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View Full Version : Some help coming up with a story (First time DMing)



Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 10:31 PM
Ok, I'm going to try DMing for a group of my friends (who are all new to D&D) pretty soon. I don't own (nor do I have the money to afford, nor do I want to use) any prepackaged modules, but I do need help creating a story.

I've been reading the DM guide on the forums, but I am kind of at a loss for plots.

The best I can come up with are fairly one shot things, where they do one dungeon that's been harrasing the village (some kobolds or goblins) that the town guard is, quite literally, just too lazy to do; The guards are like level 3-4, so the kobolds generally just die before even reaching the interior of the town.

Then after that, I planned to have a Red Dragon (very young or young) kidnap/kill *insert plot relevant NPCs +insert relationship here+*, and then they get promised a reward for killing it.

That seems a bit too generic to me, and I was wondering if you guys could come up with either A: a better, less generic campaign or B: a way to spice it up and give it more flavor and RPing opportunities.

AstralFire
2009-08-11, 10:35 PM
You are a traveler of sorts. Perhaps a young mage running an errand for his master; perhaps a wandering minstrel trying to make a name for himself. Or maybe you are even a slave Kobold. Whatever the reason, you spent the night at the Lizardfolk plantation Krayyti'f. An old plantation that has had its crops struck by plague; few come this way any longer. If you were a traveler, you wouldn't have come if it hadn't seemed all the usual trails and roads were blocked off by one thing or another.

When you woke up the next morning, it was to anguished cries. The front of the plantation house was destroyed, and several lay dead, dying, or raving mad. And then, you had been paralyzed, as though someone had hammered your mind and then picked up the pieces with a pair of scissors. Kobolds came from everywhere, and slew three at random. Then an unusually tall one with iridescent skin stepped forward and spat on his victims' faces before making his statement.

None of you could be trusted. The Lizardfolk had enslaved the Kobolds for ages; the other races had stood idly by and not cared. And a Kobold who had asked for the privilege to sleep in the house of murderers and slavers was no more trustworthy than one who had sold his own parents to Lizards.

You were free to go, as it were - an hour after he left, the mental paralysis would wear off. But the kobolds were everywhere. Watching. You would spend the rest of your days being hunted for sport by these Kobolds for your crimes. You could fight back if you wanted, but they had made sure to kill off the most dangerous of the people on the plantation in their sleep. Anyone still alive was not considered a threat.

Then he walked out of the building and left you to thought. Will you disprove him? Attempt to appease them? Try to escape? Or will you give up and die peacefully?

Thing I wrote up for the first thing I ever DMed.

I still think it's an awesome one-shot.

elliott20
2009-08-11, 10:36 PM
Why is this red dragon wanting to kill/kidnap the major NPC in question? what possible reason does it have?

answer that question first. next thing you do is figure out what this major NPC intends to do about it (if he's aware that there's a red dragon out there gunning for him)

Now you got to make things more interesting since so far you have only one relationship and one possible event.

throw some more obstacles in the dragons way so he needs to do more than just fly in, breath weapon, and fly out. that or throw in another party that is interested in this NPC or in the dragon. either way, have more faction cross paths with each other, each try to play out it's own plan.

assume that the players don't get involved, what will happen then? figure that part out in case your players decide to just wonder off and do something else.

but once you have all the basic character/faction motivations figured out, it's just a matter of reacting to the player's actions.

Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 10:52 PM
Thank you for the help. I'll try to keep this in mind.

Astral, how did the rest of that one shot go?

AstralFire
2009-08-11, 10:56 PM
Party eventually escaped, losing one of the NPCs with them, fleeing through low brush that the Enlarged Half-Dragon Kobold could not pass through.

Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 11:02 PM
Knowing my friends, they'd probably try to fight it out instead of running, unless I dropped a ton of hints that it might not be a good idea. So while the idea sounds fun, I'm not sure if it would be their thing.

AstralFire
2009-08-11, 11:04 PM
The encounter back then was not meant to be winnable, as it was a possible opening for a longer campaign which would take place entirely within the plantation. I wouldn't repeat that bad design now, but there's no reason you couldn't make it so that the BBEG and his mooks were closer to their level. Perhaps they just have a rare McGuffin artifact which they could only use once and they're having trouble making a repeat there. Or the party could adopt guerilla tactics to whittle 'em down.

Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 11:06 PM
Sounds like an interesting idea. I'll think about it.

