Up until now, I have had a standing policy of "as long as you don't fly, the enemies won't. But if you get the ability, so do they." And with that policy, I have never had a player risk it.

Well, now here we are at level 6 in a campaign with 6 players and the wizard finally called my bluff. Starting next session, flying will be entering the campaign.

How do I need to adjust my encounter building and session prep to account for a flying wizard (and presumably other players as well)? Has anyone been blindsided by a flying character suddenly ruining what would otherwise have been a long or difficult adventure?

Thank you to everyone in this community for giving me their advice. Another question I’d like to ask is if I can simply build my ability to DM by just playing other people’s campaigns, or do I have to begrudgingly crack open another textbook and unwillingly take notes just to be a good DM?

As much as I’d love to get into this hobby, I feel that there are so many things that I can mess up on and a lot of note taking that I don’t want to spend so much time on, and the pressure feels overwhelming and I’d just waste other people’s time.

Hey everyone! I'm the wholesomeDM. I've been DMing for about 20 years, and for the last 10 years I've been running three campaigns in the same world.

I recently left a comment here about making villains believable, and it got such a positive response that I thought I'd share the idea in a separate post.

I think one of the biggest mistakes we make when creating villains is assuming they need to be logically consistent to be believable.

But people aren't always logical. We can hold two completely contradictory beliefs and genuinely believe both of them. So why shouldn't our villains do the same?

When you're having a philosophical debate with your players as the BBEG, try making it clear that the villain actually knows about the contradiction in their own beliefs. They just believe everyone else has been deceived.

Maybe the gods lied to the world. Maybe society is built on a lie. Maybe everyone else has been fooled by their own emotions.

Whatever it is, the villain doesn't think they're wrong. They think everyone else is wrong.

One thing that has really helped me when creating villains is giving each of them a core emotion.

Whenever I'm unsure how a villain would react to something, I go back to that emotion. I try to keep it as simple and primal as possible: anger, disgust, envy, shame, fear, hunger, loneliness, pride, etc.

Here are a few examples from my own campaigns:

• Asmodeus — Disgust. He's disgusted by how imperfect life has spread across what he sees as a once-perfect reality. Everything he does comes from wanting to cleanse existence of that corruption.
• Grazilax the Mind Flayer — Hunger. He needs brains to survive, and more brains to expand his empire. All his grand plans and philosophies eventually come back to that hunger.
• Demogorgon — Anger. He's rage given form. He doesn't destroy things as a means to an end. Destruction is the end.
• Szass Tam — Envy. He can't stand seeing power in the hands of others. Everything he does comes back to the belief that what others have should belong to him.

The idea is that all their plans, philosophies and justifications grow out of that core emotion.

Players can argue against an ideology. They can poke holes in a philosophy or expose flaws in a plan. But you can't really argue someone out of being hungry, and you can't reason someone out of envy.

For me, it makes improvising villains a lot easier, too. When the players do something unexpected, I can ask myself how someone driven by that emotion would react, and go from there.

I'm curious: Would you guys be interested in hearing how I use this same approach when creating and roleplaying NPCs? I use it for more than just villains, and I'd be happy to share some examples.

A little more about me: I also visit different D&D conventions to teach, give TED-talk-style talks, and run games. If you're ever at Dutch Comic Con, feel free to come say hi and join a game!

And I'd love to hear about your villains, too. Do you use something similar when creating yours?

Hi all,

I have an in person campaign that's been going for about a year. The players have been through much and we play in-person about twice a month.

One of our players is about to move to a different country, and a different timezone (I.e., one that doesn't work well with ours). I am stuck as to what to do. We made a point that it's an in-person campaign so I don't think we're looking at doing remote play although it's technically possible.

The leaving player's character has turned into an NPC for the story, since it was a good send off. However, the leaving player is looking to still play the character in a pseudo-npc way which to me sounds like dual DMing.

I'm really unsure how to handle this situation. I don't want to be cruel and say they can't play anymore but I didn't expect them to want to continue to play as they're leaving. To me, it was implied that since we are an in-person campaign if you leave you aren't playing anymore.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you resolve this?

I have this massive problem where I (the DM) struggle to believe in my villain's ideology. Because deep down I know that they are illogical and irrational. And so whenever my players argue with the villain about why what theyre doing is wrong, I struggle to side with the villain.

