I only recently got into DND (though I've wanted to play it for a long time) and since then I've been hit with the idea for a campaign of my own.
I won't go into too many details, but the basic premise is based off of the Netflix show The Hollow, in that the characters awaken in a small grey room with no doors or windows, and no memories of anything before it. Their task is to escape the room and figure out who they are and why they were in the room in the first place.
The only problem is that I can't figure out why they were in the room! I don't want to copy The Hollow completely and have its conclusion be the same as my campaign's, but I'm also not sure what route to go. Did they do this to themselves, or did someone else do it? Why were their memories taken? Did they learn something they weren't supposed to? Is this a simulation? A test? An experiment? Are they dead? Did they get transported to another time/world? Are they gods walking the earth as mortals for whatever reason? Or, perhaps, are they the chess pieces in some gods' game? What conclusion am I leading up to? Is there a big bad? Who are they and what are their goals? Is the mystery more personal and only about the players, or does it encompass the entirety of the world I'm setting it in? I can't decide!
If anyone can offer suggestions or input, I'd be super grateful!
They have all been miniaturized after failing their previous D&D adventure and are inside a shoe-box that a giant is carrying around. The reason they don't remember is because they have all had their minds wiped by magic. As they manage to escape from the box they fall out on to a map of some kind with a strange grid. They notice the giants are hunkered over the map playing their own game of D&D with the players as their character or monster minis.
A bit out there, but obviously you can go anywhere with it you want. It's your story and you'll figure out something that works for you. Let your imagination run wild and see what you come up with. Of course you could always just put your players in the room and let them start working on escaping. Sometimes the ideas your players come up with will be gold compared to whatever you can think of as a DM, don't be afraid of not having all the answers at the start.
There will always be choice paralysis as a DM that you will have to deal with. There is always going to be a million different ways to approach everything and that's part of what makes D&D so awesome. Grab inspiration from things you love and start weaving it all together. Give it time and don't rush the process, the answers will come to you, or you could just make a list of things rolling some dice to see the outcome.
If you go down this path of the character party suddenly just wake up in strange surroundings make sure the following first:
1. The the group (the actual players, not the PCs), are willing to buy into the premises of waking up in a strange place for no apparent reason.
2. That the characters have strong backgrounds or at least have clear motivations on what would move them forward in the story.
3. That the characters have strong bonds and connections to each other, (either from a previous adventure or written into their backgrounds), making them already from the start ready to work together.
The reason I'm suggesting this is because I played exactly this scenario once, or tried to since it pretty much imploded from start. Trust me, when the DM has to state that the walls of a dungeon has been magical enchanted to prevent tunnelling and escape, things have seriously gone of the rails.
And the reason it happened was because of that game didn't fulfil the above points. We the players all came to the first session expecting a traditional DnD game with map wielding strangers in taverns and evil wizards in towers and instead had our characters wake up in a strange dungeon for no reason or no explanation. And I admit since this happen just as 5e had been released out characters was pretty badly made. They certainly lacked any proper backgrounds or motivations to take actions beyond basic survival. Plus none of us really knew anything of the other player characters beyond class and level, which meant that my character didn't really give a sod about the other characters. I as a player certainly didn't, beyond the build in exception to cooperate inherent in any RPG.I'm sure the DM had some really special back story to reveal as we made our way out but frankly none of us gave a toss. We just wanted to get out of the dungeon as fast as possible so we could go do some proper adventuring. So yeah it was a disaster and that group pretty much disbanded after the second session.
That said I'm not saying you shouldn't do it as done well it will be a very strong story.
However, just make sure you sell the premise to the players before you start playing, especially if you want to give them all amnesia since you then remove any and all character motivations for them that comes from their character backgrounds. So if you want to do this; before you roll any characters be sure to tell the players; "hey I'm planning an adventure where you all wake up in a strange place without any memories so you better plan for that when you make your characters." Then they and the characters will mentally prepared for that rather special scenario instead of feeling they've been forced into a situation they have no control over.
I did think of doing something like that - the whole DND inception type thing - but idk. Something about it just doesn't feel quite right for the story. It's difficult to decide what route to take because I really want it to be good, and make sense, and, in general, just be a fun story. But my brain isn't cooperating, lol.
Thanks for the suggestion though! At the very least, it helps me narrow down what I don't want to do.
Don't worry, I'm planning on being 100% upfront with my players about the amnesia and the fact that they won't exactly be able to make their characters the way you normally do in DND. No point in coming up with all this if it's not a campaign anyone's interested in, after all!
I did think of doing something like that - the whole DND inception type thing - but idk. Something about it just doesn't feel quite right for the story. It's difficult to decide what route to take because I really want it to be good, and make sense, and, in general, just be a fun story. But my brain isn't cooperating, lol.
Thanks for the suggestion though! At the very least, it helps me narrow down what I don't want to do.
