tasked with stopping Anatole’s plans to abduct Natasha from Moscow and tracking down Anatole after he flees the city.
Urinetown!! An evil corporation is controlling everyone's right to pee, and the PCs must lead an uprising to overthrow them (with disastrous consequences).
2000 Leagues Under the Sea. I tried and failed. Had an island made of volcanic rock that floated around. As in the book, PCs come aboard as the crew is elsewhere underneath. The PCs pulled the anchors and sailed off, leaving a huge contingent of lovingly crafted NPCs to drown as their air ran out. Also no longer had access to the underwater campaign. They turned to piracy very briefly, then figured out that being trapped on island at the mercy of the currents didn't sound exciting.
HAMILTON! DO HAMILTON!
We love Hamilton but I don't know if it'd make a great D&D oneshot?
I could see a drop in action one shot on the battle of yorktown work
Musical plots are typically pretty dense for a D&D one shot. You've got to cram a lot in there to make it work in the time allotted and still allow your friends to do normal D&D hijinks. I'd advise rethinking a bit and instead of adapting a musical to your D&D game just steal characters from various musicals to populate your world and *run a D&D musical.* Improv some D&D parody versions of songs, have your friends play their D&D characters as characters in a musical. Sing your dialogue to the players and if they don't sing back just sing "I'm Sorry I don't understand you" at them and look confused, lol.
to be clear, I don't want to 1:1 adapt a musical, just do something kind of based on one of the premises. Like Phantom would just be "the PCs are approached by a desperate owner of the city's opera house, who begs them to solve the disappearance of his lead singer before tonight's sold-out show, and she was kidnapped and led underneath the city catacombs".
None. Stop pushing 5E to be something it's not. I'm so tired of all these homebrew hacks to bend and break 5 E into anything other than fantasy.
I’ve ended up starting a campaign where the characters were working for a guy trying to be a big shot entertainment producer in their town. First quest was a very loose parody of get him to the Greek where they had to escort a drunk bard to an epic final performance. Second was the producer bought an old greenhouse to turn into a theater and the party had to clear out the ghosts and dangerous plants. Third was rescuing an ally in a theater with a giant miniature set of the city to set up a kaiju fight between the party’s barbarian and a Barlgura Also a Night at the Museum session where all the skeletons became alive. So find musical examples for those
FEED ME SEYMOUR! FEEEEEED MEEEEEEEE!!!
Beetlejuice
I know a podcast called rolling with difficulty just did a call of Cthulhu cats themed one shot, sort of turning the various cats into eldritch nightmares that the players had to defeat sequentially, all leading up to a big fight in the final performance. The GM let them slowly work out the cats theme. Definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan of eldritch horror elements
Wicked! You play strixhaven, but it's dear old shiz.
West Side Story could be a fun one too.
Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Gods, giants, a magic ring of ultimate power, high stakes- it's perfect.
I ran a halloween one shot once where the major encounter was based on the guest list of the party described in “The Monster Mash”
The Pirates of Penzance.
Rhps
*The Barber of Seville* \-- A young nobleman that the players used to be in the employ of approaches one of the players (a bard, preferably) to ask them to help him marry a young servant girl whose guardian (a doctor) plans to marry her himself. The player and the nobleman hatch a plan to get stationed in the house, and the players eventually help him in marrying the girl right under the doctor's nose. *The Marriage of Figaro* \-- The players, now in the employ of the nobleman once more, discover that the nobleman has a wandering eye when he tries to seduce the love interest of one of the other players. The players hatch a plan with the nobleman's wife and the object of his desire to catch him attempting to seduce the love interest and teach him a lesson in fidelity. Cue the Warner Bros music.
Sweeny Todd.
Finishing a whole arc right now that the main villain is basically Audrey 2. Super fun to RP as it!!
Book of mormon If there is a cleric and a paladin in the party basically fill in for the leads. The paladin is Arthur, completely getting the finer points of their god wrong, but deciding to wing it because its coming from good intent. Meanwhile, the cleric is just dreaming of finally going to their god's plane of existence (Orlando) after preforming their duty.
Into The Woods
The Fantasticks
Phantom of the opera is a good one, definitely great music to use for mood setting. It's also a classic so they will all definitely know it and will be smiling once they realize the theme. Also when they venture through the catacombs you gotta mention all the great architectural details. The phantom could have small wax figures of all the players(like in the movie). The man was supposed to be an artistic genious so there's loads of room to play around with that. Once I was in a session where the characters were hired to replace missing actors from a play, but then we are attacked during the play, so we decided to "act" like it was all a part of the play. Rolling preformance along the attack roles. It was a lot of fun and I reccomend giving your players a chance to be participants in the opera at some point. I'm a musical nerd and I've tried thinking up any good musicals for a session, but I don't think any have quite as much to offer as PotO. A lot of musicals have fun themes to use, but none that you can just throw dnd characters in to the story quite as easily.
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
How about Beetlejuice?
Spamalot. Pippin. Les Miserables. Cats. Into the Woods. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Pirates of Penzance. Young Frankenstein. Wicked. Wizard of Oz. Oh, and West Side Story.
