Ideas for a Campaign

[Bugbean]

Okay, so our DM (uncle) decided to not do his campaign and relinquish the reins. So, now I'm the DM. I'm trying to think up interesting ideas for a campaign, but I'm coming up blank.

Suggestions?

What do you guys think would be a fun campaign to play in? :smallsmile:

Starting at 1st level.

[Aett_Thorn]

Do you want a prepackaged campaign, or are you just looking for some spitballed ideas?

[Bugbean]

Do you want a prepackaged campaign, or are you just looking for some spitballed ideas?

Spitballs :smallbiggrin:

[Kadesh]

If you're new to it, Lost Mines of Phandelver. Its a starter campaign for a reason.

[Bugbean]

If you're new to it, Lost Mines of Phandelver. Its a starter campaign for a reason.

Group is experienced, but thank you!

[ZenBear]

Are you an avid fan of any particular video game or book series? Try recreating that in your campaign. I'm taking inspiration for a bunch of sources for mine. Do you like World of Warcraft? Turn the dungeons into adventures. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJ2UHoNoCs)

[Aett_Thorn]

Spitballs :smallbiggrin:

I've been thinking about a campaign that starts in a port city in Faerun (like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate) and sails over to returned Abeir (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Laerakond). Once there, the main "goal" would be to establish trade for their home city, but they could get caught up in local politics, inter-city conflicts, issues with the Dragon lords that rule over various sections of the continent, the re-emergence of the Primordials, and/or leave and go down to the unexplored continent of Katashaka (http://www.thebigblackmachine.com/thedungeon/the-hamlet/Abeir-Toril-Map.jpg).

I'm hoping to just flesh out several different ways for the party to go, but mainly have it be a bit free-form and sandboxy once they get to Laerakond, and just have some ideas of what I want in each area of the continent for them to explore. It will also allow me to basically create cities and towns as I go.

[Mr_Fixler]

Are you an avid fan of any particular video game or book series? Try recreating that in your campaign. I'm taking inspiration for a bunch of sources for mine. Do you like World of Warcraft? Turn the dungeons into adventures. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJ2UHoNoCs)

No joke this is exactly the advice I would give. My first real campaign was nothing more than the premise of "Thief: The Dark Project on Pirate Ships"

Take a story that really inspired you and tell it in a way that is fun for a dnd game. Some are obviously going to work better than others, but if YOU love it there is a greater chance that the group will too.

[Kadesh]

Group is experienced, but thank you!

You're a new DM though. And didn't you say your last DM had a horrorshow of a campaign loaded with some frankly ridiculous houserules?

There is Mines of Phandelver, Tyranny of Dragons, Out of the Abyss, Tales of the Yawning Portal, Princes of the Apocalypse, Storm Kings Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, which are all excellent ways to cut your teeth on it.

[solidork]

My favorite high concept campaign that got put on permanent hiatus was: "Magical catastrophe causes dreams to become reality."

You know that house that every kid in town is sure is haunted? Now it's alive and will totally eat you. You know that city of riches in the desert that has captured the imagination of generations of explorers but doesn't actually exist? It sure does now. The widow's dead husband is back, but should she accept him? Will the townsfolk?

Some kid had a dream that a stranger would come to town and lead them to the big city and a life of adventure. My character was that stranger, and it worked great until the kid got killed. We decided to set the campaign 5 years after the event and show a world recovering from all the weird **** that got dumped into this reality.

[Bohandas]

An all demon campaign set in the Abyss would eliminate disputes between hack-and-slash murderhoboism ad serious roleplaying

[DerficusRex]

You're a new DM though. And didn't you say your last DM had a horrorshow of a campaign loaded with some frankly ridiculous houserules?

There is Mines of Phandelver, Tyranny of Dragons, Out of the Abyss, Tales of the Yawning Portal, Princes of the Apocalypse, Storm Kings Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, which are all excellent ways to cut your teeth on it.

This is good advice from Kadesh. Run a module, tweak it as you go, and then you can decide if you want to write your own stuff from scratch once you've got your feet under you. There'll be a lot less prep, and you can still add your own touches and change things around.

Phandelver is a good starting point - you don't have to use the prebuilt characters if you don't want to, and you can always adjust the background hooks built into the canned characters to suit the ones your players create.

Tales of the Yawning Portal is more a string of different types of old modules retuned for 5e than a cohesive campaign, but the first adventure (The Sunless Citadel) is a good introduction even if you don't then proceed to do the others. You can also purchase it separately from the rest of TotYP if you get it electronically through dndbeyond (and if you decide to purchase the full thing later, the price will be discounted by the amount you already paid for Sunless Citadel).

There are any number of good modules on dmsguild.com - you can filter by the level of adventure you're looking for. Wild Sheep Chase (http://www.dmsguild.com/product/170937/The-Wild-Sheep-Chase--A-SingleSession-Adventure) is a level 5-ish one shot which is free, looks like a lot of fun, and can be dropped in pretty easily right after finishing Phandelver.

I also like http://www.thearcanelibrary.com - the modules are presented in a way that makes it easy for the DM to get the important points quickly. There's a free level 5 one-shot there which I like (Skyhorn Lighthouse) and another free adventure that starts at level 1 (Temple of the Basilisk Cult).

Good luck and I hope you have fun. :)