so I'm working on a campaign, futuristic-themed mixed with demons, bare minimum when it comes to magic magic (basically the DOOM series) and I feel like I'm missing something. here's what I have planned:
the party meets up at a spaceport, gets to know each other, then the spaceport is attacked by demons, get in an escape pod (for convenience) and LEAVE
party crashes at a random planet. I have 6 concepts for where they end up, which will be decided by rolling a d6. my ideas at the moment are:
1. lush forest with an extremely tall mountain in the center with a glowing light on top (party climbs the mountain, finds abandoned outpost, successful check lets them send out a call for help if I feel like making things interesting I'll add some kind of virus. that still needs working on though)
2. a "living" planet, that actively tries to help or harm the party depending on alignment (helps if good, does nothing if neutral, attempts to get you to leave if evil.)
3. a planet that switches from a firey hellscape to a winter wonderland depending on the time of day
4. a civilized planet that's infested with demons
5. a cyberpunk-themed city (complete with unfair government, biker gangs, and having to steal a ship to leave)
6. float out into space, get picked up by ship filled with "space pirates" (reskinned bandits, i'm not crazy enough to make a whole roster of enemies just for this), get captured, escape, take control of the ship
i have ideas on how to leave for all of them except planet 3. either way they end up in a massive trading center, and either ask around and find a member of the military or a member finds them.
party mentions the demon attack, gets to speak with a higher-ranking member, and is asked to help. supposedly there's some kind of "superweapon" that will wipe the demons if the face of the earth PERMANENTLY.
start off by looking in a space pirate ship (the best comparison i can make to size and durability is the Star Destroyer from Star Wars.), find what looks like a piece of some kind of artifact/tablet
go on a few random quests, until all the tablet pieces have been found (4 in total) and place them together, gives you some coordinates
go to said location, but WHOOPS, it's a trap. turns out the "location" you were going to was actually a demon nest, have fun trying to get your way out of this.
turns out said "superweapon" was actually IN the demon nest. however, the party can't figure out how to use it
military takes it, gives the party a pretty big chunk of cash
let the party wander, buy a ship, leave, explore, etc.
if and when they eventually return to the trading station, the military contacts them again, mentioning that they figured out how to release the power inside the "superweapon"
power is supposedly released, ends up tearing open a portal, party and any military members nearby get dragged in
party ends up on extremely hostile desert planet, optional Sand Worm (purple worm) superboss (maybe? i don't really have plans on what level the party will be at that point)
fast forwarding a bit, party escapes, turns out there's multiple "superweapons" and they can tear open the fabric of space and time and teleport you , so the plan becomes open them in the right spot to reach the demons and stop them once and for all
move around the area, if you guess incorrectly roll the d6 again and go to a random planet (answer/location is fairly simple, there's an emblem in the middle of the trading center, use a "superweapon" there, and then you can continue)
end up in basically the underworld, start tearing your way through demons. no boss, the entire point/goal is just a mass extermination
finish slaughtering demons, go home, adventure ends, do what you want while DM tries to think of another story.
i want to get the base story and plotline done, then encounters, then maps, then anything that involves skill checks, but it feels like i'm missing something.
(sorry for the long and probably confusing chain of events.)
Pick one planet and prepare it. There is no reason to prepare all six planets until the party has the opportunity to go to them. If you prepare all six planets, you're going to have a bad time when they only go to one, or when each planet is underprepared because you didn't know which one they would go to. If you want to randomly generate the idea, do that now, and put everything into preparing that first planet.
Second thing. You've planned your story WAY too far out. You have no idea how your players are going to react to any of the situations you've outlined. None of us do. If you try to force this series of events on the party you're going to be railroading HARD.
Start with the spaceport. If you're doing introductions plus a combat, you'll probably end the first session, depending on session length, with them hopping into the pod and heading to crash land. This is just the nature of the hobby, you'll never get as far as you expect to, with people getting used to their new characters, finding their voice, etc.
TL:DR: Pick one planet, prep it. Don't plan the story and plot, just create your factions or bad guys and give them objectives, and find ways to give the characters hooks to interface with those objectives. Breath. You don't have to do all the work ahead of time, just plan your first session and adventure, which for this purpose is "Escape the spaceport".
