So I decided to start building a LONG campaign right off the bat as my first game. (I’m most definitely going to run at least a oneshot to I try my hand at DMing for the first time) My current running problem is making things interesting leading up to the big boys I have coming up. (You know a nice plague, war, dragons and a massive plot twist). I’m going to have things like character spesific adventures such as getting to their motivations and pasts.
The thing is that I need ideas for quests/encounters especially things that can happen along the way. They are going to adventure a lot in cities etc but also a lot out in the wilderness.
Also also I’m writing one of the early adventures in which I have a minor villain liberian (Wizard perhaps.) who kidnapped a boy the party saved in the other town. (I mean, will hopefully save!) My current idea for him is a want to destroy the big society. I would imagine him having monsters or something he created doing his bidding and destruction. (The party will have to try to figure out who is causing all of this) I need a solid reason why would he want to just flip and destroy everything.
All ideas, tips for my long campaign and ideas for the minor villain are grately appreciated.
(PS. oh lord DMing a long campaign takes planning! But it’s really rewarding)
Disclaimer: This works for me and might not work for everyone, Most of my ideas come from Videogames
Random Encounter tables are your friend. These can be found in books and online. These range from the random merchant cart, to a herd of high-level monsters in the distance
Quests are interesting as fetch quests always work Party wants a magic item, potion, etc Shopkeep can make it but is missing the items needed. Sends the party to get them.
Make all the Minor villains their own questline. Think of it as a book. Chapter 1 the party meets and goes on their first adventure. Chapter 2 ( What I do) Have the Big bad show up and either wipe out the party but not kill them or do something to show his power that the players can't stop Chapter 3-? Minor Bosses ( maybe this helps them level up to learn about the overall story and get weapons they need to fight the big bad. Friends turn on the party ( Maybe one of them is a demon that is working for the Big Bad, Foes become friends, maybe one of the parties favorite NPC is killed and left pinned to a wall and when the party sees them and tries to help it sets off a tap of alchemist fire that burns the shop down... moving on Last Chapter -Final Dungeon and boss fight
The finer details will be filled in as the party goes on,
OK, this perhaps sound a little strange as an advice, but don't prepare too much.
One of the greatest things with creating your own campaign is that you don't have to follow a predestined path. There is much less need of railroading the players to different "checkpoints". Creating your own campaign also give you a lot more freedom to just create things on the fly without worrying about that it might contradict something down the line.
Try to just paint out the story in broad strokes, then concentrate on the first "chapter" in your campaign (perhaps the three first sessions). Try to have some idea what the final stand off for this chapter would be (could be your wizard/librarian). I would not have created much for session 2 and 3, but concentrated on session 1 and some world building. Why? The fun thing when you create your own campaign is that the players after session 1 might choose some completely different way that you imagined, and that is the real fun! Then you suddenly sit there with a lot of preparation you either can't use, or have to adjust.
I'd also make a bunch of stuff that you can just plug and play. Pinch stuff from everywhere. The goblins at the start of Lost Mines of Phandelver? Beef it up and put it in any wilderness environment. They could start by ambushing you, you beat the ambush and then you track them back to their lair. You need a city encounter? Have some tavern type stuff set up. A rumour. A fight breaking out. Someone encroaching on the guilds territory. Whatever. But keep them loose and malleable so you can put them wherever you need them. Not EVERYTHING has to lead back to your big arc. Sometimes it's just fun to have sidequests. Also!!!! Just throw out the hook and see if your players are keen. If they're not, don't tell them anything about what they missed, just use it later, with maybe a slightly modified hook. But the more of these you have, the easier you can just roll with the flow of the game. Get a bunch of village maps from the net. Insert where needed.
Take advantage of the Encounters of the Week they publish on this site as well. Just plug the encounter into your setting. You can even swap out for the recurring monsters of your campaign.