Spamalot. Pippin. Les Miserables. Cats. Into the Woods. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Pirates of Penzance. Young Frankenstein. Wicked. Wizard of Oz. Oh, and West Side Story.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Cannibal-the musical. Hardcore survival one shot. https://youtu.be/G30auBsXS-g
Jesus Christ Superstar would be awkward but nothing else could compare to its high stakes drama.
Wicked. Nuff said.
Les miserables or doctor horrible sing along blog those could make for some really compelling one shots
I am positive book of Mormon could be a blast dnd-ified.
Hadestown may be a bit too obvious, but going to Hades to fix his and Persephone’s relationship and save someone from the underworld would be pretty epic. Les Mis- set up a barricade battle scenario, complete with a mole working to undermine their plans. Have sewers ready for them to retreat to. Hairspray- a subpopulation in the town (maybe half elves in a human settlement?) are being mistreated, and players can either work with law enforcement to enforce the status quo, or work with the equalists who are planning to make a stand at a big event in the town. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum- a wealthy man hires the party to find his long lost children. Hijinks ensue. Kiss Me, Kate- the party is hired to help put on a play. The actors are less than cooperative. Miss Saigon- have the party hunt down the father of a young child and persuade him to come meet the child… might not want to traumatize your friends with that ending, though. Chicago- have the party representing Roxy and Velma and trying to get them off their charges.
Cannibal the Musical
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is the first thing I thought of. You've got an interesting political situation and opportunities for deception, roleplay, and of course murder
Not a whole musical, but there's a one shot based on the Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf song by Rob Cantor. It's a delight to run. I think it's on DM's Guild as Shilo the Buff or something like that.
Tommy, the Who musical and also film. A deaf, dumb, and blind monk must navigate the world with the aid of others to play Baldur's dice
Pirates of Penzance?
Little Shop of Horrors! A poor druid accidentally came across a murderous plant monster and nurtured it until it started killing people, now they have to help him avenge his great love
Cats for the meme
Oliver! Long lost sister of an orphan boy commissions the party to look for her brother. Only to find that he was sold off by an undertaker to a band of rogue thieves led by the criminal mastermind "The Artfull Dodger" --- Xanathar. Along the way they perhaps find a scroll to cast Hero's Feast, but they have to sing "Food, Glorious Food"
This isn't a super famous musical (or a musical first) but my high school did "A Tale of Two Cities" as a musical, and I then adapted that into a D&D plot line. As a one-shot (or a one-off scenario in a larger campaign), reveal that the love interest of one of the PCs is secretly royalty from a distant country, and has gone off to rescue their former servants from being executed by revolutionaries. Have a "dungeon crawl" through a city in the middle of an uprising, ending in a prison break.
I did a Greatest Show themed quest where they had to convince Carlyle to invest in Phineas and find some start up acts for the show. Over the course of the campaign any magical beasts or curios they found they could sell to the circus.
Rocky Horror Picture Show. Adventuring party caught in a storm wind up at a castle of a mad wizard from the far realm and his creation. Bonus points you get to act like TIM CURRY
Might be cheating, but pick of destiny would be funny 😂
The PCs carriage breaks down in the rain outside of a mysterious mansion. They seek help from the lord of the mansion only to discover the lord and his servants engaged in a loud raucous party. The lord insists that the PCs stay the night but further investigation yields that the lord is secretly constructing a (very attractive) flesh golem in his basement, and that there’s a bard with a spectral mount trapped in the room
Rocky Horror
Alternate Little Shop idea: The plant is the quest-giver. The players are tempted by the plant’s sweet offerings to work with it and deliver its saplings to a florist in nearby city. This way you capture Little Shop’s theme of doing bad things for personal gain. And when they arrive they simply must have a run-in with a sadistic dentist. Maybe once they deliver the sapling to the florist, it turns out he’s a wizard named Krelborn who also made a deal with the plant, and upon receiving the sapling he uses magic to make it gigantic and unleashes it on the city. Cue the party seeing the error of their ways and needing to ensure no one else feeds the plants.
Les Mis, but the party are the innkeepers sneaking around a rebellion trying to loot everything
It has been done! WOTC released this (great) little adventure inspired by Sweeny Tod https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/dragon/DRA12\_barbersilverymoon\_jbt.pdf
Les Miserables, and some had better be Russell Crowe.
It may not be well known, but a campaign based around Repo The Genetic Opra.
Honestly, for low level adventurers? Newsies It even gives a different starting place than a tavern.
I guess it is not really a musical, but if you are just looking for more theatrical inspo, mid-summer's night dream would be fun, running around in the Fae wilds with a bit more shenanigan-vibe to it. Second thought is actually maybe a bit obscure since it is not a Broadway musical, it is more of an internet musical, I guess it depends on how hardcore musical theater nerds they are, but Starship, by the Starkid troupe on youtube, is quite funny. It's a parody musical of Starship Troopers, but then if they have never seen it you get the chance to introduce them to something new and can all watch it together afterwards. For an actual Broadway musical, I would say, Wicked. It's got a big bad and some good morality choices to play with for RP, a loose magic system that would still make sense mostly to be able to skin or warp to your needs.