Eberron but pseudo post apocalyptic. The day of Mourning changed how magic works. Old spell formulas don't work anymore or don't work the same. All spell casters have to release how to use magic. Parts of Sharn collapsed, any longterm enchantment stopped, magic items stopped working or were "changed" if they were powerful enough, etc. "interestingly" dragon mark houses and their magic and enchantments seem unaffected. That put a lot of suspicion on them and there is a lot more tension between the houses and between people and nobles and the houses. They are more now crucial and also deeply distrusted so the social and political dynamics have changed, etc. I took the basic framework of Eberron and tuned it on its head while also not killing that makes it interesting and unique.
A campaign where good has prevailed across the land. Freedom and joy is everywhere. Corruption has been purged from the government and heros are everywhere and plentiful. Evil is stopped before it can begin. However, the party has an evil alignment. They hide in plain sight, the authority preventing them from doing as they please. However, a berserker nocks out a guard, and causes a riot, which the players can take advantage of, adding into the chaos. However, after everyone has had some time to cause mischief, a knight shows up, taking out the party but not killing them, rather nocking them out, and takes out the evil berserker too. The party is transported to a prison, where they must escape, perhaps by stealth, brute force, or deciet. Gaining allies from those locked up or getting rid of the competition, until they reach the chamber of the berserker, who will act as a first boss as he betrays them, since, he's evil. Afterwards, they can go deeper into the prison, encountering stronger guards and prisoners alike, or escape, landing them in a world of heros and do-gooders, while already established as minor villains, though nothing is stopping them from growing into true threats.
(This would also serve as a fun way to bring up important characters from your past campaigns)
This is a campaign I'm DMing soon with my friends. The settings for the campaign are mostly cities, beaches, and dungeons. The party all start in a hotel, hearing a huge bang and scream from above. After a meet and greet and some inevitable murder, they find the owner of the hotel, dead, with a note. The note explains an evil group called the Tidal Arrow. It tells them about their plan to take over the entire nation, starting with powerful independent businesses like the hotel. The guard guarding the owner's room worked with said group, and made it look like the owner comitted suicide. The note advises them to go to his friend's underground group dedicated to taking the group down. When they prove themselves to the group that they want to take down the Tidal Arrow, they are accepted in and sent on missions to intercept the Tidal Arrow. Things like heists, killing a group of people delivering weapons via cart, etc. However, as they adventure and see more of the Tidal Arrow, the group starts seeming more cult-like, being seen sacrificing sea animals and even corpses of humanoids, as well as leaving behind religious idols depicting a crustacean of sorts. Once you pin down their leader, the High Tide, on an island, and are tasked with killing him. He is made out to be the BBEG, but is way too easy for that. Instead, after the party kills him (pretty easily, at that) and get confused, but as he dies, he speaks a spell and a huge patch of ground starts shaking. A giant crab (not like the base game enemy called giant crab, I'm talking a king crab the size of a small house) emerges from the ground. He bellows in a deep, resonating voice "I am Lord Carcin, ruler of land and sea! I will take your puny civilizations by force and fulfill my goal of enacting carcinization!" After the party kills him, he collapses to the sand. The team gets promoted by the underground society, they get mountains of riches, all that good stuff. I had most of the story in mind, and then one day I randomly decided out of nowhere how funny it would be if the BBEG was just a giant crab. I based it around Carcinization, the scientific effect of all animals eventually evolving to look more like crabs, making them the perfect life form.
Five criminals sentenced to death are given the choice of a suicide mission, with a reward of a full pardon. The lord wishes to make himself king, and in order to do this he must marry a princess. As luck would have it, a local princess has been kidnapped by a dragon. The teams mission is to acquire the princess before her father, a real king, can send his brave knights to rescue her. For a plot twist, the dragon and the princess are working together to overthrow the king and the players can choose to switch sides and fight off minions of the king and the lord that gave them the original mission.
everywhere is covered in mists except one city, mists full of ancient ruins and war machines, falloutesqe vaults full of zombies and stuff, city rules by top 5 ruling families, each controlling an aspect of culture, smaller families have no part in ruling but control smaller parts of culture, under city full of mutants, wererats and other monstrosities, mists caused by ancient magical device during past war between barbarian clans and artificer clans, rebel faction wants to find device to fix the ruling system, doesn't realize how powerful it is, artificers and warships, steampunk post apocalypse fun stuff
I run sandboxes, and more or less the players make up the story for me as we go.
