I need a good campain idea.

[INSERTWITTYNAMEHERE]

I have played dnd for just over a year but we play 2 times a week so i know mostly what im doing. The problem is that i have only been dm twice the first time went well but the second time i cant say so much. So i ask for your help and advice in hope to redeam myself. Here are my guidelines:

We just finished a LG campain and are sick of being good so Neutral or Evil alingment

Not too many character restraints (keep most classes open)

but most of all i need a good start, a reason for everyone to be togeather insted of just throwing them in a room and being like "hey you're friends now!"

Thanks

 

[Thanee]

It's probably best to use some published (or internet) adventures first, so you get a good idea what's possible.

Other than that, I'd just start at the back. Think of a cool villain, which your party could oppose. Nothing too crazy, as they should be able to defeat him in the end. Then start to think about what that villain might do, which the party has to stop. And then you only need to think up a few encounters, where the party can learn about this and prepare some options what they might do from there (in case they don't come up with clever ideas by themselves).

For example. Take a thief (rogue) that has been bitten by a wererat. He's part of the thieves guild and has himself turned them into wererats one by one. Now, they are getting greedy and try to turn others into their likeliness. That's where the PCs come into the scene, when they observe such an attack or get attacked by themselves. Afterwards they learn (maybe they get approached by someone in the vincinity who has seen them defeat the attacking wererats), that these attacks are getting more and more common and someone has to find out what's up with that.

And so on...

Bye
Thanee

 

[INSERTWITTYNAMEHERE]

i dont like the book campains cuz they take away the best aspect of dnd but i will take the start from the back to mind thanks.

 

[drunkmoogle]

I've just started running an evil campagin. It's fun to DM the good guys, for a change . Also, I can send all manner of creatures I've always wanted them to fight (Nymphs) .

It's not your job to decide how their group got together. It's theirs, and it's best if you set 1/2 a session (or even a full session) just as a "Character Creation Workshop" to determine their past, their histories, and why they're together. Furthermore, this allows you to mine for potential material to use.

As evil characters, the PCs want to turn the tables against the do-gooders. Make sure you know their goals and ambitions. Expect them to tread off the beaten path, especially at the beginning of the campaign where things are so fresh.

You shouldn't be pushed for a campaign idea until you know what the players want and can do. Run one or two "pilot episodes" to get a feel for their game, then unveil your creation after you build up some confidence.

 

[Henry]

So i ask for your help and advice in hope to redeam myself. Here are my guidelines:

First of all IWNH, welcome to these forums! There's plenty of advice to be given here, and even beyond what other posters give, you may want to browse our Archive Forum to check out the large number of suggestion and advice threads there to get some ideas flowing.

No doubt plenty of people will also stop by this thread to give you some pointers, but the biggest pointer I have is to "stick with it." Even the Best DM's who frequent these forums started their first games as mediocre or just plain sorry DM's. The longer you actually take the reins, the quicker the ideas come, the quicker you lead the game, and the better your plots and Rat-Bastard DMing techniques.

Good luck!

 

[Rel]

I think Henry is definately right with the "stick with it" advice. I'll also say that I think it would be constructive to try and pinpoint exactly what went wrong with your last campaign and brainstorm some ideas as to how to avoid those same pitfalls this time.

I will offer one specific recommendation as to a campaign theme: Have the PC's be criminals. Have an NPC gather them together to commit some sort of heist. Think Oceans 11, The Italian Job, Ronin, that sort of thing. The eclectic mix of characters is well reflected in this genre because you need a variety of skills in order to pull this sort of thing off.

You can of course throw some kinks into the situation to make things interesting. Have the NPC double cross them and swipe the loot, thus giving you a mentor AND villian as the bonding agent for the party. Perhaps the NPC hired a BETTER (higher level) group to actually pull off the job and the PC's were hired (unwittingly) to act as a diversion. Or maybe (by design or fluke) they fail to pull it off and get caught. Then you can run their prison escape or possibly they are taken to a remote island penal colony.

Possibilities abound. Have fun with it.

 

[Rasyr]

Rel pretty much gave the same advice I would have.

To expand upon his idea a little bit.

First of all, make sure that at least one PC has strong ties to either family, the local thieves guild or some organization (the more PCs with ties to this group/organization the better).

Have an NPC hire the PCs individually (those with the ties may know one another slightly, but only in the "saying hi as we pass in the hall" way) and bring them together to perform a heist for them. Have the heist be something along the lines of retrieving an item from the local town gaurd barracks.

