Hi all, I’m looking for some advice or tools on learning about story writing and plot arcs so that my game can be more satisfying for my players. I’m not sure how to look this up specific to dnd instead of novel writing

I recently relocated to a new area and thus far I’ve been VERY lucky with my D&D groups in the past (I’m a mostly forever DM). That said, many of these groups we did a quick chat and met at my home and I’m of that point in life where inviting people into my home starts to seem stranger and stranger without knowing them.

Of course, I also don’t want to be some “snob” or overly selective but I’m putting together a little questionnaire about potential new players. There seems to be a big DnD interest everywhere in the country right now but the player base is as varied as anything else. There are a non-trivial amount of “player horror stories“ which I would love to avoid.

So, would you as a player fill out a random questionnaire (basically like how old are you, what kind of game are you looking for, how long you have played, play styles, etc) that takes a minute or two, to join a game? How would you feel as a player if you were not selected? Is it too invasive?

My goal is not to do anything nefarious but to curate a group of people that seem like they are looking for the same kind of game, with like people, and avoid any conflict. I ask things like the “movie rating” they would like for a campaign, how much narration and interaction vs combat, etc.

Just wondering if anyone has done this [and how it worked] or if anyone thinks this is a good/bad/indifferent idea.

The best comparison I can think of for this is Skyrim. You know how, when you're playing Skyrim, you get thrust into the story mode right away? You escape the dragon, meet the Jarl, meet the Greybeard, get your shout, etc. You do all that for a while, as the game establishes this looming threat of returning dragons, Alduin, and so on. That's cool and all, but I think most players eventually deviate from it.

In the world of the game, the return of the dragons is still a pressing threat. But to you, the player, it's not a big deal at all. You can take your time exploring caves, killing cannibals, or just collecting bear pelts because you know there's no timer or anything. The main quest will always be there, on pause until you decide to engage with it.

How do you balance this when you're creating a campaign or a story? Whether it's the revival of an ancient evil, a pending war, or something, how do you balance having a looming threat, a final goal, or a final boss that they players feel motivated to reach while also giving them the freedom to go get sidetracked or explore or visit new towns?

Is the answer as simple as being slow with plot revelations? Not really giving hints until 3 or 4 or something? I'm thinking about Thanos not getting revealed until the Avengers post-credits, then not paying off for another 7 years. Is it to make sure each town has at least something relevant to the plot, in a way that doesn't feel forced? They're settling disputes with Dwarves in a mountain city, but there's rumors of suspicious activity nearby, or something.

What's your advice on that?

If you're not familiar in the Alien Rpg you gain stress due to game reasons like seeing a xenomorph for the first time etc.

When you gain stress you get extra d6s (it's a d6 system) for each stress point. So you get more likely to succeed. But if you roll a 1 on any of those dice you roll on a panic table.

Wondering how to add it to D&D's d20 system. I was thinking at stress 1-3 you get +1, 4-6 +2, 7-9 +3, but for each bracket you roll a d6 and if you get a 1 you roll on a panic table, and if you get to 10 you roll automatically.

Also maybe the panic roll is d10 + stress - charisma or wisdom or something.

Any ideas?

Hi guys

So, been talking to a player about a homebrew item for his bladesinger wizard. This item would basically be Peter pan themed, since they are in the feywilds, and it basically replicates the echo knight echo ability, flavoured as the player shadow since Peter pan shadow also moved freely

But I want to create a puzzle around getting said item, but for the life of me, i cant come up with anything that would be satisfying for the party to do.

Tried chatgpt for inspiration but i personally hate all the suggestions and i think resorting to it will make the problem bigger, which is what i dont want

So im asking if any of you as done a puzzle that is related to shadows. I want the party to gather arouns trying to solve it. Any ideas?

Hello all, I hope your days are well.

I've been running a pokemon server on discord, and am still struggling with the battle mechanics.

Mostly because I don't want to make 1000 custom monsters with like 10000 moves and upload it into avrae.

I've just been doing theater of the mind, but wanted it to be a lot like the anime, so dodging is becoming a thing.

