What the title says. Share ideas for campaigns or one-shots you've had, or maybe a campaign or one-shot you've run that went well. I enjoy hearing other DM feedback and hearing people bounce ideas off each other, so feel free to toss in what you've got!
I have a large campaign in the works that is centered in the city of Waterdeep; one that will expand upon the resources made available from the “Dragon Heist” adventure.
The core of the campaign is actually designed to be a “slice of life” styled adventure…the players are just trying to find their place within the city, looking for a place to live, paying their dues, and finding whatever jobs might suit them.
But since this is, you know, the City of Splendors…various events tend to happen that interrupt their daily activities…a sudden rise of undead from the city cemetery, a local killer who seems to be targeting citizens under a new moon, objects animating at random…things happening in the background that they can get involved in.
On the large-scale, there will be MASSIVE conflicts…the threat of a Thayan invasion, demonic incursions far beneath the city, turmoil among the gods…etc.
But the party will only be affected by these events behind the scenes. They’ll hear about it through news & rumors, and every now and then they might have an encounter related to them.
Force Grey will play a large role, as they are sort of the “superheroes” of Waterdeep…the party will even get to meet them periodically, if the party decides to involve themselves with major threats.
My favorite plot line involves a restaurant / hotel that is ridiculously haunted…but the party can earn the deed to the property to essentially get a free living space. Every night, for one hour, though…well, weird sh*t is going to happen.
There's one campaign I'm currently running with one friend, and I took some inspiration from games like Hollow Knight and Cult of the Lamb for the basic story and aesthetic.
This is a sort of amnesia campaign, so we started with a blank character sheet, which we'll be developing throughout the session. After waking up in a musty prison cell, my friend's character was pushed out into a large room where the Six awaited. The Six are a council of powerful demonic creatures that rule over the world, and have brought his character here for some crime he doesn't remember. Long story short, he was beheaded.
But he didn't die. Instead, they were found by Xeroc, a godlike being that is imprisoned in a realm of nothingness by the Six. They did the stereotypical deal of "I give you life and power, and you kill the Six for me.", and soon after his character was dumped into the forest on a quest to kill the King of Beasts, Morovsko.
And that's where we ended our first session! I have all the Six planned, as well as the regions in which they reside, but not much else besides that.
The King of Beasts, Morovsko, who rules over the forests of Luxios.
The Queen of the Underground, Sheoloth, who commands legions of spiders in the Deepbeneath.
The Lord of the Deep, Hro'kall, the driving force of pestilence in the Vermillion Sea.
The Angel of Death, Ithaqua, the judge, jury, and executioner who dominates Mt. Vultursa
Cha'agroth, the Conqueror, who lords over the ruins of the city Mudak.
The Broken One, Artos, who roams the Obsidian Desert in exile.
If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
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Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
I ran a Christmas one-shot one time that I like to call "Christmas in the Plane of Fire". It turned out really fun! The basic premise was that there are two friends; a Copper Dragon living in a desert in the plane of Fire and a powerful Winter Eladrin living in the plane of Ice between the planes of water and air. The party doesn't know they're friends.
The copper dragon (named Sandy Claws, obviously) tasks the players with hunting down and stealing an artefact from the Plane of Ice, under the possession of Jack Frost (again, obviously). The whole time, the party is believing that the dragon is good and the eladrin is evil; when in reality he's just using the adventurers as a proxy to play a prank on his good friend.
The adventure ended after the party realized something iffy was happening and confronted the two - they laughed, apologized, and gave the party magic items/boons as a gift for providing them entertainment. It was honestly one of my favorite sessions to run.
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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?
Not a full campaign, but I have the idea for the beginning of one.
Backstory: A noble family discovers that their three children have come under a mystical sickness. Traditional magic seems to do little, and in desperation the mother meets with a hag. The hag says that she can cause the disease to transfer from the youngest two to the oldest child, and that she will take the oldest as her own. Desperate to save any of them, the mother reluctantly agrees. The younger children are cured while the oldest is turned into a new hag by the original one.