Right now I am running a cult that wants to destroy the current universe to form a new perfect one. Its mostly followed by people who believe that life, as we know it, is inherently unfair and a new universe is the solution. They think they are doing a good thing. As you can tell, theres a lot of problems with this logic and when the players point it out to the leader, I struggle to argue with them or side with my villain.

What's your favorite way to prep sessions (on paper)? (How) Do you write down maps, scenery explenation s, npc appearences/dialogue, ...?

Already DM-experience myself, mostly just curious to other people's experience.

I have been running D&D for a few years now, across several campaigns. I find that the typical world's I build are very inspired by Game of Thrones. Lots of factions, guilds, alliances, political intrigue, dozens of NPCs.

In general my party love the non-combat side of things, talking to NPCs, and are engaged with the plot. However, they have recently said that they can find the whole thing a bit hard to follow.

For my next campaign, I want it to be simpler. Maybe 2-3 factions, a smaller number of NPCs but engaged with more deeply.

Does anyone have any tips for building such a world while ensuring it stays exciting with new things to engage with each week?

I was watching the end of season 1 of JJK and I had the idea to turn Todo’s switching tech into a magic item that allows you to switch places with someone when you use it.

How do I balance this without making it too broken?

So the party saved a minor low level settlement that had been abandoned for years, then occupied by a strong monster.

They already got a looting spree's worth of decent magical items from it sessions ago and also got ownership of the area from a noble who hopes to curry favor with them.

They then hired a merchant company to comb through the rest of the now empty settlement for them and they would receive 70% of whatever they sold + their pick of magical/ interesting items before the company sold them.

More sessions pass and the party are back in the area and excited for a grab-bag of potentially useful items but i feel anything above uncommon could not be reasonably found in that area. What are some common/ uncommon/ less powerful wonderous items that might intrigue a level 11 party?

They are already kited out completely in attunment items of rare or above quality and the composition is: moon druid, sorcerer/cleric, gloomstalker, chronurgy wizard.

When people post builds on YouTube or homebrew or house rules a common comment or complaint or feedback is that the suggested build, brew or rule is broken and could break the game.

Maybe I’m just lucky at my two different tables but I’ve never experienced anything that broke the game for either of my groups.

I’m curious, what broke your game?

I’m starting a new homebrew campaign (levels 3–12ish) and trying to be much more considered in how I design the overarching campaign, its adventures, and individual sessions.

I have a fairly developed setting, major villains, factions, fronts, and several potential storylines. What I’m toying with is how to structure the progression of the campaign, particularly how individual adventures contribute to the bigger picture.

Some context on my campaign:
The campaign takes place on a huge island isolated from the rest of the world by a magical storm. The storm also crosses planes, severing and shattering the local Feywild.

The remaining fragments of the Feywild are slowly being consumed by a curse that drains the life from everything it touches.

One of the surviving archfey, ruler of an Unseelie Domain of Delight, has decided the Feywild cannot be saved. Instead, he plans to createb a new one.

His plan involves three ancient stones, each placed on the Material Plane with a corresponding anchor in the Feywild. A ritual performed at each stone triggers a “Bloom”, bringing part of the Feywild into the Material Plane.

Once all three rituals are complete, the Blooms will connect and spread uncontrollably, eventually consuming the island and transforming it into a new Feywild. The archfey will then sever the crossings to the old Feywild, abandoning the curse and saving his people at the expense of the Material Plane.

The players could confront him directly, work with other fey who oppose his plan, investigate the origins of the curse, or find another solution entirely.

My approach to adventures:

I loosely follow Sly Flourish’s 3-2-1 quest model: offer three adventures, let the players complete two, discard or evolve the third, and introduce three more. Obviously this is flexible, and I follow whatever interesting threads the players pursue. And plenty of side quests dotted about too.

I also like relatively short adventures, usually 2–4 sessions, because I want the players to regularly achieve something tangible and feel like they’re having an impact on the world.

Here’s what I’m wrestling with:

Technically, I could resolve the main campaign premise in half a dozen sessions: discover the plot, stop the rituals, confront the archfey, potentially reverse the curse.