I use a made map (sword coast mostly) and have concepts of what could be going on wherever. But i keep what i put on the table very lite on details or intrigue. I keep matters basic enough that the players will fill in gaps themselves for me.
As they talk they reveal to me what they think sounds interesting/fun/cool. And guess what, oh gee wow look at that, yall are so smart you had this figured out way back then already.
I do just basically lay the track as the train is moving, with no idea myself about where we're going. I do have some get up a going basics to trot out, but nothing great just simple start stuff lifted from whatever low level module that had something i liked.
But i don't laydown what the story already is in advance at all. I get it all from the players without them knowing about it. I am quite busy in-between session with this method. i commonly have to create next session's content during the week before the session.
I came to this method after years of spending untold hours of toil writing what i thought would be all the cool stuff. Only to have players reliably find a not fleshed out background filler NPC to be where their imaginings get fired up. And they mostly ignore all the stuff i did to fill out the world creatively in advance, because of course they do. I also get to do this as i'm kind of quick on my thinking feet. So i can off the cuff spit it out like i had it planned that way 100 years ago, even though i'm making it up in real time as i'm saying it.
It is a tricky illusion to pull off, that the players believe they are walking into the world that was already real before they got here. But in truth they are making it up for me as we go.
here's an example: I got a duke and family overseeing the local town we're in. I don't give a lot of objectively known facts about them, keeping player knowledge as close to their PCs as possible. And when they start to table talk things out, they will show me if they are thinking it's more interesting that the duke has some underhanded chit going on to bust. Or if they think its more interesting that the duke needs their help in some way. Now when/if they get involved, the duke and family will meet those interests/expectations.
I like un-epic questlines. I've built entire campaigns around the idea.
In the peaceful farming community of Merrybrook, trouble has arisen: Orcs have been seen out by the farthest eastern fields - ruining fields, stealing cattle.
If pressed, villagers will admit that the orcs have approached them, asking to buy cattle, but being unable to pay in the King's Coin, they were refused. Once the PC's ride out there, the orcs aren't looking for a fight - although one might happen - they rather look like they could do with a decent meal and a proper roof over their heads.
Whether a fight happens or not, it doesn't resolve anything. The orcs are displaced from their own lands by something that doesn't translate very well into common. 'Deepfang' infest their lands, ruining crops, and happily eating orcs as well.
Obviously - to me at least - the PC's get a small experience bonus for resolving the situation without bloodshed.
Moving further out, to the wild foothills where the orcs made their home, a desolate scene awaits the PC's. Ruined farmland, toppled buildings (undermined, it seems), scattered corpses. Bulettes have made their lairs here, and the orcs have been unsuccesful in killing them or driving them off. There are four in all, three younger (meaning standard), and one ancient matron (meaning buffed up in some terrible way, maybe someone was silly enough to Awaken it at some point (don't tell me it's not a beast, I'm well aware), maybe it has some kind of magic?). They are not a tight knit family, so if played well can be picked off 1-2 at the time, leading eventually to the Bosslette.
When the lair of the matron bulette is searched, it turns out there's something interesting here: A bedroll, remains of a small campfire, and little burned wisps of mistletoe (Perception 12 to spot this in the first place, Nature 15 to ID the mistletoe). Seems like someone was visiting. Specifically, if the check was made, a druid.
Why would a druid do such a thing? Well, in this particular world, druids take their responsibilities seriously. Keeping civilization in check. So, here's what: The closest major city is Madripore. Madripore is too large to support itself with food - it needs quite a number of outlying villages, Merrybrook among them, and Merrybrook in particular is highly productive. Reducing the productivity of Merrybrook directly impacts Madripore's ability to grow. And that's why.
And when this particular problem is resolved, the druids will switch to other means, new plans. Which will lead to the next quest. Which, possibly, is less un-epic.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Imagine the nine hells with devils doing good in it, that's a campaign idea I had. Like they could create a kind of school for good in one of the nine hells, think about all the chaos. Or they could start a rebellion against Asmodeus.
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Hi, I wanna make a lot of custom campaigns but sometimes I get writer's block so give me your best campaign ideas!
