As the title suggests, I have never DMed before, but my current DM and party have requested that I try it out, as they think I'd be good at it .I tend to bore somewhat easily with the easy way out, so I was considering making my first campaign a home brewed one, and was hoping for some feedback on the concept.
The story is based on a Reddit post describing the general situation that I saw a while back, but I added some details to make my party more likely to enjoy it and fill in the gaps (as the post was not very detailed), and most names are shamelessly stolen and adapted from the Animorphs book, in case you recognize them, as I remember them all for some reason and I doubt that my party will.
Thank you in advance...
My party is walking back to Neverwinter (their hometown) after their most recent adventure and come across a small group of Gnomish travellers being attacked by a group of undead in military armor with a flame emblem on each of their shoulders (I figured this would be a good cannon fodder enemy to throw at my party, as three of their character sheets explicitly say that they hate the undead and necromancy). During the battle, the Gnomish travelers flee (as they are not really important to the story as NPCs) and, on the second round of fighting, a gallant knight (probably a paladin) in shining white armor with a bird emblem emblazoned across his armor's chest plate leaps out of the forest surrounding the road, taking a swipe with his long sword at one of the undead, and joins the fray on the party's side. Once the battle concludes, the knight introduces himself as Ser Alistair Fangor and explains that the undead come from a nearby city that was once the capital of the great Andalattian Empire. He says that the empire was once vast, but came under attack from a barbarian army known as the Taxxon Horde. The war led to the crumbling of both groups, and, in the final days of the war, the only major remnant of the Andalattian kingdom was their capital city. In a last ditch effort to claim ultimate victory over the enemy, the Taxxons made a brutal attack on the city, killing much of its military and civilians before they were eventually repelled. The king is said to have become insane and obsessed with protecting the last of his empire and turned to dark magics to ensure his legacy, and began using Necromancy to bring his soldiers back from the dead. His methods were successful, and his city became an impenetrable stronghold, but he also turned it into a prison for his own people, using his undead army to maintain an authoritarian rule. Hundreds of years have since past and both factions have faded into legend, but the Mad King remains in power, using his powerful Necromancy to maintain his rule and life.
Ser Alistair explains that he grew up in the oppressive kingdom, and even raised a family, but, during a short period when the Mad King fell slightly ill, he managed to escape when the army was weakened by the lack of their master's constant influence. He was unable to take his family with him, but trained to become a knight before returning to protect his family and his countrymen and hoping to destroy the Mad King once and for all to free his home. Should the party do a sense motive or insight check, they will find everything that Ser Alistair said to be true. Hopefully, my party will agree to join him in this quest, and he will inform them that the legends say that the only thing capable of weakening the Mad King to make him mortal is a set of magical pearls scattered throughout the city. Apparently, the King is incapable of destroying his one weakness, so he instead hid them in a series of labyrinths guarded by his strongest undead soldiers.
From there, I intend for the majority of the campaign to revolve around the party searching for these labyrinths and fighting their way through them to get the pearls, all the while trying to maintain a low profile, as they are in a completely enemy-occupied city (which may be especially challenging since the party is a tortle barbarian, a halfling, a tiefling, a firbolg, a changeling, a blue genasi, a dragonborn, and only one human). Occasionally, Ser Alistair will depart from the party for a time, explaining after the first time that he needed to return to his family to ensure their safety, as they were still living in an inescapable city ruled by a mad tyrant (this is also entirely true, should the party use checks), but while he is with them, my goal is to make him as kind and paternal as possible, ideally making him a beloved NPC, as is any DM's goal.
Once the party obtains all of the pearls, Ser Alistair informs them that he believes that they are now ready to face the Mad King head on to free the people of the city. Ideally, the party agrees and either storms or sneaks into the castle. After making their way through the castle to the throne room, where they know that the king is often found (maybe they got some intel from a rebellious servant), Ser Alistair stops them before they enter, use any remaining spell slots he has to heal any of their wounds, give a rousing speech, give a mildly concerned but paternally proud look to each of the members in turn, and then open the door to the throne room.
