1 - a necromancer is working underground in a deep catacomb. He has partnered with a Brain in the Jar, and the brain wants a body again. So they keep kidnapping the homeless, the drunks to experiment on. You could have a reward for the kidnapper. Either from the town guard or he finally kidnapped the wrong drunk, it was a rich noble's lost son. All the kidnapping happens in about the same section of town.
The Necromancer has dug a secret tunnel from the basement of a slum apartment building down to the catacombs. He has been kidnapping the people of course with the help of couple undead. The Necromancer has a lab set up that looks like Dr. Frankenstein's lab. Even have a couple large glass containers filled with some funky liquid and people are inside it. Tubes, hoses connecting. Also in the lab is a small pool of just negative energy, black sludge. The pool is filled by the bodies' blood of failed experiments. Also in the lab is lots of jars with brains in it. So the Brain in the Jar just kind of fits in.
After, they find him and take him out. Have an NPC or player character who is leaning a bit evil, want to reach in the black pool, grabs of baseball size ball of just pure negative energy. So the person then begins to act a little different, a little more evil. So the part will have to figure out what is going on with him. As you move to the next adventure.
2 - A town seems to be over run by werewolves. Have party in the town, when they hear a scream .... As they dig into it there is a cult of Malar followers.
Party is hired to guard a caravan. during trip of course bandits, gnolls, kobolds, goblins, attack the caravan. Getting away with something valuable to caravan owner. Track them down, then this could lead to something else. When they find their hideout, they also find clues to a bigger operation going on. Of course they do not find the item, it is already on its way to the BOSS. They are actually working for a larger ring who is trying to open the shadowfell to the prime, or is trying to bring Orcus. Or something crazy like that.
A good thing to do is look at the backstories of your group. Why are they adventuring? Do they have family somewhere? Maybe they have an enemy that did not like them, Maybe their hometown is in trouble. Or is there certain magic items they want to obtain? Set the route up to feed to their story, not yours.
But really let the party decide. But an easy set up is, they are broke and do not have much money.
Then let party decide from there. Do you want the party to be broke and need money.
If you are playing a short campaign, anything you put together should be fine in prep. But if you are planning a long game do some early prep but then keep it all minimal. You will be furious with yourself if you prepare a whole Kingdom and never see 10% of it. Do small bits between each game session, slowly bringing it out and putting things together. I would read small models and get ideas for adventures from them or watch YouTube videos about running adventures.
I know these aren't adventure ideas but it's really important not to overthink it. Just have fun. If you can improve the game as you go that helps too but is not necessary.
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I live my life like a West Marches campaign, A swirling vortex of Ambitions and Insecurities.
Don't be afraid to use low-level swarms on higher-level players. A bunch of lowly bandits in a well positioned fortress loaded with traps is a pain in the ass for even well-trained adventurers.
My suggestion is that you keep it simple. Don't make three continents with dozens of cities on each. Make a contained landscape (cave, castle, ruins, portal that takes players to someplace confined) and then flesh out the location. Many people suggest five encounters. 2-4 battles plus a puzzle, negotiation, role playing or other non combat encounter. This will keep you from writing 25 pages of notes AND is much easier to run. It may be a little linear but you can always make your next one more complicated. Aim for a single session a few hours long. For me, this would equate to 4-10 hours of prep work depending on how polished, original and complete I want to be.
If you are looking to take it one step further, flesh out the details of the starting city with a few NPCs, rumors, important buildings, a local deity or two and a map. For me, you have now upped the ante to 10-20 additional hours of work. If I go this route, I recycle the city many times because it is too labor intensive to throw it away after one session. It becomes a base the PCs explore, live in and return to.
For a concrete idea, you could have the players discover a intricately carved royal game of Ur. If they touch the game, it sucks them into it. They then must move through the rooms to get to the exit. The monsters inhabiting the rooms are carved on the box, giving the PCs some clues (if they were smart enough to remember what was on the box).
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Velstitzen's escape room type game is a great idea - I'll be using that one myself!
