D&D 5E New DM help if you would be so kind

If you jave Volo's a Boggle hiding under bed twisting the dreams of villagers...

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A vampire menacing the town can be small, simple, and is fantasy-based while still being familiar to non-gamers.

Plus, if the players glom onto that mystery and want more from it afterward, you can make that vampire a servant of a greater lord, and a bigger mystery.

Or if it's not their thing, you can drop that plot entirely and move on to other stuff.

Satyrn said:

A vampire menacing the town can be small, simple, and is fantasy-based while still being familiar to non-gamers.

Plus, if the players glom onto that mystery and want more from it afterward, you can make that vampire a servant of a greater lord, and a bigger mystery.

Or if it's not their thing, you can drop that plot entirely and move on to other stuff.

Click to expand...

Starting at 1st level. is that doable? How would that look?

rgoodbb said:

Starting at 1st level. is that doable? How would that look?

Click to expand...

You start by making it weaker than normal (like a vampire spawn instead) if you're looking for this to be resolved by combat.

But new players can surprise you in shocking ways. A vampire is deadly - and they will know this if they know vampires at all - so they may very well try something other than fighting it. Perhaps, still violently, they'll ambush it. Or if they're Twilight fans they might try talking it out (or seducing it! ), or they can decide to gather a lynchmob, or maybe even just present their evidence to the constabulary and let them deal with it.

That's just scratching the surface. It could play out in massively different ways.

Your job is to frame the mystery and go along with whatever your players decide on for solution.

(But yeah, make it something more like the power of a vampire spawn - though I say that with never having seen the stat blocks for either a vampire or a spawn)

OK. Re Vamp Spawn. How does this sound as a side quest/mystery

If things are grinding to a halt a little I have a mother come up to the druid and ask if she heals or knows anything about medicine. If they agree, I get the mother to take the party to her home where her baby is sick. It is very pale and constantly crying. On investigation, under the swaddling they look at her neck and find puncture marks....

If they wait in ambush, a vamp spawn comes back, but upon attack it flees with some message or other.

Does that sound about right for starters? As you say if it catches the players imagination, I follow through with it next time.

That's an excellent little snippet. Keep it in your backpocket.

If you can invent a couple more little snippets with different ideas (A pickpocket scenario, say, and a bullied beggar come to mind, but find some way to add fantasy into it) you can then choose the best one for the moment based on what your players say and do during the game.

Like, if they mention vampires at some point, use that one. Or if you learn they're werewolf fans in some way you can make the beggar or the bullies one at that point. Etc.

Use them as little improv aids, only partly fleshed out, easily expanded on or readily discarded as needed.

But don't let me lead you astray from making the main quest, either.

Thanks very much Satyrn.

I now have a clear and understandable way of expanding our world and making it a bit more sand-boxy based upon what catches the player's interests after the initial story. I think I was missing that bit in my mind.

For the main plot, I think I'll go Hobgoblin boss and have a riddle that rewards Slippers of Spider Climbing. I don't think that is too powerful.

One last question either for yourself and/or anyone else
How do folks feel about getting the players to help dress the world with the non-essential things like;
A tavern stands before you What is the name of that Tavern? etc.

rgoodbb said:

One last question either for yourself and/or anyone else
How do folks feel about getting the players to help dress the world with the non-essential things like;
A tavern stands before you What is the name of that Tavern? etc.

Click to expand...

I don't do exactly that, but it's something that I would do.

I'm quite blatant about making things up as I go, and letting the players' table talk influence my choices, including details that are "important." For example, a player might make a comment about an NPC's clothing or motives or whatever and I'll respond with "Sure, let's go with that." Or a player will say "oh we're sitting ducks for an ambush" and I'll say "hey, that's a good idea, and it fits with what's going on. So uh, roll Perception to see if you notice it"

That's probably too transparent a method for some people, so go less than that. Again, my advice is start small - your tavern name idea is perfect. You can either do blatantly like you describe to show the players you're including them in the world building, or you can use it to hide the fact you're improvising the tavern into existence: Look at your notes for some other thing and say something like "oh, I forgot to name this tavern. Anyone got one for it?"

Do it on something small like that, see how it works for you and your players, and then continue on with it or stop.

(Trial and error on a small scale during the game is really a rather necessary way to learn to DM, is what I'm saying)

rgoodbb said:

OK. Re Vamp Spawn. How does this sound as a side quest/mystery

If things are grinding to a halt a little I have a mother come up to the druid and ask if she heals or knows anything about medicine. If they agree, I get the mother to take the party to her home where her baby is sick. It is very pale and constantly crying. On investigation, under the swaddling they look at her neck and find puncture marks....

If they wait in ambush, a vamp spawn comes back, but upon attack it flees with some message or other.

Does that sound about right for starters? As you say if it catches the players imagination, I follow through with it next time.

Click to expand...

That's a good hook. If you want you can seed a few rumours or bits of info around town as well about mysterious figures in the night, crawling up buildings or some such. Depending on how close you are sticking to the lore, you might want to address the whole "can only enter a home when invited" thing, but that could also potentially be another aspect of the mystery ie; someone who has permission to enter the house is a vampire at this point or you can simply not follow that lore in your world. Vampire spawn are nasty but someone in the party or town might know of some of the vampire (spawn)'s weaknesses, which could make strategic combat a reasonable proposition.

At the very least when confronted with the child's injuries you probably want let the players know (through a party member's knowledge or an NPC) that the wound is likely from X creature, and that X creature is likely to do Y (Y being what you think is likely ie; coming back at night). You also probably want to give the PCs an idea of just how powerful creature X is, particularly with a "out of their league" threat, so they know they will need to be particularly strategic to overcome them.

This is assuming I have grasped the intent of the encounter, that Vampires are not an unheard of thing in the world, and that "knowledge" of them exists at least in myths and stories.

rgoodbb said:

One last question either for yourself and/or anyone else
How do folks feel about getting the players to help dress the world with the non-essential things like;
A tavern stands before you What is the name of that Tavern? etc.

Click to expand...

I like the idea, but it is one thing among many that can diminish the sense that the PCs are in a "real" world. I have had players tell me that when the world described seems to be edited at the table it "breaks their immersion" to some degree. So, personally I prefer to let them fill in details at the start of the adventure, then limit in-game contributions of that nature to things like filling out details of their backstory. My players tend to have a HUGE impact on the world though, just through in-game actions like buying the inn and putting their name on it... or burning it down.

Really, it is just a preference thing, either way is fine.