Starting a 5e campaign for a new group, looking for cool campaign ideas and tips!

[Rfkannen]

Hiya! So I just found a new d&d group and have somehow stumbled into dming, a thing I do not do that often and am not that good at, although I do enjoy it. They have expressed disinterest in playing modules (as in they refuse to play them), but I have absolutely no ideas for campaigns. So I was wondering, what cool campaign ideas do you have? I want to start at level 3 by the way (not sure if this is smart as 2 of the people haven't played 5e yet. but I like it, I could be convinced to start at level 1)

here is the list of things I have heard the players say they would like. Though your suggestion doesn't have to follow them.

• they want to do something weird or non average
• no goblins or orcs
• they like the idea of a planar adventure, but would be okay with other stuff
• they also liked the idea I tossed around of having a campaign based on eastern, south american, or African mythology instead of western, though they would still want to play the standard options. even here I wouldn't know where to start.
• and that is all people have said.

so yeah, any suggestions on campaigns? Any tips for making the campaign? or dming for a new group? Any ideas on what a good starting adventure would be?

thank you very much.

ps. Does not need to be an idea for a full campaign, I would love to hear ideas for singular sessions as well.

[Princess]

It sounds like you should mine the old Planescape, Kara-tur, and Maztica books for some ideas, if you can find them. I'd also recommend getting a book of Asian, African, or American mythology to flip through for npc, monster, and even plot ideas, but for the most part all plots across cultures follow similar essential templates (destroy a bad thing, save a good thing, rescue someone, find an important object, et c.) and it's just a matter of seasoning it with the appropriate cultural trappings (South American Mythology uses jaguars the way that other mythologies might use wolves or bears in some cases, or how certain African cultures use jackals or cheetahs). Something similar to goblins tends to be a common feature of the sorts of myths that suit D&D, however, so I'd be more likely to recommend changing them around than forbidding them entirely.

[Louro]

Do you know Discworld?
That's pretty "non average" and weird. There are orcs, but I guess it won't be a problem since they are "normal" citizens like humans, elven, trolls and lizardmen. Normal has a pretty wide meaning in Discworld.

Better if the players put a bit of effort into making the most unoptimized character they can.

[bulbaquil]

I would second starting at level 3. This seems to be the "default assumption" for D&D 5e - levels 1 and 2 are largely treated as "tutorial" levels (as evidence, see the 5e DMG page 261--the rule of thumb they provide for levels 1 and 2 is approximately 4 hours of gameplay each; for subsequent levels, it's about 8-12 hours). Note also that the Elemental Evil module assumes you start at level 3 - it has options for a level 1 start, but they're provided as a "sidequest" in the back of the book.

[Coidzor]

What do you know about Sigil and Planescape and weirdness and philosophical clashing across the planes?

Spelljammer and its more sci-fi-ish D&D?

Xorvintaal and the games of Dragons?

Birthright or Kingmaker and the trials and tribulations of being the buggers who have to carve out a domain and rule over it?

[Daws2727]

How about a campaign set in a Zulu like culture? Mabye some rival warlords, or even another nation trying to conquer their culture.
I'm not sure I would start at level three if the players are new to 5e, just because levels 1 and 2 are still fun, don't take long to "complete", and great for learning.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

they also liked the idea I tossed around of having a campaign based on eastern, south american, or African mythology instead of western, though they would still want to play the standard options. even here I wouldn't know where to start.

The easiest way to do this seems to be having them be explorers or travelers from Icantbelieveitsnoteuropia going to Totallynotafricastan. They start with normal basic characters, and maybe they can pick up some campaign flavor along the way. The rangers wolf or the paladins horse dies? How about a rhino then? The binder can channel voodoo inspired entities and the fighter gets a chance to compete in a Zulu knobkerrie tournament. And who knows, maybe you can even trick the cleric into betraying his former employer and accepting a local deity. Now that I think about it, it's probably even funnier if you can talk any other character into becoming a cleric for a local deity.

The huge downside is of course that you will have to spend a lot of time just developing the campaign world even before you can start with what's happening in it (unless you find and buy a suitable source book), they get to do things the easy way while you provide an original campaign world. But if you're like me part of you may like creating a world and statting out everything in it. Plus not everything takes the same amount of time. Upsize a bat one size category, give it some weird facial feature and one special quality or damage resistance and you've got a scary African jungle bat. Not everything has to be researched in reality, as long as it fits the feel you're going for. The mythology will probably take the most work, so to make good use of it make sure the main problems all tie into there. Maybe they could start being led to something like some Great Zimbabwe inspired ruins, and discover something vaguely threatening that will slowly spiral into a potential world ender from there?

[Honest Tiefling]

You want non-average, but want to avoid the work of adapting the game? I would suggest an variation of what Level 2 Expert suggested. Instead of them being travelers, they get yoinked by portals/artifacts/whatever, to a ruined landscape of what used to be a thriving empire. There's survivors, but a smaller amount means less work to do initially in establishing the culture, which is going to be ruins and therefore, a lot less to describe. It also gives you a reason to introduce the cultures slowly, so you have more time to prepare and adapt.

The natives also have a good reason to accept these strangers, as they might have a pesky demon problem and better to go with the weird pasty guys instead of the unspeakable hordes in most cases.

[Ninja_Prawn]

There are plenty of good ideas in this thread so I'm sure you don't need my help, but I'll throw it out there just in case...

Why not try a fey-only campaign using my fey races homebrew project (see extended sig)? It's weird and different, and you can use it right off the shelf. I'm playtesting it now in PbP, but if you were interested, I'd be really grateful if feedback from a real table as well!