Questions tagged [campaign-development]
For questions about writing, managing, and expanding campaigns.
328
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How to use a player's backstory without ignoring the other players?
I have a player with a really good backstory. It includes a character who could honestly be one of, if not the main, BBEG of our campaign. I’m scared that if I use their backstory, I might end up ...
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How do I prepare a longer campaign for mixed-experience players?
After having searched for a moment I found that this question (although seemingly commonplace) was not yet answered, so sorry if this is a duplicate.
I'm a DM preparing a new 5th-edition D&D ...
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Reasons for being sent to retrieve an all-powerful artefact? [closed]
I'm considering (first time) DM'ing "The Silvyr Tower" for a group. However I am not sure how to sell the starting situation to my players.
Summarizing the starting situation: the group is ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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 ...
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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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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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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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Accidentally let party wander into a high level situation, how do I help them get out without cheesing?
TL;DR - due to poor planning on my part in my sandbox-esque game, a party of four Level 5s (fighter, warlock, non-healer bard, wizard) is about to wander into a high level situation and I'd like them ...
user61367
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How can a GM continue to progress the campaign if the player characters cause a plot-critical item or NPC to be lost/killed? [duplicate]
I'm not familiar with role-playing games so apologies if this question is poorly worded.
As an example of what I'm thinking of, suppose the player characters are on a ship, which capsizes. While ...
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How to run a month-long chase in Star Wars D&D
I am running a D&D 5e Star Wars campaign. The characters received a prophecy that told them the only way to prevent galaxy-ending destruction was to kill the Sith Lord, and that it must be done ...
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Help making my villain who wants to rid my D&D world of all magic [closed]
So, who I plan on making the big bad of my current campaign (a powerful wizard who tapped into the magic of the void and is almost invincible [ofc not really cause they need to be beatable] when it ...
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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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Is Having my Players Control Two Parties a Good Idea?
I'm new to DMing, and I'm currently working on a 5e homebrew campaign that I'll be running. At some point in the campaign (most likely towards the middle; this campaign will probably average-length), ...
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How do I deal with too many NPCs in my campaign?
I'm a first-time GM using the Fate Core system. I got into RPGs to help me work on my storytelling while having fun with my friends, so I've been GMing a homebrew campaign for about a year now. ...
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Should I discuss the type of campaign with my players?
The campaign I’m preparing is designed to give the illusion of choice via side quests and an open world (not really open), but with a main story line that will be pushed into them sooner or later. The ...
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How can I deliver in-universe written lore to players without it being dry exposition?
I DM for a D&D (5e) group in a custom campaign setting which I worldbuild as we go. One of my players is very much interested in the history and lore of the world and often tries to find out bits ...
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How do I make my players solve riots and rebellions in BESM diplomatically, rather than joining said riots to beat people up?
I would like to incorporate stuff like riots and rebellions and such during my campaign where the PCs will have to play diplomat or risk tension growing, and not have them simple join one side or the ...
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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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How do I make my campaign feel less linear? How do I make PC decisions Rewarding? [closed]
This is my first campaign as a GM and I feel that I need to give my players more options, or the ability to make more decisions, and sometimes when they make big decisions, I feel like I am not ...
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How can I avoid railroading in a sci-fi campaign?
I run a fantasy campaign and a sci-fi campaign. I always find it much easier to create interesting content in the fantasy world than the sci-fi world. In fantasy, for instance, a dungeon can be many ...
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How do you transition from a one-shot to a campaign?
In previous games that I have both DMed and played, both homebrewed and published adventures, the games seemed to go nowhere. We went into the dungeon, slayed the things, looted the things, and left. ...
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How to balance a campaign without a magical restoration
I'm currently GMing a Starfinder game for a group consisting of an Envoy, a Mechanic, two Soldiers, and an Operative. With the Operative acting as a jack-of-all-skills, I'm less worried about mystical ...
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In a homebrew campaign, how should I set CR for lesser and Boss monsters? [closed]
I am currently trying to make a campaign, and I am steadily homebrewing new monsters, all the way up to the boss at the end. I am aware of how CR works, but unsure how my monsters would shape up ...
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When making a campaign, how liberal can you get with "homebrewing" in 5e? [closed]
Unsure how far to go.
If you want to make your campaign really interesting, how far can you go in making new monsters, artifacts, and such?
Essentially, should you be able to create entire new ...
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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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I may be crazy for wanting a completely PvP campaign [closed]
So, recently I hatched the genius idea to design a free for all campaign. After about ten minutes, I said to myself this isn't going to work. Later that month I was thinking about it a little more and ...
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How can I pick my players’ brains for what they’d like to play?
In our group there's me (85% of the time as GM) and two other players. We have played for about three years, approx. 20 times a year. Sometimes we see each other outside sessions as well, we're ...
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How to balance a campaign where the gods are dead, making divine classes infeasible? [closed]
Ok so I’m a new-ish DM. I’m not familiar with the lore of D&D 5e, like I don’t know a lot about gods or the pantheon or anything like that. However, I want to write a campaign where all of the ...
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How to run a diverse campaign without a magic user [closed]
So right now the party I'm going to GM for wants to be 3 Soldiers (vesk, orc, android; sniper, ?, armor storm) and 1 operative (vesk; ghost). No one wants to be a caster. They're pretty deadset on ...
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How can I make a "quest chain" not a blatant quest chain?
I'm creating a one shot where a group of adventures get an invitation from an old wizard to get together and play a game with him. This game consists of pushing the players to their moral limits ...
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