Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Dead Time A Zero-Prep Prison Break One-Shot for 2-3 Players: A D&D 5e Ready Adventure for Level 2-3 Characters

Dead Time A Zero-Prep Prison Break One-Shot for 2-3 Players: A D&D 5e Ready Adventure for Level 2-3 Characters

Mack, Tim

Paperback

Series: The Ready Adventure, Book 28

Fantasy

ISBN13: 9798254789758
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Apr 3 2026
Pages: 88
Weight: 0.28
Height: 0.18 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Your players have two hours. No prep on your end. Everything they need to break out of a burning prison is already on the table.

Dead Time is a complete, ready-to-run D&D 5e one-shot adventure for 2-3 players, designed for Level 2-3 characters and a 2-3 hour session. Open it, read the two-page Story Arc Overview, and run it tonight. No prep required.

The players have been wrongfully imprisoned for a month. They weren't planning to escape today. But a riot just broke out in the mess hall, the guards are overwhelmed, and for the first time since their arrest, the doors are open. They have one window. They are going to take it.

A Prison Break Built on Real Choices

Dead Time uses a six-location, three-act choice structure. In each act, players choose between two locations - one held by rioting prisoners, one controlled by guards. Each location holds a tool they need for the final escape. The tools they carry, and how they got them, directly determine how Act 4 plays out.

There is no single correct path. Every combination of choices produces a different escape, a different chase, and a different ending. Players who kept a low profile face a different world than players who left a trail of bodies. The adventure remembers what they did.

The Faction Tracker

A hidden system runs beneath the adventure. Every location is controlled by a faction - rioting prisoners or prison guards. Entering a location and taking its tool costs something with that faction, and players never see the score. By Act 4, those hidden totals determine who is hunting them through the city streets and how hard those pursuers are willing to push. The consequences arrive without explanation.

The Escape Gauntlet

Act 4 is a four-section gauntlet - Gate Guard, The Door, The Wall, The Chase. Each section can be bypassed using the right tool, or fought through without one. The chase that follows is five pre-written obstacles through city streets, each with a fixed skill check, building toward a finish line the players know: the tannery alley they clocked on intake day, the cellar hatch, the dark and the distance. After that, pursuit collapses. They are gone.

What's Inside:

  • Complete 2-3 hour one-shot adventure for 2-3 players, Level 2-3
  • Six fully detailed encounter locations across four acts
  • Six battle maps - one per location - with full tactical notation
  • 10 fully statted NPCs and combatants including named faction leaders, veteran guards, and the Warden himself
  • Four ready-made Level 2 characters - Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Bard - pick up and play with no character creation required
  • Faction Tracker reference sheet - hidden scoring system with full Act 4 consequence table
  • 24 possible epilogue combinations based on faction scores and body count
  • Five DM Hooks for the players' wrongful conviction backstory
  • What If sections in every encounter covering common player deviations

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