Im having my 1st go at running a campaign and while ive got abit of a story worked out i would love some "mini" game ideas.
You the ones that fill in 1 or 2 gaming sessions etc.
Just if i keep doing what im doing its not gonna take very long and i would like to make this last as its also i chance for our main dm to have a bit of a break and do some roleplaying with the boys, and im sure there are other dm's out there that would like some ideas on how to spice up a campaign=)
Cheers guys,
SteveO
What level?
A couple of ideas that I like that scale with party level:
The preparation and execution of the theft/recovery of an item in a wealthy spell casters home.
Exploration of a small set of ruins.
Try this link...
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm
It's da bomb baby !!
A good method for generating sidestory ideas is to take the character concepts of your characters and sifting them for loose ends. Have a wizard in the group who left his homeland suddenly to go adventuring? Maybe the trouble he was fleeing comes for him. Maybe his family or mentor has been having problems and it turns out the PCs are in a part of the world where they can help out. Maybe he has a rowdy daughter who's come of age and needs tracked down and straightened out. Maybe an old rival has gone to seek him out and humiliate or challenge him. You see how that goes? Every character has loose ends, and when you tie those into the story you have more than enough ideas to make a campaign from.
Another idea I like is to keep track of the sidequests in video games you play. There's always a ton of them. Write them down in generic terms by type, for example: stumble into enemy HQ, find cure for ailing person/community/livestock, exterminate monster infestation, find stolen/lost item, discover fate of lost loved one. When the characters run into an NPC, whoever it is, or when they nose around for work have the NPC come up with some need based on something on the list. A list like this can provide adventures forever.
Give them someplace to explore, be it a ruin or a cave with some clues that it's being used for something (wierd geometric symbol carved in rock on one side, some trash tossed into the weeds, a gold coin half stomped into the mud so you barely see it...whatever)
And here's the most freeform one. Take 2d10 of different colors. One is Benefit, the other is Risk. The result is an opportunity that presents itself. If Benefit is much higher than risk, maybe it's a treasure abandoned somewhere when a wagon tipped off a cliff and the characters have but to climb down and get it--maybe fight some giant wasps in a nest down there but no big deal. If Risk is much higher, then the characters have come across something dangerous but with little profit to be had. Maybe it's a mimic that looks like a golden sarcophagus, maybe the guy who's told them where to go is a doppleganger whose following them planning to kill one of them off. The number is an estimate of just how dangerous or profitable it is, 1 being silvers or vermin, 10 promising rare magic or lasting or powerful nemeses that may plague them for sessions to come (or just some big enormous threat that bodes them great immediate harm)
... Take 2d10 of different colors. One is Benefit, the other is Risk. The result is an opportunity that presents itself...
Cool. That's actually a neat idea. Simlpe, yet it's all that's needed to spark my imagination for a side-quest.
The method I use : I actually used the one-hundred adventure ideas table in the DM Guide a few times when I needed an idea for a plot. Sure it sounds lame, but the single-sentence plots were the basis for more than one of my side-quests (when the players decided to go in a completely unforseen direction in the middle of a gaming session and I had nothing ready). These mini-improvised adventures were some of the best adventures as I was exploring and discovering right along with my players.
Ultradan
Sources for story ideas: Movies, books, newspapers, computer games, TV, History books.
It is hard to advise since you provide little insight as to the type of campaign, setting, etc. :-)
Sources for story ideas: Movies, books, newspapers, computer games, TV, History books.
It is hard to advise since you provide little insight as to the type of campaign, setting, etc. :-)
Yeah sorry about that, i was in abit of a rush when i typed it=)
2nd level all Dwarf campaign, set in a old dwarfen stronghold called GRIMRILL KEEP, think Helms Deep from LOTR'S but with a massive lake called Mithral Lake the size of a city smack bang in front and the whole settlement is surrounded by huge snowy mountains which are the main income for the town because they're rich with mining.
Grimrill Keep is home to around 200 people(mostley dwarfs)and is lead by a great but old and dieing Kind called Bremmer GoldenAxe who was here the hunderds of years ago when the clan 1st settled here after a great war with the Elves.
There is only 2 ways to and from the keep, one is by ship and the other is the dangerous treck around the lake itself which is filled with abanded mines/caves etc, but there is a hand full of watch towers through out the edge of the lake and
there is a small shipping port and settlement on the far side aswell as docks at the Keep.
The grandson of the King and the only heir(sp?)to the thrown is one of the players....but he's playing a bard!
So that has started some very good roleplaying already with the council/king wanting him to step up and become a man etc because they dont think a "Bard" is fit to be king.
Winter has just ended so the town is empty at the moment with most of the dwarfs and the kings knights(The Gutbusters) travleing off to trade what has been mined etc, so with so few
left the king asked the players to travel to the far corner of Mithral Lake to check on a watch tower that hasnt checked in for the last few days.
Funny enough they found them dead and some Orcs waiting for them which they killed easy, tonight they will be following some tracks that leads to an abanded mine that the clan had shut down long ago because it opened to a long lost dungen under the lake.
There i think thats about it so any help with some side adventures/or just story ideas would be great!
Cheers guys.
SteveO
Was the war with surface elves or drow? Either one could be trying to spy on the dwarves or start trouble again. Racial tensions between dwarves and humans, helping a caravan through the mountains before winter sets in, monsters in the lake harassing fishermen.
Want to prove the bard worthy of being a king? Well, hopefully the normal course of adventuring will do that, but you could also have him go find an ancestral item, or get the materials to make it.
Home Under the Range (I don't know what issue of dungeon it's in, but it's recent) sounds right up your alley. Give it a look.
All dwarves huh? Try a drinking contest to resolve a conflict.
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And here's the most freeform one. Take 2d10 of different colors. One is Benefit, the other is Risk. The result is an opportunity that presents itself. If Benefit is much higher than risk, maybe it's a treasure abandoned somewhere when a wagon tipped off a cliff and the characters have but to climb down and get it--maybe fight some giant wasps in a nest down there but no big deal. If Risk is much higher, then the characters have come across something dangerous but with little profit to be had. Maybe it's a mimic that looks like a...
Great idea. Simple, yet effective, assuming a 10 would be close to level appropriate. And the risk does not have to just be a monster or villan, it could also be an environmental obstacle like a flood or cave in.
After the dungeon crawl you could have them return to find the trade caravans have come back full. A rival clan has under cut your clan forcing the group to go off and try and win back trade partners. This is a great chance for the bard to shine, and each city can have their own requirements for re-establishing trade(i.e. support a rebel group, aid some settlers, rid the land of monsters and such) maybe at some point a confrontation with your rivals happens with them being defeated or persuaded to join up and increase your clans power, showing just how capable the bard is of leading the clan to greatness. Lots of potential for role playing with this scenario.