But something goes wrong in the process. Unlike most cases, this hag has the memories of the child she once was, and comes into being with a thirst for vengeance. She learns under the first hag, and when she learned all she needed, killed her and waited for her next move.
Her chance came when internal conflict in her former family’s kingdom caused the family and their retainers to flee to the forest. The father and several of the retainers turned to banditry to survive, while the mother sought out the original hag again. The new hag disguised herself as the original and lead the mother to the proper place, where she harvested her souls and implanted it into a tree, turning it into a Gulthias tree. She dedicated this Gulthias tree to the True Masters, the setting BBEGs that she served, and they used it to make war on the tribe of Eloche, a group that had annoyed them. The new hag then turned her attention toward her former siblings.
Enter the PCs: The PCs sail to the mysterious continent to find answers to events back home. They arrive at a town of the Elochei that’s threatened by an ever growing army of blights, and to add insult to injury also robbed by bandits. As they navigate this situation, they’ll eventually find the middle child of the family, who is looking for their hounded sibling. The youngest child had been captured by the new hag, but will soon be released and found. These two (the middle is in adolescence now, the youngest is still a child) can help the PC’s find the hag’s lair where the tree also dwells, but once they get there the hag claims that she has eaten the youngest and they he will become a hag when the time comes. Even if and when the PCs defeat the hag and the Gulthias tree, they and the middle child will still have to determine if the hag was telling the truth or deceiving them….
So, I've been trashing D&D canon for decades now, and I have changed the goblinoids in my campaign world, Fanterra. What do you think...
Goblin Infestation: Fanterran goblins are not a naturally occuring humanoid species but a magical infestation that can blight any remote, uninhabited area. At first, a large rocky “boil” will appear in an islolated, unforested region and expand like a huge abscess over several days until it bursts open and out gushes hundreds, if not thousands, of goblins.
Where these goblins come from is debated by scholars, but a concensus seem to agree that they must be summoned by a dark god or malevelent entity and portaled in from a dark plane. The goblins emerge fully-formed and ready to fight armed with garbage weapons and armor which may be from some interdimensional armory filled with the detritus of ages of warfare.
After the their “birth,” goblins fight one another until a significant number are culled and leaders emerge. If the infestation is particulary large, several groups may form and either attack each other or head off to fortify.
With leaders and a chain of command, the goblin horde then seeks protection from a very unfriendly world. All Fanterran civilizations struggle with goblin infestation, and they all have extensive means of dealing with goblin hordes including armies filled with battlemages, alliances with dragons, and teams of Archdruids. The goblins may start constructing an armed camp, invade an inhabited fortification or natural formation, or dig into the earth and make a cave complex.
Hobgoblin Spawn: Fanterran hobgoblins are like goblins in that they are not a naturally occuring species but a magical manifestation that can infect any empty structures, especially fortifications, containing unused, abandoned hearths.
Any “hob,” the cooking part of a hearth, that has lain cold and unused for a long time can spawn hundreds of hobgoblins, from whatever dark source, who climb out of the fireplace (portal) and immediately begin to take over the structure they are invading. Like goblins, they emerge with scraps of armor and weapons from the same interdimensional armory, but unlike their little relatives, they are summoned with a strict hierarchy which keeps them from turning on each other.
After thier “birth,” hobgoblins begin to fortify their structure or fortification. Like a well-oiled military unit, hobgoblins start by improving the fortifications, scouting and hunting the outside terrain, and improving their war gear through smithing, stealing, and conquest.
Bugbear Contamination: As with the other goblinoids, Fanterran bugbears are an ecological contamination that happens in unpopulated forested regions. When groups of trees fall and create great tangles then bugbears may be summoned in a similar fashion to their kin. Fanterran druids refer to such tangles as “wodes,” and seek to destroy them wherever they are found.
A bugbear contamination may number tens to hundreds of individuals armed with similar “junky” weapons and armor to other goblinoids. In most cases, the bugbears emerging from the wode sneak away making little, if any contact, with other bugbears.
cool concept. They feel a lot like orcs (and by extension, well, GOBLINS) in LotR, or the Uruk-hai in the way they're created. I like that animation a lot so cool flavor. A suggestion maybe to flesh out your lore a little more:
The way you're describing them seems to be that they are more wild creatures, barely sentient forces, that spawn and are pretty destructive. That said, there's also a kind of strange logic to them, like they inherently know how to form mini-societies and make weapons despite being so wild.