Inside the room, the party sees a large room with faded and crusted once colorful tiles; large, crumbling columns; several obsidian sarcophagi leaning against the walls; a large, obsidian throne on a dais; and a grimy stained glass ceiling with the still distinct emblem of a bird, the same bird as is found on Ser Alistair's armor, but engulfed in flames: a phoenix to symbolize his disbelief in permanent death. Ser Alistair turns to the party, tells them to remember to hold up the pearls they had gathered and sadly wishes them luck before walking across the room. As he walks, his brilliant, white armor darkens to a pitch black, the sheen fading and chipping, and he reaches the throne before turning back to them with a twisted grin, displaying the new phoenix emblem across his chest, and welcomes them to doom.
The King Fangor expresses amusement at the presence of enemies that believe themselves capable of killing him, apparently unfamiliar with the group and lacking memory of their adventures together. He sees the pearls that the party is holding and his armor becomes slightly more grey than black, and a sadness enters his eyes that does not extend to his wicked grin, but a melancholy sigh escapes him, to his apparent surprise. The surprise turns to rage as he prepares for battle and awakens the Kingsguard that are in the sarcophagi throughout the room and the battle begins (I intend for him to be a Necromancer Wizard with a different set of spell slots from Ser Alistair, so that the previous healing does not lessen his power in this battle). If I have done my job right, then this will be a truly brutal battle as the party must fight an enemy whose deeds and reputation they have learned to hate, but whose face and still saddened eyes have become those of a great friend and guide.
Once the battle concludes, the party hears cheers erupting from the streets outside as all of the king's constructs disintegrate without his power to sustain them. Should the king have last words (if the party doesn't blow him up), his armor will return to its previous white with a blue outlined bird, and he will smile at them, expressing his pride and gratitude for their success in defeating him and saving his city. He hands them a note before passing away. The note explains the parts of the origin story that were previously missing: the ambush on the capital killed his wife and daughter, and he turned to necromancy with the initial intention of bringing them back before thinking better of it and realizing it would be a living hell for them. However, the necromantic information in his head changed him into the Mad King that the world knew. The Mad King became obsessed with maintaining the last of his empire and with attempting to bring his family back. Again, everything that Ser Alistair told them was the truth, as he managed to escape his own mind and return to his prior state of mind with some frequency, beginning when the Mad King fell ill from a mild instance of the Spell Plague, and he left the party to protect his family, as he could feel when he was about to return to his maddened state of mind and needed to put magical safeguards in place to ensure that his alternate identity would not be able to bring them back from the dead. The note explains that the pearls that the party collected once belonged to his daughter and the memories that he associated with them and the pleasant magic with which they were instilled were the only thing capable of partially restoring the Mad King's humanity, lessening the dark magic's hold of him and making him able to be killed.
The party hears a set of footsteps running towards the door (they may prepare for battle if they so wish), and a human head servant enters the throne room, sees the carnage, asks if the party is responsible for it, before thanking them profusely for bringing freedom to the city, offering them some treasures that the castle has to offer and a place on any group that forms to determine how the city will be led hereafter (I do not expect them to take up the latter half of the offer, but I will offer for the negotiations to take place between games, if they so wish). From there, the party will get its significant loot and the campaign will end (barring any side missions they may wish to complete).
I thank you greatly if you did read the entirety of the above rant, and any advice that any of you could give would be super appreciated. As I mentioned, this will be the first (or second, if I DM a one-shot beforehand) time DMing, so any premade maps, NPCs, or side-missions that could be given or recommended would be amazing, and any suggestions for improvements or additions to the campaign overall to make it more fun and/or a less predictable conclusion would be terrific. Thank you again very much.
I forgot to mention it in the original post, but the campaign is taking place on Roll20.com, so I do have access to some assets, just not much knowledge of how to use them
Having a full story is obviously a great idea, but you have to be prepared for your players to at a minimum not follow where you think they're going to go, and at a maximum blow it all up in a way that you haven't planned for. To that end, I'd say to do things:
1. Have the characters write backstories that give you enough material to write side quests that involve exploring their backgrounds. everyone loves their own characters the most, and diverting them by letting them chase down their own personal demons ensures that they don't just barrel straight through your plot.
