Ideas for Story arc for lvl 1- 5, new campaing.

[Whisper rider]

Greeting!
I'm starting this new campaing with my friends, i made a new setting and its really nice, kind of chaotic, important details:

- huge kingdom devide now in to 3 (1/each son), after kings death in great war against dragons+elfs.
-elfs at war with humans, they invented this artifact to control a really ancient dragon to lead others into war against the humans.
-there are vikings that usually destroy every land they set foot into.
-gnolls have their own nation, as goblinoids got their encampments.
-kobolds, lizard folks and half dragons are very common, since the dragon actually made the great kingdom fall, (at the end it got devided... So it kind of counts)
- i want to make, one of this two things... One, make this a post dragon-apocalyptic world, where chromatic dragons rule... Or make the older dragons disappear after the great war... (i like the first idea better).


So what do you think your be an interesting story arc, for introducing the players to the new setting, any ideas on big plots?, future enemies, even one major enemy?, right now the campaingn its a big blank board, so anyone wants to help me with this??

[Ranting Fool]

As a general rule if you are all relatively new to D&D or just not 100% sure on your characters abilities or you're not sure on how powerful they will be you want to start small.

Also start small for campaigns where you are building the whole world from scratch, try and make it so the players themselves don't know everything about the world (From a different land/travel is rare/history just isn't taught to the young if you're going post apoc) so you can build on the world as they find out.
I tend to lean towards more post apoc/borderlands style settings as I like big old tombs/random monsters a bit more then humanoid intrigue(though I always add some).

[Darth Stabber]

Also start small for campaigns where you are building the whole world from scratch, try and make it so the players themselves don't know everything about the world (From a different land/travel is rare/history just isn't taught to the young if you're going post apoc) so you can build on the world as they find out.


This is a very important point. I am currently working on a campaign world, but I am focusing on only one continent. If another player wants to take over for a while, they can use the fully sketched out part of the world I have developed, or they can develop their own continent/island/ect. That is elsewhere on the world. It has been established that there is trade with other continents but details have been withheld from the players, because the details do not currently exist.

[Whisper rider]

That sounds like a very valid point, starting small it is then, i like the idea of the players getting to know little by little the history of what is going on.

[Corlindale]

It may be a kliché, but in worlds like these I've always wanted to start out with the players living in a small, isolated community who didn't even really notice the cataclysm - except perhaps the fact that fewer traders and travellers showed up. Maybe because their village is in a somewhat isolated valley (incidentally, that also gives you a nice way to keep the players within a small area before they confront the big world).

Eventually, of course, some threat towards their community, or other story hook, will make it imperative that they find the way out of the valley (through the now undead-infested tunnels, perhaps?), but for the first few levels keep them in the valley doing small-scale stuff - if done right, it also means that the final ascend into the bleak world around them will feel all the more epic.

[Darth Stabber]

It may be a kliché, but in worlds like these I've always wanted to start out with the players living in a small, isolated community who didn't even really notice the cataclysm - except perhaps the fact that fewer traders and travellers showed up. Maybe because their village is in a somewhat isolated valley (incidentally, that also gives you a nice way to keep the players within a small area before they confront the big world).

Eventually, of course, some threat towards their community, or other story hook, will make it imperative that they find the way out of the valley (through the now undead-infested tunnels, perhaps?), but for the first few levels keep them in the valley doing small-scale stuff - if done right, it also means that the final ascend into the bleak world around them will feel all the more epic.

That is an awesome idea, would play. Also the word is cliché, but the idea is not.

[Whisper rider]

It may be a kliché, but in worlds like these I've always wanted to start out with the players living in a small, isolated community who didn't even really notice the cataclysm - except perhaps the fact that fewer traders and travellers showed up. Maybe because their village is in a somewhat isolated valley (incidentally, that also gives you a nice way to keep the players within a small area before they confront the big world).

Eventually, of course, some threat towards their community, or other story hook, will make it imperative that they find the way out of the valley (through the now undead-infested tunnels, perhaps?), but for the first few levels keep them in the valley doing small-scale stuff - if done right, it also means that the final ascend into the bleak world around them will feel all the more epic.

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense. Any ideas, on what this small scale stuff should be?... Anything related to the dragons? The kingdoms...?

[JadePhoenix]

I would say your intended scale does not fit D&D as is. You're free to adapt level range in your campaign, but it's not usual in D&D for 5th level characters to be so important and powerful to influence kingdoms.