Hey guys! So I got the old gears in my head spinning and I'm trying to come up with a new Homebrew Campaign for my group and I to play. Kinda stumped a bit on the overall plot and campaign villain, so I figured I'd reach out to you guys for some possible ideas/advice.
For this campaign I was trying to go with the classic Fantasy story arc. Embarking on epic quests, slaying big bad monsters (Dragons, Giants, Undead, etc.p), exploring Dungeons and finding all sorts of cool loot, that kinda stuff. I also kinda like the idea of possibly combining all the elements from all the DND Worlds (Faerun, Eberron, Greyhawk, etc) into one campaign. Thereby giving my players an unlimited amount of race choices, classes, etc.
So I have a concept in mind. But again, I'm just struggling with tying it all together and what the overall plot/villain will be. Very open to any ideas/suggestions y'all may have.
You don't always need a main villain, much less a plot, to run a fun game. "Monster of the week" is a totally valid way to play! Or you could go with the simple idea of "evil monster wants to take over the kingdom, and everyone else you fight is connected to their evil plan." But for a game that's both classic and eclectic, I don't think you can go wrong with a good old fashioned dragon as your villain!
To take Naivara's idea a bit farther, maybe a monster of the week becomes a main villain. You just start playing with a vague idea that there's some goblins trying to take over the town, and go from there. See where things lead you. Sometimes you can start like this and let the player's paranoia take over. They'll assume you have some master plan, and you can turn their ideas about what's happening to be what's actually happening, or at least use it as a place to start.
Here's what I've started doing. I actually focus group. There's a couple of websites/tool that do this, but I use the (free) polling tools at mentimeter to construct a word cloud. Basically every player in my group is given ten slots for the word cloud. I go through the MM and pre-list all the monster types that I think "that'd be cool to run" and use that as the start of my Monster List. I then do a setting list where I give environments in broad strokes "Cities, Forrests, Jungles, Arctic, etc" as well as a few specific locations we may have played in or they've heard about in the campaign. Third, I list NPCs I thought were significant as well as McGuffins the party is aware (for instance they have this ersatz eye that if looked at long enough you realize you're sort of looking at an almost snow globe scale rendering a stars cape) and list those. Lastly I use types of play we could: heists, war, diplomacy, exploration, etc. As we wind down the arc, we have a group debrief where the players mention monsters, settings, NPCs/McGuffins they may like to see and if they're not on the lists already, they're added. Each member can pick ten terms total from the three lists (someone really into monsters may pick all ten from that, folks intersted I travel may just choose exploration and settings entries). Each player then enters their list onto the mentimeter and the tool turns the input into a word cloud. The most popular terms get centered and bolded. Minor terms get put to the sides of the cloud in fainter fonts. It's pretty cool. I then use that cloud as a forecast of what the game would like to see and go from there, challenging myself to find a way to "hit all the notes" with the emphasis on elements determined by the cloud.
I guess I have the luxury of really not caring what I run with my groups, with both groups I really enjoy giving them a place to play in and the more input they provide, I find my workload on that end more relaxed. If you're interested my current round, first time I'm fully embracing this, will probably be compiled next week, I can show you our forms and some screenshots of the cloud as it develops.
In my world there is an area (that no groups have gone to yet) that is basically the Dark Sun setting. Eventually, that area will start to spread and threaten the neighboring biomes. I'm just waiting for a player to start pulling on those threads.
I'd like to have my poll out to the group by this weekend, but this group meets every other week and we're probably two sessions out for me having to really act upon it. Anycase, I'll see what I can do about PMing you the survey prompt, and the mentimeter interface. Once I get the cloud that's an easy share. If more folks are interested here I can post something here (I don't like linking my G-drive and stuff to public spaces so I'll have to find some sort of intermediary or just post images).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I will say generally when I am home brewing I will have a rough idea of what the world is like, and by that I mean a paragraph or 10 bullet points. I then have my players tell me what they want to play and figure out how they fit into my world. How are tieflings and Dragonborn viewed, where do the elves live, who is the trickster pantheon.
Then I just focus on the opening 5 sessions, what will bring the party together and what are first few quests. From there I might have a main story arc planned out, or I might just see how my players get in and what they enjoy.
