Hey guys, rather new dm here. I've had the chance to dm one campaign and a one shot. Well with the current event happening my friends and I decided that to pass thr time we'd start a new dnd game over voice chat. They collectively decided that they want to di a steampunk setting mixed with an apocalypse setting. In the world magic recently was introduced via a rift from a parallel universe and its wreaking havoc on the lands for the past 5 years (that's the apocalypse part). Bow my players have decided that they want to become sky pirates which they eventually will be able to after either buying or stealing a ship. One player is a warlock cult leader looking to destroy his patron for taking his loved one away, another is a warforged pirate fighter and the other is undecided.
Now the part I need help with is the story, i have no idea what type of story i can tell involving pirates in this setting. I know I can set them along the path to destroy that patron but that would focus too much on one PC, so I'm stuck at what over all story I can involve them in and how to do so.
I'd be extremely grateful for help (sorry for any typos this was done on a phone)
Hey Sunlit, personally i'd take the time to learn the other player's characters before introducing a BBEG because otherwise, if all the PCs don't have a reason to fight the BBEG, they may split or ignore the BBEG entirely. instead slowly link your BBEG into everyone's character arcs, make sure they KNOW who they're dealing with, like say, that patron's boss could be linked into the other's story lines and when they finally encounter your BBEG all the characters recognise him/her/it
Thanks! It does help. For the start I'm thinking about having them go in a quest to find information about a rumored "eternal flame", which is just the remains of a fire elemental, for the current town that they're in so that they can have a reliable fuel source for the boilers and creating a defence force of steampunk themed warforged. I'm hoping to make this a longer quest for them to explore the world and get involved with other quests whilst doing it because they told me their main goal for starting st the moment is to acquire some gold to fuel their individual goals.
If I could somehow find a way to make them care I was thinking maybe setting them towards figuring out more about the rift that's leaking the toxic magic into the world. Which would end up being a confrontation with maybe a cult who worships it or something idk yet. Just putting it here to gather my thoughts.
Here's an idea! maybe have this cult contest the party for the "eternal flame" so they can use it for "something dastardly", but don't tell the players who they are, just that they also want the flame for purposes of EVIL!
here's a different idea, maybe a NPC joins them on this journey, but the players don't know that he's with the cult! that way when they find out, they will think "oh, THAT's why they've been shooting down all our plans, coz' they want It for themselves!
I have a similar situation in my campaign i'm currently designing, an evil cult devoted to a god of chaos (that remains unnamed to every NPC) who start brutally murdering allies of the players in the name of CHAOS! (wow i'm too into this aren't I) eventually an agent of a detective organisation, called Jacknife, will join the party as a NPC, but little do they know he is THEIR LEADER, TRACKING HIS VICTIMS DOWN, MWAUAUAUUAUAUAUAUAUA! (ok I overdid it a bit didn't I)
Anyways those are my ideas, just remember, you are the DM, the world is designed by you!
I like the eternal flame fuel source quest. Nice one. My advice would be to think small early on. Have you just granted them a ship? Or do they need to capture one? Maybe their first job that they get hired to do involves a famous lost shipwreck that has been located, and they are hired to help salvage it. Maybe it wasn’t as badly damaged as expected, but all the old crew was killed and it was buried in ice or something. So as they are sent to clear away ice for their employer, another ice fog (or whatever phenomenon attacks from within it) attacks their ship, killing all on board, stranding them with two shipwrecks. They could finish freeing the ship, and maybe use skills to salvage parts to get one of the two flying again. Now they have a ship, by right of salvage. Then you could send them to look for the eternal flame. Maybe the info about that was aboard one of the two ships, a theory the captain, or chief engineer was toying with. “Mythical eternal flame that produces heat not a myth. Evidence points to Forges of [location]. Would be worth the trip and much more if it could fuel the boilers indefinitely.”
Now that's a lovely idea. Combine that with some early seeding for the cult in the first session (if that's what I decide) then I'll have plenty of material to last for a good while.
Maybe build a story around the warlocks loved one. They could hear a rumour that said loved one is still alive and being held captive by the pirates. Build a story around that with plotwists and cliffhangars. You could make a big plotwist where the loved one has joined the pirates and its your players goal to convince them to leave the pirates.
That is a lovely idea, however the player did tell me that his patron killed their loved one for his powers so unfortunately that's a no go. On the other hand you did inspire me with the idea that the patron can tease the player by creating illusions of them in front of him. Thank you for your help.
First of all - that sounds like a fun setting and a cool setup!
