I probably should’ve done a pre-made adventure but most of the campaigns that I’m apart of are mostly home brew. Tonight I just need to make a list of the different NPCs and shop names, and town names
The very first campaign I ever ran was homebrew, and I ran it to completion with 100 sessions over about 1.5 years. Apparently I'm a special snowflake exception to the rule and not the average example. I got lucky with a couple really devoted players I met online through other games.
Having a set path in mind is always good, but being prepared for the PCs to completely waltz sideways and upside-down across it is even more important, IMO. As a first-time DM, you likely won't have enough experience to estimate how your players will play - compared to myself as an example, I have gotten to know my players and their characters fairly well and am pretty good at predicting the paths they'll take without railroading at all, making my planning a lot easier.
For the temples, that's a good idea, Bookworm, that's a good idea! I suggest looking up some riddles and re-wording them a bit so they can't easily just be googled, but also be prepared to allow players to roll INT checks so it doesn't become "player intelligence instead of character intelligence." As for traps, I suggest building traps around characters' abilities. So if you have a rogue in the party, they should be able to find hints that the thing is trapped beforehand, and have an easier time searching for ways to disable the trap beforehand or after it triggers. If you don't have a rogue, or someone with Thieves Tools or high Investigation, build traps more around clever thinking, forethought, and spells. Riddles written in stone in a different language than any of the party speaks is great, but altogether doomed to fail if no one has Comprehend Languages.
For drowning, specifically, note that held breath is equal in minutes to 1 + Constitution modifier. So if the party took 30 minutes to get down a long tunnel and suddenly that's filled with water, they're doomed to fail trying to go back the way they game, so you'll need to be sure to have an alternate exit that they can get to.
Ultimately, the role of the DM is to facilitate success for the players while making it feel like they aren't guaranteed anything. We're here to make the players feel like heroes, but not necessarily to make it too easy on them. (:
I usually don't suggest making traps exclusively for one character too often. It's not a bad idea, but if that player has to miss the session that day or leave unexpectedly for any reason, it could make it trickier.
Group skill checks are often great for traps. For example, for your drowning trap, perhaps they realize a series of protruding stones need to be pressed in the correct order or at the same time. They'd have to work together to figure it out and proceed. If I were running that scenario, as soon as the water started pouring in, I'd ask for everyone to make Perception checks - instead of just one or two players. That way, if a couple people get high rolls but not quite to the DC, you can fudge it a little and say "You notice something slightly off and, mentioning it to the other person who notices the same, realize together that the stone is protruding a bit more than the others."
In my games I don't "roll for the answer to the puzzle" but most DMs I've heard from allow this. I make my players use their brains, but I don't put absolute death or hard stops on game progress in front of them when faced with those challenges. Sometimes I even reward behavior that most groups avoid, such as splitting the party, then take advantage of the "I feel safe splitting the party now because it rewarded me in the past."
If you google "d&d 5e traps" you'll find plenty of great options. Same with riddles and puzzles.
The biggest thing I do is try to make it fit with the theme of the dungeon/environment. For example, a library probably wouldn't have a pit of lava trap, but might have magically-enchanted books that, when touched or opened, fly at the offending person and deal a little bit of damage. A crypt is likely to be trapped to prevent people from robbing it, but needs to still be accessible to bury people in unless it's closed and sealed-off for good, so if there are spike pits or arrow hole traps, there should be ways to avoid or disable them that only the keepers of that place would know about. Also consider the resources needed to make those traps. The drowning tunnel, for example - where is all that water coming from? Perhaps the players, earlier on into the dungeon, find a room that is just a pool of water. If they investigate, they'll find holes in the floor that are blocked up magically. Later, if they trigger the trap, perhaps getting out requires finding those holes again. Foreshadowing is never a bad thing.
Good idea! The 4 traps I had in mind were the party had to trick a hag (or a witch type creature) into giving them a magical compass to get to the island, the drowning trap, and maybe one where one wrong move sends a Boulder rolling down at them like in Indiana Jones (but maybe it’s just an illusion) and maybe in the end when they reach the deity I liked someone’s suggestion of fake gold
One of the best pieces of advice I've seen for traps is to not make them "life or death", or even "Life or damage", but instead make them "Life or Difficult".
