I am about to start a campaign that is very different than what I have done previously, and I have the basic idea for it laid out and wanted to see what other DMs think or what ideas they might have for it
The basis of the campaign is that the party are on a ship, but then that ship crashes and the party find themselves stranded on an island. They can loot some things from the ship, but then they need to explore the island for resources, food, etc. in an attempt to survive or get off the island. This gives a LOT of radical freedom to the party because there is no set storyline or quest.
I have other forces on the island and the surrounding area. These are creatures of the night, wildlife, a volcano-worshipping cult on the other side of the island, Sahuagin in the sea outside of the island, and some caverns of the underdark below the island that the party could potentially investigate.
I have a rough sketch of the island, and ideas on how I could keep track of hunger with exhaustion levels, as well as the need for thirst.
I like these kind of campaigns, wish I could play in more of them.
Tip #1, coming from past RPG trauma: do not set your players up by telling them to make characters and give them all sorts of cool magic items and excellent stuff only to (surprise!) take it all away in session 1 when the ship crashes. I was once told to make a character for a Shadowrun campaign--given a big budget by the GM. Made a character who was based a bit around his super-car, and all the stuff he could do with it. Session 1--ship taking me and my car and the other players across the ocean sinks, we escape with our lives and nothing else. Campaign go! :/
So, now that that old monkey is off my back :) I'm not still bitter or anything.
One thing to maybe consider is to have a bunch of possible stuff they might find on the island, but be ready to maybe hold some stuff back. You maybe don't want for example an island with Sauhaugin and a cult and caverns and a dragon and Lord of the Flies lost kids and ancient ruins and a long lost forgotten god avatar and giant spiders and... :) You'll end up with Gilligan's Island. How much crap really was on that island in the end? But if you have a bunch of things ready to go, you can leave other stuff they haven't found out when you see what is interesting the players, which direction they're going, etc.
For example, if they pay attention to the island only right away, and they're not going into the water, and they start encountering all the stuff on the island, you may want to forget about the Sauhaugin, even if they do eventually go into the water. Just because there may by then be enough stuff going on around that 'deserted' island :)
One thing to definitely consider (sorry, this seems a bit ADHD, I'm just having my morning coffee)--you'll want some explanation why the surprise magical way to contact people off the island that the players think of that you didn't think of...fails. Why, for example, can't the Chain Warlock send her imp familiar to just fly across the ocean until it finds land and people and lead them back to the island? Why can't they summon a creature to take them through a portal to someplace else? (Easy D&D answer: there's some strange barrier around the island preventing magic from penetrating...even the familiar is kicked out of its summoned form when it tries to cross the barrier. What's generating the barrier? Something on the island...muhahaha.)
Personally, I'd be all about ancient ruins. There's an overgrown temple or remains of a town--with stuff to find, magic swords and such. And...part of the town/temple grounds is now underwater off shore. Where the sauhaugin are. And those old ruins have the key to the barrier.
I like these kind of campaigns, wish I could play in more of them.
Tip #1, coming from past RPG trauma: do not set your players up by telling them to make characters and give them all sorts of cool magic items and excellent stuff only to (surprise!) take it all away in session 1 when the ship crashes. I was once told to make a character for a Shadowrun campaign--given a big budget by the GM. Made a character who was based a bit around his super-car, and all the stuff he could do with it. Session 1--ship taking me and my car and the other players across the ocean sinks, we escape with our lives and nothing else. Campaign go! :/
So, now that that old monkey is off my back :) I'm not still bitter or anything.
One thing to maybe consider is to have a bunch of possible stuff they might find on the island, but be ready to maybe hold some stuff back. You maybe don't want for example an island with Sauhaugin and a cult and caverns and a dragon and Lord of the Flies lost kids and ancient ruins and a long lost forgotten god avatar and giant spiders and... :) You'll end up with Gilligan's Island. How much crap really was on that island in the end? But if you have a bunch of things ready to go, you can leave other stuff they haven't found out when you see what is interesting the players, which direction they're going, etc.