But I’d like this to be a much longer campaign, with plenty of adventures along the way, without those adventures feeling like filler or the main narrative becoming stagnant.

My questions:

1. Connecting adventures to the campaign: How do you decide which adventures should directly advance the central narrative, which should connect indirectly, and which can be entirely independent? Do you have a framework for making those decisions?
   
2. Building towards the bigger picture: How do you plan the gradual discovery of information, clues, revelations, factions, and threats across multiple adventures? How do you make each adventure contribute to the players’ understanding of what’s really happening without revealing everything too quickly?
   
3. Pacing and progression: How do you sustain a central threat across a long campaign while ensuring the players feel they’re making meaningful progress? Do you use milestones, escalating fronts, villain timelines, changing world states, or something else to structure that progression?

My last campaign involved a lot of winging it, which was fun, but I’d like to develop a more deliberate approach this time without sacrificing player agency or flexibility.

TL;DR: Starting a new homebrew campaign (levels 3–12) centred on an fey/archfey attempting to replace a dying Feywild by consuming the Material Plane. I run relatively short adventures (2–4 sessions / but this isn’t a hard rule, it’s moves flexibly) and want to build a longer campaign where each adventure feels meaningful. Looking for practical frameworks on how to connect individual adventures to the overarching narrative, gradually reveal the bigger picture, and pace the central threat without railroading, dragging things out, or sacrificing player agency.

I’m particularly interested in practical frameworks or planning methods people use, rather than specific plot ideas. How do you actually organise and think through this stuff when building your own campaigns?
(Though if you have any cool ideas for adventures related to the premise above - I’d love to hear em too)

,

I have theoretical knowledge, but low practical experience,

I decided to make a dungeon for a basically almost fully a combat one shot, minimal RP

Basic idea is “a bunker players were sent to explore, that appeared to be old and abandoned, is not abandoned and there is an army of undead soldiers in there”

Which, i have couple concerns when designing:

1. I dont wanna overdo it, like, throw too much and cause a tpk, and im not sure how much to trust CR ratings either
2. I have an idea for a thing to do that if the group of enemies has a field commander among them, if commander is present, the soldiers will be played intelligently (non soldiers, like ghouls, still played like primitive creatures), and im not sure if that won’t sew the ability to gauge if players can handle this
3. I feel like with the amount of things i will want to put there, it will be too much for one adventuring day, honestly it may take many adventuring days, especially resource wise, so, an important thing, how do i make the long rest an option given its inside a bunker with a lot of enemy patrols deeper down, without making a parody where players will long rest after every fight where they just throw out a supernova and then are empty and rest again?
4. Im not sure how to determine what lvl the players should start with to be fine in the dungeon in order to be able to handle it

Edit: correction, i just realized it may not be a one shot, more like 2, maybe 3 shot, but still one dungeon, depending entirely on how much i throw in there, how many sessions it takes i do not care much, as long as party gets through the thing

Im fleshing out how exactly my villain/s work.

My concept is loosely based on KOTOR's Star Forge concept, mixed with 40k Eldar Spirit Stones. (Though we are in a high fantasy setting.)

The villain found an ancient abandoned "factory" of sorts. A huge facility that is able to pull materials from another plane, and assemble it into constructs, automatons, weapons and so on at a frightening speed,and presumably an unlimited amount.

Here's my working idea that im trying to flesh out. - how do we give it an extra evil twist, beyond it being simply used by an evil villain.

My current working idea is that the constructs dont actually have the ability to move, function or operate without a soul thats been ripped from a living being and forcibly inserted into a crystal that houses/imprisons the souls. The stone is then inserted into the construct, which feeds off the soul to function with autonomy beyond the most basic functions.

I like the direction its going, as it requires the villains to essentially steal entire populations and bring them bacl for that soul-stealing process.

but I feel its missing something, or is incomplete.

Are the trapped spirits coherent? Are they directly controlling the constructs? If so, why are they doing the terrible things? Or are they simply concious passengers just observing the horrors the construct engages in? Are they in pain? Or are the souls entirely unaware of the machines (and the forge itself) slowly feeding on their souls?

Any ideas to take this thing to another level, round it out more? Or maybe you have an entirely new twist that sounds interesting.

Hit me with it!

