What Can Be Found In Every One of My D&D Campaigns

[Angel Tarragon]

Outsiders galore. My hombrew is a world drenched in magic, where outsiders aren't an unusual sight and elementals and other extraplanar enitites aren't afraid to migrate to the world from their home plane.

 

[balam_br]

Alicia: A blonde, young child who has key importance in the story... something like the daughter of the BBEG, the child of the prophecy and so on. the players will have to protect her or something like that.

Dragons: Giant dragon entities, sleeping or otherwise imprisioned. The Dragon exerts magical influence in it surroundings even in this comatose state. and The Players needs to fight this effect and try to reseal the dragon(s).
I dont know why, but a lot of my campaigns, from WoD to D&D, have this metaplot... even when i try to do something different.

Sea Adventures: As usual... but i like to use a villain attacking the sailors, one by one at night, in a "predator the movie" style.

Forest Folk From Wild elves to swamp guys... they usually have knowledge of magic and secrets. And the players need to gain their respect to achieve his goals.

 

[zoroaster100]

I usually at some point during a campaign, I end up contacting one player character or allowing one player character to contact a powerful evil entity, often the Big Bad in the campaign, long before the players could defeat that entity, and having the entity provide a subtle temptation to that player. This starts the character down a path of temptation for greater power at the cost of endangering his or her purity of purpose, until it comes to a head and the player must make a choice.

 

[megamania]

Patrons that betray the group

Darksun monster making an appearance

At least one planar event

Conspiracy

Monsters with templates

Mad scientist scene complete with his creations

Few mages but lots of fighter types

Black Dragons

Bad, off-color and often sexual jokes within the game

Bone headed attack by a player that leads to a near TPK

Over-lapping stories and campaigns

 

[pogre]

Sieges
The PCs are almost caught up in a siege of some sort. I guess Defending the village or town is a corollary theme.

Rituals and Summonings
PCs are in a race against time to prevent a summoning of something nasty. A left over from my WFRP days.

Patrons
Patrons always make for good adventure hooks. They are usually less powerful than the PCs, but well-connected politically.

Wizards' Associations
Covens, cabals, guilds, colleges, etc. Wizards tend to keep track of their own and are a powerful force.

 

[exile]

Elderly, hard of hearing, shopkeeprs who continuallymisunderstand what the PCs are trying to ask or tell them.

 

[Tetsubo]

The Dancing Ferret. An inn that has shown up in EVERY game I've ever run. Be it D&D, Cyberpunk, Gamma World or modern era. I just love the name...

Aquatic adventures. I always throw them in, I can't help myself...

I usually have cross-dimensional adventures as well. Often D&D/Gamma World adventures.

 

[WayneLigon]

So what is on your palette? What are the kinds of things you almost always use in a campaign when DMing?

Use at least one monster in a way I have not before
An example: ghouls. I love ghouls for many reasons, not the least being that they are not mindless. The normal ghoul encounter is to find them in some dank tomb, scurrying out to see if there is any fresh food about. This time, I used a group of recently-turned ghouls as an encounter. The party is camping for the night. It is cold and dank, a grim night to be out and about. A group of knights coming down the road hails them and begs to share their fire. They chat with the knights, who are mostly quiet and reserved.

Then one perceptive soul notices that though they breathe, their breath does not plume in the dank cold air.... The knights were simply waiting for them to drift on off to sleep, and then would feed. I wanted to go for the disturbing, though, so if they had not noticed this, I was going to have a raven fly down and land on a knight's shoulder. Then casually lean over and pull off a part of his ear. He wouldn't notice or mind.

Use an aspect of a monster that the others probably don't know about.
Did you know winter wolves talk? They speak Common, and Giant. None of my players knew this, until they were laid up in a hunter's cabin miles from nowhere, already badly hurt from a previous fight. Snow was howling outside. A scratch comes at the door. "Please help, we've been attacked.. let us in.." says the gruff voice from outside. "We're so hungry.."

The cabin's windows were shut tight but one guy manages a peek outside. Eight winter wolves are silently prowling around the place, with one scratching at the door and talking. It was toying with them, trying to get them to be the cause of their own doom. Freaked them out completely.

Remind the players that not all evil comes from the Dark Lord of Death Mountain
At least once in a campaign, they will follow a trail of evil and death back to it's source, and discover not some plotting wizard or insane abberation, but just some normal person who is greedy, stupid, selfish, or insane. Just to remind them that evil can stem from normal sources as well.

Find a way for them to interact in an interesting way with a monster they normally would kill.

Use a monster in an unusual way.
Adding class level to things made this very much easier. A pair of intelligent troll rogues. A vampire assassin with potions to mimic magical effects. Just.. something weird.

 

[el-remmen]

Use an aspect of a monster that the others probably don't know about.
Did you know winter wolves talk? They speak Common, and Giant. None of my players knew this, until they were laid up in a hunter's cabin miles from nowhere, already badly hurt from a previous fight. Snow was howling outside. A scratch comes at the door. "Please help, we've been attacked.. let us in.." says the gruff voice from outside. "We're so hungry.."

The cabin's windows were shut tight but one guy manages a peek outside. Eight winter wolves are silently prowling around the place, with one scratching at the door and talking. It was toying with them, trying to get them to be the cause of their own doom. Freaked them out completely.

I really like this and just might have to use it (or something similar) in my next campaign. Kudos!

 

[Cedric]

Every "morning", I roll a d100 and I ask my to do the same. I note my roll in secret and collect their rolls. If anyone rolls my number +/- 1, then the fates have conspired against them in some minor fashion.

At some point during the day, when the player describes a minor, inconsequential action (which can still sometimes come at a critical time), I have them roll to see if they succeed. It might be a reflex save, will save, etc.

The target DC is variable, but in general they'll only have a 5-10% chance of failure, afterall, this is supposed to be something minor.

But my thinkiing is this...how many times have you tripped on the steps? Spilled your drink on your shirt? Said something inappropriate because your brain just picked the wrong word?

This is my mechanism for allowing those things to happen.

Some funny things that have happened...

Took a bite of mother-in-law's pie and made a face.
Choked on a goblet of wine while the Duke was making a dramatic point
Slipped and fell down the stairs while making a dramatic entrance

But, more often than not, nothing happens.

Also, if a player rolls the "opposite" of what I rolled (say I roll 67, they roll 76), then some minor good thing might happen. Note, this allows for me rolling an 11 and the player rolling an 11....for something good and bad to happen. Only had that happen once where both happened though...

Player "misfired" a crossbow while loading it...and "accidently" shot one of the goons lurking in the shadows that were luring the PCs into a trap.

It works for me, I like the feeling that no matter how well you plan and execute something, the fates still have a hand in the outcome.