One of his guidelines is that they may not kill any of the guards, except in extreme self defense. He will give them this guideline saying something along the lines of killing one guard will bring them all down on their heads (i.e. you kill one, you end up with a lot of ticked off cops). The NPC has other reasons of course - he wants as many guards as possible occupied for as long as possible.

Shortly before they perform their hiest, the NPC allows another stooge to tip off the guard that there will be a heist of something that they are guarding (evidence from another crime maybe). This will bring more guards away from regular rounds and such and guarding things that might be stolen from them, making it tougher for the PCs and more likely that they will get caught.

While the PCs are playing with the guard, the NPC hiests something even more valuable from another part of town. This item is stolen from the group/organization that one or more of the PCs have ties to.

If the PCs succeed in their mission and get away, the NPC fails to meet them like he promised (he told them that the item they were after was a powerful magic item, but he lied to them), and they cannot find him.

The following day, the real theft is discovered, and the group/organization start investigating, and eventually discovers that the PCs were used as stooges so the NPC could do the real theft, and then skip town.

The organization gives the PC the opportunity to find the real thief (the "or else" is heavily implied!!!) and retrieve the relic he stole.

Thus they now have both personal and other reasons to be traveling together as they search for the NPC.

Give the NPC some distinctive feature (such as having only one eye or an impressive and very distinctive scar) that will make him stand out. Then you can actually run a series of adventures akin to the old tv show, The Fugative, except with the evil little twists you have included....

Some additional adivice:
1) at first the NPC do not know that they are tracking him, but he will soon discover it.
2) have him hire other groups to take them out as he travels from town to town (alignment is not important as this guy is an extreme con artist and able to talk the unsuspecting into almost anything).
3) eventually, as the PCs defeat those sent against them, the NPC then hires a second group whose purpose is to watch the PCs and to learn all about them and their tactics (so he can better counter them). These watchers specifically watch while other hired groups attack the party (the watchers will not interfere in any battle).
4) as he hires additional groups he will inform them about the PCs and have them adjust their own tactics to better work against he PCs.

This gives you a long term foe for the PCs, and gives them a purpose to adventure (as they try to hunt down the one-eyed Monk with the scar going from forehead to mid-cheek, right across the missing eye).

make sure that the NPC always has some sort of escape plan ready

do not space the NPC related events too closely. give them side adventures as well. False leads can take them to local ruins or other adventure sites in search of him. This will allow you to insert all sort of other adventures as well.

make sure that the NPC gains levels as the party does (roughly) as he is doing other things as well.

use rumors to send the PCs in the wrong direction, or the NPC can actually warn the gaurd that a bunch of thieves have been trailling him and they get arrested or detained as time goes on.

make sure to consider the consequences - this means that the actions of the PCs and the NPC will have an effect on the reactions of others.

One of my favorite tricks is to get the players to give me a list of goals for their PCs. I can then work in clues to accomplishing those goals into the story line. The most fun, as a GM, is when you force the PCs to choose between choose between accomplishing the goal of PC 1 or the goal of PC 2 (note the opportunity to accomplish the goal not selected will be limited in duration, so by the time they complete the goal of the one whose goal is selected, the chance of accomplishing the other is gone...

well, that is all I can think of at the moment....

 

[Yair]

I always work with my players in drawing up the first PCs and explaining a new campaign world. For my evil campaign, this was even more true - we spent a whole session tossing ideas until we finally settled on one we liked, then went with it.
The ideas I remember were:
- Daemonfey (this is the one we went with): an LA+2 race of bat-winged demonic elves from the FR, just rising after eons of dormant existence in the High Forest. The campaign consisted of the party doing the bidding of Countess Sarya, a powerful sorceress, in preparing the future of the Daemonfey - mainly scouting the world, and picking up relics from ancient catacombs and hideouts she remembers from way-back-then.
- Vampires: Take a low-level party, have them encounter a vampire, and then have them all turn into vampires. Instant evil-party, with NPC leader included.
- WereX: Same basic thing, except the party plays were-creatures.

The oher ideas were pretty much discussed already.

I personally recommend thinking of some reason the players stick together, and deciding on a meta-game rule saying characters a) stick together, b) don't hurt each other. The players can surely contrive their characters accordingly. I find a mission-based structure can help - something like a SG-1 strucuture, or a Sire to lead them, or something - but that is probably just my personal preference.

