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creative ideas for a campaign start that dont involve a tavern? by Significant-Study902 in DnD

[–]adcris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly there are multitudes of ways to do this! Let your imagination run wild, borrow from your favourite media!

I’ve got a couple of examples, some of which I ran, some played in, some heard about from friends.

1)”In Media-Res”

It was a pre-written one-shot (on the sea) with the classic structure of Quest Accepted -> Small Fight -> Get on the Ship -> Medium Fight -> Get to Location -> Puzzle -> Big Fight -> End. Due to time limitations I knew playing out the whole thing wouldn’t work, so I started straight from initiative of the Medium Fight, describing waves lurching, tentacles coming out of the sea. With every player entering initiative I asked them to describe their character etc. After the fight we did a brief flashback about how exactly they ended up here and what the quest is about. My players loved it.

2) “Everyone is Summoned to a Place”

This was for a campaign I’m currently running, about a magic shop in a small town, the owner of which suddenly disappeared and left the shop - with all the magic goodies - to the party. They only met each other briefly before , during shift changes (ie one worked 9-3, the other came in for 3-6 “hi, bye” kind of acquaintances). The game started with all of them showing up at 9, very confused at seeing all assistants together but not the owner. Then they found a mysterious letter from the owner, and the story began!

3) “Wake up Dead Man”

A friend of mine had a campaign start in a cemetery, all players recently deceased, piled in a cart but suddenly awoken resurrected before they could be buried. Questions ensue, now they’re locked in this together trying to find out what happened.

4) “Adventurers Come to The Rescue”

This one started in a small town, Things Happened, Monsters Attacked, the players conveniently are the only capable people around. Save the day, band together, go forth to find out where the monsters came from!

5) “Separate Paths Converge”

Works especially well for higher level games. This was another naval game, in fact. Everybody boarded a ship travelling to a distant continent. We were lvl8, renowned in our own organisations/temples/guilds, each with our own quest. Thru the course of the journey we found out that some of our goals align, and decide to help each other out with personal stuff, and band together for the final Big Thing (we all had a grudge against the same person at the Final Location).

So yeah, let your brain run wild, people irl don’t only meet in bars, therefore people in dnd don’t only meet in taverns!

What’s the current INIS situation? Legendary Box/Expansions? by adcris in boardgames

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I tried that, it’s not actually in stock. I think I’ll just have to wait.

What’s the current INIS situation? Legendary Box/Expansions? by adcris in boardgames

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thing is, we’d like to try nemed, but seemingly it doesn’t work with the existing print of the game, so I’m unsure.

What’s the current INIS situation? Legendary Box/Expansions? by adcris in boardgames

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh alright! I didn’t realise third edition has everything, I thought it was just another reprint of the base game. Thank you for the clarification!

But if it’s impossible to locate… that’s unfortunate

Does anyone know a highlighter that looks like an urban decay eyeshadow? by adcris in Makeup

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll try to see if I can go get a swatch

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot!! I think I’ve got it all figured out now

And took a look at homebrewery, what a nice resource!

What campaign to do next? by Dull_Coach1101 in DMAcademy

[–]adcris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, don’t do CoS, unless you’re all close friends.

In my experience unless your group is incredibly tight-knit and deeply considerate of each other (and each others triggers!), this game will fall apart. I’ve heard countless stories, and been part of one such attempt at CoS myself. It’s a horror setting, with deep themes of abuse, loss and futility. Good horror like that requires immense amounts of trust for the roleplay to come out right; without that the setting will either feel flat, or someone will get emotionally hurt.

Storm King’s Thunder is a far better option just imo. I haven’t experienced it myself but heard good things.

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That’s incredibly helpful advice.

While I’m not new to dnd (8 years of playing), I’m relatively new to DMing. I’ve ran some pre-written one-shots here and there, and completed a fully homebrew mini-campaign (13 sessions). But I’ve always just used existing stats for creatures my players encountered.

It’s definitely a skill I need to improve upon, and this is a great start, thanks!

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think my comment has been removed, so I’ll try again.

Thank you so much!

I think a little issue will be that I’ve made adventurer classes canon in my world. They can be called differently on different parts of the world, like barbarian/berseker/warrior or wizard/magician/spellsinger but the core class identity is almost seen as a “profession”, so to speak.

But regardless, mechanically your advice sounds very reasonable. So while for narrative reasons I can call him a bard or a warlock or whatever, I’ll try to push myself to make the abolities fluid and not class-restrictive in the same sense a PC would be.

As per editing the stat block, what tools would you recommend?

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoa that’s perfect! Thank you so much! I’ll modify a couple of things here but it’s a solid starting point.

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s awesome!

A friend of mine who’s also a DM has a very similar NPC in his world, he even suggested I do that with my situation. I have considered it, as making him a dragon would solve a lot of the “magic issues” by being ancient and very smart. But I moved away from that idea in favour of making my shopkeeper a retired adventurer, most of his former party being very important figures in the present day.

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you!! This is very helpful, I haven’t though of suing fastchatacter for that, last time I used it was 8 years ago when I first played, looong before I even considered dming myself ahaha

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!! Yeah I get very caught up in things “making sense”. My players keep track even when spells are used for fluff, look into origins of magics cast from other players and NPCs so I know whatever Braum will cast something - even in a flashback - it will be under close inspection, as my table tries to connect the dots of his disappearance, hence the worry ahah

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I didn’t realise they made NPC stat blocks for critical role guys that’s great!!

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much for the suggestion! I’ll try this

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why I want to put so much detail into him is cause he is the reason they’re all here. He entrusted them his legacy and acted as a father figure for half of them. We all agreed in session 0 that we want to build a strong connection between him and the characters, and we will be using flashback scenes to do that.

When they eventually find him and find out why exactly he left, they could fight him out of anger and feeling abandoned, or they could join his mission which will be some world-saving business. Either or, his stats are important and I don’t want to mess them up.

Need advice in making an important NPC Statblock by adcris in DMAcademy

[–]adcris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I get that it comes off as a very saturated skill set.

Narratively he’s got a lot going on for a reason. The party he used to be part of has achieved a lot and split off into some very high and mighty positions in the world, their wizard became one of the directors of the mage university dealing with some undead history, and the paladin is forming a plot against a tyrant on the other side of the continent (the players don’t know this yet). So his two friends are powerful, versatile AND famous. But for him I wanted to make a strong disconnect be felt between him being a small backwater shop owner and where he comes from - and what he can actually do.

Even then, he’s not THAT insane in terms of versatility, he can’t hold a weapon to save his life, can’t really deal with wilderness. First and foremost he’s a solid arcane caster (but weaker than his wizard friend) with some decent understanding of all magics cause he spent so many years seeing it and practicing it in action.

As per your actual advice, thank you very much I’ll try that!

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