First campaign I've ever written by myself. It's been a long and interesting journey and now I've come to the final dungeon and... I'm at a loss.
I have a few vague ideas of things to fill the point between an epic series of trials to enter the dungeon and the epic final boss battle, but I'm having a hard time making them coherent. It's the headquarters of a cult obsessed with collecting dragons and their parts. I've never ran a cult before, so I'm not sure it will feel like a cult. I'm worried that it will feel empty or fall flat.
Any tips or tricks from fellow DMs? Opinions or ideas?
Edit: I should state that I've been DMing for a few years now, but this is the first campaign I've written myself. Also I've been running this campaign for about a year now so most of the story is done, just need some final dungeon help.
In my mind, when you write an adventure down two things must be clear at the beginning: 1) the adventure hook; 2) the final goal.
The adventure hook should clarify why the party is interested in running the adventure (from the characters perspective). The final goal is...well, is the final goal (defeat the main villain, retrieve the artefact....)
Once you have this two points, you can think about to the series of challenges the party must confront to get from the adventure hook to the final goal.
Do not worry if your story seems too linear, the complexity comes with the experience.
Personally, I like adventures where the most part of the work is about exploring and gathering information, so, in this regards, you can insert skill challenges for exploring (Investigation and Survival) and for social interaction (Persuasion , Deception...)
One last thing: create few key-NPCs which are important to the story. You can improvise minor NPCs.
Well, as a cult, perhaps they can be involved in cult-ish activity? For one, their followers are not just random monsters, but people that have fallen victim to their teachings and ideologies. Perhaps now would be a good time to show an NPC that the players enjoyed interacting with now being one of the badguys. Watch the players bend over backwards to NOT kill them, and try to save them instead. Points for having the big bad also show up and try to keep this NPC under their spell. The cult can wield draconic powers too, boons granted to them by their "god", perhaps making them half-dragon as a result.
Sacred texts can litter the place, as will art and iconography depicting dragons. People are being tortured that can be freed, and minor chances to "weaken" the big bad can be made as well. The bad guys are going to throw their very best stuff at the players now too, since their master is threatened, so you can have lots of baddies using improved weapons or magic stuff too. There can be prayers and rituals to interrupt, or perhaps idols to deface. Maybe one of the player's gods wants a specific relic destroyed, or captured.
Anyways, just some thoughts. Good luck!
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First campaign I've ever written by myself. It's been a long and interesting journey and now I've come to the final dungeon and... I'm at a loss.
I have a few vague ideas of things to fill the point between an epic series of trials to enter the dungeon and the epic final boss battle, but I'm having a hard time making them coherent. It's the headquarters of a cult obsessed with collecting dragons and their parts. I've never ran a cult before, so I'm not sure it will feel like a cult. I'm worried that it will feel empty or fall flat.
Any tips or tricks from fellow DMs? Opinions or ideas?
Edit: I should state that I've been DMing for a few years now, but this is the first campaign I've written myself. Also I've been running this campaign for about a year now so most of the story is done, just need some final dungeon help.
In my mind, when you write an adventure down two things must be clear at the beginning: 1) the adventure hook; 2) the final goal.
The adventure hook should clarify why the party is interested in running the adventure (from the characters perspective). The final goal is...well, is the final goal (defeat the main villain, retrieve the artefact....)
Once you have this two points, you can think about to the series of challenges the party must confront to get from the adventure hook to the final goal.
Do not worry if your story seems too linear, the complexity comes with the experience.
Personally, I like adventures where the most part of the work is about exploring and gathering information, so, in this regards, you can insert skill challenges for exploring (Investigation and Survival) and for social interaction (Persuasion , Deception...)
One last thing: create few key-NPCs which are important to the story. You can improvise minor NPCs.
Well, as a cult, perhaps they can be involved in cult-ish activity? For one, their followers are not just random monsters, but people that have fallen victim to their teachings and ideologies. Perhaps now would be a good time to show an NPC that the players enjoyed interacting with now being one of the badguys. Watch the players bend over backwards to NOT kill them, and try to save them instead. Points for having the big bad also show up and try to keep this NPC under their spell. The cult can wield draconic powers too, boons granted to them by their "god", perhaps making them half-dragon as a result.
Sacred texts can litter the place, as will art and iconography depicting dragons. People are being tortured that can be freed, and minor chances to "weaken" the big bad can be made as well. The bad guys are going to throw their very best stuff at the players now too, since their master is threatened, so you can have lots of baddies using improved weapons or magic stuff too. There can be prayers and rituals to interrupt, or perhaps idols to deface. Maybe one of the player's gods wants a specific relic destroyed, or captured.
Anyways, just some thoughts. Good luck!