Though I've played D&D in the past and have little experience I'm am currently taking on the daunting task of making my very first campaign. I want it to both go for a long time and also polish out some stories I've had in my head and see how my friends (players) handle them.
I have around 4 - 6 players and was wondering if there are any Experienced Players/DMs that I can bounce my Story/Encounters off so I can make it a fun and engaging experince. :) I thank anyone taking the time to read this and help me through this process.
For this Campaign I will be using Basic Rules as it is an easy setting for both me and my players, as a couple of them are new and have no idea what they are getting themselves into hahaha!
Ok so the story I wanted to bring about starts in a vast mostly human city (with other races traveling or dwelling in it) Our heroes (still being created) meet through different means, some traveling together, some not, and some that have lived in the city all their life, but they all congregate at some point. What brings them together is a horrible explosion at the tallest tower and a dark magic rushes out and infects the locals and fauna etc.
The heroes must fight off the waves, trying to save people if able, and either make their way up the to the tower and fight a mini boss or hold long enough the the dark magic finishes and have the guards take the their lord who enlists their services and directs them to tower where they will meet up the rest of the party who had a hand in the explosion.
my first task is how should I range the encounters, what NPCs should I make in advance, what enemies can be linked to dark magic and how should I flesh out the story? The party will be at lvl 2.
This will be much easier once I have my friends characters as i can place them in the story. I will be conducting mini campaigns for them before they all meet so I can give them some backstory within this world.
my first task is how should I range the encounters, what NPCs should I make in advance, what enemies can be linked to dark magic and how should I flesh out the story? The party will be at lvl 2.
Here's a list, sorted by CR, of creatures of non-good alignments and types that can easily be associated with dark magic (aberrations, fiends, and undead), ranging from CR 1/8 to CR 2. For a medium encounter for a party of four 2nd-level characters (which is the most dangerous category of encounter I advise using before the boss fight), use up to one CR 2 monster, two CR 1 monsters, three CR 1/2 monsters, six CR 1/4 monsters, or nine CR 1/8 monsters. For a party of five 2nd-level characters, you can go up to ten CR 1/8 monsters.
For everything else, I suggest using whatever method works best for you. Chapter 3 of the DMG has a number of things I can use as inspiration; I don't know whether it'll work for you, but you can give it a try if you need to.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Perhaps set up an NPC who has dabbled or knows about Dark Magic. That way if any one in the party asks, you have an NPC that can give them a better idea of what they are dealing with
where they will meet up the rest of the party who had a hand in the explosion.
So part of the party will ultimately be comprised of the "bad guys"? Also when you say it infects things, we talking zombie-like creatures?
So not necessarily here are the two of the characters the party will meet later:
Tibalte Charade: Outcasted from the cult of Talona, goddess of disease and poison, Tibalte was rejected for his skewed vision from the ways of their goddess. Alone and without purpose, Tibalte wandered the world broken and isolated realizing the hateful mistrust of Tieflings in the world. Coming across the Grand Sylvan Forests, Tibalte was close to death when the sylvan people, seeing how broken and weak he was, recused and was brought back to their village and was cared for a time. In that time Tibalte grew to love one of it's people, Javir Lushdance. At the earnest of Javir, the two set out for the world with the Sylvan's blessing and through their travels the two growing more in love with each crossroad, each path that they took. However it was not to last... Staying in a local Human town, the cult that had once threw her out had poisoned the farmers grain stores of the town and within the night the town was corrupted by plague and death. Killing almost everyone including his beloved, Javir who was not resilient enough from the infected food and suffered for several days before he finally passed in Tibalte's arms. Angry that the only person who he ever cared for was taken from him at the hands of the cursed goddess, Tibalte became a hermit, researching everything about Talona, and came across an artifact that seemed precious in the cult's worship and fled west to the local kingdom of Dumaul but was immediately arrested when he tried to steal food from a local bar. Through the interrogation and trial before the King, one of the local guards touched the artifact Tibalte held and was killed in such a grotesque way that alarmed the king and was immediately thrown in the dungeons. Surprisingly the Tiefling was released later and was instructed that his sentence was to study and utilize the artifact through whatever means in the Alchemist's Tower for the Kingdom. A year passed which yielded little results but it brought forth the companionship of Soma Grediants, A halfling with a talent for cooking and song much like his beloved Javir. Tibalte now tolerate his sentence with the help of Soma but how long will it last...?
