Traditional D&D Campaign

[Defiant]

Greetings,

I am considering DMing a game for my friends come this winter, and I would like to DM something very traditional. Dungeons, dragons, goblins, kobolds...

I would like to ask you what is a traditional D&D game. Please list some traditional facets for me

[Jarrick]

Nothing says nostalgia for my group like wading through hoards of goblins. We have an expression: "You see a sea of green, with morningstars."

The Sunless Citadel and The Burning Plague, both published adventures, feel very traditional in my opinion.

Elves dont like orcs and vice versa. Dwarves dont like elves and vice versa. Drow are ten times cooler than elves. Party consists of a cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. The cleric is a healer, and the wizard is a blaster. You all start in a tavern, the Drunken Dragon, a mysterious stranger in a dark cloak beckons you to his table...

::sniff:: its just like the good old days :')

[Tvtyrant]

Traditional D&D:

Black and White morals

Color coordinated/racially coordinated alignment systems

Dark ages towns with 14 hundreds tech

Magic users are feared and hated but also respected

Clerics are beloved

Normal people do not have character classes

[Endarire]

Think of every D&D cliche. Ever.

Incorporate them into your game.

[BridgeCity]

Ratmen in the sewers. It seems almost every game I play in there are ratmen in the sewers.

[Dsurion]

This thread about a cliche game from not long ago has a lot of "tradition".

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173812

[dsmiles]

Traditional DnD = 1e Tomb of Horrors.

That should soften liven them up for Christmas.

[AslanCross]

Adventure 1: Rats in sewers.
Adventure 2: Goblins raiding farms.
Adventure 3: Orcs raiding farms.
Adventure 4: Ogres, orcs and goblins raiding farms.
Adventure 5: Confront their evil warlord, who runs away and is apparently only the servant of an ancient lich.
Adventure 6: Search an ancient, trap-filled dungeon for a McGuffin to beat ancient lich. Beat the beholder that protects it. McGuffin is incomplete; you need the other piece.
Adventure 7: Warlord returns. Giants raiding farms.
Adventure 8: Dragon raiding castle, steals princess. Beat dragon; sorry, the princess is in another castle.
Adventure 9: Beat the Mind Flayers hiding out under the city. They have the second part of McGuffin.
Adventure 10: Confront the lich, his dragon friend (now a dracolich), and the warlord guy (who is by now likely a high-level blackguard). Use McGuffin. Destroy his phylactery. But the princess is in another castle. Fail to destroy the dracolich, though.
Adventure 11: Find the princess in another castle. Confront the demonic cult (preferably one of the Usual Suspects: Orcus or Demogorgon; nobody ever suspects Graz'zt or Pazuzu) that the lich was part of that wants to sacrifice the princess. But the Princess is in another castle.
Adventure 12: A local goodly church is corrupted by the cultists. You have to beat the demon (Glabrezu) they summoned, who has tempted the good guy high priest into evil. You finally get the princess, but the dracolich appears once more.
Adventure 13: Dracolich hides out on a demiplane. You need to traverse the Astral Plane. Enter Githyanki.
Adventure 14: Battle with Githyanki troops, as well as some demons. Get waylaid to the Abyss/Nine Hells. Fight more demons.
Adventure 15: End up at dracolich's demiplane. Fight! Rescue princess, for good this time.
Adventure 16: In your absence, the demon cult has summoned their evil overlord. He has taken over the nation and possessed the king! Fight!

...I think I've covered every cliche here.

EDIT: I forgot: START IN A TAVERN
EDIT 2: Elementally-themed dungeons, and drow! Drow fighting elves! Orcs being irredeemably evil!

[Psyx]

Ratmen in the sewers. It seems almost every game I play in there are ratmen in the sewers.

That's WFRP influence. I'd never even heard of rat-men until that game came along....

[Hironomus]

Anything featuring the four classic elements.

[Yora]

You go into a dungeon for no reason. Everyone of you dies there. Several times.

[Hironomus]

Oh and heaven help you if your party doesn't have at least one token Female and dwarf/halfling/elf/half-orc/gnome.

[Radar]

(...)

One thing to add: king's trusted advisor was cult's leader all along.

