DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 10, 2015 16:04:04 GMT
Hey there! First off, I'd like to say thank you in advance to this amazing community. You guys are amazing and always so helpful! Anyway, on to my questions.
So, I'll be getting the DMG for Christmas and most likely the MM. I already have a group of players and they all have their characters fleshed out fairly well. Seeing as D&D is my obsession, I can't help myself from coming up with plot ideas but all of them are smaller, more character based things (like I have a jousting tournament with the older brother my paladin desperately wants to avoid or meeting back up with the man who dropped my cleric at a temple when she was young against her will).
I have two things that come kinda close to a large plot.
1) One PC was raised by a dragon who sent her to get an artifact. If the succeed and return it to the dragon, they discover that she's actually a fairly small and weak dragon but the gem would give her the power to control the current leader of all the dragons when they meet again at the next migration and the pcs might decide to stop her cause she probably shouldn't have that much power? Idk
2) In order to bring balance to the world, a deity or some celestial being creates the Aasimar (basically angel people) but one of the Aasimar they create misunderstands their intent and sees it as his mission to destroy the tieflings. One of my PCs is a tiefling and so i had some conflict there, but i didn't really know where it was going. He has a younger brother who's also an Aasimar but prefers peace and just wants his brother to be alright. May or may not ship him with my tiefling cleric.
Either way, I don't know what should be the main plot of my campaign. I had this problem when I would write stories too. I'm great at hooks and character development but i can never figure out where the story is going or what happens before the climax. Any help would be appreciated~!
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Post by Vulash on Dec 10, 2015 16:17:58 GMT
Here is my advice:
1) There doesn't HAVE to be a main plot. If you're really good at hooks and such, all you really need is a series of smaller plots while the characters fully establish their characters and ambitions, and then let it flow from there as the PCs decide they want to do things and say little things that give you ideas. This would be a sandbox style. I'm not saying this is what you should do, but it is an option - it depends a lot on the group. I'm trying to run this style right now, but my PCs aren't really doing their thing so I keep pushing things along, and a big plot is developing - also okay!
2) If you do decide to go with a main plot, which is always a great choice too, I would ease into it. I'll use your #2 as an example. Perhaps the Aasimar doesn't want to draw too much attention from his brethren, so he subtly recruits others to begin doing his work for him. Maybe at first they're trying to gather some items to help complete their goal (killing all of a race is a long term complicated mission - he wouldn't do this just one at a time). Perhaps the PCs are attacked at some point by some lower level followers of this group - bandits paid by a more strict follower. They think nothing of a bandit attack and move on. Later, they are attacked again, and this time there is a priest with them that has a symbol they've never seen,....etc etc. All while this is going on you're running your other smaller hooks - don't let this seem like the main plot right away, and let it slowly build and escalate. This is a good way to get a lot of mileage and drama out of the plot. You just need to keep dangling those carrots. Implied threats and intrigue are powerful tools.
3) If you just want ideas I'm sure the community would be happy to brainstorm in this thread! I don't want to presume though. If you do, it would help if you posted a little about the party. Some ideas could be related to characters and tied in, and others may not.
4) Long term plots don't necessarily need to be epic. You just need to the players to care about the outcome - this can open the doors to many new ideas that break away from the norm. Something really outside of the box might be a little tougher than you're wanting for your first run, but even a direct classic plot can be great without being on the epic scale. Maybe it's just a threat to the village? But spend some time having them connect to the village first.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 10, 2015 16:41:44 GMT
Wow! Thanks a ton! I hadn't even considered the things you brought up for the Aasimar plot but i can't believe i didnt' think of them now!
About my party, I have four members.
1. Thea Lyriel Evelyn Charlotte Veronica Brightshield III - Female Human Paladin If the name didn't give it away, Thea was born to a noble family. The ginger girl's parents are lesser nobles in my Homebrew kingdom of Imlas. Both her father and mother are strong believers in the "girls stay home, boys go fight" frame of mind and Thea always hated this. She has four older brothers: Allucard (basically their father, all buisness, moved out and married), Launce (prince charming but kind of a jerk. way too into himself, girls and booze), Cedric (the studious bae. Wants to be a diplomat. Kind of aloof) and Stephen (the down to earth youngest brother. In his 20s and still has no idea what he wants in life. Just became a knight cause dad said so). She also has a younger sister, Eglentine, a ditsy girl who likes to cook, eat and sleep. All the girls in Thea's Mother's family have been pledged to Boldrei, the Goddess of home and community, for as long as she can remember, including Thea and her sister. After pirates attacked their sea side town and Thea lead the troops to fight them, her mother decided this was too much excitement and "very improper" and decided to send her and her sister to the temple of boldrei to live and learn home making skills. Thea was having none of that and ran away in the night, (stealing launce's gear on the way). She headed for Watermouth, a large river city in which her child hood friend, Andrius Skywell resides.
