so....campaign

[TheHobbit0312]

the rold of DM has fallen into my lap and guess what?
SOOOOO many ideas and no way to pursue them

unlike most games that are all "BOOM". and "kill a evil wizard before he _____"
etc etc
i want something....beautiful and heartfelt.
something with alot of story

any ideas or pre made campaigns as such idea

[hirojinbrodie]

I understand the desire to take a pre made campaign and run with it, but I really think that you should try and work out a story that you create. It is endlessly more satisfying in my opinion, and helps to build the sort of repertoire of ideas that yield good campaign sessions.
If you want something dramatic and heartfelt, then consider something that you have either found moving in the past, or something that you think would make you feel strongly in a adventure setting, like a epidemic of children going missing, the story mostly being told through the words of heartbroken parents.
Things like this really add to a campaign, and if people trust you to dm, then they likely think you are capable of it.

[Amnestic]

Well there's a few genres which depend heavily on your party, your DM style and what you (impersonal plural) are looking for. Murder mystery/Urban roaming? Horror? Straight up dungeon crawl?

Red Hand of Doom is commonly touted as 'the best' premade module from WotC. It's pretty good with hefty doses of combat, sleuthing and roleplaying.

I once had a campaign in which the party was a new squad recruited by the local Resistance in an occupied city, intending to oust the invaders through subterfuge and open rebellion. It never really got off the ground, but I thought it had decent potential. Not exactly original mind you, but still!

[Humble Master]

How about this.
Your best friend/ wife/ girlfriend/ someone you care about has died. However resurrection does not come easily in this world. Legend speaks of one way, of a land that can bring life back to the dead. But this land is far away through forests, over mountains and across seas. Also the governments of this world have deemed the land cursed and will persecute you for seeking it out. Even once you get there you must deal with the guardian of the land. This guardian cannot be harmed with conventional weapons and must be fought in a very different way. Every night the guardian's soul splits into 9 different forms. These forms are vulnerable as any man or beast, though they are still powerful. Each night you must slay one of these forms before dawn. When all the souls are slain the guardian will fall and you will finally have the power to resurrect you friend/ wife/ girlfriend/ someone you care about.

[Amnestic]

(1)Your best friend/ wife/ girlfriend/ someone you care about has died. However resurrection does not come easily in this world. Legend speaks of one way, of a land that can bring life back to the dead.

(2)But this land is far away through forests, over mountains and across seas. Also the governments of this world have deemed the land cursed and will persecute you for seeking it out. Even once you get there you must deal with the guardian of the land.

(3)This guardian cannot be harmed with conventional weapons and must be fought in a very different way. Every night the guardian's soul splits into 9 different forms. These forms are vulnerable as any man or beast, though they are still powerful. Each night you must slay one of these forms before dawn. When all the souls are slain the guardian will fall and you will finally have the power to resurrect you friend/ wife/ girlfriend/ someone you care about.

1) Good start, though relies on players to actually have someone they care about, and each individually care about. It may come off as contrived that "they all died suddenly" unless you come up with a new party solely designed around people brought together by shared suffering to return their lost loved ones to life.

2) Long adventuring and government intervention explains why it's not more commonplace. Two questions which come to mind are: Is this common knowledge? And if so, wouldn't the government(s) themselves want to exploit this? Resurrection is no small thing.

3) This one sets off alarm-bells as McGuffin-ness. It's not a bad idea, but I think it could use work, as it might quickly turn into a case of "whack-a-spirit". Putting them on a time limit isn't a terrible plan, but if they get to the last spirit and then fail to kill it in time then their work for the past 8 nights (bearing in mind this could be multiple sessions over a month or more!) will all be for nothing, which could cause some problems.

Also you need to explain what happens to the powers once they use them - are they gone forever? Does the Guardian come back? Can they use them again? Stuff like that.

It's not a bad start though! :smallsmile:

[BowStreetRunner]

It can be difficult to design an emotionally powerful campaign if you don't integrate the player characters. A party of 'adventurers' who show up looking for quests rarely has the ability to generate drama nearly as moving as when the story directly involves the characters along with their friends, family, homes, hopes & dreams, and so on.

Try coming up with a general setting for your campaign first, then poll your players for character ideas. Once you have an idea what your party is going to look like, develop the story from them, rather than just from the setting.

[meto30]

Making a moving campaign often involves the background of the PCs, and this means you'd want to be involved in the character creation process. For maximum influence you'd need to be involved in the little details as well, for as the saying goes, the devil's in the detail. I'll post the starting point of one of our PCs in case it gives you any ideas.

Do note that the PC's backstory was created by both me (the DM) and the player working together.

Faelar Wood lost his biological father at a very young age and grew up with his elven foster father Svjelheim who taught him the ways of the woodsman, hunting and felling mighty game with his bow. But Svjelheim was already very old when he took in Faelar, and a few weeks before Faelar's 16th birthday, Svjelheim died. Adults came to the funeral, adults Faelar barely knew, and they all talked about what a great man Svjelheim was before he retired (form what Faelar did not know). When Svjelheim's will was read Faelar was surprised; Svjelheim told his foster son to seek out his fortune adventuring throught the wide world. Thus Faelar set out, with his foster-father's bow and a magical armor gifted by one of the funeral visitors.

But the world is not a kind and forgiving place. Two thugs recognized the value in Faelar's obviously enchanted bow and decided to rob him blind. On his sixteenth birthday, Faelar, in self-defence, committed his first two murders.

So began the tail of Faelar Wood, who'd later be known as One who lost All so that not All may be lost.



Now, if I may, that's a pretty terrible start of an adventuring life for the barely-16 boy. But as I said, the devil's in the detail. The following is what I the DM did with the starting background.


First off, Svjelhim isn't dead. He just feigned death and planted a false corpse. He just wanted Faelar to begin adventuring, so that his plans may be put to motion.

Second, whom Faelar thinks is his biological dad (who shows up in Faelar's dreams from time to time) isn't his dad, it's his original self. Faelar is a clone, a third one, of one Farthan Wood, who supposedely was supposed to save the world from some impending doom according to some prophecy. Farthan died before anything mentioned in the prophecy happened, and Svjelheim the necromancer decided to keep cloning Farthan until said doom was prevented.

Third, Svjelheim is hiding all this from his colleagues in the semi-secret organization dedicated to fighting evil. If they found out about Faelar being Farthan's clone, there's going to be one hell of a reckoning to be made between Svjelheim and the rest of the organization, of which Faelar is now part. Faelar will then have to make a choice between the organization in which he believes in and the foster father he loved.

Fourth, the face Faelar will make when he learns of Svjelheim's secrets... priceless.