All good dungeon masters borrow ideas from their favorite books and movies, but only great dungeon masters steal. And "One Shot to Die Hard For" steals ideas hand over fist - it's a D&D adventure based on the classic action movie Die Hard, with a dungeon map based on the real world building that appears as the Nakatomi Plaza in the movie.
The premise is simple - the party have been invited to celebrate the winter solstice on the top floors of Archmage Nakatomi's tower. But "when a group of mercenaries led by a revenge-seeking criminal mastermind crash the party and take the guests hostage, it's up to the adventurers to get everybody out alive".
One Shot to Die Hard For is published by indie DnD designer Redcap Press, and is available from Itch.io and DriveThru RPG. Wargamer hasn't tested it, but with the DnD release schedule so slow (and our fondness for Bruce Willis' early action movies so great) an eye-catching indie one-shot for a party of level three adventurers feels worth a look.
Since the heroes are attending a social event they all start the adventure without any gear or spells prepared - they have to acquire what equipment they can by taking down the mercenaries. If the party can survive, they'll make it out of the adventure with some very unusual magic items, including "fireball putty", a "thunderstick", and a "runic siege tube" - bonus points if you can work out which modern day weapons those each correspond to.
This is a location based rather than linear adventure, and the party has a lot of freedom in how it moves around the tower. It wouldn't be Die Hard without ventilation ducts to crawl through, after all, so "Each floor has a mapped-out ventilation system with various exit points, connected to a vertical shaft that runs between floors", and "There's an elevator too, with a ceiling hatch to the elevator shaft".
I'm certain that knowledge of Die Hard will give you an advantage when playing this adventure, and extra enjoyment from the (none-too-subtle) Easter eggs, like the fact that the villain behind the hostage situation is known as 'The Hands' and can speak German (as well as Common and Orc). Were I to run this, there would be a big bonus XP reward to whichever player threw The Hands off the top of Archmage Nakatomi's Tower at the end of the adventure.
If you do give this one shot a shot, tell us how it goes in the Wargamer Discord community! We love to hear how your adventures are going. For a weekly rundown of the best stories from Wargamer, sign up to our regular newsletter.
The cool die in the header image to this article is made by Norse Foundry.