Hey everyone! Id like to hear some opinions from experienced DMs and anyone who has co-DMed a campaign on this, but any advice would be appreciated.
So a group of my friends would like to run a West Marches style campaign in the Forgotten Realms, starting with an arc of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. They'd like me to DM because I've gone ham on the lore of the Forgotten Realms (what can I say, I love a good medieval fantasy setting!), and then break it out into more episodic sessions when we're done with Dragon Heist. I've already talked to my friend who would co-DM the rest of the campaign with me, and let him know I have an idea for a background story arc that will be running while the guild is out having adventures.
Basically, my question to you all is, what would be a good way to sprinkle in the overarching story once we get into the episodic part of the campaign?
(If you'd like more specifics on what the overarching story is, feel free to ask! I don't think anyone playing in the campaign will see this post)
First of all, what I'm about to say is generic and flexible, and I hope that while you're running the table you're gauging the player's feeling of excitement. I know that sometimes when I write a story, the climax that I've intended doesn't become so, for the players.
I'm not familiar with the lore, but I do have a general blueprint for story segments. This requires that you've broken the story into chapters that may include the following.
You've got a set-up, where the players are experiencing or witnessing the effects of the problem you are presenting, showing the hook. Then adapting the path to the goal to what the players decide to do. This is usually the players setting themselves up to tackle the task; gathering knowledge, supplies, and finding the direction to go. The players then must get to the location, struggle with the challenges you've laid before them, and come to a climactic finish which determines their starting point in the next step in the story arc. Give them the rundown of their impact on the situation at hand and show the path to start at the next set-up.
These are the necessary parts to constructing what I would call a base episode.
When I want to bring lore into the session, it's very important to find a piece of information relevant to the goals, aspirations, or anything that one of the characters cares about for a player in the party. Give them crumbs to the lore (almost like a girl trying to be coy), hopefully they are hungry and ask for the whole lore pie. (if not, keep the leftovers. Shrink wrap it, toss it in the fridge and continue to apply that reality to this world, but don't deny them if they later get hungry for it.) The parts where the players are getting set up for the task, are contending for a win against your challenges, AND/OR have survived the challenge (preferably, ultimately victorious) are great times to tease the lore.
I hope this helps you to come up with a solution. If you want to share some specific lore, and some character backgrounds, I'd love to brainstorm!
First, than you for your advice! It definitely helps with part of my issue, which is figuring out how to break up the overarching story into chapter-size arcs. I guess my issue is that these chapters are going to be interspersed with unrelated episodes that last a session or two. I don't want the group to feel like these episodes don't effect the world, and ideally they won't see the overarching plot until the final pieces fall into place. It's mostly just figuring out how often to throw in these chapters.
But I think this would all make more sense if I just revealed some of the story:
In place of the Trollskull Alley manor house base included in Dragon Heist, the adventuring party has taken up base in an inn on the coastal side of Mount Waterdeep called the Wayfairer's Inn. The inn is owned/operated by a half-elf named Artius Manx. Artius is a Divine Soul sorcerer and the nephew of the wizard Midnight (her actual nephew too, no greats; he got kind of frozen in time during the Spellplague, it's a whole thing). Anyway, Artius had heard that everyone believed Mystra was killed and her domain, Dweomerheart, was destroyed by the Spellplague, but it turned out that Mystra actually survived. That's all common knowledge. But something else that Artius discovered that no one else knew was that Dweomerheart was not completely destroyed either. Instead, it fractured into seven chunks of crystallized magic (dweomers) that fell across Faerun. Artius let's the adventurers use his inn as their base, and in exchange he pushes them toward taking jobs that may lead to them collecting the dweomers.
Artius already has one, the Dweomer of the Arcane, but uses the party to get the rest because he doesn't want other powerful mages, especially the evil ones, to find him or figure out what he's up to. (He also feels like he kind of owes it to his aunt to not let just anyone use raw magic)
If you want to know more about the Dweomers themselves, you can find everything I've made so far here:
The other thing to is, I think we're planning on having a rotating roster of players and characters, since they plan on starting a guild based in Waterdeep. Kind of like Force Grey?
Alright, this fractured Dweomer thing sounds pretty cool. The episode template applies to each Dweomer. You can, of course, modify as you see fit. You could even reward 2 in one episode if you want. Now the episode can also be broken into minisodes within the episode, if accomplishing the goal is pretty complex and requires stages. Maybe you have to collect an item, or find a character to locate the Dweomer. Then, even after you find one, you need to gain access to the location that's guarded by Minotaur. Hell, you could even have a last second competing adventurer or party swoop in and nab it. All things could occur before you are able to wrap up the actual episode, gaining the dweomer.
Not to mention, an episode or two will likely occur in between collecting the Dweomer. Each with their own complete episode template fulfilled.
You've got a ton of material to work with and sprinkle in along the way. Such as, what each Dweomer represents/contains, family lore, filling the party in on the events that led to the situation and choices that brought us to this point, or the theory behind the magic that makes this all work.
With the rotating roster, the most important thing to remember is, what would be fun to roleplay in the moment. That trumps almost anything else. There's a trillion circumstances that bring people together. Just use one that makes sense, or if you're feeling adventurous, something out of the ordinary and convenient forced the meeting.
I hope this helps!
