I’ve been running a modified Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign for my group, and we’re coming up to the final session where the group will fight cryovain - the white dragon.
I’m in a bit of a rut on how to transition this to the next campaign, my players really like their PCs and have begun to set up a base of operations in the town by having a manor house rebuilt. So I don’t want that completely taken away from them in the next campaign but I’m not sure how to make it accessible to them since they’re not high enough level yet to be using teleportation spells. So how do I transition to another campaign without it feeling like I’ve devalued their previous actions or rewards?
I have some ideas but they all take them away from Phandelin. For example if I was running Storm King’s Thunder - I’d have a small group of hill giants show up and trash the town and damage their manor, if Out of the Abyss I’d have a drop raiding party emerge from a nearby cave system. I could homebrew something more in the area but because of time constraints I’d rather not have to build something from scratch.
Discover that the Manor once belonged to a Faery-knight, and the Garden of the manor starts to regrow by itself as they rebuild the manor. One of the PCs begins to Feel that a particular path through the garden is special. And it is It is a Combination to The Faery-gate.. (garden and woodlands) It's power is based on the power of the "Knight" and his "retainers" .As they go up in level. It powers up more pathways. Each Special path being a combination to a preset. (by the DM location) The Knight can not only feel them as they power up but change the combination.. (On both sides of the gate; first half is the garden last is the other-side, and coming back has it's own path still controlled by the Knight.)
You could give the "Retainers" powers too, restricted to the faery gate and it's defense. like the Squire could summon magic mounts only usable in the Manors "garden" and woodland. The others could gain `tricksie` powers that are fun to RP but only work in the Manor, maybe a bard could summon a band that will make people intoxicated, etc.
The three follow-up adventures, starting with Storm Lord's Wrath, start in Leilon. So a simple transportation of supplies that requires an escort could get them there.
What level are they? Also, do any of your PCs have strong ties to any factions, cultures or personal connections? I tend to use those as hooks. It gives those PCs a way to "star", for a bit, in the roleplaying and world-building.
Along the lines of Toddy's comment, you might use the town or manor as a hook. Some powerful -- maybe far-away -- force threatens or destroys it, and the PCs want to defend it or get revenge. Thus, they have to leave and explore another part of the Realms. Your idea about Storm King's Thunder is a good one.
That's definitely one of the tricky things about setting up a homebase... unless you know ahead of time that the campaign is going to be focused on a single area, it's possible to go weeks or months without seeing your own base of operations. The two ideas I like most are Toddy's idea, which kind of gives me Mario 64 vibes in the sense of having a neutral Hub World that the players can use to get to different locations, so they can logically return to their homebase as needed but can go adventuring all over the world. But I also like your own Storm King's Thunder idea, but I would change one detail... instead of having the manor get destroyed, maybe the manor is one of the few buildings left standing. That way refugees can rest in their manor while the party leaves to take care of the problem... with that change, the repair of the manor is rewarded, because it creates a stronghold that continues to aid the town even in the players' absence, but also in a way that compels the characters to travel.
I have something of the same issue in my game. They have set up shop in a small town, where they originated at 1st level. I contrived a method for them to bounce around my continent. There was a small ancient temple / church 5 miles out of town. They crashed through the floor, and over a small period of time discovered a permanent teleportation circle in the lower levels. Now, strictly speaking, the group still needs teleportation spells to use it, but you are the DM. You can handwave and say "it is always on", and as long as they have a sigil to another teleportation circle (which they can find, courtesy of a friendly DM), they can whisk all over your realm.
In short, your group has discovered an old teleportation circle network that spans the continent. But they cannot access any one of the locations without the proper sigil, which you, as the DM, contrive they find, at the time you want them to.
Thanks all these are some great points. For a little more context, they are level 5 currently - hexblade, war wizard, lore bard, and battlemaster. All of them except for the bard are completely new players so they don't have much in the way of connections of factions or really any established backstory. The Bard is playing a fake preacher claiming to be a priest of lathandar - I've introduced an actual priest of lathandar as an NPC who is funded by a masked lord in Waterdeep. I think I'm also going to start working with the hexblade to flesh out her patron more story wise so I can start to bring that in.
I really like Toddy's idea and I may use that as a filler even if I don't make it as a full campaign. Transmorpher you also had a great point about the manor. I've used some material from Lost Mines, and I've looked at the follow on adventures for Dragon of Icespire Peak - I may pull stuff from them but honestly I think the storyline is kinda wonky and I don't know that my players will find it compelling.
So right now I'm thinking, if they stick around town I'll transition into Storm King's Thunder, if they decide to go to Waterdeep - maybe dungeon of the Mad Mage?
I like that you're giving your players options, and I think it's a great idea to prep either module depending on what the players decide. I will recommend one thing if they stay in Phandalin, give them at least one combat where they get to use any defenses they've set up to protect their manor from giants. This, of course, is assuming they've actually set up specific defense and didn't just say, "We fix up the old manor". If they took the time to plan out specific defenses they'll relish the opportunity to actually use them at least once.
You could have a group of NPC from the players' town going out on their own adventure. After a while only one of them returns and tells about the horrible fate that befell the others, thus setting of the new campaign. The idea of their manor being damaged is a very good one since that will give them an actual reason to go out and adventure some more, they simply need the cash to pay the repairs. :P
Either way, if they don't have a steady income they will need to go adventuring soon enough anyways. Some downtime is never wrong and teh journey to the next campaign can be a fun little adventure in itself.
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I’ve been running a modified Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign for my group, and we’re coming up to the final session where the group will fight cryovain - the white dragon.