Also just because I am curious, be free to also tell me some stories about them too!
Eberron but pseudo post apocalyptic. The day of Mourning changed how magic works. Old spell formulas don't work anymore or don't work the same. All spell casters have to release how to use magic. Parts of Sharn collapsed, any longterm enchantment stopped, magic items stopped working or were "changed" if they were powerful enough, etc. "interestingly" dragon mark houses and their magic and enchantments seem unaffected. That put a lot of suspicion on them and there is a lot more tension between the houses and between people and nobles and the houses. They are more now crucial and also deeply distrusted so the social and political dynamics have changed, etc. I took the basic framework of Eberron and tuned it on its head while also not killing that makes it interesting and unique.
A campaign where good has prevailed across the land. Freedom and joy is everywhere. Corruption has been purged from the government and heros are everywhere and plentiful. Evil is stopped before it can begin. However, the party has an evil alignment. They hide in plain sight, the authority preventing them from doing as they please. However, a berserker nocks out a guard, and causes a riot, which the players can take advantage of, adding into the chaos. However, after everyone has had some time to cause mischief, a knight shows up, taking out the party but not killing them, rather nocking them out, and takes out the evil berserker too. The party is transported to a prison, where they must escape, perhaps by stealth, brute force, or deciet. Gaining allies from those locked up or getting rid of the competition, until they reach the chamber of the berserker, who will act as a first boss as he betrays them, since, he's evil. Afterwards, they can go deeper into the prison, encountering stronger guards and prisoners alike, or escape, landing them in a world of heros and do-gooders, while already established as minor villains, though nothing is stopping them from growing into true threats.
(This would also serve as a fun way to bring up important characters from your past campaigns)
This is a campaign I'm DMing soon with my friends. The settings for the campaign are mostly cities, beaches, and dungeons. The party all start in a hotel, hearing a huge bang and scream from above. After a meet and greet and some inevitable murder, they find the owner of the hotel, dead, with a note. The note explains an evil group called the Tidal Arrow. It tells them about their plan to take over the entire nation, starting with powerful independent businesses like the hotel. The guard guarding the owner's room worked with said group, and made it look like the owner comitted suicide. The note advises them to go to his friend's underground group dedicated to taking the group down. When they prove themselves to the group that they want to take down the Tidal Arrow, they are accepted in and sent on missions to intercept the Tidal Arrow. Things like heists, killing a group of people delivering weapons via cart, etc. However, as they adventure and see more of the Tidal Arrow, the group starts seeming more cult-like, being seen sacrificing sea animals and even corpses of humanoids, as well as leaving behind religious idols depicting a crustacean of sorts. Once you pin down their leader, the High Tide, on an island, and are tasked with killing him. He is made out to be the BBEG, but is way too easy for that. Instead, after the party kills him (pretty easily, at that) and get confused, but as he dies, he speaks a spell and a huge patch of ground starts shaking. A giant crab (not like the base game enemy called giant crab, I'm talking a king crab the size of a small house) emerges from the ground. He bellows in a deep, resonating voice "I am Lord Carcin, ruler of land and sea! I will take your puny civilizations by force and fulfill my goal of enacting carcinization!" After the party kills him, he collapses to the sand. The team gets promoted by the underground society, they get mountains of riches, all that good stuff.
I had most of the story in mind, and then one day I randomly decided out of nowhere how funny it would be if the BBEG was just a giant crab. I based it around Carcinization, the scientific effect of all animals eventually evolving to look more like crabs, making them the perfect life form.
Crab BBEG is one of the best BBEG ideas I heard tbh
Five criminals sentenced to death are given the choice of a suicide mission, with a reward of a full pardon.
The lord wishes to make himself king, and in order to do this he must marry a princess.
As luck would have it, a local princess has been kidnapped by a dragon.
The teams mission is to acquire the princess before her father, a real king, can send his brave knights to rescue her.
For a plot twist, the dragon and the princess are working together to overthrow the king and the players can choose to switch sides and fight off minions of the king and the lord that gave them the original mission.
everywhere is covered in mists except one city, mists full of ancient ruins and war machines, falloutesqe vaults full of zombies and stuff, city rules by top 5 ruling families, each controlling an aspect of culture, smaller families have no part in ruling but control smaller parts of culture, under city full of mutants, wererats and other monstrosities, mists caused by ancient magical device during past war between barbarian clans and artificer clans, rebel faction wants to find device to fix the ruling system, doesn't realize how powerful it is, artificers and warships, steampunk post apocalypse fun stuff
I run sandboxes, and more or less the players make up the story for me as we go.
