Hey everyone! In the past ive only ever really done one shots and ive finally decided to make an actual campaign (maybe mini-campaign). I don't know what im doing and was wondering if yall could judge my outline:
Premice
The ruler has died and the different factions under him are fighting for the throne.
The king didn’t have a clear will written.
Maybe he died young
Perhaps assasination
The players are siblings that made a contractor organization
Find a way to build bonds and rivalries
The players have control over some things in advance and connections from years as contractors to help them
They have been hired by a daddy’s money princess who runs a weak faction that she has no clue how to run
She has a lot of money and connections from her father but doesn't know how to use them
She is a liability the players have to deal with when she says dangerous things
She is legally next in line but has no political power to get there
She trusts the players too much and will sign anything they give her without reading it
Opposing country takes the opportunity to siege the city trapping everyone with famine and disease
The siege will actually be a functioning thing and not just a “you can leave” thing
So, I'm going to make an assumption here, do correct me if I'm wrong. You've never read through an 'official' adventure campaign right?
The structure you've got is certainly interesting, but it very much feels like you want the party to be forced to doing diplomacy. Here's a few things the party could decide that would blow apart what you've constructed so far. - What happens if the party's first action is to just straight up kill the Princess? - What if they decide they want to fight their way through the siege anyhow? - What if the party negotiate a way out of the siege by letter enemy forces in?
Being honest, what you've got here isn't a D&D campaign. By that I mean it's more suited to other TTRPG systems. If we consider the three main pillars of D&D (Combat, Exploration, Social Interaction) you've got one, maybe two. Now that's okay, but truth be told the Social Interaction pillar is the weakest of the three within D&D unless you've got a party heavily invested in that style of play. I'm not saying that this campaign can't work, it'll just require a lot of work to make it work. D&D really is built so heavily around Combat and Exploration that even with the 5.5e rules (2024) there are few spells and abilities that will really help progress the adventure. This is the reason I asked if you'd ever read a WotC published adventure. They give you a great idea of where D&D shines and where it falls down. In fact I always tend to advice less experienced DMs to start by running a full length 'official' adventure so that they can see how it is all designed and why it's designed that way.
At the moment what you've got is worldbuilding. Great worldbuilding in fact, but perhaps my best suggestion would be to write some clear quests so that we have a better idea and are not bringing undue bias to our advice.
For example here's a level one starter quest I might give in your setting: - Hook: The Princess gives the party an order - Goal: find the princess' old tutor, Mairanna and convince her to be the Princess' advisor - Leads: some NPCs around court might know where Mairanna has moved since leaving the castle
This starter quest gives the party a clue where to start and a definitive goal. They need to bring Mairanna to the Princess so that the Princess can once again benefit from Mairanna's advice and counsel. They also have an idea that asking castle staff, or court members might reveal the place Mairanna went after leaving the castle. It's not the perfect structure, but might help better provide advice if you can give us an idea of what individual quests or tasks might look like.
I'm a newbie here but I pretty much agree with @martintheactor said here that you've got yourself world building (and a cool siege homebrew system) but you haven't planned for anything specifically for the party to do.
Adding to what they said, I'd plan possibility to have the party secretly work (if they agree so) for all factions to see which they actually agree with (kinda like fallout 4) through quests and see from there how they decide to act.
Thanks for the honest advice! And yes you are right about me never having actually read an official campagn. Now that you point out the flaws that my little campaign has I definitely can see what you mean. I was promising my players a great homebrew campaign that they could look forward to while I built it but I see now that I should prolly save that dream for a more experienced me and go with an offical campaign first. Do you have any particular offical campaigns you would recommend for both new players and new DM's (party of 6)?
Thanks for the honest advice! And yes you are right about me never having actually read an official campagn. Now that you point out the flaws that my little campaign has I definitely can see what you mean. I was promising my players a great homebrew campaign that they could look forward to while I built it but I see now that I should prolly save that dream for a more experienced me and go with an offical campaign first. Do you have any particular offical campaigns you would recommend for both new players and new DM's (party of 6)?
I wouldn't say give up on the dream, what I'm advocating for is for you to read a few adventures because it might help you get some ideas to steal for your own campaign. My list of recommended adventures is:
Dragon of Icespire Peak - A great example of a 'quest board' style adventure. Models a small town, and gives you an idea of how memorable NPCs can be drawn.
Lost Mine of Phandelver (or Phandelver and Below) - An oldie but a goodie. The adventure is a complete journey. Your players are given something to escort, and on the way they learn of a threat to the area - Goblins (and the people instructing the Goblins). The adventure spans a ruined castle, a mansion's basement, an hill and open environment, and a good old fashioned dungeon. In my opinion it really is the best of the starter adventures for players to learn with. Either way, it's set in the same town as Icespire Peak so there's a lot of similarities.