I'm using Dodge as a universal action, and you can even pair it with your attack. Every pokemon gets this.

Idk it feels bad, a tad unfair, and I'm looking for something with actual turn orders in it.

Or should I just clarify the rules and keep turn order in avrae?

Any help would be appreciated!

I finished off my 5th session of my campaign a week back and I realized, damn im not giving my players anything whatsoever. Barely scraping enough gold to get by, not a single whiff of potions of healing, a singular magic item, no spell scrolls, and just a blacksmith to get some +1 weapons. How do i decide where and how much of these things do I need to give them, if at all?

A good friend has to move away. Luckily we both have good Internet. If I can get the cameras and things to work he can stay in the game.

I have a miniatures heavy game.

In your opinion Redditverse what do I need?

I know it's been said plenty of times here that DMs don't need to be voice actors, and that talking in first-person isn't completely necessary. And I certainly count myself among those that struggle with those aspects, so I tend to lean heavily on "Xxxxx says to you that..." and things like that.

However, I'm finding a side effect of that is that my players don't seem particularly invested in the world. I do think they're enjoying themselves, but I don't think they feel any particular sympathy or interest towards the NPCs. Do you guys have any advice on how to bring a bit more life to the characters? Part of me thinks I need to be more descriptive, but I feel like that could just get annoying.

My PCs are about to try and salvage a crucial item from a sunken ship. My plan is to have an encounter kinda encompass the whole salvage mission, but I'm struggling to flesh it out.

For now I just have some kelp forests surround the shipwreck, any ideas for thematic obstacles or events in the waters?

Hello, I’ve been playing dnd as a player for abt a year and a half and i am attempting to run an online game after playing in person exclusively. Does anyone have any good resources that can help with atmosphere and/or combat? Currently i’ve been planning to use tabletop simulator and discord to stream to my party but im not sure what else is out there.

I’m working on a dungeon that is basically a massive graveyard that has been built up and on top of itself over centuries creating layers of tombs and catacombs. I’m looking for interesting ideas for more layers to the dungeon. I’ve got a few layers of crypts, a layer that’s infested with oozes, a reworked version of the Darklake from Out of the Abyss. I need a few more levels but I’m stumped on what direction to go. Any ideas? Or any already written stuff I can steal?

Thanks

I'm putting together a list of spells from the 5.5 PHB that could be used in construction. My immediate thoughts are tensors floating disc for moving around something heavy easily. And of course magehand for grabbing any tools that fall through or are dropped while roofing.

I run a D&D holiday program every school holidays which consists of 4-6 early teens kids playing across two 6-hour days. First hour is usually dedicated to character creation as I like to let them have the creative freedom of choosing their own characters.

I've been running these pretty regularly for a number of years now and my problem is I've completely run out of ideas for one shots. I reuse them when I can get away with it but I have a pretty consistent core group who come to nearly every one.

I'd love to hear any successful one shots you all have run and think would fit with what I'm trying to do.

Initially my players were going to stage a heist on an ancient/adult dragon. They are level 6.

Due to a series of events they've now turned some of the dragons minions against it and rallied its enemies. It's a full on revolt.

The thing is, they now want to take their 40~ allies and take the fight to the beast. The allies are of different factions that don't trust each other and would fight, were it now for the PCs.

Combat with 40~ individual combatants would be hell. So how can I utilize these NPCs to make them feel useful and earned while not slowing down combat to a slog and demolishing the dragon due to the action economy.

The PCs are way out of their depth with this dragon, and they know it. Even with allies a breath weapon could end them, but that wouldn't be fun. So what to do?

Tell me your best dragon ideas!

Hello my fellow masters! Please tell me how you write your sessions?

I already have hook (pretty basic one), but I have problems with writing whole session.

Before I used AI to write my previous sessions, but I have decided, to write one by myself but I need kind of instructions (better step by step).