BobVosh
2009-08-11, 11:16 PM
The encounter back then was not meant to be winnable, as it was a possible opening for a longer campaign which would take place entirely within the plantation. I wouldn't repeat that bad design now, but there's no reason you couldn't make it so that the BBEG and his mooks were closer to their level. Perhaps they just have a rare McGuffin artifact which they could only use once and they're having trouble making a repeat there. Or the party could adopt guerilla tactics to whittle 'em down.

This whole story is overly ironic when compared to Tucker's Kobolds. They went somewhere the the kobolds were to big to avoid, the kobolds were higher level, and the players used guerilla tactics to whittle down the kobolds. >.<

Another_Poet
2009-08-11, 11:19 PM
Here are some ideas.

+Consider having a better excuse for the guards than laziness. One thing I've noticed is that it's easy for players to lose respect for NPCs and once they do there's no getting it back. This leads to all sorts of problems. Other possible reasons why the level 3-4 guards haven't cleaned out the goblin den are: goblins keep it well trapped, going in is suicide; guards are overworked and undermanned due to recent upsurge in trade (trade brings smuggling, drunken brawls, etc); or the guards have a single corrupt officer who's paid off by the goblins (this makes a nice mini-villain to throw in). Make sure that the guards themselves seem competent, dedicated and very willing to help the PCs, just swamped with other duties.

+Can you tie the goblin situation in with the red dragon situation? What if the goblins had been holding the red dragon's egg hostage, and they shattered it when the PCs invaded their cave? Momma Red Dragon might visit the local lord in outrage, blaming him for his "reckless military actions." This would give a perfect reason for her to carry off his son/daughter - to deprive him of a child just as she was. (You'll also get to enjoy the look on your players' faces when their knowledge check reveals that the giant sticky mess of shards in the goblin shaman's bedroom is a freshly cracked-open dragon egg, and that the embryo inside is quite dead.)

+Assuming the Red Dragon is too difficult for your low level characters to beat in combat, what will she demand in order to return the lord's son (or the lord or the stolen item or whatever)? Does she maybe have a quest for them? or if she's not that reasonable, does a local soothsayer maybe have a quest for them? Something like "There is only one way you can hope to slay the dragon, with the lost Lance of the Maenad, said to be hidden at the waterfalls in the Snowshoe Mountains...."

If you develop a few sub-plots to put between your starting characters and the final resolution with the dragon, your players will savour the final victory all the more.

ap

AstralFire
2009-08-11, 11:19 PM
This whole story is overly ironic when compared to Tucker's Kobolds. They went somewhere the the kobolds were to big to avoid, the kobolds were higher level, and the players used guerilla tactics to whittle down the kobolds. >.<

I wrote this when I was brand new to D&D, but yes, I was amused. :D

valadil
2009-08-11, 11:20 PM
There's nothing wrong with doing a series of one shots. What I recommend doing is taking something that the players find interesting and turning that into a plot. Maybe they're offended by the guards laziness so they try to raise some money and train the local guards. Maybe they capture a kobold as a pet, but he gains their respect and asks them to help get back home across the continent.

If your players are more hack and slashy and don't bother talking to anyone, just drop some items of interest. A treasure map is one hell of a plot hook and motivates anyone who likes loot. Or maybe they'll find the skeletons of 700 preteen boys in the kobold cave and it turns out that the town was giving a child to the kobolds every winter in exchange for the kobolds not overrunning the village entirely. Basically you just need to put something in the dungeon that will confuse the players. Then figure out how it got there. To make the story more complex have a couple things like this going on at the same time, but make them entirely unrelated. Your players won't know which clues apply to which plots and they'll have a hell of a time sorting things out.

elliott20
2009-08-11, 11:20 PM
here, lemme try to brainstorm some ideas too.

the dragon's motivation: Let's say that this dragon actually IS a much older dragon, or something even more dangerous. (for argument's sake, let's assume that the young dragon used to be an ancient version of itself) To release it though, he needs someone to undo the curse laid on him years ago by a priest of some old religion... whose decedent just happens to be this one major NPC of yours. incidentally, this NPC himself while not powerful is one of the few with the bloodline to undo the curse. As such, the dragon needs to kidnap him, and convince him to undo it, or kill him and find another person in his bloodline that will.

the NPC himself is a low level caster. He's not aware of the strength of his bloodline, or at least, not the part that has to do with the dragon's curse. And quite frankly, he would never imagine that he's able to replicate any of the old glory at his current power level. He, however, would like nothing more than to fully realize the potential of his bloodline. (Something that the dragon might or might not go along with, since he's not keen on having the same seal put on him again)

Okay, so we have a basic relationship. Now let's complicate things a little.

