Just looking for inspiration from hearing about and reading some unique homebrew campaigns or adventure hooks people have created over the years? Mostly looking for some sort of cool adventure hook for a one off session, something unusual and unique, not the usual heroic adventure where the players play the part of the heroes who are expected to save the day or defeat some sort of monster, something with a different flavour that does not come along all that often that puts the players in an unexpected situation for a different type of experience.
Something that challenges the player in a different way having them come up with more creative solutions rather than solving all their problems with combat or perhaps something that makes the players feel much more vulnerable where the players get in over their heads and the goal is not so much to win but to merely survive.
Just wondering if anyone has any ideas or can point me in the direction of some cool homebrew campaigns that have been made available online for inspiration?
I'd advise following ArcaneKeeper on Instagram. They post inspiration seeds pretty regularly.
Fact is though, there are no unique stories. There's a whole load about writing theory that supports this, but don't worry about not being unique, be you instead. Create or develop the things that are most you. Broadly all quests break down into maybe six or seven different templates. It's how you flavour those templates that make stuff stand out. Think of a soap opera for example. They recycle plots and storylines over and over again. People keep tuning in however, because they identify with the characters and the character struggles.
On my DM screen in case I ever need to improvise a quest I have the following prompts:
Find the/my/our _________
Protect me/my/our/the __________
Kill my/our/their/the _______
Investigate the _________
Explore _________
Gather _________
Deliver ________
Pursue/Capture __________
I've yet to read an established or official quest that doesn't in someway fall into these templates. To flavour them all you have to do is to adapt it to the theme you have. For example, if you're running a settlement where there have recently been vampire attacks the blanks could be filled in as follows:
Find the vampire's lair
Protect the village from the vampire
Kill the vampire
Investigate the 'abandoned' crypt
Explore the catacombs
Gather garlic and stakes
Deliver weapons to the town
Capture the vampire's thrall
As you can see there's loads of overlap.
I'd also add that if you want to develop a homebrew world, that's amazing. I tend to start small, with just one settlement. Flesh out that one settlement. Then think about the next settlement, what makes it different. Baron De Ropp of Dungeon Masterpiece has some amazing videos on geopolitics which can really help give you ideas of how to flavour different settlements according to what resources and geological features are nearby.
I wrote a 25 game-hour campaign about surviving an unseasonably cold winter in an Antarctic environment because I wanted to avoid the cliche ideas that you described. Fighting against the elements is not a commonly used idea. Just did a 3 hour shipwreck adventure where the PCs had to survive while adrift in the open ocean. Nothing routine about that either.
Happy to give you my MS Word documents for either.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Just an interesting idea I've heard for an adventure hook is that the players are sent to explore a dig site or explore a dungeon with a group of lots of other people. However, something caves in or collapses around them, and their goal is to run from the monsters and escape instead of fighting them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
DM Dave has a ton of setting-neutral quests/hooks. I get his emails and often download his free adventures, but I've been thinking of becoming a patron just because his stuff is really useful, varied, and of good quality.
Quote from Aquilain>>I'd advise following ArcaneKeeper on Instagram. They post inspiration seeds pretty regularly.
Fact is though, there are no unique stories. There's a whole load about writing theory that supports this, but don't worry about not being unique, be you instead. Create or develop the things that are most you. Broadly all quests break down into maybe six or seven different templates. It's how you flavour those templates that make stuff stand out. Think of a soap opera for example. They recycle plots and storylines over and over again. People keep tuning in however, because they identify with the characters and the character struggles.
I guess I should clarify, when I say "unique" I am not so much talking about something that has never been done but rather something that does not come up all that often, while it is true that it is very hard to write something that is 100% original and trying to do so would be a fools game there are certain tropes that are more common than others and others that may not be explored quite as much.
I don't believe it would be too much of a stretch to say that a large percentage of modules follow the typical heroic fantasy tropes where the players are the heroes tasked with saving the village/world/universe from some sort of threat or some form of dungeon crawl where the players need to retrieve some sort of item and loot the place of any valuables they can find. Nothing wrong with these types of adventures or modules it is just I am looking for something a little different.
