D&D 5E Lacking Motivation/Inspiration

[Meech17]

I'm posting this under D&D 5e, as that's what we play.. But this could largely be in the general TTRPG thread.

My group have kind of been on Hiatus, due to the holidays, family obligations, and what not. Everyone has been itching to get back to the table, and I think we're hoping to get to it right after New Years. I'm struggling however. Even after months of time to prepare, I've got zip. We just wrapped up The Sunless Citadel, and my party will be level 5 going into the next adventure. I just don't know where to go. I'd love some suggestions, or adventure recommendations.

I didn't really have any strong major plot threads, and I was hoping something would materialize by now for me to cling to. Instead I've got a few loose threads that are all kind of entwined.

1) The McGuffin: The party are chasing down a set of magical gem stones. They don't know what they are, or what they do (Besides each one being attached to a core stat, and providing the holder of it bonuses in that area) and they don't really know why they're chasing them down besides the fact they're heroes, and that's just the kind of thing heroes do.

1.A) My original plan for the McGuffin was that these gems when assembled will summon some sort of Djinn or other powerful entity, and it will grant a wish, Dragon Ball style. I've failed to find any way to introduce this plot thread to the party however.

2) The Mercs: The party was thwarted a few adventures ago by a Mercenary company who stole one of the gems out from under their noses, and burned down an innocent village while doing it. They really don't like these guys, which is good.. That was the point. They've kind of made an in-roads with one of the lieutenants of the company, and that's how they ended up in the Sunless Citadel tracking down another gem. The Lieutenant ended up dead at the end and the ranger took his branded armor. I get the feeling they're going to try and infiltrate the Company, which I think is pretty rad.

3) The Cult: I laid the ground work for some cultists. My original idea was that the leader of this cult, is also the religious leader of a neighboring kingdom, and he's also vying the for magical gems to get a wish.. Probably something lame and BBEG-y like immortality or something. I seeded this with some pamphlets and a run in with some pilgrims early on in the campaign but we've failed to expand upon it since. The party remembers however.

4) The Princess: Very early on, I had a guard drop a throw-away line about how he was going to be escorting the Princess on her diplomatic mission to the neighboring kingdom. This led the party to asking about the Princess, and the structure of the monarchy and what not. This was admittedly an Easter Egg for myself. I played in a game in my teen years featuring a Princess Sophie, and I just slapped in her place. I gave some bogus answer about how she is Regent, but not technically Queen yet because she's unmarried and some dumb rules about that or whatever. For whatever reason the party is now infatuated with this monarch they've never met, and know very little about, and have brought her up a couple of times. I'd like to find a way to incorporate her into the story to make the players happy.

I'm thinking they're going to go after 2. They know the Mercs have at least one of the gems they're after, and they have an ax to grind so it seems most likely. I'm considering dropping number 3 entirely. I'd love some suggestions for a module or adventure that might incorporate some of these ideas. It doesn't have to be 5e, or even D&D. I've been running stuff from 3e, and even from Dungeon Magazine, so I don't mind just taking the bones of something else and plugging in my own monsters and what not.

Also, would appreciate some advice for getting over that mid-campaign hump. I feel like if our campaign was a TV show, we just finished season 1, and now I don't know how to start season 2.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I'll address campaign humps. Been through several over the years. Thoughts:

• It's hard to be 100% D&D, all the time. Shake things up with a board-game day, or run an alternate system for a few sessions. Come back to D&D refreshed. It also gives you time to refresh your DM brain on ideas.
• Evaluate if some folks want to create new characters before continuing. Some players just want to try something new. Let a character retire at 5th level, get married, move into that farm you cleared out and become a fixture of the area.
• It's okay to end a campaign if players feel satisfied or the DM doesn't have a strong excitement about where it might go next. There's no set level for this.

As to non-D&D or Dungeon magazine adventures, there's a lot of badly written ones out there. I have heavily relied upon Bryce at tenfootpole to scout adventures for me and have had a blast running some of his recommended ones. He's a pretty tough critic, and that's a good thing. Here's a link to his "best of the best" OSR, and his favorites for Dungeon Magazine.

 

[grimmgoose]

Do you think it's burnout?

I can only speak for myself, but I get the block when I'm stressed, burnt out, or bored of the system/setting.

