Alright, so this is my absolute first time DMing a campaign and to be fair, I'm quite nervous.
Basically the party meet in a tavern (haha, yes a classic) in a town that has some deeper roots of bad magic. I want this to start simple first, because I genuinely have no idea what I am doing. The party starts at lvl 5 and there's a few things they can do.
A) They see the people hide at night in their houses, soon they find out that the town is being attacked by small dolls made of wheat sheaves. The children of the town are being taught how to make them by an old lady on a farm.. Who's low and behold, not an old lady, but a night hag.
B) They can go to an abandoned mine where they will meet a young boy scared out of his soul and a man comforting him. The man says the boy merely got scared storming into the dark caves and came across a rat, but the boy insists there is a shadow man in the mines. If the party decides to investigate, they will be met in absolute darkness and will have to find a way to navigate the mines, because this creature can only be fought in the dark, as it vanishes away in the light. (Need a creature idea for this.)
C) This one's kind of an odd idea and I am not sure how to execute this in case the party goes there, so I'd need help with this one. There's a very thick pine forest no one dares to wander in for long, the longer the party spends time there, the weirder things get. Maybe they start hallucinating about their past or important events that happened in their lives, what scares them or what lures them in. Perhaps the longer they stay there, little things begin vanishing from their inventory (though I wouldn't know how to execute that without pissing people off, so it's probably a dumb idea).
Any other ideas what could make this campaign interesting or add some scariness to it? I thought of maybe adding a few little interactions here and there, especially at night because that's when things are most active (but the townspeople just pretend nothing happens, some however are more paranoid.)
Or any encounter ideas, those would help greatly or more quest options too! I know this is supposed to start out simple, but honestly I'll appreciate any help I can get (the campaign is over text so lots of narration there.)
I guess my first question is... why would they do any of these things.
Why would the party go into a thick pine forest that "no one dares wander in for long?" Just because it's there? Or do they have a reason to go in there? Why would they go into an abandoned mine in the first place? And having gone in there, why would they investigate the boy's story?
The first plot seems the most straight-forward, as perhaps the party doesn't obey the "curfew" and gets attacked by the killer dolls. This might give them a reason to investigate, but as a DM, you have to consider that it might give them a reason to just *leave the town*. What reason do they have to continue investigating?
You have "what's going on" but you don't have "why would the party even care?"
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Those are some very fair questions, honestly I'm really lost at the moment with all of these, but a few ideas I've had that there's some sort of entity, a powerful fiend or something else that took over the village and will not let anyone leave that it doesn't want to. Perhaps the party didn't find the town, but the town found them and they have to figure out a way out of there or else they might be there forever. I think maybe that would be a reason to care, also one of the party members wants to play some sort of paranormal investigator, so there's something.
The pine forest I have yet to figured out, that's why I'm looking for some ideas that anyone might have that can spark a bit of inspiration.
Paranormal investigator is good, that gives them a reason to investigate odd things. I think also having them trapped and needing to find a way out of the village is good -- this would give them a reason to explore different avenues.
I think you want to be careful in your first game to not make it overly difficult on yourself. If you come up with three complete and different adventures, but the party is only going to go on one, that is an awful lot of work. You might want to see fi you can pare it down.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I'll definitely keep it in mind. I don't want to make the adventures too complicated, they're supposed to be just little side quests that lead to the main thing, kind of to give a hint to the party that things are wrong here and if they want to go, they must get to the bottom of it.
Really appreciate the thought! I have some few new things I thought of that I'll note down. I'm thinking of maybe giving them some hints that there's other ways to escape, but eventually there is the hint that the only way to get out, is through freeing the town.
I've actually been working on a Domain of Dread (and corresponding Darklord) that has a similar feel to what you're describing above. The basic concept is that majority of the domains population live the lone small town in a thick mountain forest. People live fairly peacefully within the town walls, but they fear the "evils" that lurk outside in the woods. Both familial and religious traditions are very important to the townsfolk, who believe their ways keep them safe and secure from outside dangers.
Just a few suggestions for potential ideas that you might want to borrow to help flesh out your own campaign:
Create an NPC that serves the fiendish (or otherwise) entity that took over and rules the village. NPC might be some sort of cultist (or warlock) that knows about the entity and has chosen to willingly serve it, or this NPC could be more of a benign acolyte or priest that unknowingly supports the entity by preaching its teachings. Either option works to help promote maintaining the status quo and keeping the population quiet and contained within this "trapped" state.