Basically an Owl Bear but sneakier and with the vocal mimicry skills of both species? I want to make a “haunted wood” where it’s just a breeding pair of these two Abominations.

I am working on a little side quest for October; players get transported to a plane that’s stuck in perpetual my world Halloween where once a year the clans (each classic monster has a clan family) compete in trials

One of them is for the party to survive a night while avoiding vampires; not being killed by them and trying to make sure they don’t come in. However, I’m having a hard time thinking of unique social, and mechanical encounters I can use for the night. For context I have ran COS so I’m familiar with the vampire ethos just not sure how to gameify it to be fun for a session

Edit: to clarify I would love ideas regarding the game of surviving vampires trying to kill them in the hotel

I am running a campaign in the nine hells, currently the party is level 12 and will be continuing towards tier 4 play. The campaign has heavy role play elements, dealing with Devils and NPCs. I want to be able to give my party more access to magic items that would typically be attuned items.

I am thinking of adding a sprinkle of flavour to some magic items moving forward and wanted to gather feedback on my idea.

I am calling them Abyssal Magic Items. These magic items require attunement but don’t take up a slot for attunement. Instead you will make a saving throw when attempting to attune to the item as you wrestle with dark powers that reside within. Successfully passing the save will reduce the immediate negative consequences of attuning to the item, but it will not affect the ongoing effects of the item.

They will offer both positive effects like a regular magic item, and a downside these will not be strictly mechanical and may be something like “you are now more likely to lash out in anger” and will be up to you how you role play and interact with it. You may unattune from the item by remaking the saving throw and passing on a short rest, this takes 10 minutes.

An example would be:
Stone-Fang Greatsword
Ritual DC 19, associated save Wisdom.
Ritual failure: 6d6 psychic damage.
Boon: +2 great sword
Once per turn when you hit a creature they must make a Str save DC 8+Prof+Str Mod or be Knocked Prone.
Once Per Long Rest: You may enter a Barbarian Rage that lasts 1 minute, you may not end the rage early.
Persistent: While attuned you may use Str instead of Cha for intimidation checks.

Drawback: Hair Trigger, while attuned to this item you are quick to respond with anger at minor perceived slights and inconveniences. (Roleplay)
Drawback: Uncivilized Brute, you have an unsettling aura, when in a town or larger settlement you have disadvantage on Charisma checks. (Mechanical)

If you spend an attunement slot on this item you do not suffer from the drawbacks of the item.

Does this system seem balanced? I want to give them the opportunity to be rewarded with a mechanical advantage for engaging in role play so that is why I came up with the system.

Rookie DM here, looking for advice on running a pursuit through a forest.

So, the party (3 players, level 4) is questing in a forest overrun by gnolls, trying to reach a hideout where some friendly dwarves are holed up after being attacked by said gnolls.

Last session, the PCs ran into a gnoll warband (about a dozen gnolls, some hyenas and two grells) repairing a rope bridge over a deep ravine. The party managed to cross elsewhere, but got spotted by one of the grells doing aerial reconnaissance with a nat 20 on a perception check. I played Run Through the Jungle by CCR, and we ended the session there.

Next session, the hunt will be on. I'll have the gnoll leader send small hunting parties across the ravine via floating grell taxi, while the rest of them finish fixing the bridge.

The hideout is about 6 miles away, and the PCs will probably have a 10 minute head start. My gnolls are good at their job, the hyenas can track by scent, and a grell will be scouting from above.

Here's my problem: It's my first campaign as a DM, and I'm not sure how to run a proper manhunt.

We could just skip ahead to the hideout and have a big old fight there, but I'd rather lean into the being hunted by monsters vibe with open-ended gameplay where the players can run, hide, misdirect, ambush, etc.

What I'm thinking about now is some kind of very lightweight system with some skill checks and obstacles to see if the gnolls are catching up, if that makes sense.

I don't want to introduce complicated chase mechanics, and the DMG chase rules don't really fit. I also don't want to spend days preparing a giant map of 30 square miles worth of forest to simulate an hour of gameplay.

Worst case scenario, I can just narrate the thing and at some point go "Oops, looks like the gnolls are catching up!" but that feels pretty lame, idk.

How would you structure this? I'd love to hear how other DMs have handled this type of scenario.

