These silly homebrew ideas are perfect for a lighthearted DND Thanksgiving adventure!

Lots of people are poking around the internet for D&D Thanksgiving one shot ideas. And why shouldn’t they? Dungeons & Dragons and Thanksgiving have a lot in common. Both a joyous occasion of friends and family gathered around the table to share something together. A D&D Thanksgiving adventure is a great way to bring together your loved ones for a shared experience you won’t soon forget! Just to make things fun, we’ve come up with our own Thanksgiving D&D ideas to share with you and yours this holiday season.

Notes:

All of these materials here are based on the 2024 D&D rules. For a better understanding of what this means, read our article on the various rulesets here.
We only share games and resources we’ve used and/or highly recommend. If you end up buying anything through the affiliate links on this page, we get a small commission (at no extra cost to you) that goes towards our YDS Scholarships.

All-Ages Thanksgiving D&D Game Ideas For Your Family

Family Fantasy RPG is a great option for a DND Thanksgiving One Shot the whole family can play!

First things first: can you actually play D&D at Thanksgiving? What if you' have people who struggle with focus, people who don’t like complicated rules, or people who have a hard time reading, doing math, or performing dexterous tasks? This can be a big barrier for folks (young and old) to play games like D&D. But fortunately, there are options to keep the game fun and engaging for everyone. For a variety of skill levels, there’s Family Fantasy RPG, which takes Dungeons & Dragons mechanics and breaks them down into tiers. It’s set up so that each player can choose their own difficulty level, but everyone can play the same game together! For an overall simpler game, there’s Mazes Fantasy Roleplaying, which keeps the fantasy dungeon-crawler style of D&D but greatly simplifies the rules (no math!) while keeping the game flexible, creative, and crunchy. Dungeon Master Steph has also shared some great game-modification ideas over at their web site, TTRPGkids.

Become A Master of Turkeys In Your Thanksgiving D&D One Shot

Summoning a powerful turkey ally is a pretty great Thanksgiving DND idea

We decided to give a classic D&D ranger subclass a Thanksgiving twist. Introducing the Master of Turkeys subclass:

Level 3: Turkey Spirit

You magically summon a large turkey, which draws strength from your bond with nature. The turkey is Friendly to you and your allies and obeys your commands. It vanishes if you die.

Combat Turkey. In combat, the turkey acts during your turn. It can move and use its Reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action unless you take a Bonus Action to command it to take an action in its stat block or some other action. You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Gobble Gobble action. If you have the Incapacitated condition, the turkey acts on its own and isn’t limited to the Dodge action.

Restoring or Replacing the Turkey. If the turkey has died within the last hour, you can take a Magic action to touch it and expend a spell slot. The turkey returns to life after 1 minute with all its Hit Points restored. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can resummon the turkey, which appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. If you already have a turkey summoned, the old one vanishes when the new one appears.

Turkey Spirit Stats

Medium Beast, Neutral

AC: 13 plus your Wisdom modifier

HP: 5 plus five times your Ranger level (the turkey has a number of Hit Dice [d8s] equal to your Ranger level)

Speed 40 ft., Climb 40 ft., Fly 60 ft. (Must end turn on the ground)

STR Score: 14 Mod: +2 Save: +2
DEX Score: 14 Mod: +2 Save: +2
CON Score: 15 Mod: +2 Save: +2
INT Score: 8 Mod: -1 Save: -1
WIS Score: 14 Mod: +2 Save: +2
CHA Score: 11 Mod: +0 Save: +0

Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Passive Perception 12

Languages Understands the languages you know

CR None (XP 0; PB equals your Proficiency Bonus)

Traits

Bond of Thanks. Add your Proficiency Bonus to any ability check or saving throw the turkey makes.

Pardon Me. The turkey doesn’t provoke Opportunity Attacks when it flies out of an enemy’s reach.

Actions

Gobble Gobble. Your turkey rushes in with a vicious strike of its beak. Melee Attack Roll: Bonus equals your spell attack modifier, reach 5 ft. Hit: 1d8 + 2 plus your Wisdom modifier Piercing damage. If the turkey moved at least 20 feet straight toward the target before the hit, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the same type, and the target has the Prone condition if it is a Large or smaller creature.

Level 7: Turkey Trot

When you take a Bonus Action to command your turkey to take an action, you can also command it to take the Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action using its Bonus Action.

In addition, whenever it hits with an attack roll and deals damage, the turkey can deal your choice of Force damage or its normal damage type.

Level 11: Fowl Fury

When you command your turkey to take the Gobble Gobble action, the turkey can use it twice.

In addition, the first time each turn it hits a creature under the effect of your Hunter’s Mark spell, the turkey deals extra Force damage equal to the bonus damage of that spell.

Level 15: Give Thanks, Share Spells

When you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also affect your turkey with the spell if the turkey is within 30 feet of you.

Thanksgiving D&D Idea: Autumn Spells

Some leafy spells are a great addition to a Thanksgiving DND adventure

Thanksgiving is right in the transition from autumn to winter – right when the ground is filled with colorful leaves. So why not infuse them with nature magic? Here are a few options:

Bladed Leaves

You conjure spinning leaves in a 5-foot Cube centered on a point within range. Each creature in that area takes 4d4 Slashing damage. A creature also takes this damage if it enters the Cube or ends its turn there or if the Cube moves into its space. A creature takes this damage only once per turn.