For example, if they pay attention to the island only right away, and they're not going into the water, and they start encountering all the stuff on the island, you may want to forget about the Sauhaugin, even if they do eventually go into the water. Just because there may by then be enough stuff going on around that 'deserted' island :)
One thing to definitely consider (sorry, this seems a bit ADHD, I'm just having my morning coffee)--you'll want some explanation why the surprise magical way to contact people off the island that the players think of that you didn't think of...fails. Why, for example, can't the Chain Warlock send her imp familiar to just fly across the ocean until it finds land and people and lead them back to the island? Why can't they summon a creature to take them through a portal to someplace else? (Easy D&D answer: there's some strange barrier around the island preventing magic from penetrating...even the familiar is kicked out of its summoned form when it tries to cross the barrier. What's generating the barrier? Something on the island...muhahaha.)
Personally, I'd be all about ancient ruins. There's an overgrown temple or remains of a town--with stuff to find, magic swords and such. And...part of the town/temple grounds is now underwater off shore. Where the sauhaugin are. And those old ruins have the key to the barrier.
Yes, of course on the different things on the island, those are just different things the party *could* run into, not things that the party necessarily *will* run into
This starts level 1, so access to teleportation won't come for a while.
Yes, of course on the different things on the island, those are just different things the party *could* run into, not things that the party necessarily *will* run into
Yeah, my point was more just to not do what I do, which is get all these ideas and then try to make sure they all end up in the story and get disappointed when they don't get in there. Or drop all these clues early on that these things are all there and then end up committed to them too soon :) I only brought it up because it would be particularly important for a closed space like an island. Didn't mean to imply you weren't thinking about this.
I like the idea! Not the first one ever to come up with it, but the island itself sounds pretty original and creative. Maybe the cult could have some NPCs with class levels, and throw in a group of rebels that doesn’t believe in the fact the volcano god (is it a volcano or a volcano god? A volcano god would be better, in my opinion) actually exists. They might help the players if they claim to not believe in the volcano god.
The way I normally handle hunger and thirst is: They have to consume a full meal at some point in three days or death, or potential unwanted physical consequences like having your movement speed being only 2/3 of what it was before. Depends on how benevolent of a DM you are. I’ve never really taken thirst into account.
I like the idea! Not the first one ever to come up with it, but the island itself sounds pretty original and creative. Maybe the cult could have some NPCs with class levels, and throw in a group of rebels that doesn’t believe in the fact the volcano god (is it a volcano or a volcano god? A volcano god would be better, in my opinion) actually exists. They might help the players if they claim to not believe in the volcano god.
The way I normally handle hunger and thirst is: They have to consume a full meal at some point in three days or death, or potential unwanted physical consequences like having your movement speed being only 2/3 of what it was before. Depends on how benevolent of a DM you are. I’ve never really taken thirst into account.
I was thinking every day without eating / drinking would reduce exhaustion by 1 level
Yeah it sounds great. You could also throw at the party a forgotten city/civilization/library/ and run into some ghost that still thinks they are alive. Or just a plague could go around or, whatever.
I'd recommend still having a story of some kind going on between the island's inhabitants. If there's nothing to do but explore, you may find that the PCs have no motivation to do anything. You need to get them involved in a conflict of some kind early on. Otherwise, once they have their water and food sorted, and build a shelter, what reason do they have to go into peril?
Maybe the island is being corrupted by dark magic, or there's a time limit before the volcano erupts and swamps it in lava. Maybe dispelling the massive magical storm that surrounds the island is the overall goal of the campaign. Whatever it is, the PCs need to be motivated to explore and do things.
I am about to start a campaign that is very different than what I have done previously, and I have the basic idea for it laid out and wanted to see what other DMs think or what ideas they might have for it
The basis of the campaign is that the party are on a ship, but then that ship crashes and the party find themselves stranded on an island. They can loot some things from the ship, but then they need to explore the island for resources, food, etc. in an attempt to survive or get off the island. This gives a LOT of radical freedom to the party because there is no set storyline or quest.
I have other forces on the island and the surrounding area. These are creatures of the night, wildlife, a volcano-worshipping cult on the other side of the island, Sahuagin in the sea outside of the island, and some caverns of the underdark below the island that the party could potentially investigate.
I have a rough sketch of the island, and ideas on how I could keep track of hunger with exhaustion levels, as well as the need for thirst.
Any thoughts on this concept?
