I am a pretty new DM (have not DMed a campaign for this long ever!) and I am still figuring stuff out.
In my campaign a god named Tharizdun wants to break free by using a cult that uses a magic amplyfying resource. With this resource Tharizdun orders his servants to kill the other gods because he has been imprisoned decades ago. This resource allows him to remotely control creatures and people in certain circumstances.
Now my problem with that whole thing is the following:
I do not want to give the players the knowledge that he uses the resource and has a cult and so on. Somehow I think this would ruin the surprise.
On the other hand: just finding some mutated wolves that he mutated with this resource etc. is probably not "high stakes" enough to be interesting for my players? I am struggling a bit here and trying to find out which information to give my players and which not.
I do not want the campaign to end so quickly because I would like to see the characters backstories unfold along with the "main plot" and story bits that I have planned.
Do you have any examples for this? How did you do this in your campaigns?
I take the following approach with my campaigns and it seems to work well.
Levels 1-5ish are about the party forming, dealing with local threats by local people and earning cash. Therefore I might have a low level BBEG or even no BBEG at all, I light just run from adventure to adventure clearing out sewers, hunting down bandits, killing a few trolls etc. they are building up a network of NPCs and learning about the world.
As part of this I will in the background give titbits of information, for instance in my current campaign there is a nation, Etresh, who at some point might try invading the nation they are in. So they have run across an Etreshan trading party, have engaged and got a sense for how unpleasant the emperor and his forces are and are aware of the dangers that they may cause. Not enough to distract them from the main story currently but the thread is dangling.
So in your case you could have the party deal with someone who is working on behalf of the cult, maybe unknowingly, drop a name or a bit of info into conversation, give a thread.
You could have the party do some normal work for a researcher who, as an aside, is studying the ancient history of the gods and throws some side information there way that you can paint as simply background flavour.
You could have an NPC cleric mention they can no longer sense there god.
There are lots of ways of filling in the canvas of your world without pushing the cult down there throats, maybe the cult hire them to do some stuff, they don’t know they are an evil cult they are just hired to get an artifact from a dungeon, then in 6 months or a year game time you let them find out that artifact is for the bbeg.
I agree with Scarloc. In my tier 1 campaign, the PCs are just taking seemingly random missions while they level up, come into contact with powerful groups, meet important NPCs and generally get a feel for the city they operate in. My plan is for the shite to really hit the windmill at levels 5-10+. When it does, my players will already have an understanding of the groups that are fighting it out, and some narrative and emotional skin in the game.
One caveat: Players don't usually get too into lore, unless it is tied to a personal backstory that one of them is super excited about, and when you want them to get into the main story arc of the campaign, it is best to beat them severely about the head and shoulders with it. This is not a criticism of my or anyone else's players, its just a function of the different roles. DMs want to build a fantastic world and craft a compelling, challenging scenario, while players want to fight and loot and feel like bad asses. 90% of the stuff in my current campaign is ripped off borrowed from articles I read in a Forgotten Realms wiki. I told the players this, and even provided links to a few of the articles in a player guide. I don't feel like it gave away a thing.
My advice: let your players quest around for a while and occasionally throw some cultists or mutant animals into the mix. The reaction will likely be, "Hey that was weird, was that homebrew? Anyway, I bet there's some loot in that random cave over there!" They won't ever get any more information than you put in their path. You may be able to work them up to, "Them again? I hate these guys!"
Then, when you are ready, have some of their favorite NPCs get eaten by mutant wolves. Preferably right in front of them. Maybe they could even get blamed for it somehow. Now you've set them on the trail of Tharizdun at a time of your choosing.
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Hello everyone,
I am a pretty new DM (have not DMed a campaign for this long ever!) and I am still figuring stuff out.
In my campaign a god named Tharizdun wants to break free by using a cult that uses a magic amplyfying resource. With this resource Tharizdun orders his servants to kill the other gods because he has been imprisoned decades ago. This resource allows him to remotely control creatures and people in certain circumstances.
Now my problem with that whole thing is the following:
I do not want to give the players the knowledge that he uses the resource and has a cult and so on. Somehow I think this would ruin the surprise.
On the other hand: just finding some mutated wolves that he mutated with this resource etc. is probably not "high stakes" enough to be interesting for my players? I am struggling a bit here and trying to find out which information to give my players and which not.
I do not want the campaign to end so quickly because I would like to see the characters backstories unfold along with the "main plot" and story bits that I have planned.
Do you have any examples for this? How did you do this in your campaigns?
Thank you guys a lot in advance!
I take the following approach with my campaigns and it seems to work well.
Levels 1-5ish are about the party forming, dealing with local threats by local people and earning cash. Therefore I might have a low level BBEG or even no BBEG at all, I light just run from adventure to adventure clearing out sewers, hunting down bandits, killing a few trolls etc. they are building up a network of NPCs and learning about the world.
As part of this I will in the background give titbits of information, for instance in my current campaign there is a nation, Etresh, who at some point might try invading the nation they are in. So they have run across an Etreshan trading party, have engaged and got a sense for how unpleasant the emperor and his forces are and are aware of the dangers that they may cause. Not enough to distract them from the main story currently but the thread is dangling.
So in your case you could have the party deal with someone who is working on behalf of the cult, maybe unknowingly, drop a name or a bit of info into conversation, give a thread.
You could have the party do some normal work for a researcher who, as an aside, is studying the ancient history of the gods and throws some side information there way that you can paint as simply background flavour.
You could have an NPC cleric mention they can no longer sense there god.
There are lots of ways of filling in the canvas of your world without pushing the cult down there throats, maybe the cult hire them to do some stuff, they don’t know they are an evil cult they are just hired to get an artifact from a dungeon, then in 6 months or a year game time you let them find out that artifact is for the bbeg.
I agree with Scarloc. In my tier 1 campaign, the PCs are just taking seemingly random missions while they level up, come into contact with powerful groups, meet important NPCs and generally get a feel for the city they operate in. My plan is for the shite to really hit the windmill at levels 5-10+. When it does, my players will already have an understanding of the groups that are fighting it out, and some narrative and emotional skin in the game.
One caveat: Players don't usually get too into lore, unless it is tied to a personal backstory that one of them is super excited about, and when you want them to get into the main story arc of the campaign, it is best to beat them severely about the head and shoulders with it. This is not a criticism of my or anyone else's players, its just a function of the different roles. DMs want to build a fantastic world and craft a compelling, challenging scenario, while players want to fight and loot and feel like bad asses. 90% of the stuff in my current campaign is
ripped offborrowed from articles I read in a Forgotten Realms wiki. I told the players this, and even provided links to a few of the articles in a player guide. I don't feel like it gave away a thing.My advice: let your players quest around for a while and occasionally throw some cultists or mutant animals into the mix. The reaction will likely be, "Hey that was weird, was that homebrew? Anyway, I bet there's some loot in that random cave over there!" They won't ever get any more information than you put in their path. You may be able to work them up to, "Them again? I hate these guys!"
Then, when you are ready, have some of their favorite NPCs get eaten by mutant wolves. Preferably right in front of them. Maybe they could even get blamed for it somehow. Now you've set them on the trail of Tharizdun at a time of your choosing.