You can even have some of the personal quests circle back to your larger arc. For example, i'm currently running a campaign where the overarching arc has to do with a beholder who has corrupted several higher-ups in the king's court and some mid-level mages, and he's trying to uncover an ancient artifact that will give him ultimate control over undeath. His final plan is to corrupt the king, and use the power of the empire to wage war, raise fallen soldiers from that war into undead armies, and bend the material plane to his will. He has many side plans to accomplish this, one of which is that he had one of his thralls spirit a young wizard who was interested in necromancy away from university after she was expelled for experiments with undeath, and set her up with a laboratory deep in the mountains to continue her research and work. She has no idea who she's working for, only that she's been given a place to work free from the powers that be that have forbidden necromancy. The cleric in my party has a distinct hatred of undeath, and some of her creations found their way into his hometown. Word of skeletons attacking his home reached him, and he decided that it was super important to return home and sort out the cause. He thinks he's returning home just to save the people he cares about, but really he'll be tracking down the necromancer's lair, which will lead him back into the spider web of the beholder's plans.
2. Have enough going on in the world that the world might change around the characters if they don't follow the plot
You seem like you thrive on detail, as do I. So plan enough that you can reasonably improvise, but don't be so locked into your idea that you're afraid to go off-book when your party inevitably zigs and zags. You're all telling the story together, so give them a world that has enough detail that if they decide to blow up your plans and go in another direction, they're free to do so. In my game, if the party doesn't chase down the beholder by a certain point, then his plan will be successful and then all of a sudden war will break out on the continent, and my players will have a new reality to deal with.
And for side quest inspiration, here's a great jumping off point.
I've got at least 10 off of this list that I've tailored to my party that I can throw out at any time. They're not even fully fledged, I'll fill in the details when I need them. For example:
All the townspeople in a village have contracted lycanthropy and become were-moose at the full moon. The group must discover that the alchemist upstream of the village’s water supply has been experimenting with dangerous chemicals to turn his beloved pet albino moose, Alabaster, into a sentient best friend. Keep a few of these in your back pocket for anytime.
You'll find that you have to plan less and less as you go on and get more comfortable with improvising. Just have fun and don't be too rigid and you'll be just fine.
Along the lines of what IBerstein is saying I'd expand and add. The players will break the story. You should take that as a given. So be prepared for them to go off script anytime. What I like to do is give them the illusion of choice. Make the side quest part of the story that leads them to where you want them to go. For instance, maybe for some crazy reason the party decides to hunt down the fleeing Gnomes, or decide they don't want to get involved at all and wander off into the woods. That's fine. Have all roads lead them to where you want them to go. They chase the fleeing the gnomes and decide to kill them for whatever reason. No problem. One of the gnomes has a signet ring on him that lead them to Sir Alistair.
They go haywire and run into the woods eventually leading them to a cave where they fight some stuff and find a strange item. No magical means can identify it. Looks like they'll have to bring it to town and seek the advice of guess who.... Sir Alistair.
I think overall you've got a good campaign in the making there. I would say come up with a few alternate scenarios for when the players do the unexpected that will bring them back to the story without feeling like you're railroading them.
Thank you very much for your advice! My party definitely does love their own characters, so I'll be sure to throw in some things that specifically relate to their characters. Because we are all new to the game, past experience has shown them to be somewhat willing to follow a laid out track, as we have not played long enough to really realize that there are other significant options (we're playing LMoP under another DM right now and just kind of going where the story leads us), but I will be sure to have backup plans in case they do deviate. Also, thank you very much for those side quest ideas; I'll be sure to hold onto them!
Does your party enjoy dungeon crawls? If so, then having a series of labyrinths is perfect. They can also be a bit of a slog, so hiding the pearls or other objects that could defeat the Mad King in other places could break up the monotony of dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl.
What if the descendants of the Taxxon horde still exist in some form somewhere in the world, and they have a deep and ancient cultural hatred of the Mad King due to, you know, the war and everything. And what if they were able to steal certain relics during the wars that might aid the party in the King's downfall? What if the party had to find these descendants and convince them to part with the relics or join the fight themselves, but the party aren't the first adventurers who have come to the Horde for help, and the leaders are reluctant to align themselves with anyone who isn't powerful enough to fight because they know it would spell extermination for them and their kind. The party has to do a task, complete a trial etc, and earn the relic from the Horde?