I would recommend:
- A boil forms and spews out goblins. With that picture, maybe these boils are caused by shadowfell crossings or other powerful bursts of negative/evil magic, which briefly leaves the effect of these freakish boils on the mortal world. maybe instead of one spewing out thousands, the boils form in 'colonies' so a large group of them kind of corrupts the land around it. maybe in the middle of a forest you have a break in the trees and the ground is all rotted and muddy, and these pods are forming all over the area, and you can see goblins forming in them, like a freakish womb.
- It's cool if you don't want to change it, but them emerging fully armed and able to form societies off the bat feels a liiiiiittle bit forced to me. Instead, maybe they're like LotR orcs and have the crude ability to mass-produce weapons, but those weapons are very basic and rudimentary.
- Instead of having one massive group of goblins turn in on itself, have each goblin colony form as its own clan so to speak. When clans encounter each other, they fight until one subdues the other, and that could be the kind of messed up hierarchy of the goblins. However, you could say that hobgoblins have the ability to reign them in so they can control multiple goblin tribes without much infighting (Uruk-hai!).
That said, it's a really cool idea, just wanted to bounce some tweaks off you. Happy dming!
So, I've been trashing D&D canon for decades now, and I have changed the goblinoids in my campaign world, Fanterra. What do you think...
Goblin Infestation: Fanterran goblins are not a naturally occuring humanoid species but a magical infestation that can blight any remote, uninhabited area. At first, a large rocky “boil” will appear in an islolated, unforested region and expand like a huge abscess over several days until it bursts open and out gushes hundreds, if not thousands, of goblins.
Where these goblins come from is debated by scholars, but a concensus seem to agree that they must be summoned by a dark god or malevelent entity and portaled in from a dark plane. The goblins emerge fully-formed and ready to fight armed with garbage weapons and armor which may be from some interdimensional armory filled with the detritus of ages of warfare.
After the their “birth,” goblins fight one another until a significant number are culled and leaders emerge. If the infestation is particulary large, several groups may form and either attack each other or head off to fortify.
With leaders and a chain of command, the goblin horde then seeks protection from a very unfriendly world. All Fanterran civilizations struggle with goblin infestation, and they all have extensive means of dealing with goblin hordes including armies filled with battlemages, alliances with dragons, and teams of Archdruids. The goblins may start constructing an armed camp, invade an inhabited fortification or natural formation, or dig into the earth and make a cave complex.
You are adding a Lawful alignment to goblins. Goblins tend to be chaotic in nature and rule by strength and strength in numbers. This might necessitate some really basic hierarchical gatherings, but in no way would these creatures setup a large scale military hierarchy without the influence of a deeply intelligent mind that is ordered. So basically the difference between demons and devils. I would suggest some flavor adds like they did in LoTR like an Evil Wizard who gathers and commands the goblin legions as they recruit them to their cause or maybe a devil of some sort that through brute force can command these goblins. I know I am being picky, but I am a bit of a stickler for alignment based story telling.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
So, I've been trashing D&D canon for decades now, and I have changed the goblinoids in my campaign world, Fanterra. What do you think...
Goblin Infestation: Fanterran goblins are not a naturally occuring humanoid species but a magical infestation that can blight any remote, uninhabited area. At first, a large rocky “boil” will appear in an islolated, unforested region and expand like a huge abscess over several days until it bursts open and out gushes hundreds, if not thousands, of goblins.
Where these goblins come from is debated by scholars, but a concensus seem to agree that they must be summoned by a dark god or malevelent entity and portaled in from a dark plane. The goblins emerge fully-formed and ready to fight armed with garbage weapons and armor which may be from some interdimensional armory filled with the detritus of ages of warfare.