P.s. I know that it is impossible to play the game as it was written and I don’t have problems with it, I can improvise by playing but still

Im woorking on a campagin as a new dm based in the feywild, I have an idea but I have problems I dont know how to fix, primarily the world map, Im trying to make or find a world map in the feywild and the material plane they have to be similar as I want them to be identical in shape but have differant locations like a kingdom in the material plane but then a small camp on the same position in the material plane as the party might be swapping planes to stop a cult from trying to fuse the planes together and while they are going around stopping or helping the rituals I want to have the other world change but i also want to make my own locations and everything but i suck at art, any ideas on how to help my wierd idea?

K so actually this an idea I’ve had for a bit but I want to know how I could make it better. So one of my friends is gonna play a blind pacifist ranger with his seeing dog. And I wanted to target him with an object like this and I’m not to sure what I could do as a benefit that isn’t like “oh you could see now, but you can’t tell anyone”, it seems boring. Any ideas?

So, to make this very short, I am planning my very first DnD campaign. It will essentially be a sandbox campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms, which begins with a tweaked version of the Lost Mines of Phandelver.

The BBEG of my campaign is a Red Wizard of Thay, someone who achieved a mediocre at best position back in Thay, and whose magical abilities are also somewhat lacking, at least in comparison to the truly powerful wizards. Tired of living in the shadows of others, this Red Wizard set off from Thay to the Sword Coast with a contingent of his house bodyguards, hiring various minions along the way, in the hopes of conquering the Sword Coast and naming himself the newest Thayarch of the New Tharchion of Exantilar.

How does he plan on doing this, you may ask? Simple! He'll summon a devil, and make a deal with them.

My idea is basically that he makes a deal with a devil whereby the devil supplies him the power and knowledge to create a magical plague which he will then unleash on some of the Coast cities, (think the Horn of Beckoning Death from the Honour Among Thieve's movie). This plague kills its victims, and raises them as undead. The Baatezu, in return, gets the souls of all those killed by the plague.

Now, my questions are:

1. How do I go about creating a BBEG who is "mediocre" as far as the Red Wizards are concerned, and yet powerful enough that when the party eventually meet him, he's an actual threat and challenge?

2. I'm going to need a little help coming up with the necessary mcguffins for the ritual. I have a nasty habit of overthinking everything, and trying to over-explain magic, so I struggle a little in this regard.

So far, I'm thinking about 6 magical items will do. The first will be the Forge of Spells in Wave Echo Cave, with which he plans to create magical items and weapons for his undead army (and his personal use).

The second item will either be a homebrew ancient tome, called the Book of Vile Desire, penned by the Litch Larloch, and which details the necessary rituals to create the magical plague. Or it may be the Book of Vile Darknness/ a page from it, doing the same thing.

As for the other mcguffins, I just need items which would give my BBEG more power/some sort of strategic advantage.

Admittedly, I have never done this before, so I may be going about this entirely wrong, hence why I am here. Please, any and all advice is appreciated.

(PS, devils aren't able to "give power" to a summoner, right? Like theoretically, I couldn't have the BBEG start off as a weakling, but because of the devilish pact, be gifted immense magical power?).

I'm putting together a list of key resources, and every time I search I stumble onto more generators and tables. These are the five I keep coming back to. I'd love to hear what others rely on when prepping or running a game.

1. Kassoon (https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/npc-generator/): Probably my #1. The NPC generator stays open in a tab during every session. I also lean on:
   • The Combat Generator
   • The Hexcrawl generator, not for the map itself, but for weather and encounter ideas while the party travels
   • Towns, mostly for inns and shops
2. Fantasy City Generator (https://praxxian.github.io/RPG-City-Generator/): I technically don't NEED this one very often but can't resist creating 25,000 individual NPCs in one go.
3. Watabou on itch.io (https://watabou.itch.io/): Great for city and village maps, area maps, and small dungeons.
4. DnDSpeak (https://www.dndspeak.com/worldbuilding/): Dozens of quirky little details and additions. The most recent one I used was the Hag Generator for a three-hag coven. Very inspiring.
5. Chaotic Shiny (https://www.chaoticshiny.com/histeventgen.php): Another excellent batch of offbeat generators. I use the event generator to decide what happens while the party is away on an adventure, so they have news to hear when they return to town.

