D&D 5E Campaign Idea: Very Rare Magic Items at Lv. 1

[doppelgangerstudios]

Been workshopping an idea for a new campaign. All characters start at 1st level, standard rules except for one important addition: every player may choose one (1) Very Rare magic item. It can be from any book, and the DM has no say in the matter. They can incorporate that item into their history and begin play with it.

PLOT TWIST: during the first session, the players end up facing a difficult choice, the BBEG will blow everyone away unless they fork over the items. Using the items in any way also results in the characters being disintegrated. It’s made abundantly clear the choice is lose your items or die, leaving the campaign.

PLOT TWIST: The players are left with some clues as to where the BBEG went.

PLOT TWIST: When they find the BBEG’s lair, the BBEG is gone but the items have all been destroyed.

PLOT TWIST: The players hear of an archmage that may be able to repair the items.

PLOT TWIST: When they finally get to the archmage, the mage tells them the items have been permanently destroyed. Enterprising players may interpret the campaign gimmick as a goal, and may suggest finding a way to create new versions of the items, maybe even using the pieces to model the items.

PLOT TWIST: If the players try to get around the destruction, they are greeted with another difficulty. Not only have the items been destroyed, the magic that created them was permanently warped. Those particular items are now impossible to recreate, they are effectively globally banned from the campaign world.

PLOT TWIST: Every once in awhile an NPC suggests that maybe there is hope if the BBEG is defeated. Once the party kill him, they find it changes nothing. Other NPCs periodically suggest that the items were important in some way or that something may still be done to get them back. Unfortunately, it’s always a ruse, a pretext to waste the party’s time or accomplish the NPC’s selfish goal. As the campaign progresses, the ruses become less convincing and the NPCs voicing them become less motivated to do so, moving from “I’m using you by lying about the items” to “I’m mocking you, knowing that mentioning them angers you” to a final, terminal energy of “I’m half-heartedly mentioning what is certainly a lie about the items for no apparent gain”.

Basically the rest of the campaign writes itself. Ideally, the BBEG is dead by level 4 and the rest of the action is whatever. The important part is the items and how they’ll never, ever make it into the campaign. Even future games set in the world should not feature them.

Not sure if it needs any more spice, but anyway that’s the idea

 

[Savage Wombat]

Maybe you have different players than I'm used to, but this seems to me like a recipe to frustrate and anger your group. Sorry.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

By halfway through the first “plot twist” (you keep using that word…), I’d ask the DM what the point of the campaign is, and if they give a straight answer tell them no, and that they should have been upfront when pitching the campaign in the first place.

 

[doppelgangerstudios]

By halfway through the first “plot twist” (you keep using that word…), I’d ask the DM what the point of the campaign is, and if they give a straight answer tell them no, and that they should have been upfront when pitching the campaign in the first place.

This is fair, but I think I’d tell the player that if I were to reveal my twists or the point, I’d be ruining the surprise. But you bring up a valid point. If you asked what the point was, I’d tell you something true: that you choosing those items is important to the rest of the campaign abd you’ll see soon that the decision changed the campaign world forever. That way, it’s true AND you’re still surprised (the way the world changes being that it’s impossible to have those items anymore)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is fair, but I think I’d tell the player that if I were to reveal my twists or the point, I’d be ruining the surprise. But you bring up a valid point. If you asked what the point was, I’d tell you something true: that you choosing those items is important to the rest of the campaign abd you’ll see soon that the decision changed the campaign world forever. That way, it’s true AND you’re still surprised (the way the world changes being that it’s impossible to have those items anymore)

No. This would be a great way to get an entire group to never want you to DM again.

 

[doppelgangerstudios]

Maybe you have different players than I'm used to, but this seems to me like a recipe to frustrate and anger your group. Sorry.

Players are often quite clever and lay the best plans to waste. One advantage this idea has I think is the ability to continue to challenge players that often find circuitous routes to success. It’s more for a veteran group, who will find no such route exists

 

[CleverNickName]

Welcome to ENWorld, @doppelgangerstudios!

I strongly recommend against giving them something that you are just going to take away in the first gaming session. That is always going to feel like a sucker-punch, and you are always going to look like a jerk. You can keep calling it a "plot twist," but your players are not going to call it that (they're gonna call it something else entirely.)

A better hook would be to tell your players to pick one magic item from any book, as you describe. Tell them that they aren't going to start the game with that item per se, but rather, they get to start with a fragment of it and have to find the rest of the pieces. Or they'll start with a treasure map that will lead them to the item's location. Or something along those lines. Let them know that as they complete different quests, they will be rewarded with that item by the time they reach a certain level, so that they can take that into consideration when rolling up their characters and choosing the item.

But don't give them something just so they can watch you take it away, over and over again, as "a ruse, a pretext to waste the party’s time." Very few players will stand for that.

 

[Maxperson]

This is fair, but I think I’d tell the player that if I were to reveal my twists or the point, I’d be ruining the surprise. But you bring up a valid point. If you asked what the point was, I’d tell you something true: that you choosing those items is important to the rest of the campaign abd you’ll see soon that the decision changed the campaign world forever. That way, it’s true AND you’re still surprised (the way the world changes being that it’s impossible to have those items anymore)

If it were me and I was given a rare item at 1st level to incorporate into my backstory, I'd be pissed that it got taken away and destroyed like that. A temporary loss would be okay, but it shouldn't take long to get them back.

I think you'd be better off just leaving them with the items and compensating by making the encounters a bit harder to keep things balanced. It will be much more fun for them.

 

[doppelgangerstudios]

No. This would be a great way to get an entire group to never want you to DM again

If it were me and I was given a rare item at 1st level to incorporate into my backstory, I'd be pissed that it got taken away and destroyed like that. A temporary loss would be okay, but it shouldn't take long to get them back.

I think you'd be better off just leaving them with the items and compensating by making the encounters a bit harder to keep things balanced. It will be much more fun for them.

That’s an interesting idea but I’m not sure it works with the BBEG concept, which is “this enemy is here to destroy the items”. His big speech in the 1st adventure “Good! You’re here. Now hand me your magic or be blasted to dust. I will permanently destroy them all” barely makes sense. If he doesn’t target the items, it’s confusing. If he fails, he’s hardly big bad and evil now is he?

 

[doppelgangerstudios]

Welcome to ENWorld, @doppelgangerstudios!

I strongly recommend against giving them something that you are just going to take away in the first gaming session. That is always going to feel like a sucker-punch, and you are always going to look like a jerk. You can keep calling it a "plot twist," but your players are not going to call it that (they're gonna call it something else entirely.)

A better hook would be to tell your players to pick one magic item from any book, as you describe. Tell them that they aren't going to start the game with that item per se, but rather, they get to start with a fragment of it and have to find the rest of the pieces. Or they'll start with a treasure map that will lead them to the item's location. Or something along those lines. Let them know that as they complete different quests, they will be rewarded with that item by the time they reach a certain level, so that they can take that into consideration when rolling up their characters and choosing the item.

But don't give them something just so they can watch you take it away, over and over again, as "a ruse, a pretext to waste the party’s time." Very few players will stand for that.

Thank you for the welcome! I’m thinking this one over. I think the one confusing thing is, I wouldn’t be taking the item, it would be the BBEG. The players will have an opportunity early along to slay him for what he’s done. They’ll just also see the damage has already been done. The NPCs wasting their time are similiarly vulnerable to attack—they’ll learn that certain problems though can’t be undone solely through violence