Curse of Strahd - A great example of how to do horror and higher levels with D&D. The adventure really gives readers and idea of how to mess with the rules in order to make play more exciting and thematic (specifically is alters death, spells, and introduces optional effects).
Icewind Dale - In my opinion gives readers a really clear example of how to work with hostile environments. In this case, the icy wastes of the setting really do enhance the adventure and make the setting just as much as character as NPCs.
Tales from the Yawning Portal - This one is an anthology of shorter adventures and is my favourite compilation of shorter adventures from WotC.
To help with your campaign in the meantime, there are a few basic styles of quests. I have a post-it note above my desk to glance at when planning future sessions and really helps whip up quick quests on the fly.
Delivery - Speaks for itself really, the party are tasked with delivering something to someone or somewhere. Along the way players might have to protect the delivery from wild animals, bandits, or the like. Random tables for enemies, and looking up the term 'hexcrawl' can really help with this one.
Investigation and Research - Party are tasked with learning the who, what, why, when, or how of stuff. Maybe its a magical crime scene they've been asked to investigate. Maybe a creepy building has just appeared that is scaring the village. Perhaps the Queen wants intelligence on the latest powerful faction that has developed in the kingdom. Set a goal for the investigation and draw up the scene around that goal. Don't worry about working out how the party will conduct the investigation. The set up for the GM can be as simple as a house which blew up. Inside players might find evidence of magic (detect magic and other spells), they might find tracks or footsteps outside the building which give the party a direction for further investigation, they might find an expended and dead magical wand of fireballs (evidence of foul play). Draw up a couple of NPCs who can be the neighbours (maybe they saw stuff, maybe the party have to intimidate or persuade).
Go Fetch! - Typical fetch quest. You see these in numerous video games. The party are told to go and get something. The item they're getting can be any old macguffin, in any old place. Deep in an old creepy tomb, abandoned mine protected by Kobolds, or in the possession of a corrupt noble. You need to location of the item, and the item itself. Everything else can come from random tables in the Dungeon Masters' Guide.
Kill, Crush, Destroy - Again fairly self-explanatory. A monster needs killing; a crime syndicate needs crushing; a possessed item needs destroying in the elemental fires. A location, and the thing to be destroyed, a few clues leading to the thing/creature is all you really need.
Protection Detail - The party are assigned to guard the crown jewels after hearing that a group of renown thieves are in town. A trader have some particularly valuable goods that people might want to steal, it's the party's job to protect them until they can be delivered/collected/deposited in the bank. The cleric of a shadow deity has been threatened, they need to be protected from injury while they cast wards around their temple.
Politics, Trade, Diplomacy - The one you're least likely to have combat in, but it's not impossible. Word has spread that the party have silver tongues (or are incredibly intimidating). They're being sent by the Mayor to finalise a trade deal with a nearby town to ensure that they're getting a fair deal. The Empire is under threat from a Lich Lord, the party are sent out to secure alliances with other nearby kingdoms so that the combined army can stand against the Lich's skeleton Hoarde. The Young Prince had too much to drink one night, and now the King needs you to deliver a formal apology to the allies her offended (might even include the party taking the Prince and training him how to apologise according the customs of the allies).
Survive/Prevent the catastrophe - A naive initiate of the magic circle has accidentally summoned a pack of fiends. Now the party and the initiate need to survive wave after wave of fiends. A corrupt old wizard has turned to darker arts to extend her life, unless she can be stopped she'll bring a curse upon the lands.
These basic frames can of course be combined and there's a lot of overlap, but I find these quite helpful as a guide when creating extra random quests as and when needed. Following on from this there are some basic elements of a quest that I also sometimes remind myself of to help build a new quest.
The Hook - The party introduction of the quest. Can be picked up from gossip the party hear, or an NPC directly asking the party, or maybe just from a quest board.
The Reward - What's in it for the party? Money, Magic Items, Reputation, Property?
The Goal - A single clear objective. What is it that the party must do?
Antagonists or Protagonists - Creating an NPC to be rescued, killed, or traded with. Who are they? What to they want?
Wrinkles, Obstacles, Challenges - Something that makes the quest more difficult to complete. Maybe the party get to the location of the sword they were asked to retrieve, but the cave has flooded and is now in the process of being colonised by Aboleths.
A time limit - Is there a reason that the quest needs to be completed within a set amount of time? What happens if the party are too quick, or too slow?
Resolution and Impact - Did your party become attached to an NPC? Did they inspire them? Did the party fail to rescue the NPC? What happens, how does the world change because the party succeeded or failed?
