Need help designing a campaign!

[SirTrocvis]

Hi everybody!

So, I am DMing for the first time in my life and I have a general story but I could use tips on how to make encounters challenging but not TPK. The party is starting at level 2.

The setting is a tropical island, there will be a lot of dinosaurs and other animals. Also typical plant monsters. Assassin vines and such. But I find that there seems to be less dinosaurs than I remembered. Does anyone know what books contain more? Also if anyone has any homebrew monsters and dinosaurs for low to medium levels that would be fantastic!

I could also use advice on how to keep a party on story. This group devolves into chaos faster than you could say "Symbol of Insanity".

[dantiesilva]

Can't help much for the beginning but the end part the whole dissolves into chaos. Keep on throwing twists in that keep them interested. If they think they have something figured out make it wrong, or right and they seem to be wrong.

I myself and trying to convince my fellow party members a assassin is not evil as she has slept with me and i have not died. Why beleave the drunk that called her a ruthless killer.

[lycantrope]

Don't concern yourself with official names of monster manual entries. Bear is just a name change away from being a dinosaur. Don't trust cr to avoid tpks at low levels, but that shouldn't be a huge issue if you're not whipping out shadows at them.

As far as keeping them on story, that's all up to your ability to improvise. Whatever they want to do, just run with it and use it as a hook to what they have planned. It's generally understood even in sandbox campaigns that a dm has to prepare material for adventure in advance, but given that this is a story mode campaign, that shouldn't even be a concern. I hope I'm understanding correctly what you mean by keeping them on story, but here's an example. The group just finished adventure A and you have adventure B planned. It doesn't matter what the group WANTS to do, let them do it, and let that be the introduction to adventure B. it might mean its a different npc that send them somewhere, it might mean that the planned npc is just somewhere else. That's just the hook that reels them in to whatever you have in store.

[DMVerdandi]

my suggestion is to have a tribal scheme on the island. Don't make it so small that you can reach the end in a day. Make it a small country with villages. Perhaps a large greater island divided up into essentially a pizza with rivers dividing up each sub island.

Have the rivers EASILY crossed with kayaks, canoes or rafts(Like a mile apart). Have 8 seperate islands which are all large on their own right be individual tribes, with each sub-island having it's own culture, monsters, problems, and people. Perhaps have a greater tribe to rule over the rest, and have the pc's be apart of this greater federation. This way they get passes to all the sub-islands despite any tribal strife going on.

Perhaps give different climates on each island or maybe part of the islands differ in climate. 90% of all Islands are Tropic Jungle, but on one may have a snowy mountain, on another might have a small desert on the outer edge, and a third might have tar-pits.

Perhaps have the monsters magically spawn because of a greater curse on the island, thus each island having a defense force held by whichever class they deem superior.
On one island, everyone might think the cleric the best, the totemist on one, and the wizard on another.


Just putting them in the lost world might be boring. I would use dinos very sparringly. Hell, you COULD have druids be the main villains, and have them using dinos to cause trouble.

they could be lizard-men or kobold druids hell-bent on ending humanity (dino thunder + Chrono trigger:smallcool:)

[PraxisVetli]

Hi everybody!

So, I am DMing for the first time in my life and I have a general story but I could use tips on how to make encounters challenging but not TPK. The party is starting at level 2.

The setting is a tropical island, there will be a lot of dinosaurs and other animals. Also typical plant monsters. Assassin vines and such. But I find that there seems to be less dinosaurs than I remembered. Does anyone know what books contain more? Also if anyone has any homebrew monsters and dinosaurs for low to medium levels that would be fantastic!

I could also use advice on how to keep a party on story. This group devolves into chaos faster than you could say "Symbol of Insanity".

Not QUITE dinosaurs, but the felldrakes in MM II? pretty cool. Easy to spice up too. Does it need to be Dinosaurs? Or does "Large carnivorous reptile" work? Because then you could toss wyverns and drakes and such in. Maybe kobolds and trog's, for low level campaign. A Fighter/Warchief Blackscale Lizardfold in Stone Full Plate or Hide Leather riding an Ankylosaurus is pretty scary. (I picture a giant bone club)
Also, Miniatures Handbook has Cave Dinosaurs, lots of the classic faces like Triceratops,TRex, and Anky. I know I've seen a Quetzalcoatlus somewhere, Like bejesus if I can remember where.

[PraxisVetli]

Hi everybody!

So, I am DMing for the first time in my life/
I could also use advice on how to keep a party on story. This group devolves into chaos faster than you could say "Symbol of Insanity".

Two more things.
One, huzzah to new DMing!!!!
Two, honestly, be mean about it. Steal their things, make them roll Int checks when the player forgets things. It'll force them to focus. Sounds harsh, but it works.

[Eyclonus]

The funniest way to keep a party on track is to give them a MacGuffin that does something stupid, like transmute you into a ferret of living metal for 1 minute or even better has a table of random effects that can be somewhat useful in combat and out of combat, like hurling an orb of dire cheese for d2 non-lethal damage or cone of cotton candy, but throw in a catch like it needs to be charged in an altar of a specific cult every 3 days or something bad happens. Also have it come back to them every time they try to get rid of it.

[theIrkin]

for the chaos: let it run for a second or two, then grab onto something outrageous they've said and make that happen in-game.

e.g. "and then my character pulled down his pants and windmilled!" is responded to with a "and your character is thrown out of the tavern sans-pants, and the guards on patrol pick you up for public indecency. good luck escaping the 2 level 3 guards at level 2. (even if the party helps, they've been faced with consequences for their actions).

yes, screwing around can be fun, but doing it for it's own sake and doing it constructively to help along the game are two different things.

also, don't go out of control with your CR, but as they level (by ECL 5 or so), start regurlarly throwing in casters/making sure you use a caster's spells. that's the best way to continue to challenge players without going crazy on CR.


As far as keeping them on story, that's all up to your ability to improvise. Whatever they want to do, just run with it and use it as a hook to what they have planned. It's generally understood even in sandbox campaigns that a dm has to prepare material for adventure in advance, but given that this is a story mode campaign, that shouldn't even be a concern. I hope I'm understanding correctly what you mean by keeping them on story, but here's an example. The group just finished adventure A and you have adventure B planned. It doesn't matter what the group WANTS to do, let them do it, and let that be the introduction to adventure B. it might mean its a different npc that send them somewhere, it might mean that the planned npc is just somewhere else. That's just the hook that reels them in to whatever you have in store.

and this advice is golden. remember, this is collaborative story telling, you and the players have narratives you're hoping to tell, and everyone understands that. as long as you do your best to accommodate the arcs they want to see their characters in, they will reciprocate with your stories. especially when you give a subtle telegraph of your action (on the desk are a pile of correspondence; read all three of them, one of which is obliquely related to their quest). good luck man