For instance
The players are goblins who have stolen a powerful yet chaotic artifact and they need to escape the city while dealing with (and creatively making use of) some of the chaotic effects of this artifact they have limited control over. Idea comes from a Zee Bashew video that has disappeared for some reason.
The players are shrunk down and need to navigate a world that is now giant to them where every day objects are now giant obstacles and what was once harmless is now a considerable threat.
A horror one shot where the players go on an ill fated adventure to a forgotten and cursed city in search of valuables only to be picked off from the shadows one by one by the dark entities that live there, the sort of game where the player characters are not expected to survive and where players may need to sacrifice or leave the other player's characters to die in order to save their own.
A prison escape where the players are prisoners who have limited resources and must plot their escape using whatever tools they can scrounge for and keep hidden from the guards.
I am sure you can find plenty of stories and modules that incorporate a lot of those themes but they are more unique in the sense the stray a little from the more common type of D&D adventure. Basically looking for ideas like that that stray a little from the norm. Basically just looking for modules kind of like that.
I wrote a 25 game-hour campaign about surviving an unseasonably cold winter in an Antarctic environment because I wanted to avoid the cliche ideas that you described. Fighting against the elements is not a commonly used idea. Just did a 3 hour shipwreck adventure where the PCs had to survive while adrift in the open ocean. Nothing routine about that either.
Happy to give you my MS Word documents for either.
Those ideas do sound interesting but a little wary of sharing online documents, nothing personal just paranoid. That said I do wonder how you keep the shipwreck adventure interesting if they are adrift at open sea? Some type of Subnautica situation where they need to scavenge for resources under the waves? Come to think of it I do like the idea of a Waterworld type campaign setting where the world has been flooded and dry land is a rarity if it exists at all, the type of setting that has a lot more underwater exploration as the players dive through sunken cities in search of treasure and need to scavenge resources and flotsam to keep their own boat afloat.
Quote from Aquilain>>I'd advise following ArcaneKeeper on Instagram. They post inspiration seeds pretty regularly.
Fact is though, there are no unique stories. There's a whole load about writing theory that supports this, but don't worry about not being unique, be you instead. Create or develop the things that are most you. Broadly all quests break down into maybe six or seven different templates. It's how you flavour those templates that make stuff stand out. Think of a soap opera for example. They recycle plots and storylines over and over again. People keep tuning in however, because they identify with the characters and the character struggles.
I guess I should clarify, when I say "unique" I am not so much talking about something that has never been done but rather something that does not come up all that often, while it is true that it is very hard to write something that is 100% original and trying to do so would be a fools game there are certain tropes that are more common than others and others that may not be explored quite as much.
Sure, I get what you're saying. I've been playing RPGs and collaborative storytelling games for a couple of decades at this point so to me a lot of plots feel very recycled...perhaps that's showing how jaded I've become.
Here's a few less played threads I've encountered:
The Livestock Problem - Cows, sheep, chickens, basically all the 'regular' farmed livestock are dying out. Players must solve the coming food shortage that is going to hit their homeland unless alternative food supplies have been secured (could be plant based, non-traditional livestock, magical sources, or even scientific means of food production).
The Reaper Man Rip-Off - Death stops taking effect. This is a blatant rip off of Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man book but can lead to all sorts of fun when you start to seriously consider the effect of death suddenly stopping stone dead. Could involve deities, fiends and anything inbetween.
The Artefact Collectors - There are enchanted magic items, then there are artefacts that transcend normal magics. These items are incredibly dangerous, so dangerous that an organisation has been set up to collect, catalogue and store these items (aka The Warehouse 13 rip off).
The Cupid Guild - There exists a guild that operate in the shadows. So devoted are they to love and peace between peoples that they exist solely to ensure that those destined to meet and fall in love. Whenever two people meet by chance it is the Cupid Guild that manufactured it. Whenever an outside force tries to rip true lovers apart, the Cupid Guild will stand against those trying to destroy true love.