Well the suggestion was more of something to support the latter part of the statement ;) You're welcome regardless. Any story that you enjoy running and your players enjoy playing will be good. Heck you could spend weeks/months/years making a great story and your players could find a way to derail it sessions in. Part of what makes D&D so awesome is the things we can't predict happening. Improv is probably one of the most important skills a DM can hone.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I only recently got into DND (though I've wanted to play it for a long time) and since then I've been hit with the idea for a campaign of my own.
I won't go into too many details, but the basic premise is based off of the Netflix show The Hollow, in that the characters awaken in a small grey room with no doors or windows, and no memories of anything before it. Their task is to escape the room and figure out who they are and why they were in the room in the first place.
The only problem is that I can't figure out why they were in the room! I don't want to copy The Hollow completely and have its conclusion be the same as my campaign's, but I'm also not sure what route to go. Did they do this to themselves, or did someone else do it? Why were their memories taken? Did they learn something they weren't supposed to? Is this a simulation? A test? An experiment? Are they dead? Did they get transported to another time/world? Are they gods walking the earth as mortals for whatever reason? Or, perhaps, are they the chess pieces in some gods' game? What conclusion am I leading up to? Is there a big bad? Who are they and what are their goals? Is the mystery more personal and only about the players, or does it encompass the entirety of the world I'm setting it in? I can't decide!
If anyone can offer suggestions or input, I'd be super grateful!
They have all been miniaturized after failing their previous D&D adventure and are inside a shoe-box that a giant is carrying around. The reason they don't remember is because they have all had their minds wiped by magic. As they manage to escape from the box they fall out on to a map of some kind with a strange grid. They notice the giants are hunkered over the map playing their own game of D&D with the players as their character or monster minis.
A bit out there, but obviously you can go anywhere with it you want. It's your story and you'll figure out something that works for you. Let your imagination run wild and see what you come up with. Of course you could always just put your players in the room and let them start working on escaping. Sometimes the ideas your players come up with will be gold compared to whatever you can think of as a DM, don't be afraid of not having all the answers at the start.
There will always be choice paralysis as a DM that you will have to deal with. There is always going to be a million different ways to approach everything and that's part of what makes D&D so awesome. Grab inspiration from things you love and start weaving it all together. Give it time and don't rush the process, the answers will come to you, or you could just make a list of things rolling some dice to see the outcome.
Bit of a off topic advice.
If you go down this path of the character party suddenly just wake up in strange surroundings make sure the following first:
1. The the group (the actual players, not the PCs), are willing to buy into the premises of waking up in a strange place for no apparent reason.
2. That the characters have strong backgrounds or at least have clear motivations on what would move them forward in the story.
3. That the characters have strong bonds and connections to each other, (either from a previous adventure or written into their backgrounds), making them already from the start ready to work together.
The reason I'm suggesting this is because I played exactly this scenario once, or tried to since it pretty much imploded from start. Trust me, when the DM has to state that the walls of a dungeon has been magical enchanted to prevent tunnelling and escape, things have seriously gone of the rails.
And the reason it happened was because of that game didn't fulfil the above points. We the players all came to the first session expecting a traditional DnD game with map wielding strangers in taverns and evil wizards in towers and instead had our characters wake up in a strange dungeon for no reason or no explanation. And I admit since this happen just as 5e had been released out characters was pretty badly made. They certainly lacked any proper backgrounds or motivations to take actions beyond basic survival. Plus none of us really knew anything of the other player characters beyond class and level, which meant that my character didn't really give a sod about the other characters. I as a player certainly didn't, beyond the build in exception to cooperate inherent in any RPG.I'm sure the DM had some really special back story to reveal as we made our way out but frankly none of us gave a toss. We just wanted to get out of the dungeon as fast as possible so we could go do some proper adventuring. So yeah it was a disaster and that group pretty much disbanded after the second session.
That said I'm not saying you shouldn't do it as done well it will be a very strong story.
However, just make sure you sell the premise to the players before you start playing, especially if you want to give them all amnesia since you then remove any and all character motivations for them that comes from their character backgrounds. So if you want to do this; before you roll any characters be sure to tell the players; "hey I'm planning an adventure where you all wake up in a strange place without any memories so you better plan for that when you make your characters." Then they and the characters will mentally prepared for that rather special scenario instead of feeling they've been forced into a situation they have no control over.
I did think of doing something like that - the whole DND inception type thing - but idk. Something about it just doesn't feel quite right for the story. It's difficult to decide what route to take because I really want it to be good, and make sense, and, in general, just be a fun story. But my brain isn't cooperating, lol.
Thanks for the suggestion though! At the very least, it helps me narrow down what I don't want to do.
Don't worry, I'm planning on being 100% upfront with my players about the amnesia and the fact that they won't exactly be able to make their characters the way you normally do in DND. No point in coming up with all this if it's not a campaign anyone's interested in, after all!
Well the suggestion was more of something to support the latter part of the statement ;) You're welcome regardless. Any story that you enjoy running and your players enjoy playing will be good. Heck you could spend weeks/months/years making a great story and your players could find a way to derail it sessions in. Part of what makes D&D so awesome is the things we can't predict happening. Improv is probably one of the most important skills a DM can hone.