Campaign Idea LF Feedback

[Triandoink]

Little background, long time lurker, first time poster. I've been forever DM for a group of friends for about 5 years now. Overtime I got burned out of running dnd like some DM's do and took short sabbatical from the game and moved onto running other systems for my gaming group. Lately I've been trying to brain storm ideas for new and interesting dnd campaigns due to my gaming group clamoring to get back into killing dragons and looting dungeons.


So here's what I came up with, start the PC's at low level (about 2-4) in the Forgotten Realms on a seemingly basic romp through the forest. Party meets at a town and has to investigate a nearby gnoll tribe (or insert any generic low level baddies) who has been harassing merchants and townsfolk. Upon successful completion of the mission and on their on their way back to claim their rewards they notice a bright burning object screaming threw the sky on it's way to crash land into the nearby mountain side.


This "should" hook them enough to go and investigate wtf this thing is. When they reach said bright burning object they find a gargantuan sized celestial (or other powerful outsider) creature mortally wounded. Further investigation will find that the creature is clearly dying and suffering from wounds clearly obtained before crash landing into the material plane. With the creatures last dying breath it opens its clenched fist and hands the party a gorgeously embossed tome and leaves the party with it's final words of "keep it safe.."


So what is the tome you may ask? I'm thinking an artifact that can open a gate spell to anywhere in the multiverse with merely a thought. If someone were to open the book they would see hundreds of blank pages and if they were to concentrate on a particular location the page would fill with photo-like illustration of the place being imagined, before the page simply burns up and opens a gate. Something the party would notice if passing enough perception rolls is that there are remnants of old pages, before they found the book. I'm hoping this will lead the party on many adventures through various countries and continents before they realize the books true power of allowing them to go nearly anywhere in the DnD multiverse and hopefully has a ton of potential for a long lasting campaign.

The party may realize this book can get them to and from safe locations for a time but soon many threats may begin to show themselves. Followers of the Goddess of Magic may begin to hunt them down for abusing the power of such an artifact. Primordial creatures stuck on the material plane might seek them looking for a way to return to their elemental plane. Demons and devils summoned by evil casters might hear the tales of hero's who can travel the planes at will and return this news to their patrons. The inevitables may be sent to stop the hero's and return the balance of the multiverse. My mind is racing at the possibilities of playing a mix of Planescape, Spelljammer and everything in between.

So if you've read this far, any feedback? What kind of shenanigans' can a low level party get into with an artifact such as this? What kind of BBEG would love to get their hands on this item? What was the artifacts owner running from before crash landing on the material plane? What would happen if the Demogorgon found out they could use this to invade the Nine Hells? What Gods of Demigods would be trying to get their hands on this to avoid the Lady of Pain in Sigil? Help an old DM get out of DM burnout funk and brain storm. Sorry for the long post and any formatting hiccups, I don't post often (ever.)

[TyGuy]

Sounds overly ambitious to be frank. Unless you're an absolute improv master. Instant travel to any corner of the multiverse at will sounds like 99.9% making things up on the fly.

[Triandoink]

Great points! The plan would be to not let the players know the extent of the item’s abilities and hopefully have them figure it out over time. Due to the nature of the Artifact I would make near impossible to identify with a mere identify spell.
What types of restrictions do you think it should have to make it more reasonable?

[Sparky McDibben]

What is your plan if they don't bite the hook?

[supercereal]

Love the idea, if you don't mind I would probably borrow it for a future campaing :smallbiggrin:

I wuold suggest a coulple of things:

- Make it so the book can only be used to travel to someplace the players have been before or saw trought magic or an accurate illustration.

- Have the first part of the adventure being about the players using the book to resolve their personal story/conflict/desire. Maybe have the party or each single player have un unresolved problem/enemy/whish in the past, and adventuring was their way to gather power/money/knowledge to solve it, but know with the book they have all they need. In the meantime they start to realize powerfull forces are moving to reclaim the book.

- Have the second part about the player discoverying what the book exactly is, its origin, why was the celestial carrying it and why was he/she/it attacked and by whom. And then fighting against the forces trying to reclaim it.

[Evaar]

If I'm a player and I get this blank book from a celestial and he says "Keep it safe" my first thought is "I have to protect this book, there will be things coming for it." I'm not really likely to start trying to use it. I might try to hide it somewhere.

I'm also not really sure what I'm going to do with it if you outright tell me "You can use this book to travel anywhere in the multiverse." I don't know where in the multiverse I'm supposed to want to go. So unless you know that your group is really great at self-starting and sandbox exploration, be ready with a few hooks as soon as you put that book in their hands.

And otherwise, explain that because this is so open-ended that your sessions will likely be of varying length because you'll need time to prepare stuff.

And I would put some constraints on how long it takes to start this travel, and how specific you can get with the locations. Otherwise plan to have your BBEG get assassinated on the toilet and your PCs able to instantly escape from any consequences for anything ever.

[Triandoink]

What is your plan if they don't bite the hook?

Well something will find the book. Making a terrifying BBEG.

[Triandoink]

Love the idea, if you don't mind I would probably borrow it for a future campaing :smallbiggrin:

I wuold suggest a coulple of things:

- Make it so the book can only be used to travel to someplace the players have been before or saw trought magic or an accurate illustration.

- Have the first part of the adventure being about the players using the book to resolve their personal story/conflict/desire. Maybe have the party or each single player have un unresolved problem/enemy/whish in the past, and adventuring was their way to gather power/money/knowledge to solve it, but know with the book they have all they need. In the meantime they start to realize powerfull forces are moving to reclaim the book.

- Have the second part about the player discoverying what the book exactly is, its origin, why was the celestial carrying it and why was he/she/it attacked and by whom. And then fighting against the forces trying to reclaim it.

For sure! I love the ideas! The plan would be to never explicitly tell the players what the book does but just let it happen. Such as "While camping and recovering from the previous battle you begin to lament about your home. You notice the tome you found cover flies open and a beautiful illustration of your childhood home fills the pages before the pages slowly begins to burn away in radiant fire. Suddenly a rip in time and space opens before you allowing you to see the log cabin you grew up in. Do you step in?"

Surely over pure trial and error the players would be able to find out what it does without giving them a straight out stat block for it. At this point the era of endless possibilities will begin. Thanks for the input!

[Triandoink]

If I'm a player and I get this blank book from a celestial and he says "Keep it safe" my first thought is "I have to protect this book, there will be things coming for it." I'm not really likely to start trying to use it. I might try to hide it somewhere.

I'm also not really sure what I'm going to do with it if you outright tell me "You can use this book to travel anywhere in the multiverse." I don't know where in the multiverse I'm supposed to want to go. So unless you know that your group is really great at self-starting and sandbox exploration, be ready with a few hooks as soon as you put that book in their hands.

And otherwise, explain that because this is so open-ended that your sessions will likely be of varying length because you'll need time to prepare stuff.

And I would put some constraints on how long it takes to start this travel, and how specific you can get with the locations. Otherwise plan to have your BBEG get assassinated on the toilet and your PCs able to instantly escape from any consequences for anything ever.

So the plan would be to never let them know straight out what the book is capable of. It would just happen at some point while the players are planning where to go next. Surely through trial and error they would be able to discover it's limitations over time (Or based off of my players, phasing in and out of brothels lol) Trying to hide the book somewhere would be a great idea, what happens if some terrifying abomination finds it and now the players need to try to stop it? I'm filling my notebooks with possible side plots and hooks based off of what the players do. Thanks for the feedback!