So yeah, think in small chunks. Just lay out possible steps for the players.
imo, its like writing...one of THE best ways to become a writer is to read a LOT. Not what you're looking for, but I think my best advice to you is to wait on building your own...run a variety of existing adventures/campaigns with good ratings. Even if you've read them before, reading/running them from a DM's eyes is a totally different experience.
also, for this "My current running problem is making things interesting leading up to the big boys I have coming up." - I think your real problem might be your story-telling ability...which takes practice. You can't just expect someone, including yourself, to sit down as a shiny new DM and spin a nice yarn. And [again imo] that practice just builds better if you have good building blocks...which comes from well-designed adventures....from people who've been designing adventures for decades.
...and ask for feedback after the adventure.
all imo of course.
...but if you go the "I got this" route and similar to others' advice, pick pieces from other places...if nothing else it'll save you a ton of time. that weekly encounter blog kcbcollierpointed out is huge. also, there's a ton of free, small encounters on dmsguild.
To build up to the big baddy without revealing to much: - Locations that have been visited by the big bad: battlefields with bodies, destroyed villages, murdered npc's they've met before, turned npc's/monsters - Drop some hints in there, like magical marking, runes or a certain way the wounds look like matching the modus operandi of the bad guy/girl - Spread around some rumours in the taverns and lore in the libraries of your world available for the players to investigate - Maybe the big bad has some helpers that (individually) are more easy to defeat and can be encountered earlier, on their body you could again drop some clues - Include some factions into your world, they are ideal to have more information on big evils, plots, reports on attacks and to have a council meeting where the adventurers are invited to
Don't try to get too big with what you describe as a "minor villain". A minor villain isn't in it to destroy the entire world, or an entire society. They're a librarian, you said. Some ideas:
1. They've been possessed by some kind of dark knowledge spirit trapped in an old book (this leads to bigger bads down the line).
2. They've been on a quest for a particular piece of information and - now that they just found it in the town's library - they're going to destroy anyone else who might know it and could use it to stop them.
3. PLOT TWIST: The Librarian is a good guy, trying to prevent the spread of evil knowledge, but the only way to do it is to eliminate everyone who has come into contact with this knowledge. The party doesn't know this, and discovers it all too late! They've already killed the Librarian and unleashed this knowledge on the world and now they have to fix their mistake!
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So I decided to start building a LONG campaign right off the bat as my first game. (I’m most definitely going to run at least a oneshot to I try my hand at DMing for the first time) My current running problem is making things interesting leading up to the big boys I have coming up. (You know a nice plague, war, dragons and a massive plot twist). I’m going to have things like character spesific adventures such as getting to their motivations and pasts.
The thing is that I need ideas for quests/encounters especially things that can happen along the way. They are going to adventure a lot in cities etc but also a lot out in the wilderness.
Also also I’m writing one of the early adventures in which I have a minor villain liberian (Wizard perhaps.) who kidnapped a boy the party saved in the other town. (I mean, will hopefully save!) My current idea for him is a want to destroy the big society. I would imagine him having monsters or something he created doing his bidding and destruction. (The party will have to try to figure out who is causing all of this) I need a solid reason why would he want to just flip and destroy everything.
All ideas, tips for my long campaign and ideas for the minor villain are grately appreciated.
(PS. oh lord DMing a long campaign takes planning! But it’s really rewarding)
Disclaimer: This works for me and might not work for everyone, Most of my ideas come from Videogames
Random Encounter tables are your friend. These can be found in books and online. These range from the random merchant cart, to a herd of high-level monsters in the distance
Quests are interesting as fetch quests always work Party wants a magic item, potion, etc Shopkeep can make it but is missing the items needed. Sends the party to get them.
Make all the Minor villains their own questline. Think of it as a book.
Chapter 1 the party meets and goes on their first adventure.
Chapter 2 ( What I do) Have the Big bad show up and either wipe out the party but not kill them or do something to show his power that the players can't stop
Chapter 3-? Minor Bosses ( maybe this helps them level up to learn about the overall story and get weapons they need to fight the big bad. Friends turn on the party ( Maybe one of them is a demon that is working for the Big Bad, Foes become friends, maybe one of the parties favorite NPC is killed and left pinned to a wall and when the party sees them and tries to help it sets off a tap of alchemist fire that burns the shop down... moving on
Last Chapter -Final Dungeon and boss fight
The finer details will be filled in as the party goes on,
OK, this perhaps sound a little strange as an advice, but don't prepare too much.