The Great Reserve - Hunters, meat eaters, harsh climates, and evil beings. There are many threats that would destroy life. The Keepers of the Great Reserve are sworn to collect, rehome, and protect breeding groups of every single species of animal to ensure no creature can ever be made extinct.
Towers of Death - A new group has emerged, to which the party belong. They are insistent that the dead require the respect of burial. Currently corpses are left on mountains, or great wooden towers for the birds and beasts to feed on. The party are part of a group that are trying to convince the vast majority that such a practice is barbaric.
Anti-Magic - The Hard Way is a philosophy that believes magic makes life too easy on people. They stand for the utter elimination of all magic from the world. They have now found the sources of all the different types of magic and have a plan to sever magics from this world. The party must work toward the end goal of destroying all magics.
I really like the idea of the cupid guild, sounds like it could be some good cheesy fun, too bad Valentine's day has just come and gone.
As for the Artefact Collectors it also sounds like it takes a lot of inspiration from the SCP Foundation which itself would make for an excellent tabletop RPG. Just curious how that would work as I don't know if you could get anything official since it is a collaborative writing project on the internet. I'm sure there would have to be some form of unofficial rules somewhere.
I really like the idea of the cupid guild, sounds like it could be some good cheesy fun, too bad Valentine's day has just come and gone.
As for the Artefact Collectors it also sounds like it takes a lot of inspiration from the SCP Foundation which itself would make for an excellent tabletop RPG. Just curious how that would work as I don't know if you could get anything official since it is a collaborative writing project on the internet. I'm sure there would have to be some form of unofficial rules somewhere.
Go to the Magic Items section here on D&D Beyond, sort the list by Rarity...anything listed as 'Artifact' or even 'Legendary' should you so wish can be an item existing out there in the world. To start pick one, read the description and decide what type of person is most likely to have gotten their hands on it. That's who they have to steal/buy/persuade/kill to get their hands on the item. Add in other forces interested in powerful items, or creatures they may encounter on the journey to get the item...you've got a nice 'item of the week' format to play with.
As the party progress they might be tasked with identifying the item and how it can be destroyed. Take the Book of Vile Darkness as GM you simply disregard the established lore as written about how it can be destroyed, and simply say that as long as a celestial being...or some sort of celestial ingredient is used in the process the book is permanently bound or nullified. Or you could have them actually decide they need to quest to destroy all evil.
The thing is a lot of the official lore is often written to be thrown out. No one really cares about it and items and forces in your world work however you the GM decide. No harm in using the official artifacts and changing up how they can be contained or destroyed if that's what is going to make for the most fun at your table. WotC published content isn't sacrosanct. Players aren't going to care if you change it up. In fact that's at the very core of a TTRPG...the flexibility to tailor the game to your group and your playstyle.
I think these are some off-beat ideas, but none are truly original of course. As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. On the flipside, TV and movies have recycled ideas, sometimes entire shows, with great success. I would definitely like to develop some of the others ideas into an entire adventure.
I will post my document here to avoid file sharing. The formatting will not come across, nor the images, but you will get the gist.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I would build tension by having the boat be damaged. Sails get torn in a storm and/or a mast(s) breaks. An attack causes a leak in the hull, which can only be partially patched. Now they must regularly bail out the boat. Running out of fresh water. Rats soil the food. Sailors desert with a lifeboat and supplies (if a bigger ship). The ship gets lost or a storm makes them navigate further from the intended port. These events happen several times. Make them feel the angst of being lost at sea. Multiple set backs to increase anxiety. Sharks start circling the boat sometime in the middle of these events. Sharks increase in size, number and proximity with every bad event. A bad omen is seen. These events make the adventure much more intense, like a suspenseful movie.
When I ran a transoceanic voyage recently, I also used an encounter with two ships (one was full of pirates and one was a merchant ship. Both flew the same red sails, confusing the PCs). I used a giant squid who hit and ran several times; they could not see it during the earlier attacks because they happened at night or at the other end of the ship. Not knowing their enemy was also used to build tension. The squid put holes in the boat during the early attacks! ;) I also used a glowing patch on far off in the ocean at night. They chose not to investigate but it was bioluminescent algae with flying fish and larger predators (based on my personal experience fishing offshore); they had no idea it was so innocuous and were afraid to get closer.
