Hey yall im trying to make a Dino theme campaign and need some ideas. I know I want it to be on an island and my heros need to survive and try to be rescued, what should i add to make it flow?
Give them a nemesis Dino to worry about. An allosaurus or some other big-ish therapod that they can’t beat and have to contstantly drive off or escape from. Once they gain a couple of levels and feel like they can take it… build up the tension and just as the fight is about to commence… BOOM! A TRex comes in and wastes the allosaurus while it was distracted by the players. Now they have something even bigger and scarier to worry about.
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PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Survival campaigns can grow a little repetitive after a while--eventually the party is going to get tired of "avoid/kill dinosaurs, wait for someone to rescue you." To that end, you should add some additional element of discovery to give the party focus. Perhaps the island also contains the ruins of an ancient civilization, destroyed by some unknown force. The party could then be searching the island to discover clues about what befell the civilization, and work toward finding some kind of magical force that exists deep within the island.
Or perhaps you could take inspiration from Magic's Ixalan set and the party could discover a thriving civilization with domesticated dinosaurs.
Or perhaps there is some kind of magical reason the dinosaurs of this area survived when others did not, or perhaps there is something strange going on with time itself on the island that has brought the past forward (or the party to the past).
Whatever you end up doing, adding a mystery to discover or solve is going to drastically increase your campaign's depth, giving the party a reason to keep going other than simple survival.
+1 for adding more than "survive until you're saved".
If you have no current plans for the origin of the dinos, then one option would be to make the party the rescuers. They are supposed to be the heroes, so sitting around waiting to be saved is not high on their list of priorities!
Here's an idea breakdown for how I'd take this:
The island was discovered with dinosaurs, and a team was sent to investigate, featuring several powerful heroes as protection.
The sending stones have gone quiet, after some screams. They heard shouting for the scientists/boffins to "get inside", followed by "close the door", and then screams, indicating that the boffins may be alive and hunkered down.
the party is sent to find the boffins, which will involve tracking the expedition and picking up clues about their findings. This will include many comments in journals and wuch about things which don't add up - the wrong sorts of plants or rocks for the area, and other things indicating thta this is man-made.
The island is steadily revealed to be some sort of game reserve from a lost civilisation, and there are mayan-style ruins throughout. The boffins have probably gone in there. Meanwhile, there is the big bad dino which is chasing the party. Make sure that the party is A: prewarned that they will have to run from some fights, and B: assisted by some expendable NPC's to hammer home the deadliness of the monster. Maybe make an arrogent NPC who is more powerful than them (allow some feats, let him carry the party a bit, then get eaten by the 'rex).
Find the Boffins inside, but there's something else here. Reveal some dark magic which is spreading, bringing ancient creatures back to life. one boffin may have brought a fossil with them, which has started reverting to bone, maybe growing some flesh. A powerful necromantic spell is in here, and it seems to be destabilising, and could cause dinosaurs to return to the mainland, which is bad.
Uncover a mystery, whilst being pursued by raptors and other dinos, and then find a way to shut down the magic, overloading it to provide a ticking clock to destroy the island, so get outta there!
try to make it back to the ship with the 'rex trying to kill them. for added twist, find the ship desered and blood-soaked. Unknown to them, raptors are aboard, and are leaving to the mainland with them, foreshadowing the next dino game...
You could also look through Tomb of Annhiliation, there are dinosaurs on the encounter tables on Chult. I think some of them are even domesticated by the Flaming Fist outpost there. So that's an angle.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Like the original poster I'm making a dino based campaign (based sorta off a book series and a game) and I use to have a PDF of dinos, but now I can't seem to find it. If anyone has any ideas as to where one could get a PDF "Dino Monster Manual" that would be amazing!
I found one which has been super useful for my stardew valley like game with farming and stuff where there’s a twist that instead of farm animals there are dinosaurs.
Hey yall im trying to make a Dino theme campaign and need some ideas. I know I want it to be on an island and my heros need to survive and try to be rescued, what should i add to make it flow?
Idea…
Give them a nemesis Dino to worry about. An allosaurus or some other big-ish therapod that they can’t beat and have to contstantly drive off or escape from. Once they gain a couple of levels and feel like they can take it… build up the tension and just as the fight is about to commence… BOOM! A TRex comes in and wastes the allosaurus while it was distracted by the players. Now they have something even bigger and scarier to worry about.
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Survival campaigns can grow a little repetitive after a while--eventually the party is going to get tired of "avoid/kill dinosaurs, wait for someone to rescue you." To that end, you should add some additional element of discovery to give the party focus. Perhaps the island also contains the ruins of an ancient civilization, destroyed by some unknown force. The party could then be searching the island to discover clues about what befell the civilization, and work toward finding some kind of magical force that exists deep within the island.
Or perhaps you could take inspiration from Magic's Ixalan set and the party could discover a thriving civilization with domesticated dinosaurs.
Or perhaps there is some kind of magical reason the dinosaurs of this area survived when others did not, or perhaps there is something strange going on with time itself on the island that has brought the past forward (or the party to the past).
Whatever you end up doing, adding a mystery to discover or solve is going to drastically increase your campaign's depth, giving the party a reason to keep going other than simple survival.
There was this show called Land of the Lost ... there's your campaign notes. Make the Sleestaks lizardfolk.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
+1 for adding more than "survive until you're saved".
If you have no current plans for the origin of the dinos, then one option would be to make the party the rescuers. They are supposed to be the heroes, so sitting around waiting to be saved is not high on their list of priorities!
Here's an idea breakdown for how I'd take this:
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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If you look for inspiration, i suggest you look at Ixalan, a D&D + Magic The Gathering crossover
Setting: https://media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/magic/plane-shift_ixalan.pdf
Adventure: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/228662/X-MARKS-THE-SPOT-A-Plane-Shift-Ixalan-Adventure
You could also look through Tomb of Annhiliation, there are dinosaurs on the encounter tables on Chult. I think some of them are even domesticated by the Flaming Fist outpost there. So that's an angle.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Like the original poster I'm making a dino based campaign (based sorta off a book series and a game) and I use to have a PDF of dinos, but now I can't seem to find it. If anyone has any ideas as to where one could get a PDF "Dino Monster Manual" that would be amazing!
Thank you all in advance!
I found one which has been super useful for my stardew valley like game with farming and stuff where there’s a twist that instead of farm animals there are dinosaurs.