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Hey guys! So I got the old gears in my head spinning and I'm trying to come up with a new Homebrew Campaign for my group and I to play. Kinda stumped a bit on the overall plot and campaign villain, so I figured I'd reach out to you guys for some possible ideas/advice.
For this campaign I was trying to go with the classic Fantasy story arc. Embarking on epic quests, slaying big bad monsters (Dragons, Giants, Undead, etc.p), exploring Dungeons and finding all sorts of cool loot, that kinda stuff. I also kinda like the idea of possibly combining all the elements from all the DND Worlds (Faerun, Eberron, Greyhawk, etc) into one campaign. Thereby giving my players an unlimited amount of race choices, classes, etc.
So I have a concept in mind. But again, I'm just struggling with tying it all together and what the overall plot/villain will be. Very open to any ideas/suggestions y'all may have.
You don't always need a main villain, much less a plot, to run a fun game. "Monster of the week" is a totally valid way to play! Or you could go with the simple idea of "evil monster wants to take over the kingdom, and everyone else you fight is connected to their evil plan." But for a game that's both classic and eclectic, I don't think you can go wrong with a good old fashioned dragon as your villain!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
To take Naivara's idea a bit farther, maybe a monster of the week becomes a main villain. You just start playing with a vague idea that there's some goblins trying to take over the town, and go from there. See where things lead you. Sometimes you can start like this and let the player's paranoia take over. They'll assume you have some master plan, and you can turn their ideas about what's happening to be what's actually happening, or at least use it as a place to start.
Here's what I've started doing. I actually focus group. There's a couple of websites/tool that do this, but I use the (free) polling tools at mentimeter to construct a word cloud. Basically every player in my group is given ten slots for the word cloud. I go through the MM and pre-list all the monster types that I think "that'd be cool to run" and use that as the start of my Monster List. I then do a setting list where I give environments in broad strokes "Cities, Forrests, Jungles, Arctic, etc" as well as a few specific locations we may have played in or they've heard about in the campaign. Third, I list NPCs I thought were significant as well as McGuffins the party is aware (for instance they have this ersatz eye that if looked at long enough you realize you're sort of looking at an almost snow globe scale rendering a stars cape) and list those. Lastly I use types of play we could: heists, war, diplomacy, exploration, etc. As we wind down the arc, we have a group debrief where the players mention monsters, settings, NPCs/McGuffins they may like to see and if they're not on the lists already, they're added. Each member can pick ten terms total from the three lists (someone really into monsters may pick all ten from that, folks intersted I travel may just choose exploration and settings entries). Each player then enters their list onto the mentimeter and the tool turns the input into a word cloud. The most popular terms get centered and bolded. Minor terms get put to the sides of the cloud in fainter fonts. It's pretty cool. I then use that cloud as a forecast of what the game would like to see and go from there, challenging myself to find a way to "hit all the notes" with the emphasis on elements determined by the cloud.
I guess I have the luxury of really not caring what I run with my groups, with both groups I really enjoy giving them a place to play in and the more input they provide, I find my workload on that end more relaxed. If you're interested my current round, first time I'm fully embracing this, will probably be compiled next week, I can show you our forms and some screenshots of the cloud as it develops.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'd love to see that.
In my world there is an area (that no groups have gone to yet) that is basically the Dark Sun setting. Eventually, that area will start to spread and threaten the neighboring biomes. I'm just waiting for a player to start pulling on those threads.
I'd like to have my poll out to the group by this weekend, but this group meets every other week and we're probably two sessions out for me having to really act upon it. Anycase, I'll see what I can do about PMing you the survey prompt, and the mentimeter interface. Once I get the cloud that's an easy share. If more folks are interested here I can post something here (I don't like linking my G-drive and stuff to public spaces so I'll have to find some sort of intermediary or just post images).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Appreciate all the suggestions guys! I think I'm coming up with some concepts now. So I should be gtg.
I will say generally when I am home brewing I will have a rough idea of what the world is like, and by that I mean a paragraph or 10 bullet points. I then have my players tell me what they want to play and figure out how they fit into my world. How are tieflings and Dragonborn viewed, where do the elves live, who is the trickster pantheon.
Then I just focus on the opening 5 sessions, what will bring the party together and what are first few quests. From there I might have a main story arc planned out, or I might just see how my players get in and what they enjoy.