My last encounter was some strange floating jetsam. They jumped into the ocean (very brave!) and tied up the item, hefting it aboard. It turned out to be an unspoiled cask of Fire Giant Fire Whiskey and everyone got drunk! (We drank some whiskey ourselves at this point, to feel what the PCs were feeling!)
The whole thing ended with an all out giant squid attack (each arm could attack, and hurl people from the ship into the sea. Cutting off an arm decreased its attacking abilities and HP). They killed it but not before it irreversibly damaged the ship. They had a few moments to pack up their magical backpack with a few key items and jump in. Then, they had 24+ hours adrift in the open sea (being harassed by sharks of course! I subsequently found out one of my players has a real life phobia of sharks). Then, they had to make it over a coral reef and finally to the shore of an island.
I think it made for a pretty tense and unusual adventure.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
How about switching the roles and have an evil campaign. The party are a crew of pirates, or cultists wanting bring back some demon Lord that has been bound, or to usurp the king.
Takes a certain group of players to carry this off the PCs need to work as a team through the campaign even if they do not fully trust each other. They are aware the need to appear to be decent folk.
I think these are some off-beat ideas, but none are truly original of course. As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. On the flipside, TV and movies have recycled ideas, sometimes entire shows, with great success. I would definitely like to develop some of the others ideas into an entire adventure.
Of course, not looking for something wholly original as it is very hard to come up with something that has never been done before, just looking for something a bit off the beaten path, something a little bit different to the typical D&D adventure.
It is not some snobbish thing where I will only play the most original and avant-garde modules on my D&D table, just looking for some fun ideas that are a bit different from the norm.
When I run a one-shot or One-off session I always have many choices available. I tend to start the game with a group called the Keepers. They are the writers of history and are almost always watching what is going on in the world.
From there I have the keepers send a letter to the players to meet with one of them in the world. From there the keepers are looking to gather information from certain areas. From there the players pick and choose their adventure together during that RP moment. The majority do it for the money that the keepers pay. Though what can or should be a simple information gathering quest turns into much more than what they bargained for regardless of the decision.
It works well for me by giving the players immediate options and a moment to talk to each other about what they would like to get into.
When I run a one-shot or One-off session I always have many choices available. I tend to start the game with a group called the Keepers. They are the writers of history and are almost always watching what is going on in the world.
From there I have the keepers send a letter to the players to meet with one of them in the world. From there the keepers are looking to gather information from certain areas. From there the players pick and choose their adventure together during that RP moment. The majority do it for the money that the keepers pay. Though what can or should be a simple information gathering quest turns into much more than what they bargained for regardless of the decision.
It works well for me by giving the players immediate options and a moment to talk to each other about what they would like to get into.
Yeah personally I am partial to starting groups on something Aquisitions Incorporated inspired, have the group start off as representatives of some sort of organization that are traveling to a new city to establish either a new branch of an existing organization or a completely new venture they created. Start them off with a building that seems like a bargain that was too good to be true and have them find it as a run down piece of shit that has more than a few problems, maybe some sort of beast or vermin has taken up residence, maybe squatters or maybe it is haunted. First quest becomes clearing out the hideout and getting it in a somewhat acceptable state as a base of operations and then from there use it as a springboard for a more open ended adventure as quest opportunites come in based on contacts the players find out in the world.
That is probably more suitable for a longer term campaign though and for one-shots I usually like to have something a little more structured planned, usually better to start them already on the adventure or in the middle of some sort of escapade that the session is going to focus on.
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Just looking for inspiration from hearing about and reading some unique homebrew campaigns or adventure hooks people have created over the years? Mostly looking for some sort of cool adventure hook for a one off session, something unusual and unique, not the usual heroic adventure where the players play the part of the heroes who are expected to save the day or defeat some sort of monster, something with a different flavour that does not come along all that often that puts the players in an unexpected situation for a different type of experience.
