I am fairly new to dnd, I’ve played a few games before but never any long campaigns. I’ve dm’d once for a one-shot about a shipwreck on an island, but other than that dming is totally new to me. Recently, I convinced my friends to try the game so we made their characters and we plan on having the first session soon. I am looking for advice on how to a) make the game seem approachable and fun for my new players. B) Create a story arc while still having relatively self-contained quests each session (if you’re familiar with oxventure, that’s the style and vibe that I’m aiming for)
The story:
I want the overall plot to involve finding and acquiring shards of a crystal moon, but the first adventure will be a separate thing, just a fetch quest for a professor in the harbor town that they’re in. Once they complete this quest, the professor will direct them to one of his friends in a neighboring town. This friend, a cartographer, will tell the party of a shift in the continents geography, a shift that he suspects is due to the recent splitting and distribution of the crystal moon, an artifact that serves as a channel for the natural magic of the kingdom. The moon was split and distributed to each of the different kingdoms as a show of peace and equality. He will tell the party that the land is losing its magic and that they need to collect and restore the moon in order to save their beloved homeland.
Therin lies the problem; how do I keep this from being a fetch quest and still allow for hokey side adventures (I have a few planned that focus on individual members of the party) without seeming weird and disjointed? Any advice is appreciated!!
One thing that could work is coming up with a cool villain who could act as your BBEG through this quest or something similar. Having a main overarching villain for your plot would help to bring the threads of the adventure together. Even if this villain doesn't interact directly with the players in every session you could make his presence known. Here are a few ideas which will ultimately depend on your vision for the campaign, the level of characters you want to work with etc:
Ideas:
What if there was a drow priestess who had come from the underdark to try to collect this artifact as well? Maybe she wants to restore it and take it back to her hometown. Perhaps she is the ruler there and Lolth has been displeased with the town and has demanded a new show of faith: for her to sacrifice her only child. Maybe she wants to steal this artifact to offer it to Lolth instead of her child? She could send out drow assassins, cultists and the like in search of this artifact in the hopes of retrieving it in time for the ultimatum that she has been given by Lolth and so she must rush through to collect it herself leading to the final confrontation?
Instead maybe you could say that a powerful being was trapped inside the crystal moon a long time ago say a Dracolich who tried to assault the world en-mass and was trapped inside the crystal moon by an ancient arcdruid hundreds of years ago. Now the cultists of the dragon have had decades of preparing before planting the idea to separate the crystal moon so that the dragon can escape. Maybe the continents are moving and changing shape because the dragon was trapped beneath the surface and now is beginning to escape and it is up to the characters to try to stop the ritual. This idea could work well because depending on the level of the characters you could either have them fight a head of the cult or a weakened dragon straight after they awake.
If you were after a more direct confrontation with a typical "evil villain" you could have an orc chieftain who is looking to assault the land from which the moon was split. Maybe he managed to get the moon separated knowing it would make it harder for the magicians of the country to defend against his assult. Alternatively he could be trying to steal it to perform some dark ritual, maybe he is trying to summon a demon of some kind which he hopes to enslave.
Finally, if you are after a very high level encounter. What if the moon is an ancient artifact and keeping it in place is the only thing that keeps the Tarrasque asleep. The characters would have to race against time against a mad stone giant cult who wish for it to be reawoken believing it will help convince the All-Father to promote them to the top of the Ordnung?
In reality, any of these Ideas would work but it is probably better for you to come up with your own villain using these as inspiration or not. Then you can have them act as the common enemy to help to string the story together. Maybe to begin with they don't even know who the characters are and there only interactions are when they try to take elements of the Crystal moon. However, maybe as the story progresses if the heroes fault their plans enough then perhaps they begin to take a more personal interest in seeing to their demise. That character who is excellent friends with a Baron back in their home country returns to find it in chaos: the Baron is missing left was a blood covered piece of paper signed with the initial of the villain you chose. This can start to create the want and desire for players to actually destroy them rather than choosing to destroy them simply because it is what they think they are meant to do. This way you can help to string the different parts of your campaign together whilst still having it separated in parts and having side quests.
I really hope this helps, starting DMing long campaigns can be tough but trust me it is worth it when you finish and see satisfaction and enjoyment from your players. Good luck and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
These are all fantastic, thank you so much! I’ll definitely make a main boss now, that seems like it would work for keeping the flow constant like you said (and it could save me from having a new enemy for every session!). I do have a plan for the ending where the cartographer turns out to be looking for the shards as a way to end the world, so maybe the “BBEG” for the whole campaign could be a good guy?
