Couldn't have found this at a better time! Ive been dming modules and doing 1 shots (inevitably all in my head and never actively writing down story points) for like 3 years. The time I finally wanna write down and run a greek themed campaign around the idea of gods and them being killed or missing is when this pops in my feed. Thank you so much! If you manage to see this im gonna reply with my story hook and if you get the time id love your thoughts!
"The gods are dead," screams a man on top of a wooden stage in the town center. His bones showing and skin glistening with beads of sweat, it seems he hasn't eaten in days. The crazed look in his eyes seems to focus on you, despite no one else noticing. The day's heat beats down on you like lapping water on the beach. "Look at the sun; it has yet to move for three days." He is right, yet the crowd still murmurs about how insane this man sounds. "We are just being punished for our wrongdoing," some say. "It'll pass," others whisper.
I am happy my video can help. And your opener sounds very compelling. Having something natural thrown off to show something being off is an excellent way of showing stakes. The sun is never setting? Or never rising? Boom, that's perfect, easy passive drama and storytelling! I love it.
Echoing your point to not plan it all out. Trying to stick to an established preconception of what a game could and/or should be is the fast track to it falling apart.
I was actually reading a leadership book for my day job, that talked about the "Main Thing" and sticking to that, details will and have to change, but keep your core image at the forefront is always helpful in grounding and planning!! :)
What a coincidence you talking about Curse of Strahd, I'm researching some stuff to create my first homebrew campaign and it is also based on Ravenloft, more specifically on the many realms of dread presented on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and on how it hints at a possible universe-hopping campaign among all of them, but doesn't give much clearer directions after that. This campaign idea has a lot of setting but not a good plot to hold it all together in a whole. I'm planning on fusing it with another campaign idea I've also had for a year, where a cult has forseen the end of all existence in great detail and are now going around killing people who will eventually be responsible for it, but that now are, like, small orphans, or a recently wedded mother, innocent people like that. This campaign has a plot but no world to set it in and I'm considering merging the two together, but haven't figured out how to make the PCs care for stuff when they will keep hopping from plane to plane and leaving people behind and meeting people from scratch evey time
I love all of this!! I think melding the two campaign ideas together is a wonderful thought. Let one paint your plot, the other help establish your setting! If you need particular help with something I could give advice or resources on, just let me know, I'll see if there's anything cooking in my brain.
@Creative-Magpie thanks for offering! The only thought that's bugging me now is the investment thing, where the players might not particularly care about a cult invading dimensions they've never been in to kill people they've never met. I have counter points to this idea, but I don't know how good they are. The first and easiest one is making some of the targets of the cult be alternate reality versions of people from the PCs's past. Or alternately make the PCs be some of the souls that are constantly dieing and being reborn in the Mists that have been taken out of the cicle by being transported into another world, and they will get to visit their homeworlds during the campaign (I may even treat this as a twist, who knows). The other idea is having a ritual that makes you enter the Mists and travel to a random world inside them. The ritual isn't complicated (the Mists are always welcome to new guests after all) but it is very obscure and unknown, so no one does it. I'll add a detal that you can modify the ritual to transport you to a specific world inside the Mists, but these midfications are even rarer than the ritual itself, so the players would have to take some time and research if they wanted to get back to worlds they've been to before, or even follow enemies or leads to worlds they haven't. What do you think?
Yes more of this is what's needed. The three arc storyline or whatever. More overall campaign and individual story arc within the campaign. I think this is a somewhat empty space on UA-cam. Please feel that.
Hello Friend, I would like to request you explain a bit more about what you mean. I am always looking for what might be most useful for my to talk about, so I'd like to ask, what do you feel is missing on youtube exactly? :) Thank you and thanks again!
Leucrotta are my all time favorite monster, but they are a copy written creature. I'm currently working on a version of them for our world because I don't want to live in a world without them! Always have to have those staple creatures.
