Okay so, I... definitely spend too much time prepping for my games. I definitely need to make big changes because I currently spend like, 6 hours per map piece for my city setting, painstakingly drawing them out and it eats away at time for my actual art-job I have. I also do a lot of physical puzzles and clues that eat up time, but are the things my players enjoy the most about my DMing. These are things just to contextualize how I've ended up in the hole I'm in today.. because I've got no material and am having a brain fart in general from definitely overdoing it.
So! My setting is a giant Aarakocra + Elven city. Bird town. In terms of disparity between townsfolk, I've been focusing on just religion and class differences opposed to racism, it's been a good exercise for a fantasy setting. My players are all downtrodden, poor folk, that are building themselves up slowly with time. They just got 30 gold and that was a big deal to them. One of their friends died and they partially inherited a bar with an illegal fighting ring that they're spiffying up. They have some rivals in the illegal fighting/general underbelly of the city..
We just finished an arc where they went to save a wizard from a haunted house only for them to realize the wizard and "haunted house" were the same thing; a giant spirit-eating mimic that had gotten sick when a poison-based druid got inside it. They've befriended a giant mimic and it sometimes babysits their collective adopted child (that they kidnapped from an evil orphanage) and talking dog. Because of how things ended off, they didn't immediately pick up a new plotline, so it can go in any direction from here, and with the info above, I could push for something to happen, but am really blanking on something interesting..
tldr; I could use ideas for jumping off points to start a new arc/bad guy to chase for the session tonight.. urban setting stuff, weird happenings and mysteries, and lots of birds is the name of the game.
I'd appreciate any help given.. thank you for reading!
(Also if anyone wants to have a mimic house.... 10/10 would recommend. Was a lot of fun watching them figure it out and made for some fun puzzles and battle maps)
How about a cult enters the city and starts to have a large amount of people join, the lower class start to join due to the cults idea of classlessness and upper-class start to join due to people who only just joined cult are already able to cast 3rd level spells. In the end it could be reveled to be an Aboleth or a bunch of mind flares that are trying to consume the town. Hope this helped.
First thing that comes to mind, someone sends a bounty hunter or thief or something to kidnap the Orphan. If they interrogate, they say they were hired by the child's parent to rescue them. Whether it's the child's actual parent, or just someone associated with the Evil Orphanage who needs this child for something specific depends on what works best for your story, but I think it's a good jumping off point. Maybe the party could even return home to find that the Mimic House has already successfully captured this hireling and is holding them prisoner so the party can talk to them.
The talking dog could lead them to clandestine dogfights' promoters where they have their first clash with the other rivals in the illegal fighting industry.
Mmm... Sly Flourish has made rather a name for himself addressing your fundamental problem... https://slyflourish.com/ I can't recommend enough really.
sounds like a absolutely fantastic world you've already made for your players with plenty of depth to it... from what you've mentioned if your players aren't proactive in following a plot line you've already spent time on, you already have a plot line you can activate... "The Competition" as it were... have that local yakuza/mafia start muscling in on your players game
Mmm... maybe "The Competition" should be "Birds of a feather"
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Don't know if it'd work for your world, but in my own game I was going to eventually send my own players to a city that basically had Pennywise the Dancing Clown...
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Okay so, I... definitely spend too much time prepping for my games. I definitely need to make big changes because I currently spend like, 6 hours per map piece for my city setting, painstakingly drawing them out and it eats away at time for my actual art-job I have. I also do a lot of physical puzzles and clues that eat up time, but are the things my players enjoy the most about my DMing. These are things just to contextualize how I've ended up in the hole I'm in today.. because I've got no material and am having a brain fart in general from definitely overdoing it.
So! My setting is a giant Aarakocra + Elven city. Bird town. In terms of disparity between townsfolk, I've been focusing on just religion and class differences opposed to racism, it's been a good exercise for a fantasy setting. My players are all downtrodden, poor folk, that are building themselves up slowly with time. They just got 30 gold and that was a big deal to them. One of their friends died and they partially inherited a bar with an illegal fighting ring that they're spiffying up. They have some rivals in the illegal fighting/general underbelly of the city..
We just finished an arc where they went to save a wizard from a haunted house only for them to realize the wizard and "haunted house" were the same thing; a giant spirit-eating mimic that had gotten sick when a poison-based druid got inside it. They've befriended a giant mimic and it sometimes babysits their collective adopted child (that they kidnapped from an evil orphanage) and talking dog. Because of how things ended off, they didn't immediately pick up a new plotline, so it can go in any direction from here, and with the info above, I could push for something to happen, but am really blanking on something interesting..
tldr; I could use ideas for jumping off points to start a new arc/bad guy to chase for the session tonight.. urban setting stuff, weird happenings and mysteries, and lots of birds is the name of the game.
I'd appreciate any help given.. thank you for reading!
(Also if anyone wants to have a mimic house.... 10/10 would recommend. Was a lot of fun watching them figure it out and made for some fun puzzles and battle maps)
Enjoy this link: https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/adventure/
How about a cult enters the city and starts to have a large amount of people join, the lower class start to join due to the cults idea of classlessness and upper-class start to join due to people who only just joined cult are already able to cast 3rd level spells. In the end it could be reveled to be an Aboleth or a bunch of mind flares that are trying to consume the town. Hope this helped.
First thing that comes to mind, someone sends a bounty hunter or thief or something to kidnap the Orphan. If they interrogate, they say they were hired by the child's parent to rescue them. Whether it's the child's actual parent, or just someone associated with the Evil Orphanage who needs this child for something specific depends on what works best for your story, but I think it's a good jumping off point. Maybe the party could even return home to find that the Mimic House has already successfully captured this hireling and is holding them prisoner so the party can talk to them.
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The talking dog could lead them to clandestine dogfights' promoters where they have their first clash with the other rivals in the illegal fighting industry.
Here's an RPG Puzzle Generator https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/puzzle-generator/
Thank you so much! This really helps me get my brain moving<3
Mmm... Sly Flourish has made rather a name for himself addressing your fundamental problem... https://slyflourish.com/ I can't recommend enough really.
sounds like a absolutely fantastic world you've already made for your players with plenty of depth to it... from what you've mentioned if your players aren't proactive in following a plot line you've already spent time on, you already have a plot line you can activate... "The Competition" as it were... have that local yakuza/mafia start muscling in on your players game
Mmm... maybe "The Competition" should be "Birds of a feather"
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Don't know if it'd work for your world, but in my own game I was going to eventually send my own players to a city that basically had Pennywise the Dancing Clown...