5e One-Shot: pared down play for getting started quickly

Last time I ran an adventure at the local library, I was delighted to find that one of my players was an octogenarian who knew nothing about D&D but was rarin' to go. What could be better than introducing the game to someone like this?

Except.

It caused a real disconnect with the other players. Spending time bringing her up to speed was time where the others were twiddling their thumbs.

It doesn't need to be like that. At its core, D&D 5e isn't all that different than those simple Arnesonian systems. The mechanic you need to know is:

Roll a d20.
Higher is better.
Your character sheet might give you bonuses to add to this roll.

You should be able to start playing with just that. Damage rolls and hit dice and whatnot can be explained when they become relevant.

Except.

The character sheet. It's full of a lot of information that takes a bit of experience to get your head around. In this case we were using pre-gens that, unfortunately, also had great slabs of character background, turning the sheet into a wall of text. It took too long to navigate.

So, here's a quick character generation system (even quicker than the last one) that creates simple, broad characters for one-shot play. And they're compatible with 5e adventures, provided your referee has an ounce of flexibility.

EDIT: If you're interested in checking out 5e One-Shot, please let me direct you to the most recent edition: 5e One-Shot v.2!

5e One-Shot

(Exciting Colorful Edition)

5e One-Shot

(Boring Greyscale Printer-Friendly Edition)

It results in characters that look like this:

Ianto the Alluring

Doctor +2

CHA +4

DEX +2

Fighter +2

AC 20

HP 16

Long Sword +2

Longbow +4

Companion: Tujjar the Squire

Rosamund the Clever

Herbalist +2

INT +4

CON +2

Wizard +2

AC 10

HP 8

Spell Save 14

Dagger +2

Ray of Frost +6

Spells: Silent Image, Grease, Sleep

Fredegonde the Stout

Beggar +2

STR +4

INT +2

Jack-of-All-Trades +2

Armor 12

HP 8

Rapier +6

Short Bow +2

What do you think? Would you be at all interested in playing a session of this?

Knaves, fancypants

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An Abominable Fancy

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