Looking for help

S

sakashi

First Post
I'm a first time DM looking for help creating my plot. I've gotten a couple of useful tools, but I would love to have some other input.

I will be DM for a group of five, appx. lvl 20 to 24 starting, and I will be taking them up to the end.

If this is the wrong forum I apologize, mods feel free to delete.

If you are interested in helping me, please pm me here.
 

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We're doing a round-robin style DM, so far each of us has been a first time DM starting with a non-beginner level party. (The only not-first-time-DM was our first DM, who took us to level 8ish, I believe.)
 

Nemesis Destiny said:
If you are a first time DM, the first thing I'd suggest is starting with a party at level 1.
Click to expand...

This.

sakashi said:
We're doing a round-robin style DM, so far each of us has been a first time DM starting with a non-beginner level party. (The only not-first-time-DM was our first DM, who took us to level 8ish, I believe.)
Click to expand...

It's going to be much more difficult to run a good epic level game than a good low-level one, especially in a shared campaign where the players may know more about certain elements than you do.

I would honestly see how the group feels about starting a new first level group.

Failing that, good luck! I'd stay away from too much plot- by epic levels the pcs should be mostly driving the game.
 

sakashi said:
I'm a first time DM looking for help creating my plot. I've gotten a couple of useful tools, but I would love to have some other input.

I will be DM for a group of five, appx. lvl 20 to 24 starting, and I will be taking them up to the end.

If this is the wrong forum I apologize, mods feel free to delete.

If you are interested in helping me, please pm me here.
Click to expand...

Welcome to ENWorld.

Starting a game at level 20 is going to be challenging because the PCs will have so many "fiddly bits" that they will usually forget during the course of the game. This leads to indecision, which leads to long combats, which leads to bored players, which kills the fun at the table.

When you say plot do you mean the main idea of a story? I find this does not work well for several reasons, mostly that it can lead to linear storylines that are forced by the DM. At level 20 the PCs should pretty much be the ones developing the plot, as the story should entirely revolve around their interactions with the game environment and the pursuit of the goals of their Epic Destinies.

If you want to develop storylines at those levels you might want to look towards comic books to provide ideas/inspiration. For example a storyline of the heroes vs. Galactus might be sufficiently "Epic", whereas a storyline of the heroes vs. crime syndicate is probably not epic enough.
 

I'm unsure if you're starting the campaign at epic, or switching DMs so you take over an existing campaign at epic. If you're starting new, it can be tricky for players to get their heads around so many powers. Not impossible though. If you're switching over, it's not a problem.

Whatever, I'd definitely look at the class/Epic destiny choices made by the players and try to build a skeleton around that. If you're just looking for an epic threat to hang the adventures around, how about:


  • A mighty wizard king is building his own, man-made war god.
  • A crazed Githyanki captain is causing titanic storms on the Astral Sea using a long-lost artifact. Fail to stop him, and the astral dominions themselves will be drowned.
  • The world has been plunged into darkness by a mindflayer moon that has been parked in orbit to block out the sun. As the continents freeze and vampires thrive, a few chosen heroes are fired into the sky to take over the moon.
  • All across the planes, cities are disappearing, memories are being lost, and strange monsters are appearing. A council of elders identifies a small orphan boy as the source of the problems, whose dreams are somehow affecting reality itself. Then one of the elders kidnaps the child, and tries to twist his dreams to his own desires.
  • The World Serpent turns against the gods, and humanity. All across the earth, nature rebels against man. Druids raise primal armies to invade cities, forests move, fields of grass become strangling masses, and animals become savage. The PCs must find out why the World Serpent has turned, and find a way to appease it.
 

sakashi said:
I'm a first time DM looking for help creating my plot. I've gotten a couple of useful tools, but I would love to have some other input.

I will be DM for a group of five, appx. lvl 20 to 24 starting, and I will be taking them up to the end.

If this is the wrong forum I apologize, mods feel free to delete.

If you are interested in helping me, please pm me here.
Click to expand...

I will provide you help using my trusty DM cheat sheet for the plot impaired!

The villain is misunderstood, wrecking havoc unintentionally. Maybe it's such an enormous being it's oblivious to the damage it does? Or perhaps they're so single-minded on their goal they actually don't realize the risk it poses to the rest of the world?

The first mission involves protecting an NPC, location, or object. Do the PCs need to travel with their ward? Do they need to hold off a siege until reinforcements arrive? What does the villain want with their ward and what forces can they marshal against the PCs?

A plot twist occurs in the form of a tempting offer. Perhaps the PCs sympathize with the villain who offers to align with them? Perhaps the PCs need help taking down the villain and a really vile ally offers assistance? Or maybe that NPC, location, or object the PCs are protecting has a scheme of its own, and attempts to lure the PCs?
 
Last edited:

Quickleaf said:
I will provide you help using my trusty DM cheat sheet for the plot impaired!

The villain is misunderstood, wrecking havoc unintentionally. Maybe it's such an enormous being it's oblivious to the damage it does? Or perhaps they're so single-minded on their goal they actually don't realize the risk it poses to the rest of the world?

The first mission involves protecting an NPC, location, or object. Do the PCs need to travel with their ward? Do they need to hold off a siege until reinforcements arrive? What does the villain want with their ward and what forces can they marshal against the PCs?

A plot twist occurs in the form of a tempting offer. Perhaps the PCs sympathize with the villain who offers to align with them? Perhaps the PCs need help taking down the villain and a really vile ally offers assistance? Or maybe that NPC, location, or object the PCs are protecting has a scheme of its own, and attempts to lure the PCs?
Click to expand...
Your cheat sheet sounds intriguing. Do you have a link to a download? :)
 


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