As the title suggests, I have never DMed before, but my current DM and party have requested that I try it out, as they think I'd be good at it .I tend to bore somewhat easily with the easy way out, so I was considering making my first campaign a home brewed one, and was hoping for some feedback on the concept.
The story is based on a Reddit post describing the general situation that I saw a while back, but I added some details to make my party more likely to enjoy it and fill in the gaps (as the post was not very detailed), and most names are shamelessly stolen and adapted from the Animorphs book, in case you recognize them, as I remember them all for some reason and I doubt that my party will.
Thank you in advance...
My party is walking back to Neverwinter (their hometown) after their most recent adventure and come across a small group of Gnomish travellers being attacked by a group of undead in military armor with a flame emblem on each of their shoulders (I figured this would be a good cannon fodder enemy to throw at my party, as three of their character sheets explicitly say that they hate the undead and necromancy). During the battle, the Gnomish travelers flee (as they are not really important to the story as NPCs) and, on the second round of fighting, a gallant knight (probably a paladin) in shining white armor with a bird emblem emblazoned across his armor's chest plate leaps out of the forest surrounding the road, taking a swipe with his long sword at one of the undead, and joins the fray on the party's side. Once the battle concludes, the knight introduces himself as Ser Alistair Fangor and explains that the undead come from a nearby city that was once the capital of the great Andalattian Empire. He says that the empire was once vast, but came under attack from a barbarian army known as the Taxxon Horde. The war led to the crumbling of both groups, and, in the final days of the war, the only major remnant of the Andalattian kingdom was their capital city. In a last ditch effort to claim ultimate victory over the enemy, the Taxxons made a brutal attack on the city, killing much of its military and civilians before they were eventually repelled. The king is said to have become insane and obsessed with protecting the last of his empire and turned to dark magics to ensure his legacy, and began using Necromancy to bring his soldiers back from the dead. His methods were successful, and his city became an impenetrable stronghold, but he also turned it into a prison for his own people, using his undead army to maintain an authoritarian rule. Hundreds of years have since past and both factions have faded into legend, but the Mad King remains in power, using his powerful Necromancy to maintain his rule and life.
Ser Alistair explains that he grew up in the oppressive kingdom, and even raised a family, but, during a short period when the Mad King fell slightly ill, he managed to escape when the army was weakened by the lack of their master's constant influence. He was unable to take his family with him, but trained to become a knight before returning to protect his family and his countrymen and hoping to destroy the Mad King once and for all to free his home. Should the party do a sense motive or insight check, they will find everything that Ser Alistair said to be true. Hopefully, my party will agree to join him in this quest, and he will inform them that the legends say that the only thing capable of weakening the Mad King to make him mortal is a set of magical pearls scattered throughout the city. Apparently, the King is incapable of destroying his one weakness, so he instead hid them in a series of labyrinths guarded by his strongest undead soldiers.
From there, I intend for the majority of the campaign to revolve around the party searching for these labyrinths and fighting their way through them to get the pearls, all the while trying to maintain a low profile, as they are in a completely enemy-occupied city (which may be especially challenging since the party is a tortle barbarian, a halfling, a tiefling, a firbolg, a changeling, a blue genasi, a dragonborn, and only one human). Occasionally, Ser Alistair will depart from the party for a time, explaining after the first time that he needed to return to his family to ensure their safety, as they were still living in an inescapable city ruled by a mad tyrant (this is also entirely true, should the party use checks), but while he is with them, my goal is to make him as kind and paternal as possible, ideally making him a beloved NPC, as is any DM's goal.
Once the party obtains all of the pearls, Ser Alistair informs them that he believes that they are now ready to face the Mad King head on to free the people of the city. Ideally, the party agrees and either storms or sneaks into the castle. After making their way through the castle to the throne room, where they know that the king is often found (maybe they got some intel from a rebellious servant), Ser Alistair stops them before they enter, use any remaining spell slots he has to heal any of their wounds, give a rousing speech, give a mildly concerned but paternally proud look to each of the members in turn, and then open the door to the throne room.