On your later turns, you can take a Magic action to teleport the Cube up to 30 feet.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 2d4 for each spell slot level above 2.

Tempting Leaf Pile

Beautiful crunchy leaves fill a 20-foot square on ground that you can see within range. For the duration, these leaves turn the ground in that area into Difficult Terrain.

Each creature in that area makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is overcome with the whimsy of jumping in the leaves, and it has the Restrained condition until the spell ends. A creature also makes that save if it enters the area or ends it turn there. A creature makes that save only once per turn.

A Restrained creature can take an action to make a Wisdom (Insight) check against your spell save DC, realizing their magical nature and ending the condition on itself on a success.

Healing Mashed Potatoes for a Thanksgiving D&D adventure

Having consumable items is a must for a Thanksgiving DND one shot

Sure, you could heal with regular old magic, but what if you infused your healing energy with the deliciousness of mashed potatoes! Here are some item and spell options for the healing power of a good mashed potato:

Plate of Mashed Potatoes

Item, Uncommon

Upon consuming this item, regain 2d8 hit points. If extra butter was added, healing increases by 2d8.

Cook Mashed Potatoes

You gather around a cauldron to prepare delicious mashed potatoes. Up to five creatures of your choice can gather around to share this dish. They gain the benefits of a Short Rest and also regain 2d8 Hit Points. A creature can’t be affected by this spell again until that creature finishes a Long Rest.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The healing increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 2.

Buttery Smell

The scent of butter and potatoes radiates from you in a 30-foot Emanation for the duration. While in the aura, you and your allies have Resistance to Necrotic damage, and your Hit Point maximums can’t be reduced. If an ally with 0 Hit Points starts its turn in the aura, that ally regains 1 Hit Point.

A Magic Cornucopia is a Great D&D Thanksgiving Idea

Using a cornucopia as a magic item is a great DND Thanksgiving one shot idea

As a symbol of plenty, cornucopia fits both a time of feasting and a great potential resource for your D&D party. We’ve constructed this high-level magic item for your DND Thanksgiving campaign.

Cornucopia of Plenty

Magic Item, rare

This cornucopia has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use a Magic Action and expend 1 charge to produce one of the following effects:

Feast of Thanks. All plants in a half-mile radius centered on the cornucopia within range become enriched for 365 days. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested. They can benefit from only one use of the Cornucopia of Plenty per year.

The cornucopia regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the cornucopia’s last charge, roll 1d20. On a 1, the cornucopia crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.

Expedited Harvest. Choose a point you can see within 150 ft. All normal plants in a 100-foot-radius Sphere centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through that area must spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves. You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the area from being affected.

Healing Aura. Up to six creatures of your choice that you can see within 60 ft. regain Hit Points equal to 2d4 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. You may expend any number of additional charges; the healing increases by 1d4 for each additional charge expended

Every D&D Thanksgiving One Shot Needs This Bard

A Thankgiving DND adventure is made all the more fun with a Christmas bard….

We all have that one friend who starts playing Christmas music on November 1st and doesn’t stop until well into January (or later). The Bard of Christmas Spirit is that friend:

Level 3: Reindeer Games

You gain proficiency with three skills of your choice.

Level 3: Jingle Bells

You always have some bells and a song ready to distract, annoy, and otherwise sap the focus and competence of others. When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself makes a damage roll or succeeds on an ability check or attack roll, you can take a Reaction to expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration; roll your Bardic Inspiration die, and subtract the number rolled from the creature’s roll, reducing the damage or potentially turning the success into a failure.

Level 6: Let it Snow!

You learn the spells Ray of Frost and Ice Knife. You always have these spells prepared, and whenever you gain a Bard level, you can replace one of the spells with another on this list:

Armor of Agyathys (1st Level)
Chromatic Orb (Cold damage only, 1st Level)
Ice Storm (4th Level)
Cone of Cold (5th Level)
Wall of Ice (6th Level)
Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere (6th Level)
Control Weather (Temperature Stages 4, 5, and 6 only, 8th Level)

A spell you choose must be a cantrip or a spell for which you have spell slots, as shown in the Bard Features table.

Level 14: All I Want For Christmas (Is A Nat 20)

When you make an ability check or attack roll and fail, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to summon the spirit of Mariah Carey to sing the most powerful song you know. Roll the Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to the d20, potentially turning a failure into a success. On a failure, the song stops at the opening, and the Bardic Inspiration isn’t expended.

Play A Thanksgiving D&D Adventure with Us!

This kind of goofy themed D&D shenanigans is exactly the kind of thing we get up to here at Young Dragonslayers. We run games of Dungeons & Dragons for tweens and teens entirely online, so you can invite friends and family from around the world to play with you. Our professional Dungeon Masters will custom build an adventure based on your requests and teach you and your fellow players how the game goes. Maybe a Young Dragonslayers birthday party or family weekend can go on your holiday gift list this year!

Thanksgiving DND One Shot Ideas