There are some random tables in both the 2014, and 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide that can help with this sort of stuff. Personally, I find the 2024 DMG to be a bit 'meh', but I know a lot of people find the 2014 DMG to be poorly laid out. It really is a subjective thing. I personally recommend people to get their hands on a copy of Kobold Press' Game Master's Guide for Tales of the Valiant. It is very well thought through, better laid out, and contains a LOT more useful and helpful information for DMs/GMs wanting to build their own world. Tales of the Valiant is not that different from D&D, but Kobold Press are just so much more inventive when it comes to monsters, and their worldbuilding advice really is second to none (in my opinion).
I would add to the bunch of adventures *Dragons of Stormwreck Isle* as it has some points designed to let you easily continue the story after you finish the adventure (like telling you a legend about the origin of the Isle and giving you LOTS of free space to work with).
Running your first campaign is certainly a daunting task. But if it works out, and if your players enjoy the game, it is incredibly rewarding.
My main advice for running a campaign is this: first, learn what characters your players are going to play. Then try to create moments and a story that works for them. If one of your players is playing a rogue, you want a story that gives that rogue space to do rogue things—like infiltration, sneak attacks, and clever tricks. If someone is playing a ranger, it makes sense to include wilderness, tracking, and time spent in forests. If you have a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock, you want encounters where powerful magic actually matters.
That is how I approach building a story. I look at it this way: I create a plot for the players and their characters, and they turn that plot into a story.
Usually, I start with a plot hook—an inciting incident that introduces a MacGuffin. For example, the king dies and there is no clear heir. That is a solid beginning, but the real question is: how do you make the characters care about it?
There is also the question of structure. Do you want a sandbox campaign, or something more guided, with a bit of railroading? Whatever you and your players decide is completely fine. Personally, I like to think in terms of loose story threads and places—points of interest where something interesting might happen or where secrets are hidden. I tend to think more in locations than in fixed stories.
Woah thats one detailed reply right there! Thanks so much for the big help! I'll make sure to update my campaign and when it seems good ill post another forum to review it. Thanks again!
Honestly, while the criticisms are valid, this is a strong setting for a responsive campaign. You have the factions, including one that the players are (currently) in. Each faction has a motivation. Think less of adventure locales and more windows of time. "This is what's going on right now. You have the following requests, etc. to consider. What will you do over the next month?"
It's intrigue and political adventure to start. You might look into picking up the Birthright Campaign Setting for inspiration. It's a 2e setting with a system for political action and adventure. Ignore the setting and other stuff and you have a credible political mechanic.
More recently, MCDM's Kingdoms & Warfarebook does similar in a different way.
Overall you have a framework for why different people are doing things. Sort out the What They Do one step at a time and you'll have a nice non-linear setting for adventure.
Hey everyone! In the past ive only ever really done one shots and ive finally decided to make an actual campaign (maybe mini-campaign). I don't know what im doing and was wondering if yall could judge my outline:
Premice
The Factions
Faction 1: The princess
Faction 2: The king killer
Faction 3: The pragmatists
Faction 4: The faith
Siege System
Each week:
Each player action will improve one and lower another
So, I'm going to make an assumption here, do correct me if I'm wrong. You've never read through an 'official' adventure campaign right?
The structure you've got is certainly interesting, but it very much feels like you want the party to be forced to doing diplomacy. Here's a few things the party could decide that would blow apart what you've constructed so far.
- What happens if the party's first action is to just straight up kill the Princess?
- What if they decide they want to fight their way through the siege anyhow?
- What if the party negotiate a way out of the siege by letter enemy forces in?
Being honest, what you've got here isn't a D&D campaign. By that I mean it's more suited to other TTRPG systems. If we consider the three main pillars of D&D (Combat, Exploration, Social Interaction) you've got one, maybe two. Now that's okay, but truth be told the Social Interaction pillar is the weakest of the three within D&D unless you've got a party heavily invested in that style of play. I'm not saying that this campaign can't work, it'll just require a lot of work to make it work. D&D really is built so heavily around Combat and Exploration that even with the 5.5e rules (2024) there are few spells and abilities that will really help progress the adventure. This is the reason I asked if you'd ever read a WotC published adventure. They give you a great idea of where D&D shines and where it falls down. In fact I always tend to advice less experienced DMs to start by running a full length 'official' adventure so that they can see how it is all designed and why it's designed that way.
At the moment what you've got is worldbuilding. Great worldbuilding in fact, but perhaps my best suggestion would be to write some clear quests so that we have a better idea and are not bringing undue bias to our advice.