I’m in a bit of a rut on how to transition this to the next campaign, my players really like their PCs and have begun to set up a base of operations in the town by having a manor house rebuilt. So I don’t want that completely taken away from them in the next campaign but I’m not sure how to make it accessible to them since they’re not high enough level yet to be using teleportation spells. So how do I transition to another campaign without it feeling like I’ve devalued their previous actions or rewards?
I have some ideas but they all take them away from Phandelin. For example if I was running Storm King’s Thunder - I’d have a small group of hill giants show up and trash the town and damage their manor, if Out of the Abyss I’d have a drop raiding party emerge from a nearby cave system. I could homebrew something more in the area but because of time constraints I’d rather not have to build something from scratch.
just a suggestion to create seeds of thought:
Discover that the Manor once belonged to a Faery-knight, and the Garden of the manor starts to regrow by itself as they rebuild the manor.
One of the PCs begins to Feel that a particular path through the garden is special.
And it is
It is a Combination to The Faery-gate.. (garden and woodlands)
It's power is based on the power of the "Knight" and his "retainers"
.As they go up in level.
It powers up more pathways. Each Special path being a combination to a preset. (by the DM location)
The Knight can not only feel them as they power up but change the combination..
(On both sides of the gate; first half is the garden last is the other-side, and coming back has it's own path still controlled by the Knight.)
You could give the "Retainers" powers too, restricted to the faery gate and it's defense.
like the Squire could summon magic mounts only usable in the Manors "garden" and woodland.
The others could gain `tricksie` powers that are fun to RP but only work in the Manor,
maybe a bard could summon a band that will make people intoxicated, etc.
Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
The three follow-up adventures, starting with Storm Lord's Wrath, start in Leilon. So a simple transportation of supplies that requires an escort could get them there.
What level are they? Also, do any of your PCs have strong ties to any factions, cultures or personal connections? I tend to use those as hooks. It gives those PCs a way to "star", for a bit, in the roleplaying and world-building.
Along the lines of Toddy's comment, you might use the town or manor as a hook. Some powerful -- maybe far-away -- force threatens or destroys it, and the PCs want to defend it or get revenge. Thus, they have to leave and explore another part of the Realms. Your idea about Storm King's Thunder is a good one.
That's definitely one of the tricky things about setting up a homebase... unless you know ahead of time that the campaign is going to be focused on a single area, it's possible to go weeks or months without seeing your own base of operations. The two ideas I like most are Toddy's idea, which kind of gives me Mario 64 vibes in the sense of having a neutral Hub World that the players can use to get to different locations, so they can logically return to their homebase as needed but can go adventuring all over the world. But I also like your own Storm King's Thunder idea, but I would change one detail... instead of having the manor get destroyed, maybe the manor is one of the few buildings left standing. That way refugees can rest in their manor while the party leaves to take care of the problem... with that change, the repair of the manor is rewarded, because it creates a stronghold that continues to aid the town even in the players' absence, but also in a way that compels the characters to travel.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I have something of the same issue in my game. They have set up shop in a small town, where they originated at 1st level. I contrived a method for them to bounce around my continent. There was a small ancient temple / church 5 miles out of town. They crashed through the floor, and over a small period of time discovered a permanent teleportation circle in the lower levels. Now, strictly speaking, the group still needs teleportation spells to use it, but you are the DM. You can handwave and say "it is always on", and as long as they have a sigil to another teleportation circle (which they can find, courtesy of a friendly DM), they can whisk all over your realm.
In short, your group has discovered an old teleportation circle network that spans the continent. But they cannot access any one of the locations without the proper sigil, which you, as the DM, contrive they find, at the time you want them to.
make them famous in the Forgotten realms, then have people flocking to them for help
just an idea
Rogue Shadow, the DM (and occasional) PC with schemes of inventive thinking
Thanks all these are some great points. For a little more context, they are level 5 currently - hexblade, war wizard, lore bard, and battlemaster. All of them except for the bard are completely new players so they don't have much in the way of connections of factions or really any established backstory. The Bard is playing a fake preacher claiming to be a priest of lathandar - I've introduced an actual priest of lathandar as an NPC who is funded by a masked lord in Waterdeep. I think I'm also going to start working with the hexblade to flesh out her patron more story wise so I can start to bring that in.
I really like Toddy's idea and I may use that as a filler even if I don't make it as a full campaign. Transmorpher you also had a great point about the manor. I've used some material from Lost Mines, and I've looked at the follow on adventures for Dragon of Icespire Peak - I may pull stuff from them but honestly I think the storyline is kinda wonky and I don't know that my players will find it compelling.
So right now I'm thinking, if they stick around town I'll transition into Storm King's Thunder, if they decide to go to Waterdeep - maybe dungeon of the Mad Mage?
I like that you're giving your players options, and I think it's a great idea to prep either module depending on what the players decide. I will recommend one thing if they stay in Phandalin, give them at least one combat where they get to use any defenses they've set up to protect their manor from giants. This, of course, is assuming they've actually set up specific defense and didn't just say, "We fix up the old manor". If they took the time to plan out specific defenses they'll relish the opportunity to actually use them at least once.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
You could have a group of NPC from the players' town going out on their own adventure. After a while only one of them returns and tells about the horrible fate that befell the others, thus setting of the new campaign. The idea of their manor being damaged is a very good one since that will give them an actual reason to go out and adventure some more, they simply need the cash to pay the repairs. :P
Either way, if they don't have a steady income they will need to go adventuring soon enough anyways. Some downtime is never wrong and teh journey to the next campaign can be a fun little adventure in itself.