Nobody likes being told "you stepped on a pressure plate, and a thing happened, and you took damage, and now the trap is spent". That will slow the game down as every new place is searched by every player for hidden pressure plates.
I prefer traps to be semi-obvious, but dormant - the walls are slick with algae and damp, I wonder if this room fills with water? There's a big bladed wheel in the middle of this room, which reaches the edges, which are covered in score marks. Best not accidentally start it spinning! That sort of thing.
With regard to the "get the compass from the hag", fully expect your players to just try to kill her. Remember that you have no control over what the players do, only over what they have to achieve. If you give the players a 20ft. high cliff with 2 ropes hanging down it, then expect all of the players to have a different response - "I try to climb the cliff without the rope", "I pull both ropes hard to see if they are connected to anything", "I cast levitate", "I cast fireball", "Do I see any symbols on the walls?" Etc.
As such, give them what has happened so far and don't make suppositions on what they are going to do. "The hag has a compass which you need" is all the players will be going on, they won't necessarily think to try and trick her out of it!
For the drowning trap, what happens if the players fall into it? Do you plan on a TPK (total party kill)? This is where the "life or difficult" is a better than "Life or death", you can have the drowning trap flush them into a cave system where they will now have to fight their way out. Their progress has been impeded and their resources reduced, but they still get to do what they are good at to deal with the consequences of the trap.
The boulder trap is another where it could just be fatal. It could be a good option down a side-route, where it blocks the entrance and now they have to make their way through the side route to get out, again reducing their resources.
I love the concept of trying to find a lost island of gold. One option could be to have a creature with what we can call "Midas' Breath", which works like a gorgon's breath but where its petrification ability turns people to gold. Perhaps a dragon. Then the city of gold can be made of stone, but every person in it is made of gold. Perhaps offer an explanation that they are still alive, maybe by giving the players an anti-petrification potion. Now what was set to be a treasure hunt is instead a potential to save a lost city of people, whilst the pirate king will (being evil) want to melt the people down to make gold bars.
You can then throw an encounter where the pirate king has arrived and has started melting the gold in a great cauldron. When the players break the curse (however you choose to have that work) the molten gold inside the pot turns into a gibbering mouther, and forms a third party in what can be a decent sized fight scene - mouther vs pirates vs PCs.
Further idea regarding breaking the curse: The island is covered in these statues, and the party has (from an early encounter with a friendly witchdoctor who they helped on the road) a small vial of highly potent anti-petrification potion. Have the witchdoctor explain how it can be diluted a thousand times and still work.
Then have the island have a giant geyser which erupts every hour, and showers the island with hot rain and steam. If the party can get the potion into the geyser, they can un-petrify everyone the next time it erupts.
I would have the gold petrification be a result of a curse from a jealous god, who had seen the islands capabilities of turning things to gold and sought to punish them ironically. Give them a history of having petrified animals and monsters into gold, and have the animals on plinths as actual statues. When the curse is broken, the monsters all return to life as well, and add chaos to the proceedings.
Another idea (sorry to barrage you with them!) would be for this geyser to be the cause of the curse, and have players make constitution saves when it erupts, with their skin starting to turn shiny if they fail, as they contract a disease (similar to frozen sick, from the free adventure available on here) which will slowly turn them to gold. This could even see them having to partner up with the pirate king, who may also be infected, in order to break the curse.
At any rate, it's a cool concept you've got going here! I look forward to hearing how session 1 went!
Thank you for the suggestions! And the for the hag thing, I fully expect them to try to kill her, I have no doubt about that and prepared. And for the drowning trap I would make the players roll perception and depending on how high their roll is (since it’s my first time DMing I’ll be nice) they see loose stones they have to pull out to find a trigger to stop the water. And for the Boulder thing, I was thinking that the Boulder is just an illusion placed there by former citizens to try to scare outsiders off. For example, if the party triggers the illusion then the Boulder would roll towards them but since it’s not real it would just pass through them and scare them
I probably should’ve done a pre-made adventure but most of the campaigns that I’m apart of are mostly home brew. Tonight I just need to make a list of the different NPCs and shop names, and town names
The very first campaign I ever ran was homebrew, and I ran it to completion with 100 sessions over about 1.5 years. Apparently I'm a special snowflake exception to the rule and not the average example. I got lucky with a couple really devoted players I met online through other games.
