Aspiring Dungeon Master here! Now, I say aspiring, I mean, aspiring to be a real one.
Because I have hosted my own game, and it was a disaster.
I won't delve into the specifics, but basically, every player turned into a God.
Now, my new game, which is my own Campaign, follows the re-incarnations of the Gods into Mortal Beings (after being cast out by a 3rd party, it's a bit of doozy). Now, to ascend into Godhood again and become the immortals they once were, they need to find the artifacts crafted by them as Gods, and use that to become gods again (I did figure that part out and it's, dare I say, only slightly terrible)
But, here's where I'm struggling:
The Artifacts are in the Hall of Monuments, and the Hall contains their respective artifacts. All they need to do is pass a certain test, and once that test is complete, they shall receive the Artifact and be able to ascend to Godhood
However, I only have silly ideas as to what the trails can be. I need help. Yes, it's over my head and I should probably start out smaller, but, I can't.
God of Pleasure
God of Madness
God of Music
God of Death
God of Honor and Life
God of Luck
God of Shadows
TL;DR: ^^^These^^^ are the gods, and each has a trial that rewards you an artifact. I need a trial for each.
Personally, I would have the clue for each artifact be a vague riddle about what they needed to do and let them try to figure it out and come up with something. :)
Things like, for death, "The inevitability of death forgotten, the path corrupted," which maybe implies that there is a being or group who should have died but cheated death somehow - this could be cultists extending their life by sacrificing others, or some form of undead that needs to be dealt with.
Instead to their own personal trials, I would turn each into a trial of assisting others through daunting tribulations. To be a God, is to have power over human fortunes. Have the players change the course of fate for other mortals through epic challenges and reign supreme over the obstacles before them. How can they manipulate situations of politics, combat, or intellect?
This allows you to draw out the campaign, introduce plot depth, and incorporate vastly different agendas as your game progresses.
I've done the whole God Trial Creation for a campaign of my own. It can be a little intimidating, but this is pretty much what I did that ended up going over well with my players.
I researched a particular god or traits of the domain that the god was involved in and then built the trial based off of that. (The favorite of my party was the Trial of Tempest, where they had to discover some political intrigue and overthrow someone who had wronged the temple. With the aspect of Tempests Justice/Vengeance being the key theme there).
If these players were once the gods, I would as each of them what their tenants of worship where, and then craft each test as someone else testing their faith.
So an example would be that if the God of Luck was a god of gambling to place the relic in a gambling hall as something important. The players would then have to think of how they are going to get it, and it could be a prize for a challenge that no one has been able to complete. The players would then have to get past the main Casino floor, getting access to the high rollers room, and finally get access to the challenge where they could get the item.
Basic premise of Luck would be the dice rolls they make.
The main room of the casino would have guards where players with decent stealth checks (or lucky rolls) could just sneak past, but players generally explore a little more. They could play "mini-games" you have in the main room, that are just basically simple games of change with dice rolls. If the players do well, and seem to increase their spending they are invited to the back room where more gold is spread around. They could just try and beat their way through, but it's easy enough to discourage players with large numbers of guards and magically talents guests of the casino floor.
Have them enjoy the high rollers room for a little bit, larger gambling minimums, tougher guards, higher security, before letting them get to the "boss". Maybe the high rollers room, they don't just take gold and you can wager other things, like health for larger payouts, or single use magic items. I've done various different things temporarily that will make the fight at the end more enjoyable.
Boss- pick some of your favorite skills and monsters from what you feel an appropriate challenge level for your party would be and put them all into a list. When the players get here, have them roll a dice but don't tell them what it is for exactly. Do this as many times as you feel you need to (maybe decide on a number and let that number be able to be decreased depending on how well they did on the casino floor) and then have them go in and deal with the monster that their luck has created. (I'd limit yourself to picking from abilities of creatures that would already be a challenge for your party, just so that things don't go completely crazy.)
An example of the boss creation table would be:
Base-1(Base of the monster including HP, AC, Speed, Attacks, and Abilities): Bear, 2:Shark, 3:Tiger, 4:Elephant (player rolls a 3 so we have a tiger)
Power 1 (Add-on's from other creatures they wouldn't normally see with the above)- 1: Flying speed, 2- Lightning aura, 3- grants a target disadvantage on their next action if they are hit, 4- Bludgeoning resistance 5, Multiattack is increased by 1 attack the creature has, 6 Additional HP (players roll a 1 and 4)
So the final creature that they have to fight with their luck would a Winged Tiger in battle armor. This might lead you to needing to do a little more work that isn't seen but what DM hasn't created tons of things their players have completely walked right past?
The trial would give a little something to everyone, letting different players shine and rewards them for a little of everything they do. Some might walk away with a decent amount of money (too much gold can be a bad thing, especially when a player earns it in a social situation where lots of people know), some magic items or potions, one will get the item, and maybe everyone feels like they were able to do something for the trial.
Obviously the best trial will cater to your party.