There's a cult of the old dragon out there somewhere, worshiping this ancient dragon as the avatar of tiamat or maybe just outright worshiping it as a god. It's ranks are not filled with actual divine casters, but mostly low level commoners and some arcane casters.

They too want to see that the ancient dragon is revived... but for one reason or another, they do not believe the young red dragon is in fact the reincarnation of the ancient red dragon.

the reason why? it's because the head of the cult, who actually does know the truth, doesn't want to just revive the dragon. He wants to attain that power for himself. As such, he wants the dragon's power to be maintained until he can find a method of controlling that power too.

as such, he can't allow the dragon to simply kidnap the bloodline NPC and convince him with a "charm person" spell or some such. No, but he can't let this NPC die either or else he will lose the main method of unlocking the power when the time comes. So he now must perform a dangerous balancing act where he can somehow ward off the death of the bloodline NPC, but do so without letting the dragon get a hold of him... guess which cult is also going to try to to kidnap this NPC and have him locked away?

Let's add another layer: the bloodline NPC has a romantic interest who has an inkling of an idea about his bloodline, but she's not aware of all the history that surrounds it. the moment he goes missing, guess who is going to start snooping around to find him? the bad part is not what happens if she fails, but what happens when she DOES find something. If caught by the cult, she becomes the sacrifice. If caught by the dragon... she... becomes a snack.

Thomo
2009-08-11, 11:27 PM
What about something along the lines of:

A remote town/small city is being plagued by increasing raids on caravans. The efforts of the town guard have met with little success, by the time they arrive at the scene the bandits have long fled, and they simply do not have the resources available to maintain constant patrols.
The part is enlisted by the town to help find the source of the raids and, if possible, put a stop to it. After coming across the scene of the latest attack, it becomes apparent that the raiders, while humanoid, aren't human (kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins etc).
After several events (ambushes, traps, etc) they come across the main camp/dungeon/fort of the raiders. While observing the camp they come to the realisation that what seemed at first to be random raids is something far more sophisticated.
The camp itself forms the first part of a series of mines in the mountains, and survivors of the raids are being used as slave labour to remove precious stones, minerals etc (or possibly searching for an artefact). They observe a human renegade ordering around the overseers, and the figure is somewhat familiar, though they can't quite place where the have seen him before. Hiding until they human boss leaves, they try to infiltrate the camp to learn more.
Conflict ensures and they fight the overseer of the operation (a suitably hard monster and his gang of cronies) for domination. Insert interesting plot twist here - do they fight to free the slaves, halting the raids on the caravans etc, or do they fight to dominate the raiders - earning income of the caravan raids and the mines, as well as being paid for their work in halting the caravan raids by the town.
Anway, after the battle they find evidence that the man they saw at the camp is from the town (discarded cloth, a note, ring - whatever). As well as some other mysterious loot.
They travel back to the town and discuss their findings with whoever hired them etc. Introduce some more NPC's - a suitable damsel (or whatever), magistrate, court official etc.
During the night the inn that they are staying at is attacked, and the party rushes to the defence (or joins in some opportunistic looting) - after the attack has been repelled they find that some of their mysterious loot has dissappeared, they also might learn later that the two gate guards had been poisoned and the gates opened from the inside (if they ask the right questions, etc) leading to the discovery that there is a traitor in their midst.
Cue suspense and mistrust as everyone they have dealt with comes under suspicion.
They also find that one of the NPC's (aforementioned Damsel) has been kidnapped. Cue next quest.
And so on and so forth, eventually battling their way through the hordes of underlings, through the human elements, upper echelon etc till they reach the arbiter of all this destruction - the red dragon.

Sorry it's a bit long, but it's just an idea I have had floating around for a little bit - waiting for my group to get back together for some more sessions before we run a similar campaign.

Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 11:34 PM
here, lemme try to brainstorm some ideas too.

the dragon's motivation: Let's say that this dragon actually IS a much older dragon, or something even more dangerous. (for argument's sake, let's assume that the young dragon used to be an ancient version of itself) To release it though, he needs someone to undo the curse laid on him years ago by a priest of some old religion... whose decedent just happens to be this one major NPC of yours. incidentally, this NPC himself while not powerful is one of the few with the bloodline to undo the curse. As such, the dragon needs to kidnap him, and convince him to undo it, or kill him and find another person in his bloodline that will.

the NPC himself is a low level caster. He's not aware of the strength of his bloodline, or at least, not the part that has to do with the dragon's curse. And quite frankly, he would never imagine that he's able to replicate any of the old glory at his current power level. He, however, would like nothing more than to fully realize the potential of his bloodline. (Something that the dragon might or might not go along with, since he's not keen on having the same seal put on him again)

Okay, so we have a basic relationship. Now let's complicate things a little.