Create an NPC that would be diametrically opposed to the previous example. Perhaps, this person is the jaded town drunk, who constantly complains about the banality of the village and how deluded most of the citizens are. They're willing to share their opinions to those who listen, especially if they buy him a couple drinks to loosen his tongue.
Both of these NPCs can offer information and motivation for the player characters. Perhaps, the "town drunk" recommends that the party check out the town at night to see what happens after the recommended curfew. Or, maybe they the recommend that investigating the mine would help provide the truth behind why nobody ever seems to leave. The "village priest" sends the bold adventurers into the old pine forest to help with a mission that the townsfolk are too scared to handle, but they expect that these troublesome heroes will be killed by the monsters lurking deep in the woods.
Again, just a couple additional ideas that might help out, but I wanted to provide some potential reasons of why the PCs might get involved with some of your quests.
If you're new to DMing, you will probably have trouble dealing with 5th level characters. You really should learn to swim before diving into the deep end. Tier 1 stops at 4th level, and 5th is when people start getting things like extra attacks per round and such. That's when Wizards pick up Fireball and really come into their own.
At 4th level people have the choice between adding two points worth to their scores or taking a feat, and some of those feats can really change how their character plays.
I honestly think that for a new DM, you should pick up a published adventure and play it through. Start with first level characters. Once you've seen it all in action, then take a look at what you have and see how to implement it. You have some great ideas. I think Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft may be exactly what you are looking for, but being a DM is quite an investment in time, and if you're using D&D Beyond as a DM, it becomes pretty expensive, even if other people have content that they can share, it takes a Master Tier subscription to use that, and that cost me 55 bucks for a year. I am pretty sure you can pay by the month for under 5 bucks, but I can't check myself.
C) This one's kind of an odd idea and I am not sure how to execute this in case the party goes there, so I'd need help with this one. There's a very thick pine forest no one dares to wander in for long, the longer the party spends time there, the weirder things get. Maybe they start hallucinating about their past or important events that happened in their lives, what scares them or what lures them in. Perhaps the longer they stay there, little things begin vanishing from their inventory (though I wouldn't know how to execute that without pissing people off, so it's probably a dumb idea).
For having items go missing, I would borrow from an arc in Critical Role where this was a mechanic. instead of you picking or having it be random, have the players select an item from their inventory at random intervals as they explore the forest or have them make some kind of skill check to see if they lose track of the items. This works on a couple of different levels. 1. They'll likely never pick their favored items so this is much less likely to piss them off and from what I can tell by aiming at little things, you aren't trying to have them lose those main items anyways. And 2. They'll most likely pick items that they never really use anyways and thus would make sense that they'd easily lose them. The main downside to this approach is that your players will automatically know what's going and might be a little meta-gamy about it.
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Alright, so this is my absolute first time DMing a campaign and to be fair, I'm quite nervous.
Basically the party meet in a tavern (haha, yes a classic) in a town that has some deeper roots of bad magic. I want this to start simple first, because I genuinely have no idea what I am doing. The party starts at lvl 5 and there's a few things they can do.
A) They see the people hide at night in their houses, soon they find out that the town is being attacked by small dolls made of wheat sheaves. The children of the town are being taught how to make them by an old lady on a farm.. Who's low and behold, not an old lady, but a night hag.
B) They can go to an abandoned mine where they will meet a young boy scared out of his soul and a man comforting him. The man says the boy merely got scared storming into the dark caves and came across a rat, but the boy insists there is a shadow man in the mines. If the party decides to investigate, they will be met in absolute darkness and will have to find a way to navigate the mines, because this creature can only be fought in the dark, as it vanishes away in the light. (Need a creature idea for this.)
C) This one's kind of an odd idea and I am not sure how to execute this in case the party goes there, so I'd need help with this one. There's a very thick pine forest no one dares to wander in for long, the longer the party spends time there, the weirder things get. Maybe they start hallucinating about their past or important events that happened in their lives, what scares them or what lures them in. Perhaps the longer they stay there, little things begin vanishing from their inventory (though I wouldn't know how to execute that without pissing people off, so it's probably a dumb idea).
