What do you mean by "built around the tarrasque"? That phrase could go all sorts of different ways, ranging from literally building things on a tarrasque to just having the awakening of the tarrasque as the campaign's (hopefully climactic) final challenge.
There's a back issue of Dragon Magazine (No. 296) with an article about cults devoted to various monsters. One of the, Wakers of the Beast, are apocalyptic cultists who want to bring about the end of the world by awakening the tarrasque. Start with something along those lines, and you can spend many levels of adventure building up as the heroes learn about and discover more about these Wakers of the Beast and their efforts.
Strange things are happening. Animals behaving oddly earth tremors, etc... The party is sent to investigate. A local prophet or witch says all is doomed, but cannot say exactly what is going to happen. Things get worse. Strange alliances must be formed. The fey must be consulted, the giants, beings from lower planes, all of whom want something in return for information? Various creatures start fleeing the underdark so the party must enter the underdark to investgate further. Eventually they must find a way to prevent it. They may even have to traverse planes and broker deals to find the weapon that can kill it. You could run a party from level 1 to 20 if you wanted to just on this concept!
There's a back issue of Dragon Magazine (No. 296) with an article about cults devoted to various monsters. One of the, Wakers of the Beast, are apocalyptic cultists who want to bring about the end of the world by awakening the tarrasque. Start with something along those lines, and you can spend many levels of adventure building up as the heroes learn about and discover more about these Wakers of the Beast and their efforts.
Hey, so I looked at it. And something I forgot to mention was that this is a 5th edition campaign.
Strange things are happening. Animals behaving oddly earth tremors, etc... The party is sent to investigate. A local prophet or witch says all is doomed, but cannot say exactly what is going to happen. Things get worse. Strange alliances must be formed. The fey must be consulted, the giants, beings from lower planes, all of whom want something in return for information? Various creatures start fleeing the underdark so the party must enter the underdark to investgate further. Eventually they must find a way to prevent it. They may even have to traverse planes and broker deals to find the weapon that can kill it. You could run a party from level 1 to 20 if you wanted to just on this concept!
I love this! I'll so use it! Thank you! And to add to this, how bout they have to compete with a cult?
Right, so one of the things that needs noted here is that there really aren't any published 5th Ed adventures that deal specifically with the Tarrasque in any meaningful way. It's sort of the "Godzilla" of the D&D world, and while it is a very powerful and iconic boogyman of the game, it doesn't really get a lot of limelight out of idle threats and awe inspiring theory-crafting.
So, with that said, adventures that can focus on the Tarrasque can go in a lot of directions depending on what you want to do to lead up to the titular fight with the beast.
It could be as complex as a cult of apocalypticists who seek to find and awaken the great bringing of the end (like the suggested Dragon Magazine #296). Just because it was published in a previous edition doesn't mean that the adventure and its concepts can't be converted to 5th Ed.
Or maybe you could build an adventure around the idea that your player's characters all grew up in a village or city that was devastated by the Tarrasque when they were very young, and they swore as children to grow up to be mighty adventurers who hunted it down to kill it for good. Maybe it is beginning to wake up about the time they are ready to fight it? But before then the campaign could center on them going on various quests, looking for clues to its whereabouts or a means to truly kill it for good. Lots of lost lore could be scattered around the world as other cultures crossed paths with the monster in bygone ages.
Maybe some king or wizard found out about the slumbering Tarrasque's location years ago, has since conquered the land above it, and has constructed a very complex research dungeon in tunnels beneath the land in hopes of (foolishly) enslaving the beast to their service.
There's a lot that can be done in preparation for the big reveal. The information that would be helpful for those giving suggestions, is the following:
What level are you starting your players at?
Are you tailoring your party's backstories into the Tarrasque in some way or is it just a random campaign ender?
What story beats do you want to hit along the way? Cultists? Some prophesy? Primordial or Divine/Demonic forces? The Underdark? Political intrigue?
About when do you want the Tarrasque to actually begin mattering to the adventure? About the halfway point? Here and there all the way through?