Very interesting choice, what draws you to them? What has that power with it for you to want it to stick around? I always love about what makes something, someone's favorite.
@@Creative-Magpie Two things always stuck with me- It mimics the pained cries of the things it kills to lure in victims (unlimited potential here) and in the old versions it had teeth of bone that could destroy armor. I have a painting of a leucrotta in storage.
Step 1: Do not write a campaign. Campaigns are not films, or books or plays. Instead, establish a setting that feels lived in and real as possible. 2: Fill the world with characters. Give these characters different, conflicting motivations. 3: Let the story play out at the table. Play the NPCs and villains as they would make choices. Quick Example: - An Orc Chieftain wants to be more important and rule over more Orcs. To do this he goes out to rape and pillage, because that is the only way to acquire political support in Orc society. - The Sovereign of a City wants to try and redirect the Orc Horde towards a rival city so he can be avenged after losing the last war against the rival city. - An Evil cult is exploiting the chaos caused by the Orc Chieftain to gain more members by pretending to be benevolent and helping the displaced. - A disgraced Knight wants to redeem himself, but has no real plans besides charging the Orc Horde in a glorious, but futile, attack. And boom, there you go. When you need to write the next session just think, "What would X do in this situation?"
I love the breakdown friend, and I think in large part we are singing off the same sheet of music. There are areas of additional structure I think can be useful for people who are newer to the game or less certain of their improv skills, but I will certainly keep your words in mind when/ if I do a session prep video. Because I do agree having developed characters is much better for a DM than a 10k word essay as to what might happen.
The mood board idea is such a good one. I do that a lot when I'm putting together a new campaign to organize the themes and tone I want to convey.
I think something to reference back to in order to pull further inspiration is a very valuable asset.
Excellent taste in Zelda games. Subscribed.
Thank you much!!
Great video, my guy. I kinda feel like I know a secret because I saw a lot of the recent discussions on Bluesky that inspired some of these notes.
Now, now Wobble, don't go speaking of my dark secret tomes that I hide in the bluer skies. It might draw attention over there ;)
Really well done video! Subscribed!
Thanks, Sam!! Your approval is greatly appreciated. :)
Couldn't have found this at a better time! Ive been dming modules and doing 1 shots (inevitably all in my head and never actively writing down story points) for like 3 years. The time I finally wanna write down and run a greek themed campaign around the idea of gods and them being killed or missing is when this pops in my feed. Thank you so much! If you manage to see this im gonna reply with my story hook and if you get the time id love your thoughts!
"The gods are dead," screams a man on top of a wooden stage in the town center. His bones showing and skin glistening with beads of sweat, it seems he hasn't eaten in days. The crazed look in his eyes seems to focus on you, despite no one else noticing. The day's heat beats down on you like lapping water on the beach. "Look at the sun; it has yet to move for three days." He is right, yet the crowd still murmurs about how insane this man sounds. "We are just being punished for our wrongdoing," some say. "It'll pass," others whisper.
I am happy my video can help.
And your opener sounds very compelling. Having something natural thrown off to show something being off is an excellent way of showing stakes. The sun is never setting? Or never rising? Boom, that's perfect, easy passive drama and storytelling! I love it.
That's an awesome campaign idea, I love campaigns that involve the gods and the prospect of either fighting one or becoming one
Echoing your point to not plan it all out. Trying to stick to an established preconception of what a game could and/or should be is the fast track to it falling apart.
I was actually reading a leadership book for my day job, that talked about the "Main Thing" and sticking to that, details will and have to change, but keep your core image at the forefront is always helpful in grounding and planning!! :)
What a coincidence you talking about Curse of Strahd, I'm researching some stuff to create my first homebrew campaign and it is also based on Ravenloft, more specifically on the many realms of dread presented on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and on how it hints at a possible universe-hopping campaign among all of them, but doesn't give much clearer directions after that.
