Linking 2 campaigns together

[blownawaydnduk]

Hi guys so i am fairly new to the role of dungeon master but not new to story telling, i have created my own universe within the multiverse with a pantheon of draconic gods due to my world being created by tiamat and bahamut. There are no tiefling or aasimar in my world as the dragons created a space to escape the demonic and celestial beings. i have played it so that tiamat is not chaotic evil but chaotic good in my story and she is the mother of this world, so its the only place she cares for tying in the fact that she wants to destroy every other material plane so that the demonic and celestial forces cannot make it to the world she created for her kind. i could write a hundred or so pages on the lore but the point is i am running to games similtaneously in 2 different cities one is the campaign to save the world that tiamat created and the other is to destroy it.

the guys saving the planet are beings born of this realm and end up meeting someone from the Acquisitions incorporated head office and setting up the first franchise within the world.

The team wanting to destroy the realm have faced tiamat in their homeland and have been sent to destroy the land of the elder dragons in spite of tiamats wrath. quite likely working for either dran eneterprises or the zentarim i am gonna leave it for the players to choose by seeing the backstories and influencing their choices in game


my plan is to record both stories and then create books from the stories generated from the game play. I have already started the first campaign and start the second in a few weeks. i have written up loads of lore and history and planned out encounters that link the inbetween improv that has to be applied in d&d as i believe that the players should be leading the direction of the story and i as dm should be making that journey become an adventure. at the moment i am finding it difficult to work out whether i should have them working against each from the offset and try and link their characters or should i have them start on opposite sides of the world and bring them together for big events? if anyone has ever run a campaign similar to this and has any advice i would love to hear it !

maybe i have bitten off more than i can chew but i am determined to a least see how it plays out. i am still working on my rules and general mechanics of the game but 5e is seems pretty good to get involved with. i remember being a little overwhelmed when i was playing the older versions as a kid. i am excited but also a little nervous so hope that you guys have done something similar before and know how i am feeling

[Tawmis]

So is your end goal to have both campaigns run into each other in a big battle at the end to save or destroy the realm?

If so - it could be possibly. You could use an online avenue (RollD20, Fantasy Grounds) and have everyone log on for the final show down. So players could say who they're attacking and such.

[firelistener]

D&D is, by design, a cooperative game. In my opinion, I think everyone will have the most fun if you follow that design and eventually bring both campaigns together as allies. My suggestion is to just play both campaigns pretty much separated, but occasionally have the effects of the other party negatively impact each party. For example, the World-Savers complete a quest, and it causes some enemies of the World-Destroyers to acquire shiny new weapons. Or perhaps the World-Destroyers loot a dungeon, and then the World-Savers have to go on a quest to acquire a replacement artifact.

I'd refrain from any kind of Player vs Player combat, as D&D isn't really balanced with it in mind, and it almost always results in players' hurt feelings. You don't want anyone getting sad or upset IRL, so instead maybe come up with something that would unify them both. You mentioned that this world is supposed to be a haven away from the Celestials and Fiends, right? Well perhaps you could have both parties' agendas/goals be threatened by some inter-dimensional invasion of Devils trying to take over this world by turning Tiamat evil like she is in the other universe. The World-Savers would obviously want to stop that, and the World-Destroyers might feel like letting that happen would cut in on their profits.

Whatever you think up, I'd suggest not getting overly invested in specific quests or pieces of lore. You might be disappointed to find a lot of players will ignore things you feel are really cool about the world, which I've seen happen a lot. Just be flexible and have your over-arching goal in mind, and everything should work out eventually. I think your dragon world sounds really interesting, by the way.