Adventure ideas

[warfangiscuter]

My first DnD campaign was a disgrace. I made my PCs meet in a tavern, had them get way too much gold and even let them finish my campaign at level 2. I may be a writer, but for some reason I suck at creating plots for campaigns. I also suck at planning. So give me some ideas! Oh, and if you have HALO related things, post them on this link: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?340444-HALO-ODST-CAMPAIGN! Thank you. I need a lot of help.

 

[Gilladian]

Sounds like maybe what you need is some advice on how to DM - which is very different than "adventure plot" ideas. But for adventure plots, I'd suggest picking up a product like Eureka - http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/82670/Eureka-501-Adventure-Plots-to-Inspire-Game-Masters

It has plots suitable for all genres and types of campaigns...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Agree with [MENTION=2093]Gilladian[/MENTION], think this is more of DMing than plot. Some thoughts:

• Build backgrounds with your players. Do the 10 questions, where are you from, who is your family, why did you hit the road, etc.
• Don't do all the work yourself, have the players do some of it. Let the players tell you how they meet and become an team.
• Remember for every action, there is a reaction. Burn down a few inns and someone is going to be known as an arsonist! Remember there are lots of laws, city, country, guild, church, noble.

As far as plots, some can come from the back stories of your players and some can be current events converted to you game. Example of this is that alligator season just started in some states and their have been some big gators killed, 750lbs 13.5 feet ranges. In a fantasy game, use a giant land lizard and let the players go hunting.

 

[warfangiscuter]

I understand that I'm not a great DM, but I asked for plots, not criticism. I can get advice anywhere.

 

[Dioltach]

At low levels, I'd start small: two or three stand-alone dungeons, perhaps. But if you're looking at creating a long-term campaign with a sense of continuity, you could have an opposing party investigate the first dungeon while the PCs are there, and later the PCs discover that the second party work for the same people as the boss in the second dungeon, while the third dungeon centres on an ally or nemesis of the behind-the-scenes bad guys.

I find that it's a bad idea to begin 1st/2nd level characters with a complete campaign: at those levels, most players, in my experience, want the simple joys of dungeon crawling without the responsibility to save the world. But that doesn't mean that what they do now should not have repercussions.

 

[warfangiscuter]

At low levels, I'd start small: two or three stand-alone dungeons, perhaps. But if you're looking at creating a long-term campaign with a sense of continuity, you could have an opposing party investigate the first dungeon while the PCs are there, and later the PCs discover that the second party work for the same people as the boss in the second dungeon, while the third dungeon centres on an ally or nemesis of the behind-the-scenes bad guys.

That's really clever!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Okay, I do plots a bit strange in my games, I have a lot of things happening along a timeline. The players pick an adventure and focus on that but other things are happening along the campaign timeline. Here is part of it and how I build it out, I am anal...Player may overlap on adventures. If the players do not follow the adventure, the events happen as I have plotted them out. I keep adding adventures the longer the campaign goes on.
Plot ideas:

• To kill a King - Part 1) players are hired to to dungeon crawl for a special knife. Takes place not all that far from the city, low level encounters. Part 2) players are hired to kidnap a traveler (unknown to them the prince of the realm), if your party is not up for kidnapping they are support to the group doing the kidnapping (they just do not have to know who the target is and what is really happening), really all they have to be is on site. Part 3) Based the actions in Part B) the players are to provide the kidnapped to a different group at another dungeon, unless they are opposed the kidnapping, then they have to stop it! Part 4) Ending action, either the prince is killed or saved.
• Weapons for Orcs - (Takes place as Part A of to Kill A King) Part A) players are hired to find out who is supplying orcs new weapons and armor. Part B) Orc are raiding the border lands, player are to find their key outputs and provide maps back to backer. Part C) Orcs are taking slaves, player have to find them and report back to backer. Part D) Kill all orcs.

 

[DesOps]

Starting out it is best to think of an adventure hook, or specific story you want to tell your gaming group. It could be something you read in a book, or just a cool idea you have had floating in your head. Flesh it out with bullet points on paper. Loot and experience should be a far afterthought.

 

[MrBigUK]

Start small and simple. Keep the initial action contained, then spread out along the lines of interest shown by the players. Don't hold too rigidly to an overarching campaign plot. If the players take it in different directions then go with them.
My best received campaign (that I have run a few times over the years for different groups) starts with the party being hired as caravan guards, has a few seemingly unconnected events to start (caravan owners annoying daughter kidnapped / ran away, sent to collect item from wizard in lonely tower who has been slain by who?, build up of goblinoid activity). It ends with the discovery of a lost city civilization and the resolution of a major invasion by the empire next door.
Different groups have had many different experiences within this framework. Different npc's became important. Different character backgrounds lead to different discoveries (what do you mean the elves aren't gone after all and I'm half elven!?)
don't be too rigid to begin with. Have a basic idea and adapt.
oh and if you can find the long out of print basic expert cross over module Night's Dark Terror I have plundered that completely many times over. An excellent campaign.

 

[Mage of Spellford]

Hi,

I always try and tailor the first few adventures for the characters. I also like to change one or two "facts" about vanilla d&d, something simple, just to provide that sense of mystery and unbalance veteran players a little bit.

Example: One group consisted of a thief, a ranger, and a druid. The starting adventure was based upon a merchant caravan, run by a shadowy organization that was shipping a cage full of captured Tressym's. IMC Tressym's were much sought after as familiars by elf magic users and the "find familiar spell" operated as a form of enslavement rather than the symbiotic relationship commonly used in typical d&d.

This incensed the druid and the ranger providing their motivation. The thief in turn was planning on robbing the caravan and ended up fleeing along with the others when their attempt at a jail-break for the Tressyms failed and the thief was nearly caught with the others.

In this adventure the "bad" guys weren't truly evil and thus if they had caught the heroes they would have turned them over to the authorities. They also used non-lethal force when possible.

To be fair, this was the first of many hooks that I had planned to bring the characters into conflict with the elves and the "slavers". Fortunately they ran with it. Good times.

My preference is to minimize the opportunities for no-choice combats when dealing with low-level parties. I stay away from dungeons at first because I find 'em too combat oriented.

Hope that helps ya.

MK