FoxMikeLima is speaking gold here! It sounds like you are new to DM'ing and are imagining a game that goes on for years. As a general rule, those groups are the exception to the rule. Aim to run a campaign that will last around 3 months. (an adventure that goes from level 1-4 if you play each week). If it's still going at that point, carry on the campaign but you're trying to work out way too much up front.
You can't write a plot out. That's not how D&D works. You can have a kind of end goal, e.g. defeat the big bad guy, but ultimately your players need to be able to choose where to go and what to do. The moment you give them a ship, they will never be where you expected them to be, ever again.
I'd prep two sessions:
Session 1: The spaceport. This session will be mostly introductions and some roleplay, followed by some combat and eventually they escape in a pod.
Session 2: They land on a planet. They can see three things near the crashed pod, A, B and C. Make each one different and interesting. All three interesting places will lead them to want to go to D or E, but only after they have been to A, B and C (in any order). For instance, finding necessary bits for life support suits that got damaged in the crash. Mix in combat encounters and social encounters with exploration to give variety. Put in at least one ability check challenge.
And finally... if this is D&D, you need to be super sure that your players are onboard for space flight and low magic setting. It cuts out a LOT of what D&D is all about. I'd personally avoid tables that didn't allow the wizard class, or wanted it to be totally different to the wizard class I'd expect to see. There's nothing wrong with space stuff, but be wary of limiting the game a lot.
This is excellent advice. The players can even roll a die to give them some suspense, but they could still go to the same well-prepared planet. It would still be fun, and better: the planet would be written up 6x better than each individual planet would have gotten.
Another +1 for keeping it simple, expecting things to go far slower than you've planned, and not trying to pre-write the story!
If they are landing on one planet, make one planet. They will be there for a long while, so don't worry - you'll have time to make the other 5 as they come up!
Plan the events which have led to now, not the events which will happen in the future, especially when the party is part of it. You opening sequence is "the party is attacked by demons, so runs away". That's never how a dnd party works out. You throw demons their way, they will fight the demons. Never expect a dnd party to turn tail and flee!
so I'm working on a campaign, futuristic-themed mixed with demons, bare minimum when it comes to magic magic (basically the DOOM series) and I feel like I'm missing something. here's what I have planned:
the party meets up at a spaceport, gets to know each other, then the spaceport is attacked by demons, get in an escape pod (for convenience) and LEAVE
party crashes at a random planet. I have 6 concepts for where they end up, which will be decided by rolling a d6. my ideas at the moment are:
1. lush forest with an extremely tall mountain in the center with a glowing light on top (party climbs the mountain, finds abandoned outpost, successful check lets them send out a call for help if I feel like making things interesting I'll add some kind of virus. that still needs working on though)
2. a "living" planet, that actively tries to help or harm the party depending on alignment (helps if good, does nothing if neutral, attempts to get you to leave if evil.)
3. a planet that switches from a firey hellscape to a winter wonderland depending on the time of day
4. a civilized planet that's infested with demons
5. a cyberpunk-themed city (complete with unfair government, biker gangs, and having to steal a ship to leave)
6. float out into space, get picked up by ship filled with "space pirates" (reskinned bandits, i'm not crazy enough to make a whole roster of enemies just for this), get captured, escape, take control of the ship
i have ideas on how to leave for all of them except planet 3. either way they end up in a massive trading center, and either ask around and find a member of the military or a member finds them.
party mentions the demon attack, gets to speak with a higher-ranking member, and is asked to help. supposedly there's some kind of "superweapon" that will wipe the demons if the face of the earth PERMANENTLY.
start off by looking in a space pirate ship (the best comparison i can make to size and durability is the Star Destroyer from Star Wars.), find what looks like a piece of some kind of artifact/tablet
go on a few random quests, until all the tablet pieces have been found (4 in total) and place them together, gives you some coordinates
go to said location, but WHOOPS, it's a trap. turns out the "location" you were going to was actually a demon nest, have fun trying to get your way out of this.
turns out said "superweapon" was actually IN the demon nest. however, the party can't figure out how to use it
military takes it, gives the party a pretty big chunk of cash
let the party wander, buy a ship, leave, explore, etc.