Then some ideas :-)
Kcbcollier said start small, that is good advice. I would not have started the campaign with a plot that "belongs" to one character.
Your players have said they wanted to be pirates. Let them be that! Build the first session about acquiring a ship. Don't make it to difficult, you want them to have that ship (at least if they're going to be pirates). Let them hear a rumor about some fabled treasure. Let them find a treasure map or something. Use the tropes, it's OK, it's what they've asked for. Pirates are about searching gold, fame and fortune. Build your first part of the campaign around that. Add some other pirates, some rivals. Add some "officials" they have to stay away from. Create a fun and living world to be pirates in, and allow them that fun.
The thing is, this is actually a quite "easy" campaign to create. You just need to make sure that the players are onboard with "material wealth" as a common goal. Then, just introduce some treasure, and expect the players to hunt it down. If you use this as the main "motor" for the start of your campaign, you can of course introduce some big plot as it advances. Play the plot with the warlock as a side plot, it should work great. After finding some treasures, maybe they eventually understands that there is a big bad evil guy they should try to stop (if you want to introduce that).
Playing a "gang" can be lot of fun. It's a great way to have the players stay together. Give them stats for their ship, create a character sheet for their gang. Have other gangs they can compete with. That works excellent.
If you want inspiration, I would recommend Blades in the Dark. It's a brilliant game where the concept is that the players are a criminal gang. It has some cool stuff and ideas you could possibly "steal".
That is a lovely idea, however the player did tell me that his patron killed their loved one for his powers so unfortunately that's a no go. On the other hand you did inspire me with the idea that the patron can tease the player by creating illusions of them in front of him. Thank you for your help.
-Manna <3
Just because he thinks his patron killed his loved one doesn’t necessarily make it so. Maybe the loved one has their own deal with the patron or a different patron/god. Maybe the patron just erased the loved one’s memory and moved them to a different part of the world. Death is so permanent. There’s many more storytelling possibilities in someone who’s still alive.
On the ship, I agree they should have one, just be careful. Things like ships and other bases are super-fun, but they can also turn D&D into a ship maintenance game, which you should avoid. I find it best to treat ship damage like character damage, just abstract it and say things like, it will cost x gp and y days to fix the ship once you get to port. Don’t worry about exactly where the damage is (unless you really need to for story reasons). Or just hope one of them is smart enough to take mending and can run around fixing things.
Hey guys, rather new dm here. I've had the chance to dm one campaign and a one shot. Well with the current event happening my friends and I decided that to pass thr time we'd start a new dnd game over voice chat. They collectively decided that they want to di a steampunk setting mixed with an apocalypse setting. In the world magic recently was introduced via a rift from a parallel universe and its wreaking havoc on the lands for the past 5 years (that's the apocalypse part). Bow my players have decided that they want to become sky pirates which they eventually will be able to after either buying or stealing a ship. One player is a warlock cult leader looking to destroy his patron for taking his loved one away, another is a warforged pirate fighter and the other is undecided.
Now the part I need help with is the story, i have no idea what type of story i can tell involving pirates in this setting. I know I can set them along the path to destroy that patron but that would focus too much on one PC, so I'm stuck at what over all story I can involve them in and how to do so.
I'd be extremely grateful for help (sorry for any typos this was done on a phone)
Hey Sunlit, personally i'd take the time to learn the other player's characters before introducing a BBEG because otherwise, if all the PCs don't have a reason to fight the BBEG, they may split or ignore the BBEG entirely. instead slowly link your BBEG into everyone's character arcs, make sure they KNOW who they're dealing with, like say, that patron's boss could be linked into the other's story lines and when they finally encounter your BBEG all the characters recognise him/her/it
That's just some quick tips but I hope it helps!
Thanks! It does help. For the start I'm thinking about having them go in a quest to find information about a rumored "eternal flame", which is just the remains of a fire elemental, for the current town that they're in so that they can have a reliable fuel source for the boilers and creating a defence force of steampunk themed warforged. I'm hoping to make this a longer quest for them to explore the world and get involved with other quests whilst doing it because they told me their main goal for starting st the moment is to acquire some gold to fuel their individual goals.
If I could somehow find a way to make them care I was thinking maybe setting them towards figuring out more about the rift that's leaking the toxic magic into the world. Which would end up being a confrontation with maybe a cult who worships it or something idk yet. Just putting it here to gather my thoughts.
Here's an idea! maybe have this cult contest the party for the "eternal flame" so they can use it for "something dastardly", but don't tell the players who they are, just that they also want the flame for purposes of EVIL!
here's a different idea, maybe a NPC joins them on this journey, but the players don't know that he's with the cult! that way when they find out, they will think "oh, THAT's why they've been shooting down all our plans, coz' they want It for themselves!