One of the greatest things with creating your own campaign is that you don't have to follow a predestined path. There is much less need of railroading the players to different "checkpoints". Creating your own campaign also give you a lot more freedom to just create things on the fly without worrying about that it might contradict something down the line.
Try to just paint out the story in broad strokes, then concentrate on the first "chapter" in your campaign (perhaps the three first sessions). Try to have some idea what the final stand off for this chapter would be (could be your wizard/librarian). I would not have created much for session 2 and 3, but concentrated on session 1 and some world building. Why? The fun thing when you create your own campaign is that the players after session 1 might choose some completely different way that you imagined, and that is the real fun! Then you suddenly sit there with a lot of preparation you either can't use, or have to adjust.
Ludo ergo sum!
I'd also make a bunch of stuff that you can just plug and play. Pinch stuff from everywhere. The goblins at the start of Lost Mines of Phandelver? Beef it up and put it in any wilderness environment. They could start by ambushing you, you beat the ambush and then you track them back to their lair. You need a city encounter? Have some tavern type stuff set up. A rumour. A fight breaking out. Someone encroaching on the guilds territory. Whatever. But keep them loose and malleable so you can put them wherever you need them. Not EVERYTHING has to lead back to your big arc. Sometimes it's just fun to have sidequests. Also!!!! Just throw out the hook and see if your players are keen. If they're not, don't tell them anything about what they missed, just use it later, with maybe a slightly modified hook. But the more of these you have, the easier you can just roll with the flow of the game. Get a bunch of village maps from the net. Insert where needed.
Take advantage of the Encounters of the Week they publish on this site as well. Just plug the encounter into your setting. You can even swap out for the recurring monsters of your campaign.
So yeah, think in small chunks. Just lay out possible steps for the players.
imo, its like writing...one of THE best ways to become a writer is to read a LOT. Not what you're looking for, but I think my best advice to you is to wait on building your own...run a variety of existing adventures/campaigns with good ratings. Even if you've read them before, reading/running them from a DM's eyes is a totally different experience.
also, for this "My current running problem is making things interesting leading up to the big boys I have coming up." - I think your real problem might be your story-telling ability...which takes practice. You can't just expect someone, including yourself, to sit down as a shiny new DM and spin a nice yarn. And [again imo] that practice just builds better if you have good building blocks...which comes from well-designed adventures....from people who've been designing adventures for decades.
...and ask for feedback after the adventure.
all imo of course.
...but if you go the "I got this" route and similar to others' advice, pick pieces from other places...if nothing else it'll save you a ton of time. that weekly encounter blog kcbcollierpointed out is huge. also, there's a ton of free, small encounters on dmsguild.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Ok! Thanks for the advice! I’m going to keep those handy. Luckily I already desingned for the minor villain to have that story line :)
To build up to the big baddy without revealing to much:
- Locations that have been visited by the big bad: battlefields with bodies, destroyed villages, murdered npc's they've met before, turned npc's/monsters
- Drop some hints in there, like magical marking, runes or a certain way the wounds look like matching the modus operandi of the bad guy/girl
- Spread around some rumours in the taverns and lore in the libraries of your world available for the players to investigate
- Maybe the big bad has some helpers that (individually) are more easy to defeat and can be encountered earlier, on their body you could again drop some clues
- Include some factions into your world, they are ideal to have more information on big evils, plots, reports on attacks and to have a council meeting where the adventurers are invited to
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Rob.
Don't try to get too big with what you describe as a "minor villain". A minor villain isn't in it to destroy the entire world, or an entire society. They're a librarian, you said. Some ideas:
1. They've been possessed by some kind of dark knowledge spirit trapped in an old book (this leads to bigger bads down the line).
2. They've been on a quest for a particular piece of information and - now that they just found it in the town's library - they're going to destroy anyone else who might know it and could use it to stop them.
3. PLOT TWIST: The Librarian is a good guy, trying to prevent the spread of evil knowledge, but the only way to do it is to eliminate everyone who has come into contact with this knowledge. The party doesn't know this, and discovers it all too late! They've already killed the Librarian and unleashed this knowledge on the world and now they have to fix their mistake!