I use a made map (sword coast mostly) and have concepts of what could be going on wherever.
But i keep what i put on the table very lite on details or intrigue. I keep matters basic enough that the players will fill in gaps themselves for me.
As they talk they reveal to me what they think sounds interesting/fun/cool. And guess what, oh gee wow look at that, yall are so smart you had this figured out way back then already.
I do just basically lay the track as the train is moving, with no idea myself about where we're going. I do have some get up a going basics to trot out, but nothing great just simple start stuff lifted from whatever low level module that had something i liked.
But i don't laydown what the story already is in advance at all. I get it all from the players without them knowing about it. I am quite busy in-between session with this method. i commonly have to create next session's content during the week before the session.
I came to this method after years of spending untold hours of toil writing what i thought would be all the cool stuff. Only to have players reliably find a not fleshed out background filler NPC to be where their imaginings get fired up. And they mostly ignore all the stuff i did to fill out the world creatively in advance, because of course they do.
I also get to do this as i'm kind of quick on my thinking feet. So i can off the cuff spit it out like i had it planned that way 100 years ago, even though i'm making it up in real time as i'm saying it.
It is a tricky illusion to pull off, that the players believe they are walking into the world that was already real before they got here. But in truth they are making it up for me as we go.
here's an example:
I got a duke and family overseeing the local town we're in. I don't give a lot of objectively known facts about them, keeping player knowledge as close to their PCs as possible.
And when they start to table talk things out, they will show me if they are thinking it's more interesting that the duke has some underhanded chit going on to bust. Or if they think its more interesting that the duke needs their help in some way.
Now when/if they get involved, the duke and family will meet those interests/expectations.
I like un-epic questlines. I've built entire campaigns around the idea.
In the peaceful farming community of Merrybrook, trouble has arisen: Orcs have been seen out by the farthest eastern fields - ruining fields, stealing cattle.
If pressed, villagers will admit that the orcs have approached them, asking to buy cattle, but being unable to pay in the King's Coin, they were refused. Once the PC's ride out there, the orcs aren't looking for a fight - although one might happen - they rather look like they could do with a decent meal and a proper roof over their heads.
Whether a fight happens or not, it doesn't resolve anything. The orcs are displaced from their own lands by something that doesn't translate very well into common. 'Deepfang' infest their lands, ruining crops, and happily eating orcs as well.
Obviously - to me at least - the PC's get a small experience bonus for resolving the situation without bloodshed.
Moving further out, to the wild foothills where the orcs made their home, a desolate scene awaits the PC's. Ruined farmland, toppled buildings (undermined, it seems), scattered corpses. Bulettes have made their lairs here, and the orcs have been unsuccesful in killing them or driving them off. There are four in all, three younger (meaning standard), and one ancient matron (meaning buffed up in some terrible way, maybe someone was silly enough to Awaken it at some point (don't tell me it's not a beast, I'm well aware), maybe it has some kind of magic?). They are not a tight knit family, so if played well can be picked off 1-2 at the time, leading eventually to the Bosslette.
When the lair of the matron bulette is searched, it turns out there's something interesting here: A bedroll, remains of a small campfire, and little burned wisps of mistletoe (Perception 12 to spot this in the first place, Nature 15 to ID the mistletoe). Seems like someone was visiting. Specifically, if the check was made, a druid.
Why would a druid do such a thing? Well, in this particular world, druids take their responsibilities seriously. Keeping civilization in check. So, here's what: The closest major city is Madripore. Madripore is too large to support itself with food - it needs quite a number of outlying villages, Merrybrook among them, and Merrybrook in particular is highly productive. Reducing the productivity of Merrybrook directly impacts Madripore's ability to grow. And that's why.
And when this particular problem is resolved, the druids will switch to other means, new plans. Which will lead to the next quest. Which, possibly, is less un-epic.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Imagine the nine hells with devils doing good in it, that's a campaign idea I had. Like they could create a kind of school for good in one of the nine hells, think about all the chaos. Or they could start a rebellion against Asmodeus.