D&D 5E Would You Play This - "Dragons Must Die"

[Stormonu]

Imagine a campaign:

Most of humanity lives on a massive island chain that is the remnants of an ancient Wizardly empire. Pirates, bestial monsters, deadly bursts of magical weather and general survival are the issues of the day among the island-states.

Among the common island trade slip the Black Canoes. These war canoes are filled with heroes recruited from the various islands to fight the foes of humanity. The characters are members of one of the Black Canoes.

You can't play non-human races; they are the enemy or their goals are too mysterious to otherwise allow them to be playable. Your job is hunt down and slay the various enemies to the island chain inhabitants - mostly the vile monsters that prey on the islanders, and the dragons they spawn from. Worst of all, its all the fault of magic - when one casts a spell it either causes a dragon to spawn a new horror, or if enough magic is cast, spawn a new dragon.

How will you save a world whose magic must be destroyed?

 

[J-H]

I was good with all of it until you got to the part where "all magic is bad, delete 2/3 of the PHB unless you want to make the problem worse."

If you want a system where magic is saved for rare occasions instead of used daily, D&D 5e is not the game you want to play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think I would have to tweak the basis for the campaign if I were to run it or play in it.

For one thing, as stated, the smartest thing a dragon could do would be to get a bunch of spellcasters together and just have them cast spells all day long. Their evil plan would be to create Hogwarts, which is probably not what you're going for here.

From a mechanical side, I would treat it like getting rolling two zeroes on a wild magic check, rather than "well, someone just cast prestidigitation, so a giant rat popped into existence."

Additionally, I think a lot of players would chafe at the human-only setting.

 

[el-remmen]

Sounds fun. I'd be game to try with a DM I trust.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Imagine a campaign:

Most of humanity lives on a massive island chain that is the remnants of an ancient Wizardly empire. Pirates, bestial monsters, deadly bursts of magical weather and general survival are the issues of the day among the island-states.

Among the common island trade slip the Black Canoes. These war canoes are filled with heroes recruited from the various islands to fight the foes of humanity. The characters are members of one of the Black Canoes.

You can't play non-human races; they are the enemy or their goals are too mysterious to otherwise allow them to be playable. Your job is hunt down and slay the various enemies to the island chain inhabitants - mostly the vile monsters that prey on the islanders, and the dragons they spawn from. Worst of all, its all the fault of magic - when one casts a spell it either causes a dragon to spawn a new horror, or if enough magic is cast, spawn a new dragon.

How will you save a world whose magic must be destroyed?

Not in dnd.

For one thing, arbitrarily making non-humans into creatures you can't work with and understand enough to be playable is a trope I find rather silly, but just as bad is the idea that literally any magic creates monsters.

Like...what is the appeal of a world that is that hopeless? Why play a game that technically lets you play any class but in reality only lets you play the non spellcasting subclasses on non-caster classes? How would an Echo Knight be treated?

 

[Stormonu]

I think I would have to tweak the basis for the campaign if I were to run it or play in it.

For one thing, as stated, the smartest thing a dragon could do would be to get a bunch of spellcasters together and just have them cast spells all day long. Their evil plan would be to create Hogwarts, which is probably not what you're going for here.

From a mechanical side, I would treat it like getting rolling two zeroes on a wild magic check, rather than "well, someone just cast prestidigitation, so a giant rat popped into existence."

Additionally, I think a lot of players would chafe at the human-only setting.

I was thinking the dragons being more on the level of Reign of Fire, cunning and destructive but not willing to (positively) interact with humans or each other. The creation process is painful; like ripping off a bandage or breaking a leg. Besides, it creates competition.

 

[TwoSix]

I have no problem with the concept in principle. My question would be "What mechanic(s) are you introducing to make character development and growth stay compelling?"

If character options are restricted to non-magical subclasses of fighter, barbarian, rogue, and monk, and there isn't something added to allow for diversification of characters since magic items would assumedly be limited, then there would have to be some kind of hook to get me interested. The premise is fine, but not enough of a selling point to make up for the loss of mechanical hooks.

 

[Lanefan]

I've seen worse ideas for a campaign. I'd likely play in it.

Instead of always spawning monsters, though, I'd make magic just go wild more often - sometimes to the PCs' benefit, sometimes not, as the dice decide. Say, on a spell:

01-25 spell works as cast
26-50 spell works partially, plus a minor wild surge
51-75 spell fails but generates a wild magic surge
76-98 spell causes a minor monster to spawn, here or elsewhere
99-00 a dragon spawns, here or elsewhere.

And of course you can tweak the odds on that table any way you like, it's just a starting point.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I wouldn't be against playing in a game like that even with the restrictions. Probably play either an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian and focus on tanking or a Thief Rogue with a herbalist kit and the Healer feat so I can be the group medic. Plus I'm always down for a campaign featuring dragons.

 

[Stormonu]

I think I would have to tweak the basis for the campaign if I were to run it or play in it.

For one thing, as stated, the smartest thing a dragon could do would be to get a bunch of spellcasters together and just have them cast spells all day long. Their evil plan would be to create Hogwarts, which is probably not what you're going for here.

From a mechanical side, I would treat it like getting rolling two zeroes on a wild magic check, rather than "well, someone just cast prestidigitation, so a giant rat popped into existence."

BTW, its funny you mentioned this; my youngest son is putting us through a campaign with this very premise; casting spells randomly creates rampaging dragons - possibly in front of you, possibly half a world away, possibly not at all - and we're all students in a Hogwart's style academy. In meta, we know this is happening, but our characters don't.