Having a set path in mind is always good, but being prepared for the PCs to completely waltz sideways and upside-down across it is even more important, IMO. As a first-time DM, you likely won't have enough experience to estimate how your players will play - compared to myself as an example, I have gotten to know my players and their characters fairly well and am pretty good at predicting the paths they'll take without railroading at all, making my planning a lot easier.
For the temples, that's a good idea, Bookworm, that's a good idea! I suggest looking up some riddles and re-wording them a bit so they can't easily just be googled, but also be prepared to allow players to roll INT checks so it doesn't become "player intelligence instead of character intelligence." As for traps, I suggest building traps around characters' abilities. So if you have a rogue in the party, they should be able to find hints that the thing is trapped beforehand, and have an easier time searching for ways to disable the trap beforehand or after it triggers. If you don't have a rogue, or someone with Thieves Tools or high Investigation, build traps more around clever thinking, forethought, and spells. Riddles written in stone in a different language than any of the party speaks is great, but altogether doomed to fail if no one has Comprehend Languages.
For drowning, specifically, note that held breath is equal in minutes to 1 + Constitution modifier. So if the party took 30 minutes to get down a long tunnel and suddenly that's filled with water, they're doomed to fail trying to go back the way they game, so you'll need to be sure to have an alternate exit that they can get to.
Ultimately, the role of the DM is to facilitate success for the players while making it feel like they aren't guaranteed anything. We're here to make the players feel like heroes, but not necessarily to make it too easy on them. (:
That’s a good point. So far I have a halfling glamour bard, a tiefling artificer, and a half-elf way of the shadow monk
Should I make traps for each specific character (but the others can help) or just ones where their all of their skills are needed
I usually don't suggest making traps exclusively for one character too often. It's not a bad idea, but if that player has to miss the session that day or leave unexpectedly for any reason, it could make it trickier.
Group skill checks are often great for traps. For example, for your drowning trap, perhaps they realize a series of protruding stones need to be pressed in the correct order or at the same time. They'd have to work together to figure it out and proceed. If I were running that scenario, as soon as the water started pouring in, I'd ask for everyone to make Perception checks - instead of just one or two players. That way, if a couple people get high rolls but not quite to the DC, you can fudge it a little and say "You notice something slightly off and, mentioning it to the other person who notices the same, realize together that the stone is protruding a bit more than the others."
In my games I don't "roll for the answer to the puzzle" but most DMs I've heard from allow this. I make my players use their brains, but I don't put absolute death or hard stops on game progress in front of them when faced with those challenges. Sometimes I even reward behavior that most groups avoid, such as splitting the party, then take advantage of the "I feel safe splitting the party now because it rewarded me in the past."
If you google "d&d 5e traps" you'll find plenty of great options. Same with riddles and puzzles.
The biggest thing I do is try to make it fit with the theme of the dungeon/environment. For example, a library probably wouldn't have a pit of lava trap, but might have magically-enchanted books that, when touched or opened, fly at the offending person and deal a little bit of damage. A crypt is likely to be trapped to prevent people from robbing it, but needs to still be accessible to bury people in unless it's closed and sealed-off for good, so if there are spike pits or arrow hole traps, there should be ways to avoid or disable them that only the keepers of that place would know about. Also consider the resources needed to make those traps. The drowning tunnel, for example - where is all that water coming from? Perhaps the players, earlier on into the dungeon, find a room that is just a pool of water. If they investigate, they'll find holes in the floor that are blocked up magically. Later, if they trigger the trap, perhaps getting out requires finding those holes again. Foreshadowing is never a bad thing.
Good idea! The 4 traps I had in mind were the party had to trick a hag (or a witch type creature) into giving them a magical compass to get to the island, the drowning trap, and maybe one where one wrong move sends a Boulder rolling down at them like in Indiana Jones (but maybe it’s just an illusion) and maybe in the end when they reach the deity I liked someone’s suggestion of fake gold
One of the best pieces of advice I've seen for traps is to not make them "life or death", or even "Life or damage", but instead make them "Life or Difficult".