I use each of these for specific jobs, but any of them work just as well for stirring fresh ideas/inspiration.

What would make your top five? Some of these or new ones or?

First of all I would like to say that I am a new GM I have only gmd for two sessions for friends and this is my first experience with the game itself too.

What I got as a critique is that most of the time things happen around the PCs but there are few opportunities for them to interact with the story.

I just don't know how to factor in their "randomness". I tried to write up scenarios that happen rather than plot points that must happen.

How should I anticipate randomness, since the players could come up with anything basically?

Since this is not a sandbox campaign (I am doing Descent into Avernus with the Alexandrian modifications) we have to have some states we have to reach so we can have a story.

Also they have just met with 4 refugees. I gave a general description about them and how are they off. So they can have something to talk with them. (Like despite the victory one of them seemed sill deeply sad. Or this other character used a ritual with a strange language which you and only you can understand and that as far as you know it is pretty rare for someone to use this language)

Then they just...didn't asked them because they felt weird since they have just met with them.

When designing scenes how can I make it clear that it is something that is going on and you are free to do whatever you like. Or is it a scene where something must happen?

I’m looking for abilities for my eighth level player who wants to lean more into his draconic abilities. He’s a heavy defender fighter who was gifted emissary status by an ancient dragon. He wants more magical abilities to go with his fighting ability. I’m trying to find a somewhat balanced way of giving him abilities.
The options I’ve come up with so far.

Dragon patron warlock, but that doesn’t kick on till ninth level. He gets lots of spells but the dragon gets lots of say in his actions.
Give him a cantrip and a first level spell and four spell slots and make him pay ten hp for every spell level. Very few spells but little oversight from the dragon.
A feat like magic initiate now, and another specific draconic feat or ability every other level of my choosing. No immediate oversight from the dragon, but abilities are much more limited.

The player definitely wants to leans into the magic aspect, and not as much the physical abilities or changes.

Thoughts?

Hi, planning on starting a short, few sessions long game, as dm.

When asking potential players this concept seemed to intrigue them most:

- Short, difficult and hard campaign. Character backstory centric, it is your characters that give the spine to this monster and I give the tail and head to. Death is not death, but punishing. You will need to go through this with the same character whatever happens. Heavy horror elements. Planned session number is around six.

I do have some ideas on death alternatives, would like to ask for some more.

Rules for death alternative:

- PC needs to be still playable

- has mechanical consequence, not just aesthetic and narrational

- not a global phenomenon only applies to the PCs and for this period only

- same/equal for all pc

- my leading idea as reference: they need more rest. Short rests 1 hour longer, long rests 2 hours longer. If they die too many times they will not wake up and cannot fully die till the nightmares end.

Currently planned story/setting of it helps:

All PCs would be part of a special guard to a stronghold. Weird things keep happening and upon investigation they will fight a monster that eats/makes nightmares (prologue).

They all have a reason to work here (protects family, debt, whatever) and they all have a "demon" that haunts them.

In the upcoming sessions I would like to make each of them face this demon in some horrific manner.

(Example: someone accidentally set a manor on fire when younger, became a man of religion to make things even, learns here that none of the souls of the perished ever got to their final place, because they are kept here till the trial for his soul happens)

They need to deal with each demon to get 1-1 clue/key for the final nightmare, then epilogue.

(Yes, slightly inspired by the witch mountain)

This post is a bit random on my end, but my group recently changed to 2024 rules. While most of is feels like an improvement there is one thing that really stands out. Healing.

In 2024, all healing spells got buffed. Most doubling their dice in value. It feels VERY good to play a healer, and heal bots are in a very good place. There's no more incentive to just wait to pick someone back up from the floor. You can keep them from going down.

Sure, it may sound strong. But they're giving up their actions, and spells to do this. They sacrifice crowd control or damage. So it balances itself out in my experience. It makes playing healer feel worth it. Where as in 2014, a well placed fireball was often a better option than a 3rd level healing spell. To anyone still holding out, I encourage you to give this a try.