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I like it. The party is trying to solve the mystery, and decode the prophecy, while the cult is trying to make sure that nobody interferes and the prophecy gets fulfilled. All kinds of side quests could come up as the party and the cult compete for information. Maybe some being with information about the tarrasque lost something and the both the party and the cult are competing to find it first and get the information. The cult could be composed of both generic cultists and npcs who level up along with the party leading to a show down. I could imagine the party and the cult leaders eventually meeting deep in the underdark in its lair where it has been bound and about to breakaway from it's magical restraint. It could go anywhere you want. Have fun with it!
Oh, I know. I only meant to check it out for inspiration purposes. That being said, I have used the homebrew monster tools right here to create sphere minions for my home game. Lots of stuff from earlier editions is adaptable to 5E.
Old adventures, items, monsters and so forth make their way into my campaign. To be honest I always loved that old article - there's a lot of cool ideas in there!
Right, so one of the things that needs noted here is that there really aren't any published 5th Ed adventures that deal specifically with the Tarrasque in any meaningful way. It's sort of the "Godzilla" of the D&D world, and while it is a very powerful and iconic boogyman of the game, it doesn't really get a lot of limelight out of idle threats and awe inspiring theory-crafting.
So, with that said, adventures that can focus on the Tarrasque can go in a lot of directions depending on what you want to do to lead up to the titular fight with the beast.
It could be as complex as a cult of apocalypticists who seek to find and awaken the great bringing of the end (like the suggested Dragon Magazine #296). Just because it was published in a previous edition doesn't mean that the adventure and its concepts can't be converted to 5th Ed.
Or maybe you could build an adventure around the idea that your player's characters all grew up in a village or city that was devastated by the Tarrasque when they were very young, and they swore as children to grow up to be mighty adventurers who hunted it down to kill it for good. Maybe it is beginning to wake up about the time they are ready to fight it? But before then the campaign could center on them going on various quests, looking for clues to its whereabouts or a means to truly kill it for good. Lots of lost lore could be scattered around the world as other cultures crossed paths with the monster in bygone ages.
Maybe some king or wizard found out about the slumbering Tarrasque's location years ago, has since conquered the land above it, and has constructed a very complex research dungeon in tunnels beneath the land in hopes of (foolishly) enslaving the beast to their service.
There's a lot that can be done in preparation for the big reveal. The information that would be helpful for those giving suggestions, is the following:
What level are you starting your players at?
Are you tailoring your party's backstories into the Tarrasque in some way or is it just a random campaign ender?
What story beats do you want to hit along the way? Cultists? Some prophesy? Primordial or Divine/Demonic forces? The Underdark? Political intrigue?
About when do you want the Tarrasque to actually begin mattering to the adventure? About the halfway point? Here and there all the way through?
1. Level 1
2. In a way its an ender. But I am gonna connect the players together in one form or matter.
3. Definitely Cultists, and some Demonic force with Underdark more towards the end
4. It's scattered all the way through. Although it gets more and more prominent as you get higher tiers
I've been thinking on a similair idea and have decided that my nordic themed campaign is going to head towards a confrontation akin to the fabled Ragnarok and in this confrontation I'm going to use a Tarrasque as the world serpent Jormungand. Any suggestions on directions to take this idea? Currently thinking something like requiring the party to track down a legendary weapon or two to be prepared for the battle and get some intrigue in there by them needing to team up with the giants rather than fight them to be able to stop the forces of the Ragnarok and save the world from it's endless cycle.
I've been thinking on a similair idea and have decided that my nordic themed campaign is going to head towards a confrontation akin to the fabled Ragnarok and in this confrontation I'm going to use a Tarrasque as the world serpent Jormungand. Any suggestions on directions to take this idea? Currently thinking something like requiring the party to track down a legendary weapon or two to be prepared for the battle and get some intrigue in there by them needing to team up with the giants rather than fight them to be able to stop the forces of the Ragnarok and save the world from it's endless cycle.
Well, Jormungand is a serpent. So my recommendation is that instead of a walking speed for the thing add a swimming speed. And although it would be an awesome idea to fight it on land. Make it so the players are on an icy lake where the creature attacks from under them. And give it instead of claw attacks, give it a slam attack that does the same damage of the claws. Just a different type of damage.
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Hey, so I'm looking for a way to make d&d game built around the tarrasque. Any suggestions?