2. "Pandora" Torment Karawen - Female Tiefling Cleric Torment and her mother lived in a small town on a farm. She never knew her father but her mother always spoke highly of him. At age 7 or 8, Torment's mother started dating one of the farm hands, a charming human who delivered the farmers crops to market. Although the man was attracted to the exotic tielfing woman, her "devil" child with no social grace was kind of off putting and he had never liked children anyway. Saying he wanted to "bond" with her, he got permission from her mother to take her with him to market in a nearby town. He promptly dropped her off at a temple and left, never to return. The priestesses were surprised, reading the note that said her parents could no longer care for her. They prayed mightily to their goddess, Mayaheine and she told them to take the child in, not only to expand their small faith but to change and make better this young tiefling girl. With the new name, Pandora, she grew up in the temple. One night, she received a vision stating that she would be an important part in growing Mayaheine's church. The next morning, the head cleric told her she was going on a pilgrimage. Pandora has no tact and is extremely gullible and excitable.
GTG but will add the last two when I return.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 10, 2015 21:26:26 GMT
k back 3. Gwedhiel Liadon - Female High Elf Sorcerer When Gwedhiel was young, her father went out and slew a young white dragon. Unfortunately for him, the mother was close by and set a curse upon their family, giving them sorcerous powers (perhaps maybe more sinister things I could bring out later in the campaign?). When the dragon returned to enjoy their sorrow, she realized they were happy with the new gift and slew her older sister. They thought she slew the younger brother as well but not in the mood to kill a 3 day old baby, she hid him somewhere else. The dragon, Hail Wing, took Gwedhiel to her cave on the frozen isle of the Ever Ice Reaches. There she raised her because she saw the talent she had as a sorcerer. Although things were rough at first, both grew to feel love towards the other eventually. Hail Wing focused strongly on cunning and using your wits (Gwedhiel has the Charlatan bg). When Gwedhiel turned 100, Hail Wing gave her a task to retrieve a gem encrusted box from a castle on the mainland and then dropped her off. Gwedhiel shortly ran into Pandora, fresh on her spiritual pilgrimage. being as gullible as she is, Pandora immediately fell for it when Gwedhiel said she'd help the tiefling "collect donations." Together, they traveled to Watermouth. 4. Perthor "Perth" - Male Half Elf Ranger So i hardly see this player and im having a hard time getting the character details from him. perhaps when finals week is over. What i know so far is that Perthor's first memories are of being along in the woods at about the age of 4. He grew up with nature in a place called the Wonder Wood, a dangerous forest in my world where the Fey Wild and this plane come close. He respects the fey but they can also be fairly annoying. I don't have much else, just a general picture of a simple, well mannered boy who grew up on his own, partially raised by the fey. When planning his mother, I created an eleven druid who was a single mom (half elves you know) who lost her son one day and while tracking him down got attacked by beasts. The beasts put her and her animal companion in bad shape and she fell unconscious. Knowing she would die soon and being unable to help, her companion dragged her to a forest nearby where a breed of fey (taken from Elfquest, one of my fav comics) that web up anything that sleeps in their bit of the wood, putting it into a coma like state where it doesn't age. That's why Perth was "abandoned" in the woods. So what do you think? I also have a map and a small description of the country they're starting in. sta.sh/0voxp47am8wsta.sh/0apecyz5jul
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Post by Vulash on Dec 10, 2015 21:37:52 GMT
Okay it's going to take me a bit to think all that over and give a proper response, but you've got some great character backgrounds there!
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Post by friartook on Dec 11, 2015 2:24:26 GMT
So, I'm going to read over your character posts later, but I have a couple points to throw out first.
1. Count yourself blessed that you've got a group of players comfortable enough with RP to come up with rich backgrounds. You should leverage that as much as you can/want to. If you do, then your players have already done a huge amount of your work for you.
