D&D campaign

[nilin]

im fairly new to being a dm and i had thought of an interesting campaign but im not sure how to implement it i wanted to do a hunger games setting if anybody could help it would be nice. it is in 3.5

[limejuicepowder]

When making a dystopian world in 3.5, the first thing you have to overcome is magic. It basically comes down to this: the players can't have nearly as much of it as the basic game assumes they will have. Hallmarks of the dystopian world like hunger, scarcity, and sickness are trivially easy to overcome at very low level using magic. Having a reason why the players can't do it, and why the society at large can't either, is of utmost importance. Really put some thought in to this; a throwaway, nonsensical reason will seriously strain credibility and ruin immersion in to the game.

There are dozens of good ways to take magic away of course, I just want to stress the importance and nuance it requires.

Unfortunately this opens up a whole can of worms. Like I mentioned above, you'll be taking away something the game assumes the players have. This means encounters are about to get a lot harder and the game a lot less forgiving. Carry this to high enough level and the game breaks down entirely as the PC's are utterly incapable of fighting level appropriate challenges (this doesn't mean they can't fight what should be lessor challenges of course....but who wants to top out at fighting mundane giants and winter wolves?).

You'll also have to figure out what you (or the PC's, more accurately) are going to do without access to healing magic. Assuming to follow the advice of removing most or all of the magic, they are going to need some way to patch themselves up. Look up way of non-magical healing. Ultimately, you're probably going to have to homebrew something. Leaving the PC's with nothing but natural healing rates is a good way to limit them to 1 encounter per week.

My suggestion? Consider playing the E6 variant where leveling stops at 6th. The PC's won't be hurt nearly as much by losing most of their magic items if play never gets to the mid to high levels. The full rules of E6 can be found with a quick google search. Secondly, don't let the PC's play any primary casters.

[Toy Killer]

*Cracks knuckles*

Okay, where do we start...

First of all, Entire books have been written on making campaigns. It's not like, say, rolling a character up. A lot of prep work behind the scenes, and largely makes DMing a bit of tiring job. Creativity and diligence are key, as well as making things up on the fly Effectively. Any one can say "And then An Djinn appears!" but, in general, if it doesn't move the story along in a meaningful way, it kills player interest fast. You want you players to be interested, that's how they keep in line.

The most important thing I can tell you about DMing a campaign is that you are not playing Neo from The Matrix. Yes, you have control of the universe. Yes, you make the bad guys fall down when arbitrary hit points run out. Yes, you can bring out the rocks to fall when your getting frustrated with a player. But you're not Neo, and none of those prior abilities should be fully explored except in Extreme situations.

You are Morpheus. You let the players be Neo. Your job is let you little band of Neos know why things are important. Imagine if when Neo woke up from the matrix, if Morpheus never let him know about why he was jacked into the matrix in the first place? Neo would waltz around and probably punch random people in the face. There is no pressing issue at hand. He never got the people = Battery analogy. He's just an above average dude with all sorts of ability and nothing to occupy his time.

Give them the information about the world, and let the world react to what they do. A big heavy swinging clock in the background to keep them on track helps. Notice in the Matrix that no one ever points out how Bane was the only dude that didn't care for what the crew was doing? That's because, without much indulgent information, Morpheus told them all that humans were living in fantasy, and being used as an outlet, and that's "Bad". Once they knew what was "Bad", they were free to do what was "Good" without any further incitement.

So, I would recommend filling out your campaign world with a good host of NPC factions, filling in the idea of these factions in pretty decent details. Then continue to trickle from the big over arcing scheme to the smaller concepts and keep the information flowing On Time. When the Characters should learn the repercussions of their actions is when the players should learn the repercussions. Then, it's just a matter of being cool and pointing the players at the "Bad", So they can do "Good". Just like Morpheus does.:smallcool:

-----------

So now that you have an idea of what you should be aiming for, Pull up notepad on your computer (Or the equivalent, or an actual note pad if you like doing it the Ol' Skool way...) and run a little exercise for fleshing out the world:

5 factions
-3 goals
-1 prestige class
-2 Bosses
-3 Underlings
-2 Disposable minions
-4 Locations/Items

this is a rough web of the NPCs in your world. You would start with 1 faction...

1 Tyranny of BAD

And then give it three goals...

-Crush The Slave Resistance in the West
-Find The Artifact of DOOM
-Enslave the Dwarves In Mount Importance

And then give each of those a boss, a prestige class (Or archetype, or something to signify who they are and work for). Then, give those goals a couple of big movers (At different levels, so the players can have an impact without shattering the entirety of the world) and then some mini bosses for each boss, then for each Underling, give them disposable minions to get their work done. Then some significant locations or items of value for each of these minions.

It gets really tempting about the first half of the way through to start 'Recursing' through the old material. Don't. The point is to expand out ward and cover as much ground as you can, so you are NEVER in a point where your players are standing around with no "Bad" to do "Good" too.


I understand that this is a lot to digest, but I have to get to bed. I will answer questions and address comments tomorrow.

[lycantrope]

Don't be afraid to include filler content in between plot points and major adventures. If you keep the players doing something, they won't tell the difference.

[Phelix-Mu]

Hello,

Taking a page out of what little I understand of hunger games, just take the normal setting and say that all of the magic and cool is horded by the upper classes. The players all play members of a lower class, which has been systematically deprived of magic by the higher classes, along with other creature comforts.

The results: an elite society that lives up on a mountain somewhere, and then the world below, where life is hard and bitter. Up on the mountain, luxury abounds, but beneath, life is crap.

So, a couple rules will need to be changed. A reason why spontaneous casters don't arise naturally among the lower classes. The first thing that pops to mind is that every child born is castrated of any magical ability by the upper class and its flunkies. Maybe allow a couple feats that give people 1/day spell likes for a 0 or 1st level spell at low CL, to symbolize someone that had magical potential before it was sucked out by the evil elites.

You'll need to improve the hardiness of the lower classes, or the normal mechanics of D&D will make death disturbingly common. I'd suggest handing out free Great Fortitude and maybe Faster Healing (Complete Warrior), and then shopping for homebrew for a system of herbalism or something that allows for limited healing. Maybe make Heal a class skill for all classes or something, and allow a bonus that scales with level.

Finally, you'll have to be very selective about monsters. No outsiders, no dragons. Anything with spells/SLAs will wipe the floors with mundane-only parties. Likewise, no ability drain, unless you come up with a way to restore ability drain. Go very light on ability damage, too. And no level drain. And no incorporeal/ethereal. This eliminates a whole swathe of undead.

Basically, stick to humanoids, monstrous humanoids, some of the less lethal magical beasts, giants, and animals. And maybe toss in some simple undead to taste: zombies, skeletons, and the like.

In the end, I agree with limejuicepowder. D&D assumes magic. It may be easier just to lift the campaign to somewhere like Ravenloft, which is pretty darn dystopian.