Re planning, personally I find Homebrew much easier, fun and less stressful than running a bought campaign. When I first played D&D as a kid we only played pre-scripted stuff, so the freedom of homebrew has been a real revelation. So I hope that you enjoy the process. Don't worry too much about getting stuff wrong or things not going exactly to plan. The players haven't got a clue what you have planned, so they don't know if you've suddenly had to wing it a bit.
Structure: I find it useful to have the overarching plot device, general story arch/major villain/task sketched out but not in loads of detail. So for example, a Gold Dragon disguised as a human recruits some adventurers. She wants them to recover a gold prize that has been stolen by an evil Hag and taken to the Moonshae Isles. It must be recovered in the next 7 days/before the full moon/whatever otherwise horrible things will happen. This provides a core task, plus some journeying which gives the opportunity for fights at sea on the way with random creatures, treking through swamps or whatever, maybe meeting the Fey on the way. Then they get to the Hag's castle where they find out that the gold prize is a dragon egg or baby dragon that is going to be sacrifced on a certain night. Lots of hench-monsters etc. etc. When they get back with the egg and give it to the 'human', they discover she is a gold dragon in disguise and she gives them a gift from her treasure hoard as a reward.
So long as you have a general plot you can build up episodes of activity in more detail as you go. Adding in clues, traps and a mental puzzle or two - things to think about.
Other thing I find useful (I think a tip from Sly Flourish's the Lazy Dungeon Master) is to create NPCs around a famous person, or character, or someone you know well. This really helps to stick that NPC in your mind and makes it much easier to come up with new personalities and looks. So, for example, I have a half Orc crime boss who is basically Hans Solo from Star Wars, and a gem trader from Calimport who is basically Oliver Reed in the film Gladiator. I never forget who they are, what their personalities are like etc.
Enjoy your first homebrew.
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Can someone please help me with campaign ideas and formatting? I have never made a homebrew before. Any and all tips are welcome.
1 - a necromancer is working underground in a deep catacomb. He has partnered with a Brain in the Jar, and the brain wants a body again. So they keep kidnapping the homeless, the drunks to experiment on. You could have a reward for the kidnapper. Either from the town guard or he finally kidnapped the wrong drunk, it was a rich noble's lost son. All the kidnapping happens in about the same section of town.
The Necromancer has dug a secret tunnel from the basement of a slum apartment building down to the catacombs. He has been kidnapping the people of course with the help of couple undead. The Necromancer has a lab set up that looks like Dr. Frankenstein's lab. Even have a couple large glass containers filled with some funky liquid and people are inside it. Tubes, hoses connecting. Also in the lab is a small pool of just negative energy, black sludge. The pool is filled by the bodies' blood of failed experiments. Also in the lab is lots of jars with brains in it. So the Brain in the Jar just kind of fits in.
After, they find him and take him out. Have an NPC or player character who is leaning a bit evil, want to reach in the black pool, grabs of baseball size ball of just pure negative energy. So the person then begins to act a little different, a little more evil. So the part will have to figure out what is going on with him. As you move to the next adventure.
2 - A town seems to be over run by werewolves. Have party in the town, when they hear a scream .... As they dig into it there is a cult of Malar followers.
Party is hired to guard a caravan. during trip of course bandits, gnolls, kobolds, goblins, attack the caravan. Getting away with something valuable to caravan owner. Track them down, then this could lead to something else. When they find their hideout, they also find clues to a bigger operation going on. Of course they do not find the item, it is already on its way to the BOSS. They are actually working for a larger ring who is trying to open the shadowfell to the prime, or is trying to bring Orcus. Or something crazy like that.
A good thing to do is look at the backstories of your group. Why are they adventuring? Do they have family somewhere? Maybe they have an enemy that did not like them, Maybe their hometown is in trouble. Or is there certain magic items they want to obtain? Set the route up to feed to their story, not yours.
But really let the party decide. But an easy set up is, they are broke and do not have much money.