For example here's a level one starter quest I might give in your setting:
- Hook: The Princess gives the party an order
- Goal: find the princess' old tutor, Mairanna and convince her to be the Princess' advisor
- Leads: some NPCs around court might know where Mairanna has moved since leaving the castle
This starter quest gives the party a clue where to start and a definitive goal. They need to bring Mairanna to the Princess so that the Princess can once again benefit from Mairanna's advice and counsel. They also have an idea that asking castle staff, or court members might reveal the place Mairanna went after leaving the castle. It's not the perfect structure, but might help better provide advice if you can give us an idea of what individual quests or tasks might look like.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I'm a newbie here but I pretty much agree with @martintheactor said here that you've got yourself world building (and a cool siege homebrew system) but you haven't planned for anything specifically for the party to do.
Adding to what they said, I'd plan possibility to have the party secretly work (if they agree so) for all factions to see which they actually agree with (kinda like fallout 4) through quests and see from there how they decide to act.
Thanks for the honest advice! And yes you are right about me never having actually read an official campagn. Now that you point out the flaws that my little campaign has I definitely can see what you mean. I was promising my players a great homebrew campaign that they could look forward to while I built it but I see now that I should prolly save that dream for a more experienced me and go with an offical campaign first. Do you have any particular offical campaigns you would recommend for both new players and new DM's (party of 6)?
Thanks for your advice too ill make a note of that in case I ever come back to this campaign!
I wouldn't say give up on the dream, what I'm advocating for is for you to read a few adventures because it might help you get some ideas to steal for your own campaign. My list of recommended adventures is:
To help with your campaign in the meantime, there are a few basic styles of quests. I have a post-it note above my desk to glance at when planning future sessions and really helps whip up quick quests on the fly.
These basic frames can of course be combined and there's a lot of overlap, but I find these quite helpful as a guide when creating extra random quests as and when needed. Following on from this there are some basic elements of a quest that I also sometimes remind myself of to help build a new quest.
There are some random tables in both the 2014, and 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide that can help with this sort of stuff. Personally, I find the 2024 DMG to be a bit 'meh', but I know a lot of people find the 2014 DMG to be poorly laid out. It really is a subjective thing. I personally recommend people to get their hands on a copy of Kobold Press' Game Master's Guide for Tales of the Valiant. It is very well thought through, better laid out, and contains a LOT more useful and helpful information for DMs/GMs wanting to build their own world. Tales of the Valiant is not that different from D&D, but Kobold Press are just so much more inventive when it comes to monsters, and their worldbuilding advice really is second to none (in my opinion).
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I would add to the bunch of adventures *Dragons of Stormwreck Isle* as it has some points designed to let you easily continue the story after you finish the adventure (like telling you a legend about the origin of the Isle and giving you LOTS of free space to work with).
Running your first campaign is certainly a daunting task. But if it works out, and if your players enjoy the game, it is incredibly rewarding.
My main advice for running a campaign is this: first, learn what characters your players are going to play. Then try to create moments and a story that works for them. If one of your players is playing a rogue, you want a story that gives that rogue space to do rogue things—like infiltration, sneak attacks, and clever tricks. If someone is playing a ranger, it makes sense to include wilderness, tracking, and time spent in forests. If you have a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock, you want encounters where powerful magic actually matters.
That is how I approach building a story. I look at it this way: I create a plot for the players and their characters, and they turn that plot into a story.
Usually, I start with a plot hook—an inciting incident that introduces a MacGuffin. For example, the king dies and there is no clear heir. That is a solid beginning, but the real question is: how do you make the characters care about it?
There is also the question of structure. Do you want a sandbox campaign, or something more guided, with a bit of railroading? Whatever you and your players decide is completely fine. Personally, I like to think in terms of loose story threads and places—points of interest where something interesting might happen or where secrets are hidden. I tend to think more in locations than in fixed stories.
Woah thats one detailed reply right there! Thanks so much for the big help! I'll make sure to update my campaign and when it seems good ill post another forum to review it. Thanks again!
Nice thank Carmx!
Honestly, while the criticisms are valid, this is a strong setting for a responsive campaign. You have the factions, including one that the players are (currently) in. Each faction has a motivation. Think less of adventure locales and more windows of time. "This is what's going on right now. You have the following requests, etc. to consider. What will you do over the next month?"
It's intrigue and political adventure to start. You might look into picking up the Birthright Campaign Setting for inspiration. It's a 2e setting with a system for political action and adventure. Ignore the setting and other stuff and you have a credible political mechanic.
More recently, MCDM's Kingdoms & Warfare book does similar in a different way.
Overall you have a framework for why different people are doing things. Sort out the What They Do one step at a time and you'll have a nice non-linear setting for adventure.
Oh cool thanks Agile! ill make sure to look into that!