[GoatBoy]

Players are in a town. Whether by rumour, request, or pure accident, they discover the location of one of the many ancient ruins in the area beyond the town. Fight wilderness creatures on the trip there, loot and conquer the creatures and traps of the ruin, head home. Sell old loot, buy new loot, repeat.

Some ruins are full of undead. Some are being used as lairs by bandits. Some are full of squatting orcs/goblins/kobolds. Some have vermin or aberrations.

Do this until your players get bored. Once they get a handle on things, add some variation. The "ruins" this time are actually a warehouse in the town that's been taken over by bandits. Instead of searching for treasure, the players are rescuing a townsperson kidnapped by the orcs. The undead ruins are actually a long-forgotten tomb recently discovered directly beneath the town. The players must solve a riddle to reach the final room of the dungeon.

Then move towards stringing adventures together. Prophecies, sinister cults, mad wizards, etc. Bar fights rather than goblin skirmishes, burglaries where you must avoid detection rather than slaughtering everything and moving onto the next room. Encourage characters to solve problems rather than win fights. Draw them into the world and flesh out their identities.

It starts at the basic level and escalates as everyone learns. Don't be afraid to start at the bottom. Keep moving up as you feel that you and everyone else are ready.

Most of all, have fun. That's the real D&D experience.

[some guy]

You go into a dungeon for no reason. Everyone of you dies there. Several times.

+1
Take henchmen and followers with you. But only to carry torches and carry your loot (which is mostly copperpieces, but that's alright, you've got henchmen).
More random encounters, more random loot. Every magic item is unique. PC's aren't heroes but adventurers, surviving on their wit, skill, 10-foot poles and paranoia.
When the party is in one the less reputable districts of a city, roll on the lower table.

[Defiant]

That is awesome, this is helping guys

(and by winter, I mean sometime in the new year)

[Dr.Epic]

You all meet in a tavern.
Rescue a princess.

[arrowhen]

Practice saying cheesy lines ("You pathetic fools will never defeat ME, BWAHAHAHA!", "Thank you, bold adventures, for delivering us from CERTAIN DOOM!") with an utterly straight face.

[Christopher K.]

I second arrowhen's suggestion.

[Winter_Wolf]

The PCs start out in a tiny village where inexplicably they have access to most if not all non-magical equipment and maybe just maybe a seller of potions and scrolls.

There is no such thing as the MagicMart.

Apparently the only competent people to deal with any situation are the PCs.

Near this tiny village are dungeons, caves, and ruins which hold varying degrees of treasure and danger, which mystically scale with level: if you don't get around to the kobold caves until 10th level, then the kobolds will become ogres.

HORDES of pest type humanoids: veritable armies of kobolds, goblins, and/or orcs (no class levels). Then again I started playing in 2E, where it was acceptable to throw 30-50 normal gobbos at an 8th level party of 4. An orc was 35 XP no matter what level you were.

[super dark33]

my defination is: a tower, you fight 'minions', then near the stairs you fight a boss, and in the end you fight a lich/pit fiend/high level evil charecter.
the charecters must be good, the monsters are pure evil, in each level there is an item vendor,traps,magic items, and chests

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Use an older edition, or a retro clone like Swords and Wizardry or Old School Hack.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Obligatory TV Tropes Link

Seriously, spend some time mucking around the TV Tropes pages of the cited works and you should be able to construct a "classic" plot pretty easily.

[tbarrie]

Nothing says nostalgia for my group like wading through hoards of goblins. We have an expression: "You see a sea of green, with morningstars."

No traditionalist would describe goblins as green. Hand in your grognard's badge!

[big teej]

Practice saying cheesy lines ("You pathetic fools will never defeat ME, BWAHAHAHA!", "Thank you, bold adventures, for delivering us from CERTAIN DOOM!") with an utterly straight face.

I must begin practicing immedietly.....

[kyoryu]

+1
Take henchmen and followers with you. But only to carry torches and carry your loot (which is mostly copperpieces, but that's alright, you've got henchmen).
More random encounters, more random loot. Every magic item is unique. PC's aren't heroes but adventurers, surviving on their wit, skill, 10-foot poles and paranoia.
When the party is in one the less reputable districts of a city, roll on the lower table.

Yup. That's traditional.

[Greenish]

Obligatory TV Tropes Link

Seriously, spend some time mucking around the TV Tropes pages and you'll never get ready with the campaign. Or anything else you were planning to do.