What works for me:

• have someone else run a mini-campaign
• take a break from the main campaign, and run something smaller - new system, new setting
• play a group video game (my group plays through the latest Supermassive game [the Dark Pictures Anthology] each year. It's a nice, basically month-long break where we just play a video game together

 

[aco175]

I have tried to run games in arcs where only a couple threads carryover to the new arc and levels. 5th level is a great place to start bringing in giants or a band of orcs, or both. Maybe the Mercs are trying to get an alliance with said giants to being in some muscle to go after another gem. It would be cool to give the PCs a map of the location and let them know that the Mercs secretly funneled the map to them in order for the PCs to get the gem and the Mercs would be waiting outside like Indiana Jones. Now the players can plan to go after the gem or take on the Mercs before getting the gem. This could be levels 5-7 with a side quest that could disrupt the Merc/giant alliance and make things easier or harder. Maybe the giants want something that the Mercs plan to get from some thieves in town that live in the sewers and the PCs can get it first.

Somewhere about 7-8th level a roadside encounter with princesses wagon train meets up. This might be coming upon destruction or in a fight, but the princess is missing. This arcs to levels 8-10 with another gem involved. Surviving guards saw a demon teleport away with said princess, but happens to leave a clue to start to find her. Leader of the guard gives the PCs a signet to meet with royal people and such. Access to the library to research location might meet with an attack of surviving Mercs who now work fir BBEG and drop clue to who he is. Somewhere save princess and become knights with her favor.

Transition to new arc for levels 11-14 and encounter demon cult with last of the Mercs who are with BBEG. Tie in princess again so they can be knights of the kingdom and such. Maybe royal whomever works for BBEG and plans to capture her for sacrifice. (you can pick any movie troupe). Big fight at end unless campaign last longer and then BBEG comes back to life working for BBBEG like demom lord or Vecna or Emperor Plapatine or whatever.

 

[LordEntrails]

I first was going to suggest changing systems etc. But you have lots of good advice from others on that already.

Sticking with your current campaign and some of the info you gave, I would suggest you explore the Princess Sophie. She could be tied to one of the stones, perhaps charisma. The party could get pulled via some other thread to the same kingdom the princess is going to. Maybe even that is where the lead to the next stone is. Then the party could find out that the stone is being used as a enticement to the princess to get her to marry and bind the kingdoms together.

Of course, once in the new kingdom, perhaps the cult or someone endangers the princess and they find out about it. Perhaps they will chose to help the princess, but her guards don't know about the threat yet. So, their prior relationship with that guard might be key to earning his trust and therefore able to help protect the princess.

Or, maybe the threat to the princess is coming from the merc company. If they infiltrate the mercs, maybe they learn the company has been hired to kidnap the princess. Or kill her. Or just take the gem?

 

[Meech17]

I'll address campaign humps. Been through several over the years. Thoughts:

• It's hard to be 100% D&D, all the time. Shake things up with a board-game day, or run an alternate system for a few sessions. Come back to D&D refreshed. It also gives you time to refresh your DM brain on ideas.
• Evaluate if some folks want to create new characters before continuing. Some players just want to try something new. Let a character retire at 5th level, get married, move into that farm you cleared out and become a fixture of the area.
• It's okay to end a campaign if players feel satisfied or the DM doesn't have a strong excitement about where it might go next. There's no set level for this.

As to non-D&D or Dungeon magazine adventures, there's a lot of badly written ones out there. I have heavily relied upon Bryce at tenfootpole to scout adventures for me and have had a blast running some of his recommended ones. He's a pretty tough critic, and that's a good thing. Here's a link to his "best of the best" OSR, and his favorites for Dungeon Magazine.

This is a good idea. One of my players has offered to run a one-shot that they say should only take 60-90 minutes. Maybe we'll get together and play that, and then either before or after, we can have a session 0.2 where we level up the characters to 5, or anyone has the opportunity to re-roll or whatever if they'd like. I can also maybe probe their brains a little bit with the world and see if there's something they're wanting to do specifically.

I'll be sure to check out tenfootpole.

 

[Meech17]

Do you think it's burnout?

I can only speak for myself, but I get the block when I'm stressed, burnt out, or bored of the system/setting.

What works for me:

• have someone else run a mini-campaign
• take a break from the main campaign, and run something smaller - new system, new setting
• play a group video game (my group plays through the latest Supermassive game [the Dark Pictures Anthology] each year. It's a nice, basically month-long break where we just play a video game together

I don't think it's burnout.. I'm enjoying DMing, and I'm looking forward to getting to play together again. I'm just a loss for where to go.

