Questions tagged [campaign-development]
For questions about writing, managing, and expanding campaigns.
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As a new DM, should my focus when creating a campaign be on developing locations or NPCs?
A group of friends and I have decided to play D&D. Since I was the one gathering everyone and the one with the most previous knowledge, I became the DM for the group. I had never actually played ...
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What reason could a Mind Flayer colony get involved with lycanthropy? [closed]
Recently I ended a campaign centered around lycanthropy where a few lycantropes were acidentally let loose and wild, in the same world with other players I hinted towards mindfalyers starting to make ...
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What are the rankings of magic items/artifacts?
I'm about to make a campaign on my own and one of the things I want the characters to do is obtain service to an emperor in exchange for services(One of the services involves the Eye and Hand of Vecna)...
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Is it possible to combine two campaigns that take place in the same area but were not made to complement each other?
I'm just wondering if it would be possible to combine two campaigns - specifically The Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials Kit and The Lost Mines of Phandelver from the Starter Set - into one ...
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How can my villain intimidate my players' characters into submission?
I'm planning a new campaign where the villain will force the party to do his bidding, starting from level 3.
The opening will be an encounter with the villain, where he will "ask" them to do not-so-...
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Problem on how to solve a situation with dragons [closed]
I am the DM of a very chaotic group, which ended up in a very strange situation. Currently I am having a very hard struggle on how to DM this and how to solve this more or less in a group friendly way ...
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Is Erelhei-Cinlu in Faerûn?
I have a major campaign extension looking to take characters from 1st to 20th level, starting with linking Lost Mine of Phandelver to (via various add-ons to LMoP itself) adapted versions of D1, D2, ...
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What are the risks of TPK-ing the party at the start of a campaign deliberately?
I've been planning out an idea for a campaign to run with a group that would consist of both veteran and new players, and I'm unsure if I should follow a particular plot point. I would start the party ...
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How do I create a sense of science about magic?
Based off of this question.
Magic in many games is considered well-understood, but ill explained (hence 'magic'). Assuming that I control the environment and have a mild will to bend mechanics, how ...
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Creating a campaign that ends with a TPK by design
I'm creating a campaign that takes players from level 3 to level 15+. The premise is that the party is granted a special role by the reigning good King to protect and serve (essentially they are ...
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Good Lich Resources
I'm trying to develop a plot were a cult leader is trying to become a lich. Do any of the currently published D&D 4e books provide any canon for this?
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Why Do We Keep Adventuring?
alright, so in general, I like 5e, it's got a lot of positives, but I'm noticing more and more that there aren't really any reasons for adventuring past a certain point.
So, an example: Our group is ...
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How do I run a successful and engaging campaign without combat?
I'm thinking of starting my own campaign with a few of my friends with me as DM, primarily because I wasn't extremely impressed with the campaign my friend was DMing. When I started thinking about the ...
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How to ease down the munchkin factor?
I've been playing RPGs since the early eighties and have come to terms with the fact that not everyone enjoys this hobby for the same reasons as myself. I'm into it for the sake of the adventure, the ...
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Are D&D novelizations considered canonical source materials?
I'm curious if the works of R.A. Salvatore and the like are considered canon source material for D&D campaign games. Or if they are treated more like fanfictions.
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My players have become determined to kill the dragon who has been helping them throughout the campaign - how should I handle this? [closed]
The dragon in question used to be a God and has been helping the party work up to defeating the BBEG (note that they still need him to complete the storyline at this point, but I can find a way around ...
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What are some dangerous non-fantasy creatures?
We're running a fantasy game where the adventurers frequently travel through the wilderness. Too many of the threatening encounters they have are with fantasy creatures (like goblins, orcs, etc.). ...
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Sword Coast weather and climate
To the point:
What is the climate of the Sword Coast like?
What real world climate region would it fit into best?
The more relevant the answer to the 5e FR, the better. If there's no 5e ...
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How can live fire exercises be made safer?
My group is in Waterdeep, and our wizard would love to help train the world-famous griffon cavalry, especially in evading fireballs. That is, he wants to hurl fireballs at them that they need to evade....
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BBEG Ideas for my campaign? [closed]
So I'm planning on starting my own campaign for the first time. I have the story planned out and what the BBEG's motives will be. However I want to have him be a combination of classes, and I was ...
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How to complete my first session? [closed]
I'm preparing campaign for my friends. It's first time for all of us and I want to create a big bang at the beginning. My players are a high elf, a wood elf and a tiefling.
They will start in quite a ...
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How to design a maze without it being a time sink maze and unfun? [duplicate]
I was planning a 1e The One Ring game where the party gets trapped in the mines of Moria and have to get out. I had asked a question about the roles here. After discussing it with others, my idea of ...
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What are all the ways a player can get to the Astral Plane?
I am planning a campaign where the characters must travel to the astral plane several times, though each subsequent time they lose one of the means to do so (i.e., Astral Projection spell, through the ...
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To document house rules, or no?
Or, how much documentation should your "campaign world" provide?
This is a fairly generic (and subjective) question, but there is a genuine purpose behind it: I have a set of "house rules" for Tales ...
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What's the best way to present a sandbox world to your players?
In my sessions, I let my players play in a sand-box world. There is a main story that I always plan that they could follow, and I have no problems with them doing so.
However, I would like my players ...
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How would closing borders and supply routes affect local market prices? [closed]
I'm developing a world where governments are freaking out over a perceived threat (not a virus). The stars have disappeared and the gods have seemingly abandoned them. Many leaders have ordered their ...
