D&D General World building and session prep ideas

[Racing Breca]

Hey all,
New DM here.
Like many DM's, I enjoy creating large world changing events and thrusting my players into the thick of things. I'm finding it difficult to slow play the plot and allow the campaign to spiral out from the players naturally.
I am currently running a game in which the players live on a desert island with only a Dwarven civilization mining into a lone mountain, and a port city slowly decaying into ruin.
A thousand years ago, the island was a lush forest, home to powerful Wood Elves and forest creatures. When the Dwarves began harvesting Dragonwood from the forest to make Darksteel, the elves conspired with the Eladrin of the Feywild to transport the forest away from the material plane into a parallel dimension, to protect it.
I keep catching myself trying to thrust the players forward into my plot, rather than letting them get there naturally. I know that I'd rather create episodic adventures that tease out this reality in incremental steps.
What tips do you have for this process?
What PC objectives come to your mind within the world that we are creating at my table?
Thank you,

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Depends on what your party composition would be, TBH. If you're having Eladrin and elves and dwarves, they might want naturally to find a modus vivendi that is mutually benefitting to both groups. But, in order to prompt that, you'd have to make sure that everyone was acting in good faith in the backstory leading to this (or there is a way to punish the guilty) and have Elves be unhappy with the current setup (so they have a vested interest in looking forward to returning back to the island. Same if your PCs are all hailing from the decaying port city, they'd be interested in making it thrive and therefore look for a solution to make darksteel trading resume, which isn't something that will happen without them.

Or they could try to find new trading routes and embark on a ship to explore nearby island in search of thing that would be worth trading at their port: do not underestimate what players will do, they are wildcards. I'd recommand having a (very standard, but since you're a self-avowed new DM) "session 0" where you ask the players what themes they would like to explore, in broad strokes: maybe they'll feel they want to explore the world and interact with it, and feel cramped on a desert island? It's worth knowing before you create a lot of plot points that will be prepped for nothing.

If you want to introduce the setting in episodic way, have their first task to be "gaining understanding of the situation". They live in a crummy port city, with dwarves in nearby mine. OK. They don't necessarily know what happened, and if the forest didn't disappear overnight, nobody might remember about it in the (presumably human, shorter lived than elves and dwarves) port. So, sent them on a pretty standard exploration (our live suck, we were supposed to board a sailing travelling ship, but a fire happened and its mast was destroyed... We're out of luck... let's try exploring the ruins that are supposed to hold a treasure, maybe it will change our live!" Meanwhile, use NPC interaction to make them learn that losing a merchant ship is a big deal because there is no longer any large ironwood tree to make masts and the community just lost an important asset, as their merchant fleet as been diminishing over centuries, since they could no longer build new ships and only cannibalizing others for spare parts. Have them explore their ruins and see bas-relief with a lush forest, prompting a mystery: what happened to the forest and the strange creatures depicted besides the elves (eladrin)... and where are the elves BTW? So episodically, they might go see the dwarves (have a few adventures where the background about darksteel item being rare and once produced there imparted to them) and befriend them if they are helpful enough... then they might learn about the forest of old (the elder dwarves have seen them, but most dwarves think it's just a story...) but they might not be able to cast a planeshift spell, so they should look for a ritual opening the gate in the ruins they visited in adventure one (yes, the megalithic structure was a dimensional gate, but how to open it?" Then once they are ready to cross to the other side, have a few adventure to befriend the eladrin an let them know of their problem, so in the end they can work out a solution.

BUT do not imagine how the elves and dwarves could "make peace" yourself. The players will certainly suggest TENS of ways while talking between themselves at your table. Support them. Players like to be heroes and that might be "discovering what was hidden" but sometimes it's difficult to make them find it without railroading them, so... don't have (too much of a) plan. Reward imagination and engaging with the world by having one of their solutions be "the best one" and enable it.

If you want the story to evolves from the players, implement the themes they like (discussed at session 0) to make a world interesting so they'll want to interact with it. THEN they may become a force of proposition. Some playing groups are more passive than other, so be prepared to prompt them if you feel they'll be afraid of going full sandbox, but at the same time be ready to listen to them and the solution they'd like to implement.

Maybe it will be "yeah the elves are 100% right, we must convince the dwarves to stop longing for darksteel so the forest can be brought back in its rightful pace". But they won't be able to initiate adventure before they are familiar enough with (and attached enough to) the setting. If you want to lightly prod them toward a direction, mention something you'd like them to investigate several time in different contexts. If 3 unlinked NPCs speak of the Tavern of the Drunken Dog, this is certainly a place they'll memorize and want to investigate... Being barred from something is also a great way to have players adopt the goal of overcoming the obstacle. "Only the worthy can open this door" leads invariably to "how can I prove I am worthy, o noble door" (even if it's just the janitor closet).

 

[Racing Breca]

The party consists of a forest gnome Knowledge Cleric and human Land Druid who are both local to the city; and a half-elf Rogue, human Barbarian, and dragonborn Barbarian who arrived recently trying to escape their past.

The Druid and Cleric PC's are probably nostalgic for ancient times, and will celebrate the prospect of reconnecting life to the land. At what cost?

The Rogue and the Druid have connections with the thieves guild. I'm planning to have the leader of the thieves guild be a Leprechaun NPC who has placed his political puppets in place to capitalize on a fey invasion.

The Barbarians are going to be excited when inhabited parcels of the feywild start showing up with hungry fey creatures popping out.

I love the idea that dragonwood lumber is still being recycled. The Dwarves are paying huge prices to import it, whenever it can be purchased internationally.

The characters themselves built the geography of the island, so it's not going to frustrate them that their Land Druid has never seen natural grass, or trees.

I'm excited to introduce the Dwarves further and dark steel in particular. It's the most precious material. The Dwarves have become very reclusive as their society shrivels under the mountain.

The knowledge Cleric is about to get the party access to the restricted section of the library in town. They will all gain a lot of the history at that time.

Ultimately, I'd like to have them need to collect some rare components in order to affect the ritual gate, whichever way they choose.

Thanks for those ideas.

 

[aco175]

There could be a connection that still exists, joining the forest to the island. It can be a permanent hidden valley or such, or maybe it is a portion of the forest that becomes visible on nights of the full moon or no moon, or even every 100 years. The PCs stumble into the woods or an old temple telling them of the merging of the 2 places. This allows you to give them information to further your plot and get them interested.

You can also have other pushed like an elf hires them to lead them to a portal site or strange beast keep appearing from a site and attack the village. Maybe these beasts have not been seen since the old days or maybe they have taken over the forest and are now bleeding into the material.

 

[Racing Breca]

The PCs stumble into the woods or an old temple telling them of the merging of the 2 places. This allows you to give them information to further your plot and get them interested.

I love the idea of the temple site of the original ritual gate existing in both places, and a source of information.
The temple exists underground, among the roots of a tree that no longer exists on this plane.
The magic is fading, and parcels of the forest are traveling through an elemental plane and returning to the material plane.
Destructive elemental storms unlike anything seen before occur. In the aftermath, these fragments of the forest are returned, but inhabited by the displaced and upset fey.