Soma Gradients:
At the tender age of 8 Soma was kidnapped/saved from a slave trade vessel by the infamous Lajos EbonShard's crew and was forced under his service. After a few months of shoddy ship chores, The Captain noticed Soma had a culinary taste in food after a raid on a Human Trade Ship and sent him as a hand for the Ship's Cook, Magar Greytusk, a Half-Orc thus growing experience in his cooking skills. Soma also grew as a Bard from the collected instruments from the ship's raids and entertained his crew quickly becoming a hardy addition. Over the next 9 years and the untimely death of Magar, Soma took over the mess hall and his palette expanded ofa variety of foods ranging from the local human cuisine to the hardy Orcish dishes. Whenever a raid was conducted the crew eagerly awaited what dishes Soma would craft and provide his songs along the way. Then one seafaring night EbonShard's ship, The Drowned Wraith, was besieged by a rival ship, The Scarlet Spider, and was sunk with Soma being the only survivor was picked up by the Dumaul Fleet and taken to the city of Dumaul where the king, hearing the whispered rumors of the Drowned Wraith's Cook, saw an opportunity to make Soma serve his years for the keep and specifically for the captured Tiefling, Tibalte Charade, they kept up in the Alchemist Tower. Soma currently resides in the keep content to experiment his culinary skills and set them on Tibalte...
My idea is that the artifact of Talona set something off and now Soma and Tibalte are key party members that travel with the party to find out why the magic did this to Dumaul and perhaps follow the cult or something.
Okay a few things that I think I can add to this: for a large set piece like this, you want to make it grand in scope, but focused in terms of what the party actually faces (ie swarms upon swarms of monsters are running through the city, a group of 6 goblins rush towards you, etc)
Also, running everything, from the roleplaying to the encounters and everything in between is a lot harder for a DM if you make NPCs permanent party members. I’m not saying don’t do it, and I’m favt I’ve played games where the npcs were amazing, but if you’re new it could be overwhelming, or slow combat to a crawl trying to keep track of things
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Okay a few things that I think I can add to this: for a large set piece like this, you want to make it grand in scope, but focused in terms of what the party actually faces (ie swarms upon swarms of monsters are running through the city, a group of 6 goblins rush towards you, etc)
Also, running everything, from the roleplaying to the encounters and everything in between is a lot harder for a DM if you make NPCs permanent party members. I’m not saying don’t do it, and I’m favt I’ve played games where the npcs were amazing, but if you’re new it could be overwhelming, or slow combat to a crawl trying to keep track of things
Oh these character descriptions are actually people that will be playing these characters, not NPCs lol. I agree that it will a more organic feel to the campaign. As for the grand scale deliver story elements of screaming townspeople and monsters running through streets well be great narrative and the party will face a small group of them then move on from there but not face an en mass of monsters at lvl 2 hahaha
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
I usually make it up as I go along. Sometimes I use someone else's world, though; my current favorite is Ixalan.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
For me as an artist I like to build the world as much as possible but mostly as long as you lay the ground work for the first part of the story you are mostly golden. Always is nice to do some prep work before each campaign in my experience but the best stories are sometimes on the fly!
For this for this world I trying a world from my own head called Elferyn but I'm referencing a lot of samples from other worlds so that if I get asked a certain question like why this race is at war with this race , I wont falter and can give a brief explanation then build on it later in case iIhave to! Glad to have you follow this thread!
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
usually have ideas or names of the lands I want to incorporate in my world then add them when it fits or i premake them. You can have your more detailed and put together lands/worlds be places your players have to go and your undercooked lands can be on the fly.