What do you mean by "built around the tarrasque"? That phrase could go all sorts of different ways, ranging from literally building things on a tarrasque to just having the awakening of the tarrasque as the campaign's (hopefully climactic) final challenge.
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InsiderThere's a back issue of Dragon Magazine (No. 296) with an article about cults devoted to various monsters. One of the, Wakers of the Beast, are apocalyptic cultists who want to bring about the end of the world by awakening the tarrasque. Start with something along those lines, and you can spend many levels of adventure building up as the heroes learn about and discover more about these Wakers of the Beast and their efforts.
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Lifelong gamer and writer
Strange things are happening. Animals behaving oddly earth tremors, etc... The party is sent to investigate. A local prophet or witch says all is doomed, but cannot say exactly what is going to happen. Things get worse. Strange alliances must be formed. The fey must be consulted, the giants, beings from lower planes, all of whom want something in return for information? Various creatures start fleeing the underdark so the party must enter the underdark to investgate further. Eventually they must find a way to prevent it. They may even have to traverse planes and broker deals to find the weapon that can kill it. You could run a party from level 1 to 20 if you wanted to just on this concept!
Mainly a campaign where the Tarrasque is the final monster the players have to stop
Right, so one of the things that needs noted here is that there really aren't any published 5th Ed adventures that deal specifically with the Tarrasque in any meaningful way. It's sort of the "Godzilla" of the D&D world, and while it is a very powerful and iconic boogyman of the game, it doesn't really get a lot of limelight out of idle threats and awe inspiring theory-crafting.
So, with that said, adventures that can focus on the Tarrasque can go in a lot of directions depending on what you want to do to lead up to the titular fight with the beast.
It could be as complex as a cult of apocalypticists who seek to find and awaken the great bringing of the end (like the suggested Dragon Magazine #296). Just because it was published in a previous edition doesn't mean that the adventure and its concepts can't be converted to 5th Ed.
Or maybe you could build an adventure around the idea that your player's characters all grew up in a village or city that was devastated by the Tarrasque when they were very young, and they swore as children to grow up to be mighty adventurers who hunted it down to kill it for good. Maybe it is beginning to wake up about the time they are ready to fight it? But before then the campaign could center on them going on various quests, looking for clues to its whereabouts or a means to truly kill it for good. Lots of lost lore could be scattered around the world as other cultures crossed paths with the monster in bygone ages.
Maybe some king or wizard found out about the slumbering Tarrasque's location years ago, has since conquered the land above it, and has constructed a very complex research dungeon in tunnels beneath the land in hopes of (foolishly) enslaving the beast to their service.
There's a lot that can be done in preparation for the big reveal. The information that would be helpful for those giving suggestions, is the following:
I like it. The party is trying to solve the mystery, and decode the prophecy, while the cult is trying to make sure that nobody interferes and the prophecy gets fulfilled. All kinds of side quests could come up as the party and the cult compete for information. Maybe some being with information about the tarrasque lost something and the both the party and the cult are competing to find it first and get the information. The cult could be composed of both generic cultists and npcs who level up along with the party leading to a show down. I could imagine the party and the cult leaders eventually meeting deep in the underdark in its lair where it has been bound and about to breakaway from it's magical restraint. It could go anywhere you want. Have fun with it!
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InsiderOh, I know. I only meant to check it out for inspiration purposes. That being said, I have used the homebrew monster tools right here to create sphere minions for my home game. Lots of stuff from earlier editions is adaptable to 5E.
Old adventures, items, monsters and so forth make their way into my campaign. To be honest I always loved that old article - there's a lot of cool ideas in there!
Content director for Nerdarchy.com
Lifelong gamer and writer
I've been thinking on a similair idea and have decided that my nordic themed campaign is going to head towards a confrontation akin to the fabled Ragnarok and in this confrontation I'm going to use a Tarrasque as the world serpent Jormungand. Any suggestions on directions to take this idea? Currently thinking something like requiring the party to track down a legendary weapon or two to be prepared for the battle and get some intrigue in there by them needing to team up with the giants rather than fight them to be able to stop the forces of the Ragnarok and save the world from it's endless cycle.
PC: Sven Gard Lvl 2 Fighter LMOP OTR