There's a cult of the old dragon out there somewhere, worshiping this ancient dragon as the avatar of tiamat or maybe just outright worshiping it as a god. It's ranks are not filled with actual divine casters, but mostly low level commoners and some arcane casters.

They too want to see that the ancient dragon is revived... but for one reason or another, they do not believe the young red dragon is in fact the reincarnation of the ancient red dragon.

the reason why? it's because the head of the cult, who actually does know the truth, doesn't want to just revive the dragon. He wants to attain that power for himself. As such, he wants the dragon's power to be maintained until he can find a method of controlling that power too.

as such, he can't allow the dragon to simply kidnap the bloodline NPC and convince him with a "charm person" spell or some such. No, but he can't let this NPC die either or else he will lose the main method of unlocking the power when the time comes. So he now must perform a dangerous balancing act where he can somehow ward off the death of the bloodline NPC, but do so without letting the dragon get a hold of him... guess which cult is also going to try to to kidnap this NPC and have him locked away?

Let's add another layer: the bloodline NPC has a romantic interest who has an inkling of an idea about his bloodline, but she's not aware of all the history that surrounds it. the moment he goes missing, guess who is going to start snooping around to find him? the bad part is not what happens if she fails, but what happens when she DOES find something. If caught by the cult, she becomes the sacrifice. If caught by the dragon... she... becomes a snack.

That's... a really good idea, honestly. A lot to take in for new players, though; I think it would probably be complicated enough without the cult of the dragon.

As for the guards being lazy: They aren't really "lazy" so much as they really don't *care* about the kobolds; they aren't even a threat. Imagine if, say, a modern U.S. Military base was being attacked by a few wild animals. That's basically what I'm trying to say. The guards are getting annoyed at having to deal with it, but it isn't even enough of a threat to go out on a hunt to find the kobolds themselves, plus it would leave the city weaker in case a real attack happened.

elliott20
2009-08-11, 11:36 PM
What about something along the lines of:

A remote town/small city is being plagued by increasing raids on caravans. The efforts of the town guard have met with little success, by the time they arrive at the scene the bandits have long fled, and they simply do not have the resources available to maintain constant patrols.
The part is enlisted by the town to help find the source of the raids and, if possible, put a stop to it. After coming across the scene of the latest attack, it becomes apparent that the raiders, while humanoid, aren't human (kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins etc).
After several events (ambushes, traps, etc) they come across the main camp/dungeon/fort of the raiders. While observing the camp they come to the realisation that what seemed at first to be random raids is something far more sophisticated.
The camp itself forms the first part of a series of mines in the mountains, and survivors of the raids are being used as slave labour to remove precious stones, minerals etc (or possibly searching for an artefact). They observe a human renegade ordering around the overseers, and the figure is somewhat familiar, though they can't quite place where the have seen him before. Hiding until they human boss leaves, they try to infiltrate the camp to learn more.
Conflict ensures and they fight the overseer of the operation (a suitably hard monster and his gang of cronies) for domination. Insert interesting plot twist here - do they fight to free the slaves, halting the raids on the caravans etc, or do they fight to dominate the raiders - earning income of the caravan raids and the mines, as well as being paid for their work in halting the caravan raids by the town.
Anway, after the battle they find evidence that the man they saw at the camp is from the town (discarded cloth, a note, ring - whatever). As well as some other mysterious loot.
They travel back to the town and discuss their findings with whoever hired them etc. Introduce some more NPC's - a suitable damsel (or whatever), magistrate, court official etc.
During the night the inn that they are staying at is attacked, and the party rushes to the defence (or joins in some opportunistic looting) - after the attack has been repelled they find that some of their mysterious loot has dissappeared, they also might learn later that the two gate guards had been poisoned and the gates opened from the inside (if they ask the right questions, etc) leading to the discovery that there is a traitor in their midst.
Cue suspense and mistrust as everyone they have dealt with comes under suspicion.
They also find that one of the NPC's (aforementioned Damsel) has been kidnapped. Cue next quest.
And so on and so forth, eventually battling their way through the hordes of underlings, through the human elements, upper echelon etc till they reach the arbiter of all this destruction - the red dragon.