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
There are good videos to be found on YouTube for world building. But generally, there are two ways: inward and outward. With inward having you basically starting with the big picture and working your way down. So for example, you'd make a world then it's continents then it's bigger landmarks and so on and so forth until eventually finding yourself in the tavern, everyone will inevitably meet at. Whereas building outward is essentially the opposite. So for example, you may only come up with a cool idea for a steampunk inspired city. Then between that initial workup and whatever your players bring to the table both in terms of RP and their backstories, you continue to add to your world until you eventually have continents and so forth established.
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
There are good videos to be found on YouTube for world building. But generally, there are two ways: inward and outward. With inward having you basically starting with the big picture and working your way down. So for example, you'd make a world then it's continents then it's bigger landmarks and so on and so forth until eventually finding yourself in the tavern, everyone will inevitably meet at. Whereas building outward is essentially the opposite. So for example, you may only come up with a cool idea for a steampunk inspired city. Then between that initial workup and whatever your players bring to the table both in terms of RP and their backstories, you continue to add to your world until you eventually have continents and so forth established.
Definitely better explained to what I was saying haha. Nonetheless, this is a very good point. YouTube has vast amounts of content on this. You could always check out DM Tips from Geek and Sundry. The early episodes with Matt Mercer are pretty good. He's definitely a go-to source on world building.
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
There are good videos to be found on YouTube for world building. But generally, there are two ways: inward and outward. With inward having you basically starting with the big picture and working your way down. So for example, you'd make a world then it's continents then it's bigger landmarks and so on and so forth until eventually finding yourself in the tavern, everyone will inevitably meet at. Whereas building outward is essentially the opposite. So for example, you may only come up with a cool idea for a steampunk inspired city. Then between that initial workup and whatever your players bring to the table both in terms of RP and their backstories, you continue to add to your world until you eventually have continents and so forth established.
Definitely better explained to what I was saying haha. Nonetheless, this is a very good point. YouTube has vast amounts of content on this. You could always check out DM Tips from Geek and Sundry. The early episodes with Matt Mercer are pretty good. He's definitely a go-to source on world building.
That's basically what I've been listening to on a daily basis! though its always nicer to bounce off story ideas with you fine people, Im actually at brunch helping a new player build their first character!
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
There are good videos to be found on YouTube for world building. But generally, there are two ways: inward and outward. With inward having you basically starting with the big picture and working your way down. So for example, you'd make a world then it's continents then it's bigger landmarks and so on and so forth until eventually finding yourself in the tavern, everyone will inevitably meet at. Whereas building outward is essentially the opposite. So for example, you may only come up with a cool idea for a steampunk inspired city. Then between that initial workup and whatever your players bring to the table both in terms of RP and their backstories, you continue to add to your world until you eventually have continents and so forth established.
Definitely better explained to what I was saying haha. Nonetheless, this is a very good point. YouTube has vast amounts of content on this. You could always check out DM Tips from Geek and Sundry. The early episodes with Matt Mercer are pretty good. He's definitely a go-to source on world building.
That's basically what I've been listening to on a daily basis! though its always nicer to bounce off story ideas with you fine people, Im actually at brunch helping a new player build their first character!
Ok So i think i have the basis of the first encounter i just need to figure out where is what and who in this world i have something drummed up but I's like your opinions on what could be changed or refined:
Welcome to Elferyn. The year is 792AZ This world is ever changing of both it's terrain and it's people. To the West pockets of hill lands, swamps and marshes where most unsavory types dwell but good folk make their living there as well, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halfings, etc. Peaceful and mostly keep to themselves with only traders merchants traveling outside it's region with the odd Adventurer or Mage where the lands of Boesh SouthEast are quite renowned for it's home place of Arcanist's Tower nestled in the lone mountain of Boesh. To the North extends to the Elven Lands with a dash of other races as the North transforms quickly from Deep Forest to Frostbitten Crags and Mountains in the blink of an eye. North is always secluded in Mystery and most who travel fall under some misfortune being an elven arrow, monsters or step off the side of a cliff within the deep fog.