After the their “birth,” goblins fight one another until a significant number are culled and leaders emerge. If the infestation is particulary large, several groups may form and either attack each other or head off to fortify.
With leaders and a chain of command, the goblin horde then seeks protection from a very unfriendly world. All Fanterran civilizations struggle with goblin infestation, and they all have extensive means of dealing with goblin hordes including armies filled with battlemages, alliances with dragons, and teams of Archdruids. The goblins may start constructing an armed camp, invade an inhabited fortification or natural formation, or dig into the earth and make a cave complex.
You are adding a Lawful alignment to goblins. Goblins tend to be chaotic in nature and rule by strength and strength in numbers. This might necessitate some really basic hierarchical gatherings, but in no way would these creatures setup a large scale military hierarchy without the influence of a deeply intelligent mind that is ordered. So basically the difference between demons and devils. I would suggest some flavor adds like they did in LoTR like an Evil Wizard who gathers and commands the goblin legions as they recruit them to their cause or maybe a devil of some sort that through brute force can command these goblins. I know I am being picky, but I am a bit of a stickler for alignment based story telling.
yeah, I would say the issue is not so much alignment based as it is (no offense) somewhat 'lazy' (for lack of a better word) writing. I think there are just some inconsistencies. But, no need to fret, that's pretty much what I created this thread for, so DM's can bounce ideas off each other and get feedback and learn different ideas and techniques.
Either way Gh0styy you inspired an idea. After reading your comment, you made me think about using soul larvae as a means for filling these goblins with souls. Maybe they could have brief glimpses of their past evil lives. I totally love the idea, but maybe if we could answer where they are getting the souls to fill the goblin hordes, we could really flesh out that idea. Thank you for challenging me with out of the box thinking!! You totally inspired me for a new story of my own.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Either way Gh0styy you inspired an idea. After reading your comment, you made me think about using soul larvae as a means for filling these goblins with souls. Maybe they could have brief glimpses of their past evil lives. I totally love the idea, but maybe if we could answer where they are getting the souls to fill the goblin hordes, we could really flesh out that idea. Thank you for challenging me with out of the box thinking!! You totally inspired me for a new story of my own.
I totally love the idea, but maybe if we could answer where they are getting the souls to fill the goblin hordes, we could really flesh out that idea. Thank you for challenging me with out of the box thinking!! You totally inspired me for a new story of my own.
If we're going with a Uruk-hai style thing, the goblins could be servants of the devils, or even more specifically, a night hag. I think there's some lore about night hags and larvae, so you could have some sort of night hag empress ruling an area, and she and her servants go out and corrupt souls, and once they get enough, those souls become larvae which feed the creation of the goblin army.
AN idea I've had percolating for a while now; not settled on the specifics, but the general idea is to set a game on a Niven Ring. For those unfamiliar with sci-fi mega-structure concepts: a Niven ring is a ring constructed around a star at somewhere around the habitable zone... so think the Halo rings but with a star in the middle. The idea being to feed the players hints that something is "odd" but the characters in-universe wouldn't have any clue that something non-natural is at work; at least at first.
AN idea I've had percolating for a while now; not settled on the specifics, but the general idea is to set a game on a Niven Ring. For those unfamiliar with sci-fi mega-structure concepts: a Niven ring is a ring constructed around a star at somewhere around the habitable zone... so think the Halo rings but with a star in the middle. The idea being to feed the players hints that something is "odd" but the characters in-universe wouldn't have any clue that something non-natural is at work; at least at first.
That could open up some cool stuff with planar travel, especially if the Niven rings were some kind of ancient focus used for mass planar travel. So maybe when the stars were inhabitable, the Niven Rings acted like giant planar gateways. I just like the idea of introducing sci-fi concepts to a fantasy game.
A campaign in a world where the people live on moving islands called Terrashells (the islands are giant sea turtles). The islands engage in free-for-all war games for accolades, resources, and the favor of their gods. The war games are actually nonviolent, however. The Terrashells possess powerful magic, and travel through not just the physical sea but also other realms. So whenever two islands are in a war game, they travel into a dimension that sorta acts like an Ethereal Plane. A duplicate to the Material Plane, but here, all injuries- even deaths- sustained are undone once the Terrashells leave the plane. Pretty much resets everything, to avoid unintended killing and damage to the islands themselves. The players act as participants in the war games and defend the honor of their Terrashell island. There'd also be a strategic aspect as they help order around their island's troops in defensive and offensive battles.