This campaign idea has a lot of setting but not a good plot to hold it all together in a whole. I'm planning on fusing it with another campaign idea I've also had for a year, where a cult has forseen the end of all existence in great detail and are now going around killing people who will eventually be responsible for it, but that now are, like, small orphans, or a recently wedded mother, innocent people like that. This campaign has a plot but no world to set it in and I'm considering merging the two together, but haven't figured out how to make the PCs care for stuff when they will keep hopping from plane to plane and leaving people behind and meeting people from scratch evey time
I love all of this!! I think melding the two campaign ideas together is a wonderful thought. Let one paint your plot, the other help establish your setting! If you need particular help with something I could give advice or resources on, just let me know, I'll see if there's anything cooking in my brain.
@Creative-Magpie thanks for offering! The only thought that's bugging me now is the investment thing, where the players might not particularly care about a cult invading dimensions they've never been in to kill people they've never met.
I have counter points to this idea, but I don't know how good they are. The first and easiest one is making some of the targets of the cult be alternate reality versions of people from the PCs's past. Or alternately make the PCs be some of the souls that are constantly dieing and being reborn in the Mists that have been taken out of the cicle by being transported into another world, and they will get to visit their homeworlds during the campaign (I may even treat this as a twist, who knows).
The other idea is having a ritual that makes you enter the Mists and travel to a random world inside them. The ritual isn't complicated (the Mists are always welcome to new guests after all) but it is very obscure and unknown, so no one does it. I'll add a detal that you can modify the ritual to transport you to a specific world inside the Mists, but these midfications are even rarer than the ritual itself, so the players would have to take some time and research if they wanted to get back to worlds they've been to before, or even follow enemies or leads to worlds they haven't. What do you think?
Yes more of this is what's needed. The three arc storyline or whatever. More overall campaign and individual story arc within the campaign. I think this is a somewhat empty space on UA-cam. Please feel that.
Hello Friend,
I would like to request you explain a bit more about what you mean. I am always looking for what might be most useful for my to talk about, so I'd like to ask, what do you feel is missing on youtube exactly? :) Thank you and thanks again!
Leucrotta are my all time favorite monster, but they are a copy written creature. I'm currently working on a version of them for our world because I don't want to live in a world without them! Always have to have those staple creatures.
Very interesting choice, what draws you to them? What has that power with it for you to want it to stick around? I always love about what makes something, someone's favorite.
@@Creative-Magpie Two things always stuck with me- It mimics the pained cries of the things it kills to lure in victims (unlimited potential here) and in the old versions it had teeth of bone that could destroy armor. I have a painting of a leucrotta in storage.
Both of those elements do sound metal. A nasty pet in the hands of the right bounty hunter.
Step 1: Do not write a campaign. Campaigns are not films, or books or plays. Instead, establish a setting that feels lived in and real as possible.
2: Fill the world with characters. Give these characters different, conflicting motivations.
3: Let the story play out at the table. Play the NPCs and villains as they would make choices.
Quick Example:
- An Orc Chieftain wants to be more important and rule over more Orcs. To do this he goes out to rape and pillage, because that is the only way to acquire political support in Orc society.
- The Sovereign of a City wants to try and redirect the Orc Horde towards a rival city so he can be avenged after losing the last war against the rival city.
- An Evil cult is exploiting the chaos caused by the Orc Chieftain to gain more members by pretending to be benevolent and helping the displaced.
- A disgraced Knight wants to redeem himself, but has no real plans besides charging the Orc Horde in a glorious, but futile, attack.
And boom, there you go. When you need to write the next session just think, "What would X do in this situation?"
I love the breakdown friend, and I think in large part we are singing off the same sheet of music. There are areas of additional structure I think can be useful for people who are newer to the game or less certain of their improv skills, but I will certainly keep your words in mind when/ if I do a session prep video. Because I do agree having developed characters is much better for a DM than a 10k word essay as to what might happen.