Wrecked: D&D 5e Shipwreck Survival Sdventure for Small Groups

A D&D 5e shipwreck survival adventure where every supply run matters and the island is trying to kill you. Wrecked drops 2-3 players onto a remote volcanic island with a damaged ship, no supplies, and three days before the whole place goes up in lava. What they gather across those three days determines exactly how the final escape plays out — and something ancient and enormous is circling in the water waiting for them to try.

This is a zero-prep one-shot from Anvil N Ink Publishing, part of the Ready Adventure Series. Open the book, hand the players a map, and run it tonight. No prep required.

The Map Is the Game

Most adventures tell players where to go. Wrecked hands them a map and steps back.

At the start of the adventure Captain Stoic Steve — a weathered sailor with an iron hook for a hand and a wound bound in torn cloth — spreads a rough journal sketch on the beach. Six island locations, each marked with what it offers and how dangerous it is. Bamboo for timber. Tide pools for fresh water and shellfish. A jungle interior thick with food. A freshwater spring with a harpoon embedded in a nearby tree. An older shipwreck at the far end of the beach loaded with timber but guarded by something that does not rest. A shrine partway up the volcano with a ship’s cannon dragged there as an offering long ago.

Players can see all of it. The resource yields. The threat ratings. The tradeoffs. Then they decide where to go.

Over three days the structure is simple: one location on Day One, two back-to-back with no rest between them on Day Two, one final location on Day Three. Four visits out of six available. Each morning of Day Two and Day Three a lava roll removes a numbered location from the map permanently. The spot they were saving for last may not be there anymore. No two sessions of Wrecked play identically — because every group plans differently and the lava does not care about anyone’s plans.

What You Gather Is What You Fight With

The supply system is where Wrecked earns its tension. Players are not collecting resources in the abstract — they are directly building the conditions of their final fight.

The targets are 10 timber, 10 food, and 10 water across four location visits. Reach full timber and the ship holds together during the sea monster encounter. Fall short and the hull takes damage each round. Full food means the players enter the boss fight at maximum hit points. Low food means they go in already hurt. Full water gives them advantage on attack rolls when they need it most. Short on water and they are rolling at disadvantage, dehydrated, swinging wild.

Every location has a skill challenge followed by a combat encounter. Pass the challenge and collect full resources. Fail and collect reduced resources — the supplies are still there, just harder won. The island gets more hostile each day. Skill challenge DCs increase as the volcano wakes. Creatures that were territorial on Day One are aggressive on Day Two and panicked on Day Three. The players are racing a clock that is also making the race harder.

Two locations carry weapon bonuses — a harpoon and a ship’s cannon — that can be brought to bear against the sea monster in the final act. Neither is required to win. Both shift the odds significantly. Choosing the weapon locations means trading off resource yields elsewhere. That is the decision the players will still be talking about after the session ends.

Six Locations, Six Different Fights

No two locations in Wrecked work the same way. Each has a distinct environment, a different resource profile, and a different creature threat — so visiting four of the six never feels repetitive.

The Bamboo Grove is the lowest-threat option and heavy on timber, but the giant centipedes nesting in the root system do not wait to be provoked. The Tide Pools offer the best fresh water on the island — and two Giant Crabs that will try to drag whoever they grapple toward the deep end. The Jungle Interior is food-rich and guarded by Giant Spiders that use the canopy for elevation and webs to isolate targets. The Freshwater Spring is balanced across all three resources, has the harpoon, and is claimed by a Lizardfolk patrol who consider it sacred ground. The Pirate Wreck is the highest timber yield on the map but the former crew animates the moment players enter the cargo hold. The Volcano Shrine sits partway up the mountain — cultivated gardens, a freshwater stream, the cannon — and Fire Snakes that regain hit points from fire damage. Every location has a non-combat path for players who think before they swing.

The Eruption and the Escape

Act Four does not ease in. The volcano erupts at dawn on Day Four and the players have minutes to push the ship off the rocks and into open water before lava reaches the beach. That is Phase One — a skill challenge with failure meaning hull damage before the fight even starts.

Phase Two is the sea monster. The creature that wrecked them is still there, still circling, and it attacks the moment the ship clears the shore. Every supply decision the players made across three days pays off or costs them here. The ship’s condition, their hit points, their attack modifiers, any weapon bonuses — it all comes from what they gathered. A well-supplied group arrives with advantages stacked in their favor. A group that made poor trades or missed key resources arrives in exactly the shape those choices deserve.

Phase Three is the escape itself. Drive off the monster, get clear of the dying island, and find out how far they make it. Full supplies and a clean fight means a shipping lane and rescue within a day. Partial success means adrift and waiting. The math is honest — the players built the outcome themselves, one supply run at a time.

What’s Inside Wrecked

Wrecked is a complete adventure ready to run without any additional materials. Inside this D&D 5e shipwreck survival adventure you will find a four-act adventure across three days and a climactic escape sequence, six fully detailed island locations each with a skill challenge, combat encounter, stat blocks, and a What If section covering common player decisions. The dynamic lava mechanic ensures no two sessions play identically. A supply consequence system connects every gathering choice directly to the final fight. Captain Stoic Steve is fully statted as an NPC with personality notes and read-aloud dialogue for each act. An island overview map, six battle maps, and a ship deck map are included. Four pre-generated characters — a Tortle Fighter, Hadozee Rogue, Human Ranger, and Dwarf Cleric — are ready to play. Campaign hooks and sequel threads round out the package for DMs who want to continue beyond the session.

A D&D 5e Ahipwreck Aurvival Adventure, Perfect For

Busy Dungeon Masters who want a complete, compelling session without spending hours in preparation. Read the introduction, skim the locations once, and you are ready.

Small groups of two or three players looking for an adventure built for their actual table size rather than scaled down from a larger design. Every encounter in Wrecked is written for 2-3 players at Level 2 or 3.

Players who want their choices to matter. The map huddle at the start of the adventure is genuine decision-making, not a choice between a good option and two bad ones. Eight of the fifteen possible four-location combinations reach full supply targets. Smart planning is rewarded. Complacency is punished.

One-shot nights and convention games where you need a self-contained adventure that runs cleanly in 2-3 hours with a clear dramatic payoff at the end.

DMs who want something different. No dungeon. No villain to defeat. No treasure. Just a ship, an island, and three days to survive it.

Part of the Ready Adventure Series

Wrecked is part of the Ready Adventure Series from Anvil N Ink Publishing — zero-prep one-shots designed specifically for small groups and Dungeon Masters who want to spend their time at the table, not behind it. Each adventure in the series is complete, standalone, and built to run in a single session.

Get Off the Island

The ship is on the rocks. The volcano is waking. Something old and enormous is circling in the water and it is not going to wait forever. Three days, six locations, one escape — whether the players make it depends entirely on the choices they make along the way.

Pick it up. Run it tonight. Find out if your crew can get off a dying island.

Wrecked is a D&D 5e shipwreck survival adventure for small groups who want meaningful choices, real consequences, and a session they will still be talking about on the drive home.