Nobody likes being told "you stepped on a pressure plate, and a thing happened, and you took damage, and now the trap is spent". That will slow the game down as every new place is searched by every player for hidden pressure plates.
I prefer traps to be semi-obvious, but dormant - the walls are slick with algae and damp, I wonder if this room fills with water? There's a big bladed wheel in the middle of this room, which reaches the edges, which are covered in score marks. Best not accidentally start it spinning! That sort of thing.
With regard to the "get the compass from the hag", fully expect your players to just try to kill her. Remember that you have no control over what the players do, only over what they have to achieve. If you give the players a 20ft. high cliff with 2 ropes hanging down it, then expect all of the players to have a different response - "I try to climb the cliff without the rope", "I pull both ropes hard to see if they are connected to anything", "I cast levitate", "I cast fireball", "Do I see any symbols on the walls?" Etc.
As such, give them what has happened so far and don't make suppositions on what they are going to do. "The hag has a compass which you need" is all the players will be going on, they won't necessarily think to try and trick her out of it!
For the drowning trap, what happens if the players fall into it? Do you plan on a TPK (total party kill)? This is where the "life or difficult" is a better than "Life or death", you can have the drowning trap flush them into a cave system where they will now have to fight their way out. Their progress has been impeded and their resources reduced, but they still get to do what they are good at to deal with the consequences of the trap.
The boulder trap is another where it could just be fatal. It could be a good option down a side-route, where it blocks the entrance and now they have to make their way through the side route to get out, again reducing their resources.
I love the concept of trying to find a lost island of gold. One option could be to have a creature with what we can call "Midas' Breath", which works like a gorgon's breath but where its petrification ability turns people to gold. Perhaps a dragon. Then the city of gold can be made of stone, but every person in it is made of gold. Perhaps offer an explanation that they are still alive, maybe by giving the players an anti-petrification potion. Now what was set to be a treasure hunt is instead a potential to save a lost city of people, whilst the pirate king will (being evil) want to melt the people down to make gold bars.
You can then throw an encounter where the pirate king has arrived and has started melting the gold in a great cauldron. When the players break the curse (however you choose to have that work) the molten gold inside the pot turns into a gibbering mouther, and forms a third party in what can be a decent sized fight scene - mouther vs pirates vs PCs.
Further idea regarding breaking the curse: The island is covered in these statues, and the party has (from an early encounter with a friendly witchdoctor who they helped on the road) a small vial of highly potent anti-petrification potion. Have the witchdoctor explain how it can be diluted a thousand times and still work.
Then have the island have a giant geyser which erupts every hour, and showers the island with hot rain and steam. If the party can get the potion into the geyser, they can un-petrify everyone the next time it erupts.
I would have the gold petrification be a result of a curse from a jealous god, who had seen the islands capabilities of turning things to gold and sought to punish them ironically. Give them a history of having petrified animals and monsters into gold, and have the animals on plinths as actual statues. When the curse is broken, the monsters all return to life as well, and add chaos to the proceedings.
Another idea (sorry to barrage you with them!) would be for this geyser to be the cause of the curse, and have players make constitution saves when it erupts, with their skin starting to turn shiny if they fail, as they contract a disease (similar to frozen sick, from the free adventure available on here) which will slowly turn them to gold. This could even see them having to partner up with the pirate king, who may also be infected, in order to break the curse.
At any rate, it's a cool concept you've got going here! I look forward to hearing how session 1 went!
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Thank you for the suggestions! And the for the hag thing, I fully expect them to try to kill her, I have no doubt about that and prepared. And for the drowning trap I would make the players roll perception and depending on how high their roll is (since it’s my first time DMing I’ll be nice) they see loose stones they have to pull out to find a trigger to stop the water. And for the Boulder thing, I was thinking that the Boulder is just an illusion placed there by former citizens to try to scare outsiders off. For example, if the party triggers the illusion then the Boulder would roll towards them but since it’s not real it would just pass through them and scare them
You could do a Temple of Doom cult. The adventurers could be separated and they would have to break the rest of them out of before the ceremony.