Something that challenges the player in a different way having them come up with more creative solutions rather than solving all their problems with combat or perhaps something that makes the players feel much more vulnerable where the players get in over their heads and the goal is not so much to win but to merely survive.
Just wondering if anyone has any ideas or can point me in the direction of some cool homebrew campaigns that have been made available online for inspiration?
I'd advise following ArcaneKeeper on Instagram. They post inspiration seeds pretty regularly.
Fact is though, there are no unique stories. There's a whole load about writing theory that supports this, but don't worry about not being unique, be you instead. Create or develop the things that are most you. Broadly all quests break down into maybe six or seven different templates. It's how you flavour those templates that make stuff stand out. Think of a soap opera for example. They recycle plots and storylines over and over again. People keep tuning in however, because they identify with the characters and the character struggles.
On my DM screen in case I ever need to improvise a quest I have the following prompts:
I've yet to read an established or official quest that doesn't in someway fall into these templates. To flavour them all you have to do is to adapt it to the theme you have. For example, if you're running a settlement where there have recently been vampire attacks the blanks could be filled in as follows:
As you can see there's loads of overlap.
I'd also add that if you want to develop a homebrew world, that's amazing. I tend to start small, with just one settlement. Flesh out that one settlement. Then think about the next settlement, what makes it different. Baron De Ropp of Dungeon Masterpiece has some amazing videos on geopolitics which can really help give you ideas of how to flavour different settlements according to what resources and geological features are nearby.
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 wrote a 25 game-hour campaign about surviving an unseasonably cold winter in an Antarctic environment because I wanted to avoid the cliche ideas that you described. Fighting against the elements is not a commonly used idea. Just did a 3 hour shipwreck adventure where the PCs had to survive while adrift in the open ocean. Nothing routine about that either.
Happy to give you my MS Word documents for either.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Just an interesting idea I've heard for an adventure hook is that the players are sent to explore a dig site or explore a dungeon with a group of lots of other people. However, something caves in or collapses around them, and their goal is to run from the monsters and escape instead of fighting them.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.DM Dave has a ton of setting-neutral quests/hooks. I get his emails and often download his free adventures, but I've been thinking of becoming a patron just because his stuff is really useful, varied, and of good quality.
I guess I should clarify, when I say "unique" I am not so much talking about something that has never been done but rather something that does not come up all that often, while it is true that it is very hard to write something that is 100% original and trying to do so would be a fools game there are certain tropes that are more common than others and others that may not be explored quite as much.
I don't believe it would be too much of a stretch to say that a large percentage of modules follow the typical heroic fantasy tropes where the players are the heroes tasked with saving the village/world/universe from some sort of threat or some form of dungeon crawl where the players need to retrieve some sort of item and loot the place of any valuables they can find. Nothing wrong with these types of adventures or modules it is just I am looking for something a little different.
For instance
The players are goblins who have stolen a powerful yet chaotic artifact and they need to escape the city while dealing with (and creatively making use of) some of the chaotic effects of this artifact they have limited control over. Idea comes from a Zee Bashew video that has disappeared for some reason.
The players are shrunk down and need to navigate a world that is now giant to them where every day objects are now giant obstacles and what was once harmless is now a considerable threat.
A horror one shot where the players go on an ill fated adventure to a forgotten and cursed city in search of valuables only to be picked off from the shadows one by one by the dark entities that live there, the sort of game where the player characters are not expected to survive and where players may need to sacrifice or leave the other player's characters to die in order to save their own.
A prison escape where the players are prisoners who have limited resources and must plot their escape using whatever tools they can scrounge for and keep hidden from the guards.
I am sure you can find plenty of stories and modules that incorporate a lot of those themes but they are more unique in the sense the stray a little from the more common type of D&D adventure. Basically looking for ideas like that that stray a little from the norm. Basically just looking for modules kind of like that.
Those ideas do sound interesting but a little wary of sharing online documents, nothing personal just paranoid. That said I do wonder how you keep the shipwreck adventure interesting if they are adrift at open sea? Some type of Subnautica situation where they need to scavenge for resources under the waves? Come to think of it I do like the idea of a Waterworld type campaign setting where the world has been flooded and dry land is a rarity if it exists at all, the type of setting that has a lot more underwater exploration as the players dive through sunken cities in search of treasure and need to scavenge resources and flotsam to keep their own boat afloat.
