I want to continue the LMoP campaign with a homebrew campaign set in and around Neverwinter. Any tips or useful sourcebooks/adventures i can use for some inspiration to write the campaign?
Also any general tips on writing a homebrew campaign?
Try the Ghosts of Saltmarsh - the town of Saltmarsh could be set just north of the Mere of Dead Men and south of Neverwinter and then you can change up the stories how you want. There are also a series of other adventures set in and around Phandalin that can be reworked into a fairly extended campaign.
As for homebrew there is homebrew heavy (true world building) and homebrew light (modifying stuff to suit but placing it in a published world and drawing on as much or little of that world’s lore to suite your needs and style. Both take time but heavy takes TIME where light doesn’t have to as most of the work is done already. Change NPC names, species, etc, change the actual locations, change around some/all the monsters and villains (keeping it balanced for the characters) and loot. Adding some of your own stuff to build your skill at world building. There are some folks that love to worldbuild, others that prefer to modify existing worlds. Try your hand at both and see which you prefer.
I'm doing somewhat the same. I had combined LMoP and DoIP for the "first arc", and now that the dragon is dead and other quests have been completed the party is headed to Neverwinter to spend some gold and have some fun. I used Bob World Builder's "Urban Encounters for Neverwinter" supplement, as well as a couple other sources ("New Neverwinter" and "A Dungeon Master's Guide to Neverwinter"). I don't have an actual campaign written out, more like a basket of potential plot threads the players can choose to follow or not. Here's what my players know about Neverwinter thus far:
Lord Dagult Neverember has spent a fortune rebuilding the city and claims to be an heir to the original founders. He pushed hard to seal in the chasm, but then turned his attention towards rebuilding Castle Never and has built a refugee camp where the chasm once stood, rather than rebuild the neighborhoods as originally promised. Not many are happy about this but no one has the power (political or otherwise) to stop or change it.
Castle Never has been boarded up since its destruction during the eruption of Mt. Hotenow. The remaining members of the royal family, aside from Lord Neverember (who was in Waterdeep at the time), were killed in the calamity. Lord Neverember has put the castle under constant guard, allowing no one but a select few entry into the ruin.
The Moonstone Mask is a great place for partying, gambling, intrigue, and if the party gets into serious trouble, their patron Gundren Rockseeker is an old friend of the owner Liset, and has sent them with a token that should get them out of just about any kind of trouble they find, but warned them to only use it in the most dire of circumstances.
There are plenty of artisans in the city, and enough raw materials flowing into the city, that they should be able to get someone to fashion just about any kind of weapon, armor, or item they may want - for a price.
The city of Neverwinter is a proper city, whereas Phandalin is barely a town. As such, Neverwinter has a chain of convenience stores called Critmart, kind of like our world's 7-11. One of them will be run by an old acquaintance of one of our players.
The House of Knowledge is a vast library, full of knowledge ancient and modern. The stuffy librarians who run the place will allow visitors access to some of the information held there, but other information may require payment in gold or services, and some information is completely off limits to any but the clergy of Oghma.
There is an earth mote floating just off the coast north of the city where a bunch of pirates used to live. They were all mysteriously killed a few years ago. Presumably, their treasure and at least one airship are still there, but anyone who has gone to investigate since the pirate's demise never returns.
Since most of them were interested in gambling, I'm going to make it a kind of Atlantic City kind of place, maybe have them run afoul of a pack of wererats during a game. That might lead them down into the sewers, where they may stumble into Neverneath.
I've also used the Empire of Thay as a large plot point in our campaign, so there will be two agents of Thay working in Neverwinter. One is Mordai Vell, a tiefling who is not associated with the Empire directly but has had a hand in getting several prominent Thay dynasties to contribute to the rebuilding of Neverwinter. He currently oversees operations at the Neverdeath cemetery, where he secretly runs a cult devoted to Glasya, the Princess of Hell. He is a trusted advisor to Lord Neverember, and is partly behind the shift of focus away from the chasm district. Vell finds it easier to recruit new acolytes into his cult when the people are desperate. The other agent of Thay was Valindra Shadowmantle. She was working directly with Szass Tamm, ruler of the Red City, to bring the whole of the Sword Coast under the influence of the Empire. She hasn't been seen much lately, though her agents are still active in the region.