I literally just made this up but already I want such a campaign to exist.
A campaign in a world where the people live on moving islands called Terrashells (the islands are giant sea turtles). The islands engage in free-for-all war games for accolades, resources, and the favor of their gods. The war games are actually nonviolent, however. The Terrashells possess powerful magic, and travel through not just the physical sea but also other realms. So whenever two islands are in a war game, they travel into a dimension that sorta acts like an Ethereal Plane. A duplicate to the Material Plane, but here, all injuries- even deaths- sustained are undone once the Terrashells leave the plane. Pretty much resets everything, to avoid unintended killing and damage to the islands themselves. The players act as participants in the war games and defend the honor of their Terrashell island. There'd also be a strategic aspect as they help order around their island's troops in defensive and offensive battles.
I literally just made this up but already I want such a campaign to exist.
AN idea I've had percolating for a while now; not settled on the specifics, but the general idea is to set a game on a Niven Ring. For those unfamiliar with sci-fi mega-structure concepts: a Niven ring is a ring constructed around a star at somewhere around the habitable zone... so think the Halo rings but with a star in the middle. The idea being to feed the players hints that something is "odd" but the characters in-universe wouldn't have any clue that something non-natural is at work; at least at first.
That could open up some cool stuff with planar travel, especially if the Niven rings were some kind of ancient focus used for mass planar travel. So maybe when the stars were inhabitable, the Niven Rings acted like giant planar gateways. I just like the idea of introducing sci-fi concepts to a fantasy game.
Interesting concept. And yeah: I quite like the idea of using sci-fi concepts in an otherwise fantasy setting; probably because I'm a sucker for the "ancient tech" trope (Atlantis: the lost empire, Ancient Hyrule in Zelda etc.).
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What the title says. Share ideas for campaigns or one-shots you've had, or maybe a campaign or one-shot you've run that went well. I enjoy hearing other DM feedback and hearing people bounce ideas off each other, so feel free to toss in what you've got!
Updog
I have a large campaign in the works that is centered in the city of Waterdeep; one that will expand upon the resources made available from the “Dragon Heist” adventure.
The core of the campaign is actually designed to be a “slice of life” styled adventure…the players are just trying to find their place within the city, looking for a place to live, paying their dues, and finding whatever jobs might suit them.
But since this is, you know, the City of Splendors…various events tend to happen that interrupt their daily activities…a sudden rise of undead from the city cemetery, a local killer who seems to be targeting citizens under a new moon, objects animating at random…things happening in the background that they can get involved in.
On the large-scale, there will be MASSIVE conflicts…the threat of a Thayan invasion, demonic incursions far beneath the city, turmoil among the gods…etc.
But the party will only be affected by these events behind the scenes. They’ll hear about it through news & rumors, and every now and then they might have an encounter related to them.
Force Grey will play a large role, as they are sort of the “superheroes” of Waterdeep…the party will even get to meet them periodically, if the party decides to involve themselves with major threats.
My favorite plot line involves a restaurant / hotel that is ridiculously haunted…but the party can earn the deed to the property to essentially get a free living space. Every night, for one hour, though…well, weird sh*t is going to happen.
I honestly can’t wait to start.
There's one campaign I'm currently running with one friend, and I took some inspiration from games like Hollow Knight and Cult of the Lamb for the basic story and aesthetic.
This is a sort of amnesia campaign, so we started with a blank character sheet, which we'll be developing throughout the session. After waking up in a musty prison cell, my friend's character was pushed out into a large room where the Six awaited. The Six are a council of powerful demonic creatures that rule over the world, and have brought his character here for some crime he doesn't remember. Long story short, he was beheaded.