In my head the South is nothing but sand and deep caves of unknown origin where most the capital city where surprisingly mostly Tiefling and shunned races dwell and the East region is where our adventurers start in the human port city of Dumaul, governed by the Holy Empire of Pillathia and it's Capital. Just need some ideas of shaping this Eastern region for a map and understand what its possible trade and laws are. Any ideas or suggestion would be appreciated <3
We also have another Character made and in play! A human paladin in charge of Soma and Tibalte here is his bio, maybe something will help with this XD
His name is Furio Vigori, but he goes by Vig. He is like a “soldier” in the mafia. The Temple collects taxes from lords so he would be sent to kind of intimate the lords into paying their taxes. The church is LN, they may be harsh in their ways, but they do it so that lords don’t become corrupt and abuse their power. The Temple Also deals with debts in other ways. Like small claims court almost. They would also do repossessions and things like that.
Basically he was an orphan from the island of Esperia (Italy in a way. He grew up in the Temple of Februus (LN god of Death/Settling of debts/Wealth) this temple was responsible for the collection taxes from the lords of the area. They also dealt with legal punishments; torture, death penalty, flogging, flaying,etc.. he also learned to heal wounds and things because of this. He was adopted by one of the higher ranking “brothers” of the temple, and indoctrinated into some their more sinister teachings. Before he left, he swore one sacred oath to his “Brothers” and set forth, to a new land.
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Hello!
Though I've played D&D in the past and have little experience I'm am currently taking on the daunting task of making my very first campaign. I want it to both go for a long time and also polish out some stories I've had in my head and see how my friends (players) handle them.
I have around 4 - 6 players and was wondering if there are any Experienced Players/DMs that I can bounce my Story/Encounters off so I can make it a fun and engaging experince. :) I thank anyone taking the time to read this and help me through this process.
For this Campaign I will be using Basic Rules as it is an easy setting for both me and my players, as a couple of them are new and have no idea what they are getting themselves into hahaha!
So . . . what can I do?
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
While I don't DM (yet!), I can certainly give a players perspective on your ideas. Of course, we need to hear them first.
Of course!
Ok so the story I wanted to bring about starts in a vast mostly human city (with other races traveling or dwelling in it) Our heroes (still being created) meet through different means, some traveling together, some not, and some that have lived in the city all their life, but they all congregate at some point. What brings them together is a horrible explosion at the tallest tower and a dark magic rushes out and infects the locals and fauna etc.
The heroes must fight off the waves, trying to save people if able, and either make their way up the to the tower and fight a mini boss or hold long enough the the dark magic finishes and have the guards take the their lord who enlists their services and directs them to tower where they will meet up the rest of the party who had a hand in the explosion.
my first task is how should I range the encounters, what NPCs should I make in advance, what enemies can be linked to dark magic and how should I flesh out the story? The party will be at lvl 2.
This will be much easier once I have my friends characters as i can place them in the story. I will be conducting mini campaigns for them before they all meet so I can give them some backstory within this world.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Perhaps set up an NPC who has dabbled or knows about Dark Magic. That way if any one in the party asks, you have an NPC that can give them a better idea of what they are dealing with
Outcasted from the cult of Talona, goddess of disease and poison, Tibalte was rejected for his skewed vision from the ways of their goddess. Alone and without purpose, Tibalte wandered the world broken and isolated realizing the hateful mistrust of Tieflings in the world. Coming across the Grand Sylvan Forests, Tibalte was close to death when the sylvan people, seeing how broken and weak he was, recused and was brought back to their village and was cared for a time. In that time Tibalte grew to love one of it's people, Javir Lushdance. At the earnest of Javir, the two set out for the world with the Sylvan's blessing and through their travels the two growing more in love with each crossroad, each path that they took. However it was not to last... Staying in a local Human town, the cult that had once threw her out had poisoned the farmers grain stores of the town and within the night the town was corrupted by plague and death. Killing almost everyone including his beloved, Javir who was not resilient enough from the infected food and suffered for several days before he finally passed in Tibalte's arms. Angry that the only person who he ever cared for was taken from him at the hands of the cursed goddess, Tibalte became a hermit, researching everything about Talona, and came across an artifact that seemed precious in the cult's worship and fled west to the local kingdom of Dumaul but was immediately arrested when he tried to steal food from a local bar. Through the interrogation and trial before the King, one of the local guards touched the artifact Tibalte held and was killed in such a grotesque way that alarmed the king and was immediately thrown in the dungeons. Surprisingly the Tiefling was released later and was instructed that his sentence was to study and utilize the artifact through whatever means in the Alchemist's Tower for the Kingdom. A year passed which yielded little results but it brought forth the companionship of Soma Grediants, A halfling with a talent for cooking and song much like his beloved Javir. Tibalte now tolerate his sentence with the help of Soma but how long will it last...?