With that said, we are looking forward to the new Baldur's Gate update with cross-play so we can all play together.

 

[el-remmen]

Put one of the gems they are hunting in the Princess's crown and have the mercs (or another rival party) be after that one next, with her trip to the neighboring kingdom being the opportunity for it to be grabbed, requiring the party to try to intercept.

If you need the party to have more info about the gems, just give it to them! I agree with @SlyFlourish's general advice that when you have secrets and clues do not hide them from the PCs, find ways for them to find out so they can take action. In this case, possibilities include: overhearing plans that include descriptions of what the gems do/their origins when pretending to be part of the merc company, having a local sage have some info to share, having a merc party turncoat come to the party because what they plan is just "too bad" for him to take part in, or literally a vision or dream from the gods, a spirit of the gem creators or the gems themselves! Heck, a member of the party might already know a lot about them under a different name and a skill check might unlock that connection allowing you to give them a mini-info dump.

Hope that helps.

 

[Meech17]

I have tried to run games in arcs where only a couple threads carryover to the new arc and levels. 5th level is a great place to start bringing in giants or a band of orcs, or both. Maybe the Mercs are trying to get an alliance with said giants to being in some muscle to go after another gem. It would be cool to give the PCs a map of the location and let them know that the Mercs secretly funneled the map to them in order for the PCs to get the gem and the Mercs would be waiting outside like Indiana Jones. Now the players can plan to go after the gem or take on the Mercs before getting the gem. This could be levels 5-7 with a side quest that could disrupt the Merc/giant alliance and make things easier or harder. Maybe the giants want something that the Mercs plan to get from some thieves in town that live in the sewers and the PCs can get it first.

Somewhere about 7-8th level a roadside encounter with princesses wagon train meets up. This might be coming upon destruction or in a fight, but the princess is missing. This arcs to levels 8-10 with another gem involved. Surviving guards saw a demon teleport away with said princess, but happens to leave a clue to start to find her. Leader of the guard gives the PCs a signet to meet with royal people and such. Access to the library to research location might meet with an attack of surviving Mercs who now work fir BBEG and drop clue to who he is. Somewhere save princess and become knights with her favor.

Transition to new arc for levels 11-14 and encounter demon cult with last of the Mercs who are with BBEG. Tie in princess again so they can be knights of the kingdom and such. Maybe royal whomever works for BBEG and plans to capture her for sacrifice. (you can pick any movie troupe). Big fight at end unless campaign last longer and then BBEG comes back to life working for BBBEG like demom lord or Vecna or Emperor Plapatine or whatever.

I first was going to suggest changing systems etc. But you have lots of good advice from others on that already.

Sticking with your current campaign and some of the info you gave, I would suggest you explore the Princess Sophie. She could be tied to one of the stones, perhaps charisma. The party could get pulled via some other thread to the same kingdom the princess is going to. Maybe even that is where the lead to the next stone is. Then the party could find out that the stone is being used as a enticement to the princess to get her to marry and bind the kingdoms together.

Of course, once in the new kingdom, perhaps the cult or someone endangers the princess and they find out about it. Perhaps they will chose to help the princess, but her guards don't know about the threat yet. So, their prior relationship with that guard might be key to earning his trust and therefore able to help protect the princess.

Or, maybe the threat to the princess is coming from the merc company. If they infiltrate the mercs, maybe they learn the company has been hired to kidnap the princess. Or kill her. Or just take the gem?

I do think leaning into the Princess thread is probably the way to go. Originally I had an idea of the Princess already being in possession of a stone, but I like the idea of her having ulterior motives for her trip. The Charisma stone would be a good choice too. Side question, what color makes you think of Charisma? I'm leaning towards blue, perhaps a Sapphire. Currently they are in position of a Diamond (Clear, Constitution. The clear nature of the gem made me think of purity.. So it gives a +2 to Constitution, and resistance to poison, and disease.) and the Ruby (Red, Strength. This one was just red, fire, anger, grrrr strength.)

Having them come across the Princess' caravan is a good idea.

 

[Stormonu]

Might be worth looking at I3-5 2E series, the Desert of Desolation (I3 - Pharaoh was recently updated in Quests from the Infinite Staircase). I think several of the plot points you're leaning toward are plot points in that series (primarly genies and the gem), though you might need to make a few adjustments if they already have a gem or three.

It does sound like you have a bit of burnout, though. Playing a little something else or letting someone else DM for a couple nights might be worth it, allowing you to plan and refresh yourself for the next set of games.