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Hey everyone! Id like to hear some opinions from experienced DMs and anyone who has co-DMed a campaign on this, but any advice would be appreciated.
So a group of my friends would like to run a West Marches style campaign in the Forgotten Realms, starting with an arc of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. They'd like me to DM because I've gone ham on the lore of the Forgotten Realms (what can I say, I love a good medieval fantasy setting!), and then break it out into more episodic sessions when we're done with Dragon Heist. I've already talked to my friend who would co-DM the rest of the campaign with me, and let him know I have an idea for a background story arc that will be running while the guild is out having adventures.
Basically, my question to you all is, what would be a good way to sprinkle in the overarching story once we get into the episodic part of the campaign?
(If you'd like more specifics on what the overarching story is, feel free to ask! I don't think anyone playing in the campaign will see this post)
Hi Jank!
First of all, what I'm about to say is generic and flexible, and I hope that while you're running the table you're gauging the player's feeling of excitement. I know that sometimes when I write a story, the climax that I've intended doesn't become so, for the players.
I'm not familiar with the lore, but I do have a general blueprint for story segments. This requires that you've broken the story into chapters that may include the following.
You've got a set-up, where the players are experiencing or witnessing the effects of the problem you are presenting, showing the hook. Then adapting the path to the goal to what the players decide to do. This is usually the players setting themselves up to tackle the task; gathering knowledge, supplies, and finding the direction to go. The players then must get to the location, struggle with the challenges you've laid before them, and come to a climactic finish which determines their starting point in the next step in the story arc. Give them the rundown of their impact on the situation at hand and show the path to start at the next set-up.
These are the necessary parts to constructing what I would call a base episode.
When I want to bring lore into the session, it's very important to find a piece of information relevant to the goals, aspirations, or anything that one of the characters cares about for a player in the party. Give them crumbs to the lore (almost like a girl trying to be coy), hopefully they are hungry and ask for the whole lore pie. (if not, keep the leftovers. Shrink wrap it, toss it in the fridge and continue to apply that reality to this world, but don't deny them if they later get hungry for it.) The parts where the players are getting set up for the task, are contending for a win against your challenges, AND/OR have survived the challenge (preferably, ultimately victorious) are great times to tease the lore.
I hope this helps you to come up with a solution. If you want to share some specific lore, and some character backgrounds, I'd love to brainstorm!
Hey GoblinKing!
First, than you for your advice! It definitely helps with part of my issue, which is figuring out how to break up the overarching story into chapter-size arcs. I guess my issue is that these chapters are going to be interspersed with unrelated episodes that last a session or two. I don't want the group to feel like these episodes don't effect the world, and ideally they won't see the overarching plot until the final pieces fall into place. It's mostly just figuring out how often to throw in these chapters.
But I think this would all make more sense if I just revealed some of the story:
In place of the Trollskull Alley manor house base included in Dragon Heist, the adventuring party has taken up base in an inn on the coastal side of Mount Waterdeep called the Wayfairer's Inn. The inn is owned/operated by a half-elf named Artius Manx. Artius is a Divine Soul sorcerer and the nephew of the wizard Midnight (her actual nephew too, no greats; he got kind of frozen in time during the Spellplague, it's a whole thing). Anyway, Artius had heard that everyone believed Mystra was killed and her domain, Dweomerheart, was destroyed by the Spellplague, but it turned out that Mystra actually survived. That's all common knowledge. But something else that Artius discovered that no one else knew was that Dweomerheart was not completely destroyed either. Instead, it fractured into seven chunks of crystallized magic (dweomers) that fell across Faerun. Artius let's the adventurers use his inn as their base, and in exchange he pushes them toward taking jobs that may lead to them collecting the dweomers.
Artius already has one, the Dweomer of the Arcane, but uses the party to get the rest because he doesn't want other powerful mages, especially the evil ones, to find him or figure out what he's up to. (He also feels like he kind of owes it to his aunt to not let just anyone use raw magic)
If you want to know more about the Dweomers themselves, you can find everything I've made so far here:
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJi_Xz7jm
The other thing to is, I think we're planning on having a rotating roster of players and characters, since they plan on starting a guild based in Waterdeep. Kind of like Force Grey?
Alright, this fractured Dweomer thing sounds pretty cool. The episode template applies to each Dweomer. You can, of course, modify as you see fit. You could even reward 2 in one episode if you want. Now the episode can also be broken into minisodes within the episode, if accomplishing the goal is pretty complex and requires stages. Maybe you have to collect an item, or find a character to locate the Dweomer. Then, even after you find one, you need to gain access to the location that's guarded by Minotaur. Hell, you could even have a last second competing adventurer or party swoop in and nab it. All things could occur before you are able to wrap up the actual episode, gaining the dweomer.
Not to mention, an episode or two will likely occur in between collecting the Dweomer. Each with their own complete episode template fulfilled.
You've got a ton of material to work with and sprinkle in along the way. Such as, what each Dweomer represents/contains, family lore, filling the party in on the events that led to the situation and choices that brought us to this point, or the theory behind the magic that makes this all work.
With the rotating roster, the most important thing to remember is, what would be fun to roleplay in the moment. That trumps almost anything else. There's a trillion circumstances that bring people together. Just use one that makes sense, or if you're feeling adventurous, something out of the ordinary and convenient forced the meeting.
I hope this helps!