But he didn't die. Instead, they were found by Xeroc, a godlike being that is imprisoned in a realm of nothingness by the Six. They did the stereotypical deal of "I give you life and power, and you kill the Six for me.", and soon after his character was dumped into the forest on a quest to kill the King of Beasts, Morovsko.
And that's where we ended our first session! I have all the Six planned, as well as the regions in which they reside, but not much else besides that.
If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
very cool. excited to hear what they get up to once your campaign gets started
Updog
You and me both.
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
I ran a Christmas one-shot one time that I like to call "Christmas in the Plane of Fire". It turned out really fun! The basic premise was that there are two friends; a Copper Dragon living in a desert in the plane of Fire and a powerful Winter Eladrin living in the plane of Ice between the planes of water and air. The party doesn't know they're friends.
The copper dragon (named Sandy Claws, obviously) tasks the players with hunting down and stealing an artefact from the Plane of Ice, under the possession of Jack Frost (again, obviously). The whole time, the party is believing that the dragon is good and the eladrin is evil; when in reality he's just using the adventurers as a proxy to play a prank on his good friend.
The adventure ended after the party realized something iffy was happening and confronted the two - they laughed, apologized, and gave the party magic items/boons as a gift for providing them entertainment. It was honestly one of my favorite sessions to run.
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?
Not a full campaign, but I have the idea for the beginning of one.
Backstory: A noble family discovers that their three children have come under a mystical sickness. Traditional magic seems to do little, and in desperation the mother meets with a hag. The hag says that she can cause the disease to transfer from the youngest two to the oldest child, and that she will take the oldest as her own. Desperate to save any of them, the mother reluctantly agrees. The younger children are cured while the oldest is turned into a new hag by the original one.
But something goes wrong in the process. Unlike most cases, this hag has the memories of the child she once was, and comes into being with a thirst for vengeance. She learns under the first hag, and when she learned all she needed, killed her and waited for her next move.
Her chance came when internal conflict in her former family’s kingdom caused the family and their retainers to flee to the forest. The father and several of the retainers turned to banditry to survive, while the mother sought out the original hag again. The new hag disguised herself as the original and lead the mother to the proper place, where she harvested her souls and implanted it into a tree, turning it into a Gulthias tree. She dedicated this Gulthias tree to the True Masters, the setting BBEGs that she served, and they used it to make war on the tribe of Eloche, a group that had annoyed them. The new hag then turned her attention toward her former siblings.
Enter the PCs: The PCs sail to the mysterious continent to find answers to events back home. They arrive at a town of the Elochei that’s threatened by an ever growing army of blights, and to add insult to injury also robbed by bandits. As they navigate this situation, they’ll eventually find the middle child of the family, who is looking for their hounded sibling. The youngest child had been captured by the new hag, but will soon be released and found. These two (the middle is in adolescence now, the youngest is still a child) can help the PC’s find the hag’s lair where the tree also dwells, but once they get there the hag claims that she has eaten the youngest and they he will become a hag when the time comes. Even if and when the PCs defeat the hag and the Gulthias tree, they and the middle child will still have to determine if the hag was telling the truth or deceiving them….
cool concept. They feel a lot like orcs (and by extension, well, GOBLINS) in LotR, or the Uruk-hai in the way they're created. I like that animation a lot so cool flavor. A suggestion maybe to flesh out your lore a little more:
The way you're describing them seems to be that they are more wild creatures, barely sentient forces, that spawn and are pretty destructive. That said, there's also a kind of strange logic to them, like they inherently know how to form mini-societies and make weapons despite being so wild.
I would recommend:
- A boil forms and spews out goblins. With that picture, maybe these boils are caused by shadowfell crossings or other powerful bursts of negative/evil magic, which briefly leaves the effect of these freakish boils on the mortal world. maybe instead of one spewing out thousands, the boils form in 'colonies' so a large group of them kind of corrupts the land around it. maybe in the middle of a forest you have a break in the trees and the ground is all rotted and muddy, and these pods are forming all over the area, and you can see goblins forming in them, like a freakish womb.