Sure, I get what you're saying. I've been playing RPGs and collaborative storytelling games for a couple of decades at this point so to me a lot of plots feel very recycled...perhaps that's showing how jaded I've become.
Here's a few less played threads I've encountered:
The Livestock Problem - Cows, sheep, chickens, basically all the 'regular' farmed livestock are dying out. Players must solve the coming food shortage that is going to hit their homeland unless alternative food supplies have been secured (could be plant based, non-traditional livestock, magical sources, or even scientific means of food production).
The Reaper Man Rip-Off - Death stops taking effect. This is a blatant rip off of Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man book but can lead to all sorts of fun when you start to seriously consider the effect of death suddenly stopping stone dead. Could involve deities, fiends and anything inbetween.
The Artefact Collectors - There are enchanted magic items, then there are artefacts that transcend normal magics. These items are incredibly dangerous, so dangerous that an organisation has been set up to collect, catalogue and store these items (aka The Warehouse 13 rip off).
The Cupid Guild - There exists a guild that operate in the shadows. So devoted are they to love and peace between peoples that they exist solely to ensure that those destined to meet and fall in love. Whenever two people meet by chance it is the Cupid Guild that manufactured it. Whenever an outside force tries to rip true lovers apart, the Cupid Guild will stand against those trying to destroy true love.
The Great Reserve - Hunters, meat eaters, harsh climates, and evil beings. There are many threats that would destroy life. The Keepers of the Great Reserve are sworn to collect, rehome, and protect breeding groups of every single species of animal to ensure no creature can ever be made extinct.
Towers of Death - A new group has emerged, to which the party belong. They are insistent that the dead require the respect of burial. Currently corpses are left on mountains, or great wooden towers for the birds and beasts to feed on. The party are part of a group that are trying to convince the vast majority that such a practice is barbaric.
Anti-Magic - The Hard Way is a philosophy that believes magic makes life too easy on people. They stand for the utter elimination of all magic from the world. They have now found the sources of all the different types of magic and have a plan to sever magics from this world. The party must work toward the end goal of destroying all magics.
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 really like the idea of the cupid guild, sounds like it could be some good cheesy fun, too bad Valentine's day has just come and gone.
As for the Artefact Collectors it also sounds like it takes a lot of inspiration from the SCP Foundation which itself would make for an excellent tabletop RPG. Just curious how that would work as I don't know if you could get anything official since it is a collaborative writing project on the internet. I'm sure there would have to be some form of unofficial rules somewhere.
Go to the Magic Items section here on D&D Beyond, sort the list by Rarity...anything listed as 'Artifact' or even 'Legendary' should you so wish can be an item existing out there in the world. To start pick one, read the description and decide what type of person is most likely to have gotten their hands on it. That's who they have to steal/buy/persuade/kill to get their hands on the item. Add in other forces interested in powerful items, or creatures they may encounter on the journey to get the item...you've got a nice 'item of the week' format to play with.
As the party progress they might be tasked with identifying the item and how it can be destroyed. Take the Book of Vile Darkness as GM you simply disregard the established lore as written about how it can be destroyed, and simply say that as long as a celestial being...or some sort of celestial ingredient is used in the process the book is permanently bound or nullified. Or you could have them actually decide they need to quest to destroy all evil.
The thing is a lot of the official lore is often written to be thrown out. No one really cares about it and items and forces in your world work however you the GM decide. No harm in using the official artifacts and changing up how they can be contained or destroyed if that's what is going to make for the most fun at your table. WotC published content isn't sacrosanct. Players aren't going to care if you change it up. In fact that's at the very core of a TTRPG...the flexibility to tailor the game to your group and your playstyle.
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 think these are some off-beat ideas, but none are truly original of course. As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. On the flipside, TV and movies have recycled ideas, sometimes entire shows, with great success. I would definitely like to develop some of the others ideas into an entire adventure.