2. On the subject of "central plot": Instead of coming up with a central story for your characters to participate in, consider creating a living world for the characters to live in. On a practical level: instead of coming up with a "plot", create a few NPCs and/or factions who have active agendas in the world. These NPCs/factions will work to accomplish their goals regardless of the PCs. (You've got a good start with your Aasimir idea.) Then your players can decide where and when they want to intervene based on their characters. In this approach, you should always be asking, "What would these NPCs do if the characters weren't there?" Being able to answer that question will allow you to create real and vibrant reactions to the PCs decisions.
More later...
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 11, 2015 2:36:53 GMT
1. Count yourself blessed that you've got a group of players comfortable enough with RP to come up with rich backgrounds. 2. Instead of coming up with a central story for your characters to participate in, consider creating a living world for the characters to live in. create a few NPCs and/or factions who have active agendas in the world. These NPCs/factions will work to accomplish their goals regardless of the PCs. Thanks a ton for the feedback! 1. I really am blessed to be playing with my best friends, all really creative writers and artists who love character development. I can already tell this will be a campaign heavily focused on rp. I was talking to Pandora's Player (i'll call her Jade) and said just kinda off the cuff, "yeah, I've already made some NPCs, one of them i made specifically just so he can have a tragic death, lol." Jade immediately started considering what this would do to Pandora and how it would change the naive way she looked at life! I was very impressed. 2. That's a good idea, especially because I really think this should be a pretty sandboxy campaign. I want to give them freedom to explore and have fun. I'm basing the play style heavily on the way my Sempai, Matt Mercer, DMs the show Critical Role on Geek and Sundry. He's really amazing, you all should check the show out.
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Post by friartook on Dec 11, 2015 4:55:39 GMT
So, if you really want to run a successful sandbox campaign (I will abstain from judging whether or not this is a good idea as a first time DM and offer what constructive help I can) the most important job you have as a DM is making sure the world is fleshed out, especially the area around where the PCs will be starting out.
Here's why: players will always find a way to throw a monkey wrench in to your expectations. Running a sandbox campaign is a great way to embrace this. You're basically saying to your players, "Do whatever you want, I'm ready." Which is great...if you're ready!
This leads me to my #1 bit of DM advice: Be prepared to improvise! So how do you prepare to improvise? You have a few "random" encounters ready, you have pre-generated NPCs ready to go, and you have (at the very least) a general idea of the population and geography of the area the PCs are in.
I'll elaborate a bit on each key point:
"Random" encounters: These aren't really random, but they may feel random to the PCs. Basically, you need to know that if the PCs take the south road out of town, there's a band of Hobgoblin brigands holed up in a cave complex near the road, raiding caravans and unwary travelers. Is this encounter guaranteed to happen? No, but if the PCs head south and you feel the need to throw an encounter at them, you have one ready. Have a few of these, keep them vague and modular. Perhaps the PCs take the north road instead. If it suits your purposes, you can just say that cave complex you had planned was on the north road instead. Don't spend a lot of time planning these encounters, just make sure you have an idea of what the caves are like at the stat blocks you'd need ready.
Pre-generated NPCs: Just a name and persona is all you need. Maybe not even that if you're good at on the fly name generation. I am terrible at it, so I keep a short list of names I can use as well as a few stat blocks just in case. I also have a few stock "voices"; the shady goods dealer (vaguely New Jerseyish), the confused elderly innkeeper (hard of hearing and hard to talk to), the belligerent local bully (think Lenny from Of Mice and Men, but mean).
Geography: I am not saying you need a great and detailed map of the area, although there's nothing wrong with having one (and probably a lot right with having one). I'm just saying you need to have an idea of what the area is like. Do the PCs start in a town? If so, what's that town like? Is it a big city, a tiny village, or a busy cross roads trading town? Are the PCs locals, or strangers to town? Is there a river or lake the town is on? Things like that. These details will help you create flavor on the fly when/if you need to.