I have a similar situation in my campaign i'm currently designing, an evil cult devoted to a god of chaos (that remains unnamed to every NPC) who start brutally murdering allies of the players in the name of CHAOS! (wow i'm too into this aren't I) eventually an agent of a detective organisation, called Jacknife, will join the party as a NPC, but little do they know he is THEIR LEADER, TRACKING HIS VICTIMS DOWN, MWAUAUAUUAUAUAUAUAUA! (ok I overdid it a bit didn't I)
Anyways those are my ideas, just remember, you are the DM, the world is designed by you!
I like the eternal flame fuel source quest. Nice one. My advice would be to think small early on. Have you just granted them a ship? Or do they need to capture one? Maybe their first job that they get hired to do involves a famous lost shipwreck that has been located, and they are hired to help salvage it. Maybe it wasn’t as badly damaged as expected, but all the old crew was killed and it was buried in ice or something. So as they are sent to clear away ice for their employer, another ice fog (or whatever phenomenon attacks from within it) attacks their ship, killing all on board, stranding them with two shipwrecks. They could finish freeing the ship, and maybe use skills to salvage parts to get one of the two flying again. Now they have a ship, by right of salvage. Then you could send them to look for the eternal flame. Maybe the info about that was aboard one of the two ships, a theory the captain, or chief engineer was toying with. “Mythical eternal flame that produces heat not a myth. Evidence points to Forges of [location]. Would be worth the trip and much more if it could fuel the boilers indefinitely.”
Now that's a lovely idea. Combine that with some early seeding for the cult in the first session (if that's what I decide) then I'll have plenty of material to last for a good while.
Maybe build a story around the warlocks loved one. They could hear a rumour that said loved one is still alive and being held captive by the pirates. Build a story around that with plotwists and cliffhangars. You could make a big plotwist where the loved one has joined the pirates and its your players goal to convince them to leave the pirates.
That is a lovely idea, however the player did tell me that his patron killed their loved one for his powers so unfortunately that's a no go. On the other hand you did inspire me with the idea that the patron can tease the player by creating illusions of them in front of him. Thank you for your help.
-Manna <3
Hi.
First of all - that sounds like a fun setting and a cool setup!
Then some ideas :-)
Kcbcollier said start small, that is good advice. I would not have started the campaign with a plot that "belongs" to one character.
Your players have said they wanted to be pirates. Let them be that! Build the first session about acquiring a ship. Don't make it to difficult, you want them to have that ship (at least if they're going to be pirates). Let them hear a rumor about some fabled treasure. Let them find a treasure map or something. Use the tropes, it's OK, it's what they've asked for. Pirates are about searching gold, fame and fortune. Build your first part of the campaign around that. Add some other pirates, some rivals. Add some "officials" they have to stay away from. Create a fun and living world to be pirates in, and allow them that fun.
The thing is, this is actually a quite "easy" campaign to create. You just need to make sure that the players are onboard with "material wealth" as a common goal. Then, just introduce some treasure, and expect the players to hunt it down. If you use this as the main "motor" for the start of your campaign, you can of course introduce some big plot as it advances. Play the plot with the warlock as a side plot, it should work great. After finding some treasures, maybe they eventually understands that there is a big bad evil guy they should try to stop (if you want to introduce that).
Playing a "gang" can be lot of fun. It's a great way to have the players stay together. Give them stats for their ship, create a character sheet for their gang. Have other gangs they can compete with. That works excellent.
If you want inspiration, I would recommend Blades in the Dark. It's a brilliant game where the concept is that the players are a criminal gang. It has some cool stuff and ideas you could possibly "steal".
Ludo ergo sum!
Just because he thinks his patron killed his loved one doesn’t necessarily make it so. Maybe the loved one has their own deal with the patron or a different patron/god. Maybe the patron just erased the loved one’s memory and moved them to a different part of the world. Death is so permanent. There’s many more storytelling possibilities in someone who’s still alive.
On the ship, I agree they should have one, just be careful. Things like ships and other bases are super-fun, but they can also turn D&D into a ship maintenance game, which you should avoid. I find it best to treat ship damage like character damage, just abstract it and say things like, it will cost x gp and y days to fix the ship once you get to port. Don’t worry about exactly where the damage is (unless you really need to for story reasons). Or just hope one of them is smart enough to take mending and can run around fixing things.
Somehow i missed this two days ago, those are some wonderful ideas!