I need a good campain idea.

[The Cardinal]

an old idea of mine:

The Prophecy of the Fist

In the darkest writings of the ancients, hidden or forgotten long ago, there is the recurring tale of five beings who will appear before the end. Those five were sometimes called the Nightbringers, the Lords of Destruction, or Those-Who-Walk-In-Black. The elves called them the Galédhrul, or the Unbound, the dwarves whispered of the Khoraz-Gai, which means something like Stone Killers, and the giants of old spoke of a band of creatures known as the Horekk, translateable today only as Breakers. But the name most often associated with those apocalyptic entities is just the Fist, a rough translation of the draconic name Xogushaq, which literally means something like "the raging hand/claw".
The prophecies also gave names to each of the five, names which may say something about the very nature of each of these beings…
The Members of the Fist are known as: The Silent, the Savage, the Learned, the Driven,
and the Dead.


Now, *you* may get to play those guys! You will start out as a mid- to high-level "neutral/evil" party – and then we will see what happens next… ;-)

 

[Sparky]

To get the players together there's always The Map. Each PC has in their posession a fragment of an old map. At some point a Mysterious NPC contacts each of the PCs to bring them together hinting that he has the last map fragment. You know how quick your players are to jump at DM bait or if they will shun your cleverly laid hooks, so you will know if you need to start the players out at the meeting or if you can trust them to make it to the meeting on their own. But if each player has a piece of the map, adventure will find them. Apologies if this covers any already covered ground.

How did each PC come to have a map fragment?

• Honestly - Was it inherited? Or offered in barter for services or goods (ala Jack and the Beanstalk)? Or given it by a wandering stranger?
• Dishonestly - Was it part of the haul when a character participated in a burglary? Taken as payment for blackmail? Copied and the original kept while the real owner has a forgery?
• Somewhat honestly - Was it discovered in the course of scholarly study and subsequently liberated from a library? Or won at a gambling table? Or taken off of the dead body of a guy in an alley?

Does the previous owner of each map fragment know of the PCs acquisition?

• Yes... and boy do they want it back/and boy are they glad, now the PC will suffer the map's curse/and boy they can't wait to follow the PC to the treasure/and boy they can't wait until the PC leads them to a notorious criminal
• No... but when they discover it is missing, watch out/because they're dead... and the PC is next/ but someone else does... someone powerful and angry

Okay, now to get the PCs together introduce the Mysterious NPC. The M-NPC knows each player has a map fragment. They invite the PCs to meet enticing them with the promise that at the meeting the full map will be revealed.

At the meeting:

• The M-NPC springs a trap! The PC's map fragments are stolen!/The PCs turn the tables on the M-NPC and steal his (legitimate?) fragment!/The M-NPC 'lets' the PCs steal his fragment (or gives it to them) intending to follow them
• The M-NPC is legit and hires the PCs to follow the map.
• The M-NPC doesn't make it to the meeting, but there are clues at the meeting site that indicate foul play. Each of the PCs has some clue about the M-NPC - One didn't see him but knows he smelled like sulphur, cinnamon and olive oil - another caught a glimpse of him from far away and saw that he was tall, white haired and walked with a limp - another knows that he is human, but speaks common with a dwarven or elven or draconic or infernal or celestial accent or dialect - another knows he works at the docks - another saw his hands and noted... callouses from working with stone chisels/playing an intrument/inkstains from writing/a signet ring with a recognized heraldic seal. Etc, etc.

What the map actually leads to (or perhaps the map itself is the treasure - it's magical or something) is up to you. But just here there are tons of things to mine for ongoing campaign hooks that could evolve organically out of a simple prop - which you should absolutely make and tear into shreds - one more piece than you have PCs - of course.

Happy DMing.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Midnight is a great setting... check it out. Evil is ascendant in the world. The good gods have been separated from the prime and the only god in the setting is ON the prime. The only clerics in the setting are the evil god's followers. The Elven forests and Dwarven Holdfasts are under siege from the Dark God's orkish forces. Magic is outlawed, only the Dark God's priests (The Legates) are allowed to use magic. Ownership of a weapon or armor is also a crime punishable by death.

 

[jmucchiello]

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.

How does that help him become a better DM? First level, no funky races. Simple setups make it easier to concentrate of the motives of the BBEG (or BBGG in this case).

 

[Stormborn]

It wasn't so much as to help him be a better DM, people already covered that. It was more a suggestion of a way to make the campaign different, with different races and alignments. Yes, it does make it potentially more complicated for him, there is less easing into it by starting at a higher level. But if he is worried about his players being into the game it might be a hook he can use.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some stuff I have used in the past:

1) Like Rel suggested, have the PCs be criminals, but instead of getting them together first, have them start the campaign as inmates. They don't have to be EVIL, but incarcerated in a large institution like the Black Hole of Calcutta or the Bastille- some may be evil, but most are there for petty crimes or political reasons, etc. That lets you do things like exercise extreme control over the campaign, run prison riot scenarios, and so forth. Several adventures down the road, they can win their freedom either via a jailbreak, having served their terms, or by doing a mission for the gov't (like the Dirty Dozen) or a patron who bails them out. Their survival battles armed only with improvised weapons and limited spellcasting resources should be both exciting and unusual, and the party will group together quite nicely.

2) Start the campaign on a ship that is attacked by pirates. The last time I tried this, the pirates were interdimensionally based, so much of the susequent campaign has focused on getting home...without a map. Think Michael Moorcock meets Sliders meets Lost In Space. The PCs band together because they must if they wish to survive.

3) The "Conan" start- All of the PCs are living in a small village which is attacked by a powerful band of bandits. Each survives the raid, but the village is razed. This not only gives you a different kind of starting point from the typical tavern, it lets you introduce a recurring BBEG to torment the PCs on a regular basis.

4) The Caravan- the PCs are all part of a huge caravan headed for a particular destination, either as permanent nomads or temporary travellers along the same path. This form has a lot of benefits. They meet because they are eating at the same campfire when "Event X" happens, or standing in line to recieve their guard pay, or because the Caravan Master needs volunteers to hunt down the bandits who have been striking the rear of the caravan or... If some of your players have trouble making game night due to job shift changes or tough class schedule, those characters are "off looking for water" or "scouting." Basically, virtually ANY adventure type can be run branching off from a caravan based campaign. The first caravan based campaign I ran, the PCs were guarding a woman who was going to her arranged marriage that would end a war. Unfortunately, someone didn't want the war to end just yet, so attacked the caravan. They took shelter in an abandoned keep, which the opposing force put under siege. The PCs found a secret way out through the Underdark, but encountered undead and other subterranean opponents, as well as an assassin within the members of the caravan.

5) The "Close Encounters" start- the PCs are kidnapped by powerful beings (you choose their origins- other dimensions, higher planes, or even other planets), placing them in an artificial environment for education and entertainment. In other words, the PCs are pets in a terrarium. This kind of thing has been used primarily in Sci-Fi, but there's no reason it couldn't happen in a fantasy world. Big advantage- it already has the built in implication of randomness and caprice. "Why is there a Tyrannosaurus in this underground dungeon?" "Because the Overbeings put it here to test us." Think Star Trek, Close Encounters, and Dark City.

 

[LostSoul]

I'd go with some kind of setting where the PC's home land has been taken over by the forces of Evil. They're all together facing the threat (instant allies). You have a campaign goal there (get rid of the Evil guys). Just decide what type of Evil they're facing (decide with the group what type of enemies they want to fight) and you're set.