- It's cool if you don't want to change it, but them emerging fully armed and able to form societies off the bat feels a liiiiiittle bit forced to me. Instead, maybe they're like LotR orcs and have the crude ability to mass-produce weapons, but those weapons are very basic and rudimentary.
- Instead of having one massive group of goblins turn in on itself, have each goblin colony form as its own clan so to speak. When clans encounter each other, they fight until one subdues the other, and that could be the kind of messed up hierarchy of the goblins. However, you could say that hobgoblins have the ability to reign them in so they can control multiple goblin tribes without much infighting (Uruk-hai!).
That said, it's a really cool idea, just wanted to bounce some tweaks off you. Happy dming!
Updog
You are adding a Lawful alignment to goblins. Goblins tend to be chaotic in nature and rule by strength and strength in numbers. This might necessitate some really basic hierarchical gatherings, but in no way would these creatures setup a large scale military hierarchy without the influence of a deeply intelligent mind that is ordered. So basically the difference between demons and devils. I would suggest some flavor adds like they did in LoTR like an Evil Wizard who gathers and commands the goblin legions as they recruit them to their cause or maybe a devil of some sort that through brute force can command these goblins. I know I am being picky, but I am a bit of a stickler for alignment based story telling.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
yeah, I would say the issue is not so much alignment based as it is (no offense) somewhat 'lazy' (for lack of a better word) writing. I think there are just some inconsistencies. But, no need to fret, that's pretty much what I created this thread for, so DM's can bounce ideas off each other and get feedback and learn different ideas and techniques.
Updog
Either way Gh0styy you inspired an idea. After reading your comment, you made me think about using soul larvae as a means for filling these goblins with souls. Maybe they could have brief glimpses of their past evil lives. I totally love the idea, but maybe if we could answer where they are getting the souls to fill the goblin hordes, we could really flesh out that idea. Thank you for challenging me with out of the box thinking!! You totally inspired me for a new story of my own.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
always happy to help by accident ;)
Updog
If we're going with a Uruk-hai style thing, the goblins could be servants of the devils, or even more specifically, a night hag. I think there's some lore about night hags and larvae, so you could have some sort of night hag empress ruling an area, and she and her servants go out and corrupt souls, and once they get enough, those souls become larvae which feed the creation of the goblin army.
Updog
AN idea I've had percolating for a while now; not settled on the specifics, but the general idea is to set a game on a Niven Ring. For those unfamiliar with sci-fi mega-structure concepts: a Niven ring is a ring constructed around a star at somewhere around the habitable zone... so think the Halo rings but with a star in the middle. The idea being to feed the players hints that something is "odd" but the characters in-universe wouldn't have any clue that something non-natural is at work; at least at first.
That could open up some cool stuff with planar travel, especially if the Niven rings were some kind of ancient focus used for mass planar travel. So maybe when the stars were inhabitable, the Niven Rings acted like giant planar gateways. I just like the idea of introducing sci-fi concepts to a fantasy game.
Updog
A campaign in a world where the people live on moving islands called Terrashells (the islands are giant sea turtles). The islands engage in free-for-all war games for accolades, resources, and the favor of their gods. The war games are actually nonviolent, however. The Terrashells possess powerful magic, and travel through not just the physical sea but also other realms. So whenever two islands are in a war game, they travel into a dimension that sorta acts like an Ethereal Plane. A duplicate to the Material Plane, but here, all injuries- even deaths- sustained are undone once the Terrashells leave the plane. Pretty much resets everything, to avoid unintended killing and damage to the islands themselves. The players act as participants in the war games and defend the honor of their Terrashell island. There'd also be a strategic aspect as they help order around their island's troops in defensive and offensive battles.
I literally just made this up but already I want such a campaign to exist.
um
Awesome.
Updog
I think you just invented VR in fantasy @Crystallomancer*
(*Is that a Mistborn reference I see?!?!)
Updog
Don't even know what that is, so no it is not.
Interesting concept. And yeah: I quite like the idea of using sci-fi concepts in an otherwise fantasy setting; probably because I'm a sucker for the "ancient tech" trope (Atlantis: the lost empire, Ancient Hyrule in Zelda etc.).