Soma Gradients:
My idea is that the artifact of Talona set something off and now Soma and Tibalte are key party members that travel with the party to find out why the magic did this to Dumaul and perhaps follow the cult or something.
Okay a few things that I think I can add to this: for a large set piece like this, you want to make it grand in scope, but focused in terms of what the party actually faces (ie swarms upon swarms of monsters are running through the city, a group of 6 goblins rush towards you, etc)
Also, running everything, from the roleplaying to the encounters and everything in between is a lot harder for a DM if you make NPCs permanent party members. I’m not saying don’t do it, and I’m favt I’ve played games where the npcs were amazing, but if you’re new it could be overwhelming, or slow combat to a crawl trying to keep track of things
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I am excited to follow this topic. I am in the process of creating a campaign myself, a would-be first time DM, and find myself getting a bit lost in the world creation. My question to all the seasoned DMs out there - do you create an entire world beforehand or do you build the world as the adventure continues? Adding to the story ahead of the next gathering and all that jazz...
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
For me as an artist I like to build the world as much as possible but mostly as long as you lay the ground work for the first part of the story you are mostly golden. Always is nice to do some prep work before each campaign in my experience but the best stories are sometimes on the fly!
For this for this world I trying a world from my own head called Elferyn but I'm referencing a lot of samples from other worlds so that if I get asked a certain question like why this race is at war with this race , I wont falter and can give a brief explanation then build on it later in case iIhave to! Glad to have you follow this thread!
Ok So i think i have the basis of the first encounter i just need to figure out where is what and who in this world i have something drummed up but I's like your opinions on what could be changed or refined:
Welcome to Elferyn. The year is 792AZ This world is ever changing of both it's terrain and it's people. To the West pockets of hill lands, swamps and marshes where most unsavory types dwell but good folk make their living there as well, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halfings, etc. Peaceful and mostly keep to themselves with only traders merchants traveling outside it's region with the odd Adventurer or Mage where the lands of Boesh SouthEast are quite renowned for it's home place of Arcanist's Tower nestled in the lone mountain of Boesh. To the North extends to the Elven Lands with a dash of other races as the North transforms quickly from Deep Forest to Frostbitten Crags and Mountains in the blink of an eye. North is always secluded in Mystery and most who travel fall under some misfortune being an elven arrow, monsters or step off the side of a cliff within the deep fog.
In my head the South is nothing but sand and deep caves of unknown origin where most the capital city where surprisingly mostly Tiefling and shunned races dwell and the East region is where our adventurers start in the human port city of Dumaul, governed by the Holy Empire of Pillathia and it's Capital. Just need some ideas of shaping this Eastern region for a map and understand what its possible trade and laws are. Any ideas or suggestion would be appreciated <3
We also have another Character made and in play! A human paladin in charge of Soma and Tibalte here is his bio, maybe something will help with this XD
His name is Furio Vigori, but he goes by Vig. He is like a “soldier” in the mafia. The Temple collects taxes from lords so he would be sent to kind of intimate the lords into paying their taxes. The church is LN, they may be harsh in their ways, but they do it so that lords don’t become corrupt and abuse their power. The Temple Also deals with debts in other ways. Like small claims court almost. They would also do repossessions and things like that.
Basically he was an orphan from the island of Esperia (Italy in a way. He grew up in the Temple of Februus (LN god of Death/Settling of debts/Wealth) this temple was responsible for the collection taxes from the lords of the area. They also dealt with legal punishments; torture, death penalty, flogging, flaying,etc.. he also learned to heal wounds and things because of this. He was adopted by one of the higher ranking “brothers” of the temple, and indoctrinated into some their more sinister teachings. Before he left, he swore one sacred oath to his “Brothers” and set forth, to a new land.