I am looking for someone who would be willing to read a Pokemon DnD sourcebook with an initial campaign that I wrote for my kids based on Pokemon Red/Blue/Green. It has been a work in progress for several months. I have run it through Grammarly but there is only so much AI like that can do. So if there is someone willing to check this out, I would appreciate it. I read through actual DnD sourcebooks and websites to keep this as close as possible still unique to Pokemon. Thank you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xbBwIPb3EHtHiKkfbtJWJvKWpHkT2tJW71pu2U-h93Y/edit?usp=drivesdk

Let me know if this does not work. The maps at the end are works in progress because I am using a program to make own small twist to them while staying true to the game world and lore.

I'm not a first time DM, but I would consider myself a beginner. I've played through the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle module with my friends (which took us four 4-5 hour sessions), just to get a taste of D&D to see if we wanted to continue. Everyone had a blast, so after a lot of prep and worldbuilding on my part, we embarked on our full blown campaign last world, in a homebrew world called Elenon.

Even though the session itself was fine, with some fun moments, there were still some moments where I struggled, and I would like to improve. Most notably in the areas of improvisation, when your PC's do things that you hadn't accounted for. I know these things come with time and maybe can't be expected of a beginning DM after four sessions, but I would still love to hear some of your insights.

For some context: 5 PC's started out on a town square, where the mayor was about to hold a speech to open the first ever God fair, to introduce the townfolk to the new gods. After the speech, the mayor and the square were attacked by two bandits and a Dire Wolf. The party took them down, and the mayor urged them to come with him to his quarters. They did, and the mayor rewarded him. During this, a new NPC entered the quarters and told the mayor that a body had been found near the northern bridge, with a little note that said that, every day that the fair would continue, someone in the town would die. The mayor asked the group to investigate and track down the bandits, for a reward. The group accepted, and set off.

In my head, I thought the group would ask the mayor and sherrif or some townsfolk if they had seen anything unusual, after which I would direct them into the forest. They did not do this, and immediately set off towards the body near the bridge. A very obvious choice, but one which I hadn't considered. I improvised my way out of this okay, they found some tracks that led into the forest and off they were.

Eventually, they arrived at an abandoned ruin. There were nine bedrolls, a recently put out fire and some rations. They found a note, saying: They are coming, leave quickly.

When I planned this little adventure, I thought they would surely go back to the town, to find out who tipped off the bandits. Instead, they figured that the bandits couldn't be far off and they wanted to go deeper into the forest, to hunt them down.

I had not anticipated this, and thus had not thought out where the group could end up, where the bandits where hiding at that time and what would happen if they found them somewhere in the forest. I panicked, and after some mumbling I just told the group that they could not find anything to lead them to the bandits, so they decided to go back to the camp and wait for the bandits to come back. They did, and they defeated the bandits that night. That's where the session ended.

What was supposed to be maybe a 2 or 3 day investigation, turned out to be something else because I didn't really know what to do with their decisions. Maybe this is fine, but I wasn't entirely comfortable with my improvisation skills.

Also, there were a couple times a PC asked to investigate something which I had not prepared. For instance: a PC asked to search the body near the bridge to see if they could find anything to identify the body. I hadn't even thought that they would visit the body (which was my fault), so I also didn't really know what to do with a check like this.

Note: I want to give the table a healthy mix of railroading and a sandbox. I have a story and some arcs in mind, but I also want them to have a lot of agency in how they shape the world and story.

My questions mostly are:

• Should I have prepped more ways for the PC's to tackle the adventure?
• How do you improvise results when PC's roll for things that you hadn't thought about?
• What do you do when PC's go in a completely different direction, for which you haven't thought out anything?
• How much do you improvise in a session? If a player asks an NPC a question for which you do not know the answer but the NPC should, how do you handle that?

Also, I have to questions that are loosely connected, but mostly separate. Still, I encountered them during the session and would like to know how you handle such things:

1. What do you do when multiple PC's try the same check? How do you prevent everyone going like 'Can I try?' when someone fails?
2. There is an artificer at the table who can cast guidance. He's spamming the cantrip like hell, so basically all ability checks have a standard 1d4 bonus. Is that just the name of the game, or do you actively try to counter such things?