Then let party decide from there. Do you want the party to be broke and need money.
If you are playing a short campaign, anything you put together should be fine in prep. But if you are planning a long game do some early prep but then keep it all minimal. You will be furious with yourself if you prepare a whole Kingdom and never see 10% of it. Do small bits between each game session, slowly bringing it out and putting things together. I would read small models and get ideas for adventures from them or watch YouTube videos about running adventures.
I know these aren't adventure ideas but it's really important not to overthink it. Just have fun. If you can improve the game as you go that helps too but is not necessary.
I live my life like a West Marches campaign, A swirling vortex of Ambitions and Insecurities.
Thank you for the tips and info. I will be sure to use them.
Don't be afraid to use low-level swarms on higher-level players. A bunch of lowly bandits in a well positioned fortress loaded with traps is a pain in the ass for even well-trained adventurers.
My suggestion is that you keep it simple. Don't make three continents with dozens of cities on each. Make a contained landscape (cave, castle, ruins, portal that takes players to someplace confined) and then flesh out the location. Many people suggest five encounters. 2-4 battles plus a puzzle, negotiation, role playing or other non combat encounter. This will keep you from writing 25 pages of notes AND is much easier to run. It may be a little linear but you can always make your next one more complicated. Aim for a single session a few hours long. For me, this would equate to 4-10 hours of prep work depending on how polished, original and complete I want to be.
If you are looking to take it one step further, flesh out the details of the starting city with a few NPCs, rumors, important buildings, a local deity or two and a map. For me, you have now upped the ante to 10-20 additional hours of work. If I go this route, I recycle the city many times because it is too labor intensive to throw it away after one session. It becomes a base the PCs explore, live in and return to.
For a concrete idea, you could have the players discover a intricately carved royal game of Ur. If they touch the game, it sucks them into it. They then must move through the rooms to get to the exit. The monsters inhabiting the rooms are carved on the box, giving the PCs some clues (if they were smart enough to remember what was on the box).
(https://blog.tabletopsimulator.com/blog/history-of-3-of-the-oldest-board-games-in-the-world)
Hope this helps!
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Velstitzen's escape room type game is a great idea - I'll be using that one myself!
Re planning, personally I find Homebrew much easier, fun and less stressful than running a bought campaign. When I first played D&D as a kid we only played pre-scripted stuff, so the freedom of homebrew has been a real revelation. So I hope that you enjoy the process. Don't worry too much about getting stuff wrong or things not going exactly to plan. The players haven't got a clue what you have planned, so they don't know if you've suddenly had to wing it a bit.
Structure: I find it useful to have the overarching plot device, general story arch/major villain/task sketched out but not in loads of detail. So for example, a Gold Dragon disguised as a human recruits some adventurers. She wants them to recover a gold prize that has been stolen by an evil Hag and taken to the Moonshae Isles. It must be recovered in the next 7 days/before the full moon/whatever otherwise horrible things will happen. This provides a core task, plus some journeying which gives the opportunity for fights at sea on the way with random creatures, treking through swamps or whatever, maybe meeting the Fey on the way. Then they get to the Hag's castle where they find out that the gold prize is a dragon egg or baby dragon that is going to be sacrifced on a certain night. Lots of hench-monsters etc. etc. When they get back with the egg and give it to the 'human', they discover she is a gold dragon in disguise and she gives them a gift from her treasure hoard as a reward.
So long as you have a general plot you can build up episodes of activity in more detail as you go. Adding in clues, traps and a mental puzzle or two - things to think about.
Other thing I find useful (I think a tip from Sly Flourish's the Lazy Dungeon Master) is to create NPCs around a famous person, or character, or someone you know well. This really helps to stick that NPC in your mind and makes it much easier to come up with new personalities and looks. So, for example, I have a half Orc crime boss who is basically Hans Solo from Star Wars, and a gem trader from Calimport who is basically Oliver Reed in the film Gladiator. I never forget who they are, what their personalities are like etc.
Enjoy your first homebrew.