Hope this is helpful and not confusing. If you have an questions or you'd like further clarification on anything, I'm more than willing to write about these topics ad nauseam.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 11, 2015 5:10:07 GMT
Thanks a ton! I suppose i could run a few pregenerated like one shots to practice but i've always found them sort of confining. I have taken drama classes so I'm fairly confident in my ability to improvise as far as social interaction but these tips really help. I'll make sure to have a folder of these nearby. <3
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Post by joatmoniac on Dec 11, 2015 7:18:41 GMT
I think a pregen could help, but only to give some structure right out the gate. Certainly be ready and willing to throw it all aside, haha. I think that a great idea that Friartook taught me through example is to record your sessions. Not with the intent of a high production podcast or anything, and of course the consent of your players, but to help you. If you run a true sandbox and are making things up on the fly then you will need to remember those things. If you were to write down notes along the way that could become time consuming and potentially break the flow of the game. With the recording you can just relisten, get ideas from players that you might have missed, retcon on the off chance that things got away from you, and so on. Friar's advice about the NPC's plans happening regardless of player interaction was definitely one of the ideas I was planning on suggesting as well, haha. I also like the Aasamir plot a little better as it has more meat on its bones for doing story. I think that the dragon plot could be interesting with more items involved, essentially mcguffins, but who else wants them? The other twist there could be how indebted the player is that was raised by the dragon, and what they are willing to look past or fight to make happen because of it. Good ideas, and now a great community to use as a sound board. Glad to have you join the Block Party!
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Post by friartook on Dec 11, 2015 15:18:04 GMT
Thanks a ton! I suppose i could run a few pregenerated like one shots to practice but i've always found them sort of confining. I have taken drama classes so I'm fairly confident in my ability to improvise as far as social interaction but these tips really help. I'll make sure to have a folder of these nearby. <3 I agree completely about pregen modules. I always feel like they don't really save on prep time, it's just a different kind of prep. When running a module my prep feels like homework, whereas my prep for homebrew feels more like a pleasant creative endeavor. I want to be clear that I am not discouraging you from running a home brew sandbox style game. I do think its the the equivalent of leaning to swim by diving into deep ocean, but if you want to dive in, by all means go for it! I consider an open world game to be the pinnacle of fantasy role playing campaigns. Having that theater background will help for sure! I'm no actor, and I know many of my NPCs sound like one another. Not my greatest strength. As to recording sessions: I can't recommend it enough. Recording my session not only helped me in tracking my open world, it has also helped me improve my DM "voice". I've heard the places where I faltered and what did and didn't work. In the thick of a session, its sometimes hard to tell where and when the high points are, for the DM, the players, and the group as a whole. You don't need any fancy equipment either. I just use my iPhone's built in mic and voice memo app. The recordings sound surprisingly good! Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 11, 2015 15:34:30 GMT
Thanks a ton you guys! This is my favorite part about the DMB: the community.
I will definitely record my sessions, especially so I can have these great memories forever. May start off with a different, practice campaign like the prison break one chris and mitch talked about. Something small enough that I can have all the big ideas filled out like geography and important npcs so I can get a hold of dming. Srsy can't wait for my dmg for Christmas.
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Dec 11, 2015 16:27:08 GMT
There is nothing much I can do, but emphasize what others have already said (the others who told me the same things when starting out)! For starting out this is a great place to learn from. The DMB episode for DMs is also really helpful as well as DMnastics #28. Cannot wait to hear how it goes... And hope that nobody sky dives from towers, like they did in my first game.
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Post by friartook on Dec 11, 2015 16:40:23 GMT
Cannot wait to hear how it goes... And hope that nobody sky dives from towers, like they did in my first game. Eff that! Hope that they DO!
One of our most memorable moments from our last campaign was when the rogue decided to make a leap of faith off a 2000ft tall tree and attempt to land on the back of a flying giant eagle that was already carrying two other people.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Dec 12, 2015 6:28:13 GMT
Okay I had an idea today I want to run by you all.
I was already going to start my campaign in south watermouth, (marked on the map on the big river). The pcs would want to enter a tournament - big money prize or a kiss for the winner or whatever - thats basically an obstacle course for adventurers, kinda like a mini dungeon where one half takes a more int based puzzle/traps route and the other a challenging path to retrieve an object requiring athletics or dex. The two groups then meet up to fight a clay golem or a construct designed to leave a target alone when said target goes close to death. Clerica are on standby to pull them out of the ring and administer healing. The games require a team of four and the pcs are grouped together.
So my idea was, what if one of the mercenaries hired by Glory, the aasimar extremist, is there to start pixking off the tieflings in town or is simply there on another job. He takes control of the golem or changes the way it attacks and causes havoc. The pcs defeat it and are heroes while also creating some of the intrigue you talked about.
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