I’d add in something where the characters experience this shift in geography. Give them something tangible so they can understand the stakes, rather than just having the cartographer tell them. Show them how their home is being destroyed by these strange changes — probably when they’re out on that first fetch quest for the wizard. If you’re lucky, they’ll ask the wizard about it, who can then direct them to the cartographer. If they don’t, maybe the wizard asks them to look into it with the cartographer. And maybe hit them with another shift on the way. I’d really keep the shifts coming and increasing in intensity, but each time they find a macguffin, maybe they get a break from it. This can make the actions feel more character driven, rather than you leading them around by the nose.
it is criminally underestimated how special a campaign can feel when the characters actually want to kill the villain or become involved in the plot rather than just because they know its what the dm wants. That doesn't mean you can't still have an awesome adventure of course but it makes it a whole lot smoother if you can get your players invested
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For reference:
I am fairly new to dnd, I’ve played a few games before but never any long campaigns. I’ve dm’d once for a one-shot about a shipwreck on an island, but other than that dming is totally new to me. Recently, I convinced my friends to try the game so we made their characters and we plan on having the first session soon. I am looking for advice on how to a) make the game seem approachable and fun for my new players.
B) Create a story arc while still having relatively self-contained quests each session (if you’re familiar with oxventure, that’s the style and vibe that I’m aiming for)
The story:
I want the overall plot to involve finding and acquiring shards of a crystal moon, but the first adventure will be a separate thing, just a fetch quest for a professor in the harbor town that they’re in. Once they complete this quest, the professor will direct them to one of his friends in a neighboring town. This friend, a cartographer, will tell the party of a shift in the continents geography, a shift that he suspects is due to the recent splitting and distribution of the crystal moon, an artifact that serves as a channel for the natural magic of the kingdom. The moon was split and distributed to each of the different kingdoms as a show of peace and equality. He will tell the party that the land is losing its magic and that they need to collect and restore the moon in order to save their beloved homeland.
Therin lies the problem; how do I keep this from being a fetch quest and still allow for hokey side adventures (I have a few planned that focus on individual members of the party) without seeming weird and disjointed?
Any advice is appreciated!!
One thing that could work is coming up with a cool villain who could act as your BBEG through this quest or something similar. Having a main overarching villain for your plot would help to bring the threads of the adventure together. Even if this villain doesn't interact directly with the players in every session you could make his presence known. Here are a few ideas which will ultimately depend on your vision for the campaign, the level of characters you want to work with etc:
Ideas:
In reality, any of these Ideas would work but it is probably better for you to come up with your own villain using these as inspiration or not. Then you can have them act as the common enemy to help to string the story together. Maybe to begin with they don't even know who the characters are and there only interactions are when they try to take elements of the Crystal moon. However, maybe as the story progresses if the heroes fault their plans enough then perhaps they begin to take a more personal interest in seeing to their demise. That character who is excellent friends with a Baron back in their home country returns to find it in chaos: the Baron is missing left was a blood covered piece of paper signed with the initial of the villain you chose. This can start to create the want and desire for players to actually destroy them rather than choosing to destroy them simply because it is what they think they are meant to do. This way you can help to string the different parts of your campaign together whilst still having it separated in parts and having side quests.
I really hope this helps, starting DMing long campaigns can be tough but trust me it is worth it when you finish and see satisfaction and enjoyment from your players. Good luck and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
These are all fantastic, thank you so much! I’ll definitely make a main boss now, that seems like it would work for keeping the flow constant like you said (and it could save me from having a new enemy for every session!). I do have a plan for the ending where the cartographer turns out to be looking for the shards as a way to end the world, so maybe the “BBEG” for the whole campaign could be a good guy?
I’d add in something where the characters experience this shift in geography. Give them something tangible so they can understand the stakes, rather than just having the cartographer tell them. Show them how their home is being destroyed by these strange changes — probably when they’re out on that first fetch quest for the wizard.
If you’re lucky, they’ll ask the wizard about it, who can then direct them to the cartographer. If they don’t, maybe the wizard asks them to look into it with the cartographer. And maybe hit them with another shift on the way. I’d really keep the shifts coming and increasing in intensity, but each time they find a macguffin, maybe they get a break from it.
This can make the actions feel more character driven, rather than you leading them around by the nose.
Agreed,
it is criminally underestimated how special a campaign can feel when the characters actually want to kill the villain or become involved in the plot rather than just because they know its what the dm wants. That doesn't mean you can't still have an awesome adventure of course but it makes it a whole lot smoother if you can get your players invested