Inside the room, the party sees a large room with faded and crusted once colorful tiles; large, crumbling columns; several obsidian sarcophagi leaning against the walls; a large, obsidian throne on a dais; and a grimy stained glass ceiling with the still distinct emblem of a bird, the same bird as is found on Ser Alistair's armor, but engulfed in flames: a phoenix to symbolize his disbelief in permanent death. Ser Alistair turns to the party, tells them to remember to hold up the pearls they had gathered and sadly wishes them luck before walking across the room. As he walks, his brilliant, white armor darkens to a pitch black, the sheen fading and chipping, and he reaches the throne before turning back to them with a twisted grin, displaying the new phoenix emblem across his chest, and welcomes them to doom.
The King Fangor expresses amusement at the presence of enemies that believe themselves capable of killing him, apparently unfamiliar with the group and lacking memory of their adventures together. He sees the pearls that the party is holding and his armor becomes slightly more grey than black, and a sadness enters his eyes that does not extend to his wicked grin, but a melancholy sigh escapes him, to his apparent surprise. The surprise turns to rage as he prepares for battle and awakens the Kingsguard that are in the sarcophagi throughout the room and the battle begins (I intend for him to be a Necromancer Wizard with a different set of spell slots from Ser Alistair, so that the previous healing does not lessen his power in this battle). If I have done my job right, then this will be a truly brutal battle as the party must fight an enemy whose deeds and reputation they have learned to hate, but whose face and still saddened eyes have become those of a great friend and guide.
Once the battle concludes, the party hears cheers erupting from the streets outside as all of the king's constructs disintegrate without his power to sustain them. Should the king have last words (if the party doesn't blow him up), his armor will return to its previous white with a blue outlined bird, and he will smile at them, expressing his pride and gratitude for their success in defeating him and saving his city. He hands them a note before passing away. The note explains the parts of the origin story that were previously missing: the ambush on the capital killed his wife and daughter, and he turned to necromancy with the initial intention of bringing them back before thinking better of it and realizing it would be a living hell for them. However, the necromantic information in his head changed him into the Mad King that the world knew. The Mad King became obsessed with maintaining the last of his empire and with attempting to bring his family back. Again, everything that Ser Alistair told them was the truth, as he managed to escape his own mind and return to his prior state of mind with some frequency, beginning when the Mad King fell ill from a mild instance of the Spell Plague, and he left the party to protect his family, as he could feel when he was about to return to his maddened state of mind and needed to put magical safeguards in place to ensure that his alternate identity would not be able to bring them back from the dead. The note explains that the pearls that the party collected once belonged to his daughter and the memories that he associated with them and the pleasant magic with which they were instilled were the only thing capable of partially restoring the Mad King's humanity, lessening the dark magic's hold of him and making him able to be killed.
The party hears a set of footsteps running towards the door (they may prepare for battle if they so wish), and a human head servant enters the throne room, sees the carnage, asks if the party is responsible for it, before thanking them profusely for bringing freedom to the city, offering them some treasures that the castle has to offer and a place on any group that forms to determine how the city will be led hereafter (I do not expect them to take up the latter half of the offer, but I will offer for the negotiations to take place between games, if they so wish). From there, the party will get its significant loot and the campaign will end (barring any side missions they may wish to complete).
I thank you greatly if you did read the entirety of the above rant, and any advice that any of you could give would be super appreciated. As I mentioned, this will be the first (or second, if I DM a one-shot beforehand) time DMing, so any premade maps, NPCs, or side-missions that could be given or recommended would be amazing, and any suggestions for improvements or additions to the campaign overall to make it more fun and/or a less predictable conclusion would be terrific. Thank you again very much.
I forgot to mention it in the original post, but the campaign is taking place on Roll20.com, so I do have access to some assets, just not much knowledge of how to use them
Having a full story is obviously a great idea, but you have to be prepared for your players to at a minimum not follow where you think they're going to go, and at a maximum blow it all up in a way that you haven't planned for. To that end, I'd say to do things:
1. Have the characters write backstories that give you enough material to write side quests that involve exploring their backgrounds. everyone loves their own characters the most, and diverting them by letting them chase down their own personal demons ensures that they don't just barrel straight through your plot.
