Source Material for an open Player-Driven Campaign

[thomaszwanzinge]

Dear Fellow DMs,

I am preparing for a new campaign. The main idea is to ask the players for a group background and goal, as well as individual goals they would like to follow. Then I will prepare content for that specifically. An example for a group background and goal would be that they are part of a military branch of a relgious order, and need to establish a foothold in a region; another one would be to be sent by a wizard to extract some artifact that is hidden somewhere in a countryside.

I have got ideas how to facilitate that, but I do not want to completely homebrew a setting. What I need are locations, NPCs, maybe some Dungeon Maps (or similar detailed maps for action) and maybe a few adventures/adventure hooks. I do not want to follow a complete story arc, because the players are supposed to come up with something they find interesting. Following a premade story does not fit well.

The best so far I came up with was to take a premade WotC adventure and use whatever I can out of it. I heard good things about Rime of the Frostmaiden, the first part of the adventure is supposed to be quite open with many towns to explore. This should give me a few NPCs and locations to work with. However, I understand it is for rather low level adventurers (my party would prefer to start with level 5), and some group goals/motivations might lend itself better for a city.

What would be good source material to (re-)use here? Have you experience with this kind of adventure? Any help appreciated.

best regards,
Thomas

[Man_Over_Game]

Dear Fellow DMs,

I am preparing for a new campaign. The main idea is to ask the players for a group background and goal, as well as individual goals they would like to follow. Then I will prepare content for that specifically. An example for a group background and goal would be that they are part of a military branch of a relgious order, and need to establish a foothold in a region; another one would be to be sent by a wizard to extract some artifact that is hidden somewhere in a countryside.

I have got ideas how to facilitate that, but I do not want to completely homebrew a setting. What I need are locations, NPCs, maybe some Dungeon Maps (or similar detailed maps for action) and maybe a few adventures/adventure hooks. I do not want to follow a complete story arc, because the players are supposed to come up with something they find interesting. Following a premade story does not fit well.

The best so far I came up with was to take a premade WotC adventure and use whatever I can out of it. I heard good things about Rime of the Frostmaiden, the first part of the adventure is supposed to be quite open with many towns to explore. This should give me a few NPCs and locations to work with. However, I understand it is for rather low level adventurers (my party would prefer to start with level 5), and some group goals/motivations might lend itself better for a city.

What would be good source material to (re-)use here? Have you experience with this kind of adventure? Any help appreciated.

best regards,
Thomas

Sunless Citadel is friggin' great. The McGuffin/Big Bad at the end turns out to be some kind of vampiric tree thing, and is completely irrelevant to the rest of the dungeon, so you can just swap out whatever the heck you want out of it and it still makes sense. It's mostly known for the fact that there are multiple ways to succeed, multiple forms of interactions, and keeping all players with vastly different skillsets relevant during all phases of the dungeon.

[jojosskul]

I've had great luck doing something very similar using material from a few of the "adventure anthology" books. Namely Tales From the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and more recently Candlekeep Mysteries. Lots of great content you can pick and choose from in all of those. For a base setting, maybe do either Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate using the very detailed city info from the back of their respective adventures. Just ignore the actual adventure part. Storm King's Thunder also gives good information on a lot of different areas of the Sword Coast.

This isn't to knock the Ten Towns info in Frostmaiden. I'm finishing up running an Icewind Dale campaign right now. Just I think a more standard city setting lends itself better to what you're trying to do. If you do want that small town hero to start feel, the setting information for the town of Saltmarsh itself is actually quite nice and gives a lot of hooks without leading oyu by the nose.

[Kol Korran]

While I'm a fairly newbie to 5e, I may have a few suggestions:
# Red Hand of Doom: Originally a 3.5e campaign, spanning from around 5th level to 10th level. It deals with a small region trying to withstand a hobgoblin army, aided by dragons and other beasties. It has quite a lot of content, various Dungeons, battle scenes, and a lot more. There are various adaptations to 5e and different campaign settings, and a lot of online support and advice.

# I've read most of The Storm King's Thunder, and while I dislike the campaign, I do think that for your purposes it can be useful.

# Seconding The Yawning Portal and similar "adventure bundles" as mentioned.

# I suggest checking Drive Thru RPG. There is some free content, and A LOT of content for very reasonable/ low price, that can be used as is, with minor adaptations, or even just as inspiration. Small investment, decent return.

# While a bit far off, there are 2 Eberron modules that are at your level range, and have quite a lot of content which is of good quality, and can be easily enough adapted from 3.5 to 5e:
- Grasp of The Emerald Claw. Though the adventure is presented as the culmination of previous ones, it can easily be played by itself. Basically, a race to secure/ prevent the use of a minor/ mini artifact, by a group of baddies. The party races across an ocean, to a sort of wild-west explorers city, then trek through a jungle to reach ruins from the age of giants, with a fairly big (and dangerous!) Dungeon, and a unique boss/ revelation at the end. Starting suggested level: 6th.
- Eyes of The Lich Queen (No actual lich here, a reference to a background main power). These module is in the 5-9thr level range, and basically has 4 big adventures and locals linked: The first includes delving through jungles, reaching an old temple protected by crafty lizard folks (and an added suprise), then a classic trap/ beasties dungeon. The second adventure takes place in a pirates themed region, where the party looks for clues for specific info, and even needs to break into subterranean slave labor camp under a prison! The third adventure is getting to a wild island, navigating it's interior, and exploring a vault/ tomb/ dungeon. The last adventure is different from the rest in that the party needs to stop a dragon and his dragon-influenced followers from conducting a ritual. In short- lots of easily "plug and play" adaptable content.

# Might be worth checking the Paizo site for PF1 modules around your level range. Paizo produced TONS of modules, and many spans a range of levels, and can be used as stand alone, and not part of an AP. While 3.5 and PF1 play differently than 5e, I think that a lot fo the content can be easily adapatable as well.