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With the lifespan of elves, would you ever encounter a low-level elf?
Elves and other races have hundreds of years to get good at what they do — is the expectation that NPCs of these races would mostly be of high level?
How do I build a campaign setting that makes ...
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How to manage play in a zombie RPG pre outbreak
I am planning on starting my newest campaign about the end of the world: a Zombie Apocalypse, with the game starting before the outbreak has occurred. Every zombie RPG I have encountered so far has ...
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What are the DM's responsibilities when dealing with a character's death?
This facet of RPGs is the thing with which I have the least experience/comfort level. I'm sanguine about the idea that Dungeons etc. are inherently dangerous places, and that the PCs behavior is ...
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Stylistic, Mechanical and Contextual summaries of Candlekeep Mysteries
My group is playing through Candlekeep, which consists of 17 different 'Mysteries', each tied to a book that the party finds in Candlekeep.
Only one of us is an experienced DM, but we agreed it would ...
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When writing and preparing a campaign should I include all the side stories and all possible encounters? [duplicate]
I have worked out an entire world with a story and several side stories (they'll be optional) should I just put them in the middle of the story of where they'd be available or should I put them into a ...
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What's a good method for making cultures differ?
I recently read through a great question on getting players to play in line with their characters' cultures, and it got me thinking:
What do you do to make the cultures in your setting differ?
Let's ...
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How do you create a good Adventuring Guild charter?
I'm planning on using established guilds as npc rivals. The player characters start out as nobodies, in some cases as slaves, and will eventually have the opportunity of starting up their own guild (...
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Does a Huge Object that has already been Animated continue to be Animated if it is Enlarged to Gargantuan?
I'm hashing out a collective of NPC Rock Gnomes who live in a small stone castle shaped like a Huge person, about 15 x 15 x 22 feet, which is the maximum size for a creature of Huge size. This ...
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What should I do when every PC has really low charisma (and it bothers me)?
I am currently working on a PnP which is a mixture of Traveller, DnD and some of my own game mechanics.
The attributes of PCs are pretty much the same as in DnD, and I also decided to have players ...
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Dragon Age RPG: Can a Mage Bind Spirits to Items Like Cannons?
My experience is limited to the Dragon Age games and a few RPG books (namely, a 2015 Core Rulebook, Players' and GM's Guide v1.2) and I've played Inquisition as an attempt to prime myself to write an ...
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Running Parallel Campaigns
So, as seems to frequently be the case with me, more players wish to be a part of my new campaign than I'm comfortable putting around one table (maybe 8). I toyed briefly with the idea of running two ...
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How can I plan a TPK finale that doesn't look planned?
A campaign I was GMing in the past abruptly stopped because of stuff IRL, with characters trapped in a tower in the center of a city that is being destroyed by a huge demon. When the group gets back ...
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How can a GM subtly guide characters into making campaign-specific character choices?
Note: the example I'm giving is D&D focussed, but the question is system-agnostic.
We're in the early days of a new D&D group. If it keeps running, I'm planning to transition the players into ...
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How do I promote my gaming campaigns?
I have two campaigns on two different sites and I need players. So how do I promote my games in order to get more players?
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Overcoming setting complexity paralysis as a GM
The problem
What are the best practices to overcome that certain “complexity paralysis” that may strike a GM when trying to learn and immerse himself in a setting that has a lot of intricate ...
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Is there need for messengers in DnD 5e, if spell Sending exists?
In my campaign (DnD 5e) I would like to send players on a quest to save a kidnapped person. The person has high value information. He/she was ambushed and taken prisoner.
My question is: is there a ...
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How do you discourage "player knowledge" as a GM?
As a trivial random encounter is winding down, a player thinks "That was too easy... The GM wouldn't give us an encounter that doesn't give XP," and starts searching for hidden bad guys or other clues....
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How do I help my players not get caught up on smaller plot points?
I just finished having a conversation with one of my players, and was led to a question I'm not sure I know how to answer.
I'm running a sandbox campaign (D&D 4e, if it makes a difference) where ...
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How do you seamlessly blend inspiration into a campaign?
Often I have campaigns that are inspired by things that are outside of genre and easily recognizable.
Lets take Vikings in Space for example. I could have a race ...
CommunityBot
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How much should I adjust the CR of encounters to compensate for PCs having very little GP?
I'm planning on running a Pathfinder campaign in which the PCs have very little gold. How much should I adjust the CR of encounters to compensate?
(If it's important, the gp will be probably about 25%...
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How do I run an adventure with the party in competition with an NPC party in a race for the MacGuffin?
I'm looking at the next leg of our campaign being a "race for the MacGuffin" scenario. The PCs (Rolemaster) have been chasing an evil sorceress for a while now. She is currently on her own but will ...
CommunityBot
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Can Blades in the Dark be played in a custom setting?
I'm looking at systems for my next campaign. Currently I really like the look of Blades in the Dark however I have one concern before I invest in buying the rulebook.
Every review of the system I ...
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How can I use powerful NPCs without overshadowing the player characters?
I’ve been playing P&P for years and have taken my first tentative steps into DM’ing over the last year, mostly leading One-Shots. I am also a passionate world-builder and so I jumped at the chance ...
CommunityBot
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Any good premade campaigns for beginners? [closed]
Does anyone know of some good premade campaigns for a small (not more than 5) players, all of whom are new to D&D? I want to start them at low level since they haven't played before. I'm finding ...
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