Sorry it's a bit long, but it's just an idea I have had floating around for a little bit - waiting for my group to get back together for some more sessions before we run a similar campaign.

there is one major problem with this: it assumes that the players will play along with this particular course of action. that is, they'll investigate the camp site, that they will infiltrate the camp, that they will do things in a certain fashion.

these are dangerous assumptions to make.

Starscream
2009-08-11, 11:40 PM
I like start with the players in jail. It's a cliche, but there's a lot they can do with it. They can enact an escape, go to trial and try to defend themselves against a kangaroo court, have someone in power offer them freedom in return for doing some task...

Or my personal favorite: they are in their cell, they hear a click, and find that their cell is now unlocked and the guards have been poisoned. It's so cheesy but nothing gets players more paranoid than the possibility that someone is manipulating things behind the scenes and wants them to escape.

It can be fun to figure out why they are in jail to begin with as well. Gets them thinking about their background, which is always nice. Or you can just have them framed, and the guy who did it is the villain. Last time I had them falsely accused of witchcraft by a phony witchhunter, because I had been watching a lot of Blackadder.

elliott20
2009-08-11, 11:40 PM
That's... a really good idea, honestly. A lot to take in for new players, though; I think it would probably be complicated enough without the cult of the dragon.

As for the guards being lazy: They aren't really "lazy" so much as they really don't *care* about the kobolds; they aren't even a threat. Imagine if, say, a modern U.S. Military base was being attacked by a few wild animals. That's basically what I'm trying to say. The guards are getting annoyed at having to deal with it, but it isn't even enough of a threat to go out on a hunt to find the kobolds themselves, plus it would leave the city weaker in case a real attack happened.
thanks! and use as little or as much as you need. the point of complication is so that the quest won't be a simple "go there, kill that and we're done" kind of quest. It also means you'll have more potential material to dig through in case the players go off course.

If you think having just the one relationship alone is enough to stretch out a whole session, feel free. I'd say keep a couple of the ideas (and some of your own, of course) in reserve just in case you need them.

Milskidasith
2009-08-11, 11:41 PM
there is one major problem with this: it assumes that the players will play along with this particular course of action. that is, they'll investigate the camp site, that they will infiltrate the camp, that they will do things in a certain fashion.

these are dangerous assumptions to make.

I noticed that even with the assumptions he makes, he still gives no plot if the PCs decide to be evil and run the slave camp.

elliott20
2009-08-11, 11:49 PM
well in all fairness, he says that he's using this with his own players, and it's probable that he knows how his players tick enough to be confident in the outcomes and what not.

but that's not a luxury you have at the moment, so best try to be flexible instead. remember, a little bit of work beforehand can save you a lot of headaches later. so whatever you do, make sure you figure out your NPCs motivations and capabilities. That way, if your players step off the map, you can just react.

Thomo
2009-08-12, 12:03 AM
Sorry - didn't realise I was meant to write the entire possible plot twists, different paths etc. Was just floating an idea to help the OP in brainstorming.

Hawriel
2009-08-12, 01:08 AM
I recomend running a published adventure if this is your first time. Some of them are quite good. Goodmen games Makes great adventures. They have 52 adventures for 3.5 ed. But they made the switch to 4th ed so they need to be found on Amazon, ebay, or other similar way.

However some of my players faviorite encounters or small (3-4 hour long) adventures where ones I made up as I went along. Here is one.

While traveling you deside to rest in ye old small village. Tey have a problem. The dead are walking and peaple are dissapearing. The few who return are not themselves. The local priest went to deal with the problem afew days ago but has not been seen sence. Inhuman things have been prowling around the village at night. A farmer living in one of the outlying farms said one of them looks like his brother who dissapeared two weeks ago. Most dissapearences happened at night. By the time the PCs show up the villigers are gathered together in the larger buildings for safty. Now the PCs maybe thinking undead. So did mine. But I used demonic possession. Some whare in the woods there is a mossuleum, or its in the old grave yeard set out side the village aways.

There are a small groups of incaporial demonds that are using rituals to possess the living. Her resently deseased. They are kidnapping villagers and possessing them so they can do what ever it is they want to do in the flesh. The victim is placed in a stone sarcophagus. It fills with warm blood that starts to boil. The soul is ripped out and the demon enters. afew rounds of will saves for this if a PC gets nabbed. The PCs must kill the demonds the possessed and purafy the mossaleum.

I almost took out the party cleric with this idea. He went on his own the middle of the night while the rest of the party where sleeping. He was very dissapointed that he was not possessed by an evil demon.