Fixed that for you.

[Yora]

Obligatory xkcd-link.

[Hawriel]

One thing to add: king's trusted advisor was cult's leader all along.

I was thinking the princess would be behind it all.


Fago, cheetos, microwave pizza, Mt Dew, doritos, hostess products (mostly twinkies), and twizzlers will be needed.

[SimperingToad]

The following is intended as humor (well, semi-humor anyway). Please treat it as such...

Character names are unnecessary.
You can use one if you want to, though.
Character backstories are unnecessary.
A couple of sentences is fine if you must.

Characters have limits to their abilities.
They just do.
Superman can be found in comic book RPGs.

The PC does not begin as a hero.
His actions determine wether he is deemed a hero.
And no, he still doesn't get super powers.

All I need to know about the PC can fit on one side of an index card.
With room to spare.
I play the character.
Not the PC sheet.

A combat table is the DM's best friend.
Turning the PC sheet into a combat table is not.

There are no rogues.
And no rouges either.
There are, however, thieves.
Sometimes.

Halflings are industrious, rural folk with hairy feet.
They are not all larcenous little bastards in dreadlocks and boots.

Berserkers are barbarians.
Barbarians are not necessarily berserkers.

Spikey armor is not available.
The PC would get stuck to things.
A lot.

'Class balance' means you have at least one member of the four basic classes in the party.
It does not mean one PC can emulate all four classes at once.
It does not mean the classes are statistically equal at all levels.
Disbelieve the illusion.

Sometimes, a PC may not be able to contribute in a given situation.
That's why adventurers travel in groups.

Hirelings are a viable option.
So are trained dogs.
Poke-pets are not.

Farmer Joe should not be the combat equal of Fighter Bob at any level.
Ever.

Common folk do not have levels.
Nor do humanoids.
Humanoids may have extra hit dice instead.

Minions do not have a single hit point.
Unless that is what the DM rolls.
Otherwise, they'd be vulnerable to house cats.
I'm training attack cats.

Dwarves and elves do not get along.
No one gets along with half-orcs.
Oh yeah, half-orcs are core.
So are gnomes.
Tieflings and aasimars are not.
Neither are dragonborn or warforged.
Just don't go there.

Humans are the movers and shakers of the world.
Get used to it.

You don't need to be a drow to be emo.
Oh yeah, drow can't be PCs either.
They're evil, heartless bastards.
Period.
What part of 'no' don't you understand?

Good means good.
Evil means evil.
It doesn't matter what the humanoid thinks of itself.
It's never seen the alignment chart.
It doesn't even know there is one.
So there.

Vampires are not misunderstood.
They do not have souls.
They do not sparkle in sunlight.
That idea just creeps them out.

Evil PCs cooperate only when they can't get away with offing the other PCs.
PC vs. PC situations ruin party cohesion.
It doesn't do the players much good either.
The DM should invest in a catcher's mask and pads.

There is no boxed text in adventure modules.
They do not come in boxed sets.
Sandboxes are fun.
Complex plots are wholly optional.
Railroading is unacceptable.

Module covers do not need to be full color.
Non-repro blue maps are standard fare.
Black and white ones are okay too.
Artsy-fartsy maps make it difficult to see the pencil marks.
They are quite spiffy, though.

Taverns are a source of information.
They also help siphon off the PC's cash.
They are a good place to find henchmen.
Henchmen help siphon off a PC's cash.
Taverns are a good reason to go adventuring.

Magic items are obtained through adventuring.
They are not bought in shops.
They are not made by adventurers.
Then they would not be adventurers, that's why.

Negotiations between the PCs and NPCs are handled by the player and the DM.
Not by the rulebook.
Negotiations between the PCs and the river current are handled by the player and the DM.
Not by the rulebook.
Negotiations between the PC and the chandalier he wants to swing from into the battle are handled by the player and the DM.
Any questions?

Everything I need to play can be found in the MM, PHB, and DMG.
The rest my DM and I can make up ourselves.
Because we can.
There are no IIs, IIIs, or IVs for core rulebooks.
Ever.
Did I mention gnomes and half-orcs are core?

It's still okay to make fun of flumphs.

Tapioooooca!

We now return you to sanity. Enjoy!