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Aspiring Dungeon Master here! Now, I say aspiring, I mean, aspiring to be a real one.
Because I have hosted my own game, and it was a disaster.
I won't delve into the specifics, but basically, every player turned into a God.
Now, my new game, which is my own Campaign, follows the re-incarnations of the Gods into Mortal Beings (after being cast out by a 3rd party, it's a bit of doozy). Now, to ascend into Godhood again and become the immortals they once were, they need to find the artifacts crafted by them as Gods, and use that to become gods again (I did figure that part out and it's, dare I say, only slightly terrible)
But, here's where I'm struggling:
The Artifacts are in the Hall of Monuments, and the Hall contains their respective artifacts. All they need to do is pass a certain test, and once that test is complete, they shall receive the Artifact and be able to ascend to Godhood
However, I only have silly ideas as to what the trails can be. I need help. Yes, it's over my head and I should probably start out smaller, but, I can't.
TL;DR: ^^^These^^^ are the gods, and each has a trial that rewards you an artifact. I need a trial for each.
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D&D Beyond FoundersPlayers can be a pretty inventive bunch.
Personally, I would have the clue for each artifact be a vague riddle about what they needed to do and let them try to figure it out and come up with something. :)
Things like, for death, "The inevitability of death forgotten, the path corrupted," which maybe implies that there is a being or group who should have died but cheated death somehow - this could be cultists extending their life by sacrificing others, or some form of undead that needs to be dealt with.
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Instead to their own personal trials, I would turn each into a trial of assisting others through daunting tribulations. To be a God, is to have power over human fortunes. Have the players change the course of fate for other mortals through epic challenges and reign supreme over the obstacles before them. How can they manipulate situations of politics, combat, or intellect?
This allows you to draw out the campaign, introduce plot depth, and incorporate vastly different agendas as your game progresses.
I've done the whole God Trial Creation for a campaign of my own. It can be a little intimidating, but this is pretty much what I did that ended up going over well with my players.
I researched a particular god or traits of the domain that the god was involved in and then built the trial based off of that. (The favorite of my party was the Trial of Tempest, where they had to discover some political intrigue and overthrow someone who had wronged the temple. With the aspect of Tempests Justice/Vengeance being the key theme there).
If these players were once the gods, I would as each of them what their tenants of worship where, and then craft each test as someone else testing their faith.
So an example would be that if the God of Luck was a god of gambling to place the relic in a gambling hall as something important. The players would then have to think of how they are going to get it, and it could be a prize for a challenge that no one has been able to complete. The players would then have to get past the main Casino floor, getting access to the high rollers room, and finally get access to the challenge where they could get the item.
Basic premise of Luck would be the dice rolls they make.
The main room of the casino would have guards where players with decent stealth checks (or lucky rolls) could just sneak past, but players generally explore a little more. They could play "mini-games" you have in the main room, that are just basically simple games of change with dice rolls. If the players do well, and seem to increase their spending they are invited to the back room where more gold is spread around. They could just try and beat their way through, but it's easy enough to discourage players with large numbers of guards and magically talents guests of the casino floor.
Have them enjoy the high rollers room for a little bit, larger gambling minimums, tougher guards, higher security, before letting them get to the "boss". Maybe the high rollers room, they don't just take gold and you can wager other things, like health for larger payouts, or single use magic items. I've done various different things temporarily that will make the fight at the end more enjoyable.
Boss- pick some of your favorite skills and monsters from what you feel an appropriate challenge level for your party would be and put them all into a list. When the players get here, have them roll a dice but don't tell them what it is for exactly. Do this as many times as you feel you need to (maybe decide on a number and let that number be able to be decreased depending on how well they did on the casino floor) and then have them go in and deal with the monster that their luck has created. (I'd limit yourself to picking from abilities of creatures that would already be a challenge for your party, just so that things don't go completely crazy.)
An example of the boss creation table would be:
Base-1(Base of the monster including HP, AC, Speed, Attacks, and Abilities): Bear, 2:Shark, 3:Tiger, 4:Elephant (player rolls a 3 so we have a tiger)
Power 1 (Add-on's from other creatures they wouldn't normally see with the above)- 1: Flying speed, 2- Lightning aura, 3- grants a target disadvantage on their next action if they are hit, 4- Bludgeoning resistance 5, Multiattack is increased by 1 attack the creature has, 6 Additional HP (players roll a 1 and 4)
So the final creature that they have to fight with their luck would a Winged Tiger in battle armor. This might lead you to needing to do a little more work that isn't seen but what DM hasn't created tons of things their players have completely walked right past?
The trial would give a little something to everyone, letting different players shine and rewards them for a little of everything they do. Some might walk away with a decent amount of money (too much gold can be a bad thing, especially when a player earns it in a social situation where lots of people know), some magic items or potions, one will get the item, and maybe everyone feels like they were able to do something for the trial.
Obviously the best trial will cater to your party.