 

[James Heard]

Here's my process for starting a campaign. As always, YMMV:

First I decide the 'main theme of my game'. This is usually either:
A. A villain (Yuan Ti, Dragons, Blackguards of a Corrupt church)
B. Region (Any place on my campaign map that I liked last time or that I wanted to run but couldn't force the players to explore)
C. Genre (pirates, ninjas, dinosaurs)
D. Plot (usually reserved for when I'm feeling really self-loathing and have watched some movie that's removed my common sense)

Usually I don't do ANYTHING with the main theme unless it's the genre or the region at first. If nothing else it's just too easy and if I'm running a game from 1st level the plot teasers start too early and screw up the pacing. Basically the players can get to expect leads and hooks too often if you give them too much, and that can lead to short campaigns and player dissatisfaction.

Second, I approach the players with the vaguest explanation of my basic theme and my map and start hashing out their characters with them. I really encourage my players to help me at this point. Together we can usually come up with a better explanation why the weird character ideas they've got going on could come together than any lame thing I could come up with would be. I mean, sometimes I help by saying "You're all going to be sailors on the ship 'The Aerengyll', and you can't be these people so pick other things your characters could be doing on the ship besides be 'The Captain'." It works surprisingly well, except for the rare guy who thinks that they can't be bothered. After a few sessions of starting out as "Lord Reynold's Chiefest Foot Massager" or "Her Majesty's Security Detail of the Red Shirt", they pick up on the idea that even "I was a farmer, but I got tired of beets and met Frank on my way to make my fortune" can be better than letting ME fit them in.

After the players are finished making characters, and they've given some indications on what sort of personalities and motivations they're working with though? The first session is almost half wrote right there, and since you've already began your communication with the players as the basis of the whole game you know you're probably not going to have a problem with people showing up with drunken monks to your deeply serious exploration of psuedo-philosophical medieval romance game - or at least if you do you'll have a big heads up and know to watch Brotherhood of the Wolf ahead of time.

My first session I run is usually heavy on introductions with NPCs and minor encounters in a variety of settings, to get a feel for how the players are going to structure themselves in and out of combat. I tend to make it the "going to the adventure scene and outlining the mission' session and make it short just so that the players have time for revision after the game. After all, I expect people to stick with their characters and if you've suddenly decided that your transvestite dwarven monk wasn't as fun to play as you thought it might be I don't want to stand in your way to change things up sooner rather than later.

After that the entire game I run is mostly dictated by pacing. If the players spend an hour of real time interacting with merchants and the lords of the city, and half of them are bored to tears then it's time for an encounter and the next session should run the opposite mix of dialogue versus action. If the players are nearing a conclusion-sort of area (accomplishing a minor goal) then the action should pick up. This is what 'random' encounters were made for IMO, and long-standing villians and NPCs wearing convenient red shirts. Nothing outlines 'danger' than the idea that as the players near their objectives they're slowly being picked off. Even more social sorts of games should have this sort of pacing buildup I think,and one of the key skills I've learned as a GM is the art of 'calling it a night' at the appropriate time. If you can time it so that players dramatically open the door to reveal the demons, discover that the prince is missing, or reveal the presence of an enemy in their midst at the end of a good session each time you've got it made.

Oh yeah, and for the absolute best GM training? Be a player for a bunch of really awesome GMs, as many as you can find, using as many systems and styles of play as you can find. Playing with a lot of people is good too, because it gives you a better idea of what the masses of gamers are expecting and wanting when they suddenly sigh and start doodling rather than pay attention to your tediously rehearsed monologue.

 

[Stormborn]

"Let's Kill Mordenkinen" or some such.

Since you have a group thats been playing for a while they can handle starting at a higher level and encourage them to you races with level adjustments. If they don't want to play a more powerful race they can just have levels to match the group.

Have them all start as loosely affiliated members of an organized crime syndiacte. A heroic organization has been hurting the buisness in Waterdeep or Sharn or Greyhawk or Elsewhere. Their goal, keep the various buisnesses running while stopping the good guys. This will involve them out of their comfort zones, having to help each other overtly while covertly trying to move up in the orginization, probablly ltos of role playing, but the fights will be big nasty ones.

Eventually the great hero who founded the good guy organization will come back to town wondering why he hasn't heard from his people, and possibly having scryed out the sitch and well preped for the PCs.

Then there are issues of rival organizations, and quite possibly the legions of hell sent to call in favors.