I like these kind of campaigns, wish I could play in more of them.
Tip #1, coming from past RPG trauma: do not set your players up by telling them to make characters and give them all sorts of cool magic items and excellent stuff only to (surprise!) take it all away in session 1 when the ship crashes. I was once told to make a character for a Shadowrun campaign--given a big budget by the GM. Made a character who was based a bit around his super-car, and all the stuff he could do with it. Session 1--ship taking me and my car and the other players across the ocean sinks, we escape with our lives and nothing else. Campaign go! :/
So, now that that old monkey is off my back :) I'm not still bitter or anything.
One thing to maybe consider is to have a bunch of possible stuff they might find on the island, but be ready to maybe hold some stuff back. You maybe don't want for example an island with Sauhaugin and a cult and caverns and a dragon and Lord of the Flies lost kids and ancient ruins and a long lost forgotten god avatar and giant spiders and... :) You'll end up with Gilligan's Island. How much crap really was on that island in the end? But if you have a bunch of things ready to go, you can leave other stuff they haven't found out when you see what is interesting the players, which direction they're going, etc.
For example, if they pay attention to the island only right away, and they're not going into the water, and they start encountering all the stuff on the island, you may want to forget about the Sauhaugin, even if they do eventually go into the water. Just because there may by then be enough stuff going on around that 'deserted' island :)
One thing to definitely consider (sorry, this seems a bit ADHD, I'm just having my morning coffee)--you'll want some explanation why the surprise magical way to contact people off the island that the players think of that you didn't think of...fails. Why, for example, can't the Chain Warlock send her imp familiar to just fly across the ocean until it finds land and people and lead them back to the island? Why can't they summon a creature to take them through a portal to someplace else? (Easy D&D answer: there's some strange barrier around the island preventing magic from penetrating...even the familiar is kicked out of its summoned form when it tries to cross the barrier. What's generating the barrier? Something on the island...muhahaha.)
Personally, I'd be all about ancient ruins. There's an overgrown temple or remains of a town--with stuff to find, magic swords and such. And...part of the town/temple grounds is now underwater off shore. Where the sauhaugin are. And those old ruins have the key to the barrier.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Yes, of course on the different things on the island, those are just different things the party *could* run into, not things that the party necessarily *will* run into
This starts level 1, so access to teleportation won't come for a while.
Really like the idea of town / temple remnants
Yeah, my point was more just to not do what I do, which is get all these ideas and then try to make sure they all end up in the story and get disappointed when they don't get in there. Or drop all these clues early on that these things are all there and then end up committed to them too soon :) I only brought it up because it would be particularly important for a closed space like an island. Didn't mean to imply you weren't thinking about this.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
I like the idea! Not the first one ever to come up with it, but the island itself sounds pretty original and creative. Maybe the cult could have some NPCs with class levels, and throw in a group of rebels that doesn’t believe in the fact the volcano god (is it a volcano or a volcano god? A volcano god would be better, in my opinion) actually exists. They might help the players if they claim to not believe in the volcano god.
The way I normally handle hunger and thirst is: They have to consume a full meal at some point in three days or death, or potential unwanted physical consequences like having your movement speed being only 2/3 of what it was before. Depends on how benevolent of a DM you are. I’ve never really taken thirst into account.
I think you need a polar bear on the island.
I was thinking every day without eating / drinking would reduce exhaustion by 1 level
Yeah it sounds great. You could also throw at the party a forgotten city/civilization/library/ and run into some ghost that still thinks they are alive. Or just a plague could go around or, whatever.
Hunger would not be an issue for a few days, but lack of drinkable water will definitely be deadly.
I'd recommend still having a story of some kind going on between the island's inhabitants. If there's nothing to do but explore, you may find that the PCs have no motivation to do anything. You need to get them involved in a conflict of some kind early on. Otherwise, once they have their water and food sorted, and build a shelter, what reason do they have to go into peril?
Maybe the island is being corrupted by dark magic, or there's a time limit before the volcano erupts and swamps it in lava. Maybe dispelling the massive magical storm that surrounds the island is the overall goal of the campaign. Whatever it is, the PCs need to be motivated to explore and do things.
Given this is now 2 1/2 years old I wonder how did the campaign end up turning out?