if and when they eventually return to the trading station, the military contacts them again, mentioning that they figured out how to release the power inside the "superweapon"
power is supposedly released, ends up tearing open a portal, party and any military members nearby get dragged in
party ends up on extremely hostile desert planet, optional Sand Worm (purple worm) superboss (maybe? i don't really have plans on what level the party will be at that point)
fast forwarding a bit, party escapes, turns out there's multiple "superweapons" and they can tear open the fabric of space and time and teleport you , so the plan becomes open them in the right spot to reach the demons and stop them once and for all
move around the area, if you guess incorrectly roll the d6 again and go to a random planet (answer/location is fairly simple, there's an emblem in the middle of the trading center, use a "superweapon" there, and then you can continue)
end up in basically the underworld, start tearing your way through demons. no boss, the entire point/goal is just a mass extermination
finish slaughtering demons, go home, adventure ends, do what you want while DM tries to think of another story.
i want to get the base story and plotline done, then encounters, then maps, then anything that involves skill checks, but it feels like i'm missing something.
(sorry for the long and probably confusing chain of events.)
I'm going to keep this short.
Keep. It. Simple.
Pick one planet and prepare it. There is no reason to prepare all six planets until the party has the opportunity to go to them. If you prepare all six planets, you're going to have a bad time when they only go to one, or when each planet is underprepared because you didn't know which one they would go to. If you want to randomly generate the idea, do that now, and put everything into preparing that first planet.
Second thing. You've planned your story WAY too far out. You have no idea how your players are going to react to any of the situations you've outlined. None of us do. If you try to force this series of events on the party you're going to be railroading HARD.
Start with the spaceport. If you're doing introductions plus a combat, you'll probably end the first session, depending on session length, with them hopping into the pod and heading to crash land. This is just the nature of the hobby, you'll never get as far as you expect to, with people getting used to their new characters, finding their voice, etc.
TL:DR: Pick one planet, prep it. Don't plan the story and plot, just create your factions or bad guys and give them objectives, and find ways to give the characters hooks to interface with those objectives. Breath. You don't have to do all the work ahead of time, just plan your first session and adventure, which for this purpose is "Escape the spaceport".
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots
FoxMikeLima is speaking gold here! It sounds like you are new to DM'ing and are imagining a game that goes on for years. As a general rule, those groups are the exception to the rule. Aim to run a campaign that will last around 3 months. (an adventure that goes from level 1-4 if you play each week). If it's still going at that point, carry on the campaign but you're trying to work out way too much up front.
You can't write a plot out. That's not how D&D works. You can have a kind of end goal, e.g. defeat the big bad guy, but ultimately your players need to be able to choose where to go and what to do. The moment you give them a ship, they will never be where you expected them to be, ever again.
I'd prep two sessions:
Session 1: The spaceport. This session will be mostly introductions and some roleplay, followed by some combat and eventually they escape in a pod.
Session 2: They land on a planet. They can see three things near the crashed pod, A, B and C. Make each one different and interesting. All three interesting places will lead them to want to go to D or E, but only after they have been to A, B and C (in any order). For instance, finding necessary bits for life support suits that got damaged in the crash. Mix in combat encounters and social encounters with exploration to give variety. Put in at least one ability check challenge.
And finally... if this is D&D, you need to be super sure that your players are onboard for space flight and low magic setting. It cuts out a LOT of what D&D is all about. I'd personally avoid tables that didn't allow the wizard class, or wanted it to be totally different to the wizard class I'd expect to see. There's nothing wrong with space stuff, but be wary of limiting the game a lot.
This is excellent advice. The players can even roll a die to give them some suspense, but they could still go to the same well-prepared planet. It would still be fun, and better: the planet would be written up 6x better than each individual planet would have gotten.
Another +1 for keeping it simple, expecting things to go far slower than you've planned, and not trying to pre-write the story!
If they are landing on one planet, make one planet. They will be there for a long while, so don't worry - you'll have time to make the other 5 as they come up!
Plan the events which have led to now, not the events which will happen in the future, especially when the party is part of it. You opening sequence is "the party is attacked by demons, so runs away". That's never how a dnd party works out. You throw demons their way, they will fight the demons. Never expect a dnd party to turn tail and flee!
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