I still have a few other ideas for smaller encounters, but my main goal is to make it feel like a real, living city. Phandalin is pretty static, given that it's so small and things rarely happen that aren't driven by the players. Here, there are going to be several moving parts, and I think that's going to be the biggest challenge, to make sure the players are aware things are happening around their area of focus that may or may not affect their outcomes. I would love to see an official campaign guide for this city at some point, given that it's referenced in so many sources with such scant information about the city itself.
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I want to continue the LMoP campaign with a homebrew campaign set in and around Neverwinter. Any tips or useful sourcebooks/adventures i can use for some inspiration to write the campaign?
Also any general tips on writing a homebrew campaign?
Try the Ghosts of Saltmarsh - the town of Saltmarsh could be set just north of the Mere of Dead Men and south of Neverwinter and then you can change up the stories how you want. There are also a series of other adventures set in and around Phandalin that can be reworked into a fairly extended campaign.
As for homebrew there is homebrew heavy (true world building) and homebrew light (modifying stuff to suit but placing it in a published world and drawing on as much or little of that world’s lore to suite your needs and style. Both take time but heavy takes TIME where light doesn’t have to as most of the work is done already. Change NPC names, species, etc, change the actual locations, change around some/all the monsters and villains (keeping it balanced for the characters) and loot. Adding some of your own stuff to build your skill at world building.
There are some folks that love to worldbuild, others that prefer to modify existing worlds. Try your hand at both and see which you prefer.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
There is a Neverwinter campaign setting book from 4e.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/163174/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-4e
This would probably also be very useful
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/327486/Urban-Encounters-for-Neverwinter
I'm doing somewhat the same. I had combined LMoP and DoIP for the "first arc", and now that the dragon is dead and other quests have been completed the party is headed to Neverwinter to spend some gold and have some fun. I used Bob World Builder's "Urban Encounters for Neverwinter" supplement, as well as a couple other sources ("New Neverwinter" and "A Dungeon Master's Guide to Neverwinter"). I don't have an actual campaign written out, more like a basket of potential plot threads the players can choose to follow or not. Here's what my players know about Neverwinter thus far:
Since most of them were interested in gambling, I'm going to make it a kind of Atlantic City kind of place, maybe have them run afoul of a pack of wererats during a game. That might lead them down into the sewers, where they may stumble into Neverneath.
I've also used the Empire of Thay as a large plot point in our campaign, so there will be two agents of Thay working in Neverwinter. One is Mordai Vell, a tiefling who is not associated with the Empire directly but has had a hand in getting several prominent Thay dynasties to contribute to the rebuilding of Neverwinter. He currently oversees operations at the Neverdeath cemetery, where he secretly runs a cult devoted to Glasya, the Princess of Hell. He is a trusted advisor to Lord Neverember, and is partly behind the shift of focus away from the chasm district. Vell finds it easier to recruit new acolytes into his cult when the people are desperate. The other agent of Thay was Valindra Shadowmantle. She was working directly with Szass Tamm, ruler of the Red City, to bring the whole of the Sword Coast under the influence of the Empire. She hasn't been seen much lately, though her agents are still active in the region.
I still have a few other ideas for smaller encounters, but my main goal is to make it feel like a real, living city. Phandalin is pretty static, given that it's so small and things rarely happen that aren't driven by the players. Here, there are going to be several moving parts, and I think that's going to be the biggest challenge, to make sure the players are aware things are happening around their area of focus that may or may not affect their outcomes. I would love to see an official campaign guide for this city at some point, given that it's referenced in so many sources with such scant information about the city itself.
"World's okayest Dungeon Master"