Hi everyone!

I am putting together a fun, desert themed game where my 6 players are about to start a monster of the week style campaign. There are a ton of monsters out there and I'm trying to brainstorm some monsters and scenarios that they could do. Does anyone have any recommendations?

For context, we are playing 5e and they are starting at level 3.

The PC was looking for magical ink on a small town so I figured there wouldn't be many magical shops available. The only source of this ink was from a hag in the woods, so the party made its way into a deal.

Then, the hag told the PC in question one of the ingredients for the ink is collected from a giant squid in a nearby cave. However, the party had previously slayed said squid. She got kinda angry, but calmed down by saying the party was in debt to her. She could replace the squid's ink with the PC's blood. He didn't trust her with his blood so the hag settled for his tears. She could be telling the truth or not, but the point is she drank some, not all, of his tears.

They left the hut unscathed. So... How can I use this to bite their asses in the future? I think the hag is still kinda pissed they slayed the squid and left her without her source of a more... "normal" and easier ingredient.

Tl;dr: the party killed a giant squid, and found out later that it was one of the hag's source of ingredients for magic ink, which she has monopoly of in the region. She collected a pc's tears to replace it. Now she might be looking for some sort of pay back. Any ideas?

Hi, I’m a new dm to DnD and I was curious on how campaign notes should be taken, and whether or not I need them. I’m playing off of a pre written campaign and most of the stuff I was putting in my notes was just straight from the book, almost word for word and I was wondering if there was an easier way/better way to write them. The whole thing just seems a bit overwhelming because of all of the words and I feel like a slimmer format would be easier, but idk how that would look. So far I have majority just paragraphs explaining things from the book, dialogue, events and skill checks. To me it kinda feels more like a plan and from experience they almost never go exactly according to plan. Any help or advice would really be appreciated, thanks for being such an awesome server!

I have an open sea “pirate” setting campaign. I have added the devil fruit from one piece to the setting and found this resource that gives a few good examples of fruit and even mechanics for each one.

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N-0UG5heZeki1Rlp9Gm

I am looking to make some homebrew unique ones and want some help or inspiration and wanted to see if anyone here would have input.

Notes about my setting. The “devil fruit” not only take away your ability to swim like in One Piece, but also takes away your ability to fly or to change form (wildshape/polymorph).

Hey y'all! I'm curious to get people's thoughts on this idea for heat metal: letting the caster switch targets as a bonus action.

I know this spell has some controversial rulings and opinions on how broