I'm planing a new campaign for the group I'm usually playing with and would like to share my progress and see if anyone has any nice ideas for the progression.
I'm a semi-new dm and I prefer hb campaigns made to suite the pcs. Please be kind to me :) and excuse my writing and grammar.
The players all start as npcs/level 0 characters in a small out of the way village where they all live. I've decided to use this guide for thelevel 0 hb with some small changes. All the pc starts with 8 in all attributes and roll for their background and race and build their characters from there. (more how they'll get balanced level 1 attributes later)
The story starts of in a village-meeting where the villagers discuss how they should solve the growing food and health problem spreading from the ancient boarded up cave a few minutes outside the village. For hundreds of years the village has banned anyone to enter the cave since none has ever returned. The group of pcs get chosen to investigate the cavern and on the way to the cavern they're approached by an old man (the man has striking resembles to one of the pc that's planing to go for a spellcasting class) with long hair and beard wielding a staff. The man looks a little stressed as he tells the party that they're the worlds only hope and that he will do what he can to help them. He then raises his staff and casts some kind of blessing over them before fading away in a cloud of smoke. (more on this later)
As they arrive at the entrance they notice a small hole in the barricade where someone might have been able to crawl in through.
Inside the cave they'll encounter a few single monsters such as a Boggle, Homunculus and such and as they beet the encounters they feel the blessing they received earlier do it's thing as they receive points to buy attributes with (9-13: 1p, 14-15: 2p 16-18:3p) for a total of 10-20 points (not decided yet).
Now to the "TIME" in cave of time, as they solve the first mystery in the cave (a failed ritual which is still active) they realize as they return to the village that noone seems to remember the "sickness" that had spread from the cave and the village seems to have prospered the last years instead of dying (as they stopped the ritual it actually never happened in this timeline).
The pcs then finnaly level up to level one as during downtime they learn their classes which is also sped because of the blessing.
The plan is then that they keep exploring the cave which seems to change slightly everytime they visit (because they makes changes in time) and everytime they solve/do something in the cave the world outside changes depending on what they do. Sometimes the changes can be recent and sometimes it's hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Further ahead I plan of them finding more exits that seem to come out of the same place as the entrance but in other time periods.
I know this is really ambitious and might not go as planed but I feel like it has a real good chance of working.
PS. I plan on the "time changes" working like in back to the future.
time travel is always an ambitious project, but it sounds like you've got a good idea for covering it as the only way it can change around the players is if one of them is in the cave whilst another stays behind!
I don't know much on the level 0 starting so I can't comment too much on it!
So, for your cave of time ideas, one option to make more work for yourself could be to have a list of people who've gone missing or events which have happened involving the cave which can come to light each time they return to the town. Perhaps have the town become more and more prosperous each time (someone entered the cave to find gold, but never came out, but the party helps them, so the town becomes richer). Then suddenly have a negative effect - the town became rich enough to attract thieves and bandits, who now run the town. The rumours of a defense system never materialised - so back into the caves we go to find out why it never activated, and so on. You could have the village become a town become a city become a kingdom become a tyrannical dictatorship, until the players have to perform a ritual to reset everything and it becomes a village again. Because they didn't fail the ritual, it didn't cause sickness, and they actually saved the day for the original task they were given!
I really love your ideas I will definitely use at least some of them! :)
My reason for the level 0 start is to try to forge a stronger emotional bond between the players and the town while at the same time helping them build there backgrounds and how they are entwined with each other. Making the dungeon not "just another quest" but a something that can keep them engaged and maybe even take greater risks.
The players being residents of the village also means that instead of them only finding treasure in the dungeon as rewards they can come home to realize their possessions or even homes have changed for the better. As an example the barbarian of the group might return home finding a magical great axe hanging over the fireplace and as he grabs it to retrieve it the memories of how he got it come rushing back as he remembers his history with it.
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I'm planing a new campaign for the group I'm usually playing with and would like to share my progress and see if anyone has any nice ideas for the progression.
I'm a semi-new dm and I prefer hb campaigns made to suite the pcs. Please be kind to me :) and excuse my writing and grammar.
The players all start as npcs/level 0 characters in a small out of the way village where they all live. I've decided to use this guide for the level 0 hb with some small changes. All the pc starts with 8 in all attributes and roll for their background and race and build their characters from there. (more how they'll get balanced level 1 attributes later)
The story starts of in a village-meeting where the villagers discuss how they should solve the growing food and health problem spreading from the ancient boarded up cave a few minutes outside the village. For hundreds of years the village has banned anyone to enter the cave since none has ever returned. The group of pcs get chosen to investigate the cavern and on the way to the cavern they're approached by an old man (the man has striking resembles to one of the pc that's planing to go for a spellcasting class) with long hair and beard wielding a staff. The man looks a little stressed as he tells the party that they're the worlds only hope and that he will do what he can to help them. He then raises his staff and casts some kind of blessing over them before fading away in a cloud of smoke. (more on this later)
As they arrive at the entrance they notice a small hole in the barricade where someone might have been able to crawl in through.
Inside the cave they'll encounter a few single monsters such as a Boggle, Homunculus and such and as they beet the encounters they feel the blessing they received earlier do it's thing as they receive points to buy attributes with (9-13: 1p, 14-15: 2p 16-18:3p) for a total of 10-20 points (not decided yet).
Now to the "TIME" in cave of time, as they solve the first mystery in the cave (a failed ritual which is still active) they realize as they return to the village that noone seems to remember the "sickness" that had spread from the cave and the village seems to have prospered the last years instead of dying (as they stopped the ritual it actually never happened in this timeline).
The pcs then finnaly level up to level one as during downtime they learn their classes which is also sped because of the blessing.
The plan is then that they keep exploring the cave which seems to change slightly everytime they visit (because they makes changes in time) and everytime they solve/do something in the cave the world outside changes depending on what they do. Sometimes the changes can be recent and sometimes it's hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Further ahead I plan of them finding more exits that seem to come out of the same place as the entrance but in other time periods.
I know this is really ambitious and might not go as planed but I feel like it has a real good chance of working.
PS. I plan on the "time changes" working like in back to the future.
time travel is always an ambitious project, but it sounds like you've got a good idea for covering it as the only way it can change around the players is if one of them is in the cave whilst another stays behind!
I don't know much on the level 0 starting so I can't comment too much on it!
So, for your cave of time ideas, one option to make more work for yourself could be to have a list of people who've gone missing or events which have happened involving the cave which can come to light each time they return to the town. Perhaps have the town become more and more prosperous each time (someone entered the cave to find gold, but never came out, but the party helps them, so the town becomes richer). Then suddenly have a negative effect - the town became rich enough to attract thieves and bandits, who now run the town. The rumours of a defense system never materialised - so back into the caves we go to find out why it never activated, and so on. You could have the village become a town become a city become a kingdom become a tyrannical dictatorship, until the players have to perform a ritual to reset everything and it becomes a village again. Because they didn't fail the ritual, it didn't cause sickness, and they actually saved the day for the original task they were given!
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I really love your ideas I will definitely use at least some of them! :)
My reason for the level 0 start is to try to forge a stronger emotional bond between the players and the town while at the same time helping them build there backgrounds and how they are entwined with each other. Making the dungeon not "just another quest" but a something that can keep them engaged and maybe even take greater risks.
The players being residents of the village also means that instead of them only finding treasure in the dungeon as rewards they can come home to realize their possessions or even homes have changed for the better. As an example the barbarian of the group might return home finding a magical great axe hanging over the fireplace and as he grabs it to retrieve it the memories of how he got it come rushing back as he remembers his history with it.