I will post my document here to avoid file sharing. The formatting will not come across, nor the images, but you will get the gist.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I would build tension by having the boat be damaged. Sails get torn in a storm and/or a mast(s) breaks. An attack causes a leak in the hull, which can only be partially patched. Now they must regularly bail out the boat. Running out of fresh water. Rats soil the food. Sailors desert with a lifeboat and supplies (if a bigger ship). The ship gets lost or a storm makes them navigate further from the intended port. These events happen several times. Make them feel the angst of being lost at sea. Multiple set backs to increase anxiety. Sharks start circling the boat sometime in the middle of these events. Sharks increase in size, number and proximity with every bad event. A bad omen is seen. These events make the adventure much more intense, like a suspenseful movie.
When I ran a transoceanic voyage recently, I also used an encounter with two ships (one was full of pirates and one was a merchant ship. Both flew the same red sails, confusing the PCs). I used a giant squid who hit and ran several times; they could not see it during the earlier attacks because they happened at night or at the other end of the ship. Not knowing their enemy was also used to build tension. The squid put holes in the boat during the early attacks! ;) I also used a glowing patch on far off in the ocean at night. They chose not to investigate but it was bioluminescent algae with flying fish and larger predators (based on my personal experience fishing offshore); they had no idea it was so innocuous and were afraid to get closer.
My last encounter was some strange floating jetsam. They jumped into the ocean (very brave!) and tied up the item, hefting it aboard. It turned out to be an unspoiled cask of Fire Giant Fire Whiskey and everyone got drunk! (We drank some whiskey ourselves at this point, to feel what the PCs were feeling!)
The whole thing ended with an all out giant squid attack (each arm could attack, and hurl people from the ship into the sea. Cutting off an arm decreased its attacking abilities and HP). They killed it but not before it irreversibly damaged the ship. They had a few moments to pack up their magical backpack with a few key items and jump in. Then, they had 24+ hours adrift in the open sea (being harassed by sharks of course! I subsequently found out one of my players has a real life phobia of sharks). Then, they had to make it over a coral reef and finally to the shore of an island.
I think it made for a pretty tense and unusual adventure.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
How about switching the roles and have an evil campaign. The party are a crew of pirates, or cultists wanting bring back some demon Lord that has been bound, or to usurp the king.
Takes a certain group of players to carry this off the PCs need to work as a team through the campaign even if they do not fully trust each other. They are aware the need to appear to be decent folk.
Of course, not looking for something wholly original as it is very hard to come up with something that has never been done before, just looking for something a bit off the beaten path, something a little bit different to the typical D&D adventure.
It is not some snobbish thing where I will only play the most original and avant-garde modules on my D&D table, just looking for some fun ideas that are a bit different from the norm.
When I run a one-shot or One-off session I always have many choices available. I tend to start the game with a group called the Keepers. They are the writers of history and are almost always watching what is going on in the world.
From there I have the keepers send a letter to the players to meet with one of them in the world. From there the keepers are looking to gather information from certain areas. From there the players pick and choose their adventure together during that RP moment. The majority do it for the money that the keepers pay. Though what can or should be a simple information gathering quest turns into much more than what they bargained for regardless of the decision.
It works well for me by giving the players immediate options and a moment to talk to each other about what they would like to get into.
Yeah personally I am partial to starting groups on something Aquisitions Incorporated inspired, have the group start off as representatives of some sort of organization that are traveling to a new city to establish either a new branch of an existing organization or a completely new venture they created. Start them off with a building that seems like a bargain that was too good to be true and have them find it as a run down piece of shit that has more than a few problems, maybe some sort of beast or vermin has taken up residence, maybe squatters or maybe it is haunted. First quest becomes clearing out the hideout and getting it in a somewhat acceptable state as a base of operations and then from there use it as a springboard for a more open ended adventure as quest opportunites come in based on contacts the players find out in the world.
That is probably more suitable for a longer term campaign though and for one-shots I usually like to have something a little more structured planned, usually better to start them already on the adventure or in the middle of some sort of escapade that the session is going to focus on.