TL;DR I'm a beginning DM who tends to panic when PC's go off the rails or make checks for which I hadn't accounted, and would like to know how you tackle these things.

Hi all,

I'm pondering spinning up a new campaign. But while I'm confident planning session to session, I feel like I always tend to struggle with the big overarching plot. In the grandest of traditions, I've been cobbling together some ideas, mostly stealing from a Matt Colville video (in which he stole from The Black Company by Glen Cook, etc.). But I'm struggling to make it all tie together in a way that makes me happy.

I could really use some ideas to help tie this all together in a satisfying way.

Overall plot: BBEG wants to bring back N number of powerful wizards who were banished, with the goal of using them to help summon a god (which would be a Bad Thing). To cast the spell to bring back the wizards, he needs to build a tower made of dead bodies. To accomplish this, BBEG is collecting dead bodies from nearby towns, paying the townspeople in red gold. Once someone has received red gold from him, BBEG has the ability to teleport directly to that person if there is a death nearby, in order to retrieve any bodies.

These events (the completion of the tower, casting of the spell, summoning a god) are longer-term plot points, not something the party would be capable of tackling anytime soon. I just want to get the party hooked into the mystery and encourage them to start exploring it.

Session one: The party all come from disparate backgrounds, with their own reasons for coming to (some village/town). As they converge on the village, they find the entire town is unexpectedly shrouded in mist, and there isn’t a person in sight. While the party are exploring the village, some sort of event occurs that forces the party to team up (probably involving combat). 

I’m trying to flesh this concept out. 

1. What might the session one event be, and how would it tie to the BBEG plotline?
2. What might occur in the aftermath of the event that would give the party a convincing reason to follow this plotline (I'd love for it to be more compelling than “we’re adventurers, we're supposed to do this)?
3. What leads might the party find on how to proceed?

Would love to hear any ideas you might have around any of the above that might help kick something loose in my brain. None of this is etched in stone, so feel free to poke holes in any of it.

Thanks!

Hi!

So lets first talk about what I mean by notes, I am not talking about session notes, I don't want to just give notes that encourage not focusing on the game. Instead, want to hear the opinion on world notes.

I mean is front end lore, the type that you could learn through public information, Towns, guilds, seasonal events, etc. Stuff that puff out the world and give more general info to the player. Not in the sense that I just tell them all the lore of the world but more forshadow and help in what there already doing instead of just having it all there.

I already have a system set up for this that I used to publish notes for my classmates (to be more specific I'm using obsidian and a plugin to post the notes). And a good bit of my notes are already written, it would only be a matter of publishing them to my players.

My big questions are these:

1. Can it still show not tell? - While I think the way I plan to give notes mitigates this, I still think the possibility of it being an issue is there and want to see others opinion on the matter.

2. Is it worth while? - I'm pretty sure it could work with my players, but want to see if others see it differently as I am assuming some others have attempted this in the past.

Any opinion on this would be great and I am at a point where I could either drop this idea or implement it at the drop of a dime and be ok with whatever choice it comes to.

Thanks for any opinions and help on this :)

Hello! Whenever we are missing half the party, my D&D group does a oneshot. Since we started at level 11, all of these oneshots have been in the past. So "yeah you were level 11 a year ago! Remember when we defeated the evil curse of that ice hag?" But now they're about to level up. Which means the past adventures will gradually become less believable? "Remember that time we fought an elder brain dragon?" and it's like "girl we almost died from some frost giants back in Avernus. I think you're hallucinating"

So I was thinking instead of the magic items or gold that these players who showed up to session got, I'd give them some kind of minor boon. The Githyanki heir (ish) to Vlaakith who they adopted would make them play some war games (aka D&D inside D&D) to pass the time. The issue is I'm not entirely sure what to give them. Obviously Nova (the Githyanki) cannot pull items out of her ass and be like "hey so this would've been totally useful to you guys earlier but I waited until now to give this magic item to you".

So do y'all have any ideas? So far my idea is just pick 3 skill checks to have advantage on till the next LR because Githyanki war games are meant to temporarily improve your skills. So like if they did a heist oneshot, their deception/stealth/sleight of hand would get advantage until long rest.

Party will be hit with a mass maze spell. How to make this more interesting than some int checks, but not have a mind numbing maze to map out. Ideas?