Any other ideas what could make this campaign interesting or add some scariness to it? I thought of maybe adding a few little interactions here and there, especially at night because that's when things are most active (but the townspeople just pretend nothing happens, some however are more paranoid.)
Or any encounter ideas, those would help greatly or more quest options too! I know this is supposed to start out simple, but honestly I'll appreciate any help I can get (the campaign is over text so lots of narration there.)
I guess my first question is... why would they do any of these things.
Why would the party go into a thick pine forest that "no one dares wander in for long?" Just because it's there? Or do they have a reason to go in there? Why would they go into an abandoned mine in the first place? And having gone in there, why would they investigate the boy's story?
The first plot seems the most straight-forward, as perhaps the party doesn't obey the "curfew" and gets attacked by the killer dolls. This might give them a reason to investigate, but as a DM, you have to consider that it might give them a reason to just *leave the town*. What reason do they have to continue investigating?
You have "what's going on" but you don't have "why would the party even care?"
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Those are some very fair questions, honestly I'm really lost at the moment with all of these, but a few ideas I've had that there's some sort of entity, a powerful fiend or something else that took over the village and will not let anyone leave that it doesn't want to. Perhaps the party didn't find the town, but the town found them and they have to figure out a way out of there or else they might be there forever. I think maybe that would be a reason to care, also one of the party members wants to play some sort of paranormal investigator, so there's something.
The pine forest I have yet to figured out, that's why I'm looking for some ideas that anyone might have that can spark a bit of inspiration.
Paranormal investigator is good, that gives them a reason to investigate odd things. I think also having them trapped and needing to find a way out of the village is good -- this would give them a reason to explore different avenues.
I think you want to be careful in your first game to not make it overly difficult on yourself. If you come up with three complete and different adventures, but the party is only going to go on one, that is an awful lot of work. You might want to see fi you can pare it down.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I'll definitely keep it in mind. I don't want to make the adventures too complicated, they're supposed to be just little side quests that lead to the main thing, kind of to give a hint to the party that things are wrong here and if they want to go, they must get to the bottom of it.
Really appreciate the thought! I have some few new things I thought of that I'll note down. I'm thinking of maybe giving them some hints that there's other ways to escape, but eventually there is the hint that the only way to get out, is through freeing the town.
I've actually been working on a Domain of Dread (and corresponding Darklord) that has a similar feel to what you're describing above. The basic concept is that majority of the domains population live the lone small town in a thick mountain forest. People live fairly peacefully within the town walls, but they fear the "evils" that lurk outside in the woods. Both familial and religious traditions are very important to the townsfolk, who believe their ways keep them safe and secure from outside dangers.
Just a few suggestions for potential ideas that you might want to borrow to help flesh out your own campaign:
Again, just a couple additional ideas that might help out, but I wanted to provide some potential reasons of why the PCs might get involved with some of your quests.
If you're new to DMing, you will probably have trouble dealing with 5th level characters. You really should learn to swim before diving into the deep end. Tier 1 stops at 4th level, and 5th is when people start getting things like extra attacks per round and such. That's when Wizards pick up Fireball and really come into their own.
At 4th level people have the choice between adding two points worth to their scores or taking a feat, and some of those feats can really change how their character plays.
I honestly think that for a new DM, you should pick up a published adventure and play it through. Start with first level characters. Once you've seen it all in action, then take a look at what you have and see how to implement it. You have some great ideas. I think Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft may be exactly what you are looking for, but being a DM is quite an investment in time, and if you're using D&D Beyond as a DM, it becomes pretty expensive, even if other people have content that they can share, it takes a Master Tier subscription to use that, and that cost me 55 bucks for a year. I am pretty sure you can pay by the month for under 5 bucks, but I can't check myself.
<Insert clever signature here>
For having items go missing, I would borrow from an arc in Critical Role where this was a mechanic. instead of you picking or having it be random, have the players select an item from their inventory at random intervals as they explore the forest or have them make some kind of skill check to see if they lose track of the items. This works on a couple of different levels. 1. They'll likely never pick their favored items so this is much less likely to piss them off and from what I can tell by aiming at little things, you aren't trying to have them lose those main items anyways. And 2. They'll most likely pick items that they never really use anyways and thus would make sense that they'd easily lose them. The main downside to this approach is that your players will automatically know what's going and might be a little meta-gamy about it.