Hello, really new DM here. I just started running a campaign during October for a party of 3 (inexperienced, never played before), and it has been going well, thanks to the patience and enthusiasm of the players.
So I wanted to prepare a holiday special oneshot for them to play in December, based on the idea that a winter spirit traps their characters in snowglobe-like realms, and in each snowglobe there is an encounter they must face and defeat to escape the snowglobe realm.
I was wondering if there are any rules or special mechanics for being trapped in a magical realm of sorts (I'm new to the lore, havent been able to read up on it). I would aso appreciate any advice in running this oneshot, which has other parts. Its going to be played as a week event, each day will have a session (we do 1-2hrs), and the characters have to first partake in a town's midwinter festival and its activities, eventually leading up to their invitation to a gala, which is where they get trapped.
(For reference, I do not own any core rulebooks, just have access to the free rules from 2024, 2018, 2014, and a few things from the internet I scoured.)
My advice for new DM's is always the same don't home brew - home brewing requires a pretty specific knowledge of rules - mechanics and balance.
Instead reskin - give your mobs a magic missel attack at whatever level is appropriate for your campaign and call it a snowball. Give them a melee attack (longsword) and call it Icicle strike. Make the mobs snowmen and give them resistance to all damage except fire and lightning - fire does double damage - lightning makes them explode and all players do a Dex save or get hit by the equivalent of fireball at level x. In that way you know everything is balanced and you can still make it a holiday themed weeklong event.
As for rules about being teleported into a realm there are no rules except if the party is high enough level to have magic that can transport them between realms which it does not sound like they are at yet so you can just say you are all walking down a path and only after you enter the circle do you realize there was a hidden teleportation circle, bam realm change complete.
Good luck I personally love holiday themed events!
Thanks! This really helps, especially with reskinning monsters. I was thinking of reskinning subclasses to be holiday themed (since the characters would be starting out at lvl.3). For example, I was thinking of making the bard have a caroler subclass based on college of spirit or glamour, the cleric with a "saint" subclass based on the peace domain, etc.
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Hello, really new DM here. I just started running a campaign during October for a party of 3 (inexperienced, never played before), and it has been going well, thanks to the patience and enthusiasm of the players.
So I wanted to prepare a holiday special oneshot for them to play in December, based on the idea that a winter spirit traps their characters in snowglobe-like realms, and in each snowglobe there is an encounter they must face and defeat to escape the snowglobe realm.
I was wondering if there are any rules or special mechanics for being trapped in a magical realm of sorts (I'm new to the lore, havent been able to read up on it). I would aso appreciate any advice in running this oneshot, which has other parts. Its going to be played as a week event, each day will have a session (we do 1-2hrs), and the characters have to first partake in a town's midwinter festival and its activities, eventually leading up to their invitation to a gala, which is where they get trapped.
(For reference, I do not own any core rulebooks, just have access to the free rules from 2024, 2018, 2014, and a few things from the internet I scoured.)
My advice for new DM's is always the same don't home brew - home brewing requires a pretty specific knowledge of rules - mechanics and balance.
Instead reskin - give your mobs a magic missel attack at whatever level is appropriate for your campaign and call it a snowball. Give them a melee attack (longsword) and call it Icicle strike. Make the mobs snowmen and give them resistance to all damage except fire and lightning - fire does double damage - lightning makes them explode and all players do a Dex save or get hit by the equivalent of fireball at level x. In that way you know everything is balanced and you can still make it a holiday themed weeklong event.
As for rules about being teleported into a realm there are no rules except if the party is high enough level to have magic that can transport them between realms which it does not sound like they are at yet so you can just say you are all walking down a path and only after you enter the circle do you realize there was a hidden teleportation circle, bam realm change complete.
Good luck I personally love holiday themed events!
Thanks! This really helps, especially with reskinning monsters. I was thinking of reskinning subclasses to be holiday themed (since the characters would be starting out at lvl.3). For example, I was thinking of making the bard have a caroler subclass based on college of spirit or glamour, the cleric with a "saint" subclass based on the peace domain, etc.