Campaign Ideas

We are currently in the Campaign Ideas phase. You can see how I simplify that here. But right now I wan to come up with a few campaigns that could set-up for the next story. And in particular, I want to create the elevator pitches for them.

Now, when I think about coming up with an idea, there is an intimidation element to it. What is going to make a great epic story for a longer campaign? But I think it’s fair for people to borrow ideas from everywhere. So whether that’s a movie, an anime, a book, folklore, whatever it might be, borrow it to help generate ideas. There is a difference between weaving elements into a bigger narrative that show-up elsewhere.

So let’s get down to some ideas.

The End is Known

For ten years there has been war with the demons. No one knows how it started, but demons and devils poured forth from the hells working together. And now only a small band of heroes remains having battled and felt loss over the years. They face off against one last devil, Asmodeus stands before them, and they quake. Asmodeus speaks and it’s all over.

You awake with a new vague memory in your head. A voice that wasn’t there before. It says, something bad is going to be happening. It’s coming, the monsters are coming. But you look outside your window and it’s normal. It’s just another day in your life and nothing seems worse, except for this voice and this vague memory of a devil speaking some incantation. This one is inspired by a LitRPG book I listened to, couldn’t find the title of it, and A Returners Magic Should Be Special.

Notes: This is both the end and the elevator pitch all wrapped into one. The characters kind of know what the end is. But how will these characters now become heroes who can deal with what is coming. And what do they believe, do they believe that is coming or not?

The Puppetmaster

It’s a world of legends and stories. But new stories keep on popping up and they are similar to old stories that you’ve heard before. A magic lamp, three bears living in a house, and wolves, oh so many wolves. The stories are just that, though, right? They are just stories, it can’t be something real.

Notes: Short and sweet pitch here. Not much to set-up, the world matters less for this one, and I wouldn’t even use the title because it’s going to give away some of what the end might be. But this is a question of what if the fairytale world came to life and it wasn’t the happy stories that we know, but the bears, wolves, and everything is now out to kill you?

The Monster Within

The wrought iron gates clanged as a strong wind howled down from the north. It shook the window panes with an unsettling rattle. But neither the clanging of the gate or the rattle of the window were what drew your attention. On the wind there was a song of melancholy and despair. The words couldn’t be made out, but you knew that they came from the castle up on the mountain. There was a narrow cart path leading up there, and that is where you needed to go, because, there was a monster up there who needed to be dealt with.

Notes: This one is going to be a bit different. Clearly I’m going for a gothic horror vibe for it. But I want to go more monster of the week with it. I enjoy the monster of a week trope and it’s going to lean into that with beasts like werewolves, vampires, and other creations that are well fitting for a Curse of Strahd type setting. What does the end game on this one look like? Honestly, it could look like Strahd or some vampire lord, or even work up to a Lich lord who is controlling things.

Time of Legends

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

Notes: The obvious thing here is that the seal is weakening on the dungeons. The second obvious thing is that these are the heroes who are needed. But while the players will know that I know that and you know that, the characters wouldn’t. Why think that they are heroes when they just lead normal lives? And the in the big town, that is there real heroes live and fight in wars for kings and defend against assassins and cast amazing spells. This one steals form a lot of anime. I’m not going full Last Dungeon Town (etc etc) where they are super powerful, but they might find that city heroes aren’t what they think.

What’s the Next Step for this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign?

The next step is pitching the idea to the players. We spun up a Discord Server to share links and notes from the last session. So I plan to drop all of the options in there today with any tweaks that I want. And then the players will get to decide what campaign sounds the most interesting to them. If I ran a game for you, which one would you want to pick?

As the Dungeon Master, I like the idea of them all obviously. But I think that if I were a player, I like the sound of the first and the last the best. The other two feel more monster of the week whereas the first and last feel like they are going to lead to a more epic end. But let me know your pick on the Facebook post or down in the comment section below.

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Ravenloft is the home to the Vampire Strahd who has been trapped there and lives an eternal life. All the people are trapped there in fact, and in the 5th Edition Adventure, The Curse of Strahd, characters are pulled from the Forgotten Realms into Ravenloft. Not just the people, but souls as well. There is no rest for anyone, because when you die your soul will be put into the next child born. And if there are more people than souls, so be it, those people are shells of people going about their routines that have been created for them.

Most of the games that you’re going to play in Ravenloft are going to be surrounding trying to lift the curse and take out Strahd. Even if it means that you can’t leave Ravenloft, to let souls be able to leave and have rest is going to be a driving force to the game. And campaigns in Ravenloft are going to be more deadly by nature because resurrection magics don’t work in the setting, so if you’re dead, you’re dead and your soul will be reborn, but you won’t be adventuring anymore. Granted, there’s a chance that if you die, you’re just becoming a vampire and joining Strahd’s undead.

When thinking about this setting, besides the vampire, it’s going to feel different because instead of the more traditional fantasy feeling houses, this world is going to have that run down Victorian era feel to it. And there are going to be things, cults, monsters, and the like, hiding around the corners. This is going to be a good setting for that spooky horror game as it’s going to feel more familiar to the players because it’s less steeped in fantasy. A downside to this is that you can’t play many/any other types of game in Ravenloft. There’s a lot of dark things to toy around with and you can focus on different pieces of it, though it’s likely to come back to Strahd in the end, but there is no grand world to travel through, there are mists that keep adventurers from being able to escape Raveloft and Strahd’s reach. So try as they might, the only momentary release from the darkness of the world is death. For that reason, you’re not likely to find happy NPC’s around Ravenloft as well. They are going to be feeling the weight of the darkness that locks them in the lands, and even though they don’t know who their soul was previously or have those memories, they’re going to be feel the weight of being reborn again and again.

This sort of setting is going to work well for some groups. I think that I could enjoy running or playing a game in it, but there has to be buy in that this is the type of game that you’re going to be playing. It’s going to be more depressing than your normal fantasy, and if you have new players, it’s not going to be what they expect from Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know that Ravenloft is an advanced setting, I would say more so that it’s a setting that you need to warn people about. And not just once in passing, repeat it when picking to play in this setting, because it will feel different than they are expecting. But it does offer a lot of options in terms of delving into that spooky sort of game.

Have you played in the lands of Ravenloft and fought against the Vampire Strahd? How do you like it compared to the more fantasy focused worlds of D&D?

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