You can even have some of the personal quests circle back to your larger arc. For example, i'm currently running a campaign where the overarching arc has to do with a beholder who has corrupted several higher-ups in the king's court and some mid-level mages, and he's trying to uncover an ancient artifact that will give him ultimate control over undeath. His final plan is to corrupt the king, and use the power of the empire to wage war, raise fallen soldiers from that war into undead armies, and bend the material plane to his will. He has many side plans to accomplish this, one of which is that he had one of his thralls spirit a young wizard who was interested in necromancy away from university after she was expelled for experiments with undeath, and set her up with a laboratory deep in the mountains to continue her research and work. She has no idea who she's working for, only that she's been given a place to work free from the powers that be that have forbidden necromancy. The cleric in my party has a distinct hatred of undeath, and some of her creations found their way into his hometown. Word of skeletons attacking his home reached him, and he decided that it was super important to return home and sort out the cause. He thinks he's returning home just to save the people he cares about, but really he'll be tracking down the necromancer's lair, which will lead him back into the spider web of the beholder's plans.
2. Have enough going on in the world that the world might change around the characters if they don't follow the plot
You seem like you thrive on detail, as do I. So plan enough that you can reasonably improvise, but don't be so locked into your idea that you're afraid to go off-book when your party inevitably zigs and zags. You're all telling the story together, so give them a world that has enough detail that if they decide to blow up your plans and go in another direction, they're free to do so. In my game, if the party doesn't chase down the beholder by a certain point, then his plan will be successful and then all of a sudden war will break out on the continent, and my players will have a new reality to deal with.
And for side quest inspiration, here's a great jumping off point.
https://boccobsblog.com/2011/04/18/101-dd-quest-ideas/
I've got at least 10 off of this list that I've tailored to my party that I can throw out at any time. They're not even fully fledged, I'll fill in the details when I need them. For example:
All the townspeople in a village have contracted lycanthropy and become were-moose at the full moon. The group must discover that the alchemist upstream of the village’s water supply has been experimenting with dangerous chemicals to turn his beloved pet albino moose, Alabaster, into a sentient best friend. Keep a few of these in your back pocket for anytime.
You'll find that you have to plan less and less as you go on and get more comfortable with improvising. Just have fun and don't be too rigid and you'll be just fine.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
Along the lines of what IBerstein is saying I'd expand and add. The players will break the story. You should take that as a given. So be prepared for them to go off script anytime. What I like to do is give them the illusion of choice. Make the side quest part of the story that leads them to where you want them to go. For instance, maybe for some crazy reason the party decides to hunt down the fleeing Gnomes, or decide they don't want to get involved at all and wander off into the woods. That's fine. Have all roads lead them to where you want them to go. They chase the fleeing the gnomes and decide to kill them for whatever reason. No problem. One of the gnomes has a signet ring on him that lead them to Sir Alistair.
They go haywire and run into the woods eventually leading them to a cave where they fight some stuff and find a strange item. No magical means can identify it. Looks like they'll have to bring it to town and seek the advice of guess who.... Sir Alistair.
I think overall you've got a good campaign in the making there. I would say come up with a few alternate scenarios for when the players do the unexpected that will bring them back to the story without feeling like you're railroading them.
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
Thank you very much for your advice! My party definitely does love their own characters, so I'll be sure to throw in some things that specifically relate to their characters. Because we are all new to the game, past experience has shown them to be somewhat willing to follow a laid out track, as we have not played long enough to really realize that there are other significant options (we're playing LMoP under another DM right now and just kind of going where the story leads us), but I will be sure to have backup plans in case they do deviate. Also, thank you very much for those side quest ideas; I'll be sure to hold onto them!
Additionally, if anybody else has advice for the storyline and/or maps or character creation suggestions, they would still be greatly appreciated
Does your party enjoy dungeon crawls? If so, then having a series of labyrinths is perfect. They can also be a bit of a slog, so hiding the pearls or other objects that could defeat the Mad King in other places could break up the monotony of dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl.
What if the descendants of the Taxxon horde still exist in some form somewhere in the world, and they have a deep and ancient cultural hatred of the Mad King due to, you know, the war and everything. And what if they were able to steal certain relics during the wars that might aid the party in the King's downfall? What if the party had to find these descendants and convince them to part with the relics or join the fight themselves, but the party aren't the first adventurers who have come to the Horde for help, and the leaders are reluctant to align themselves with anyone who isn't powerful enough to fight because they know it would spell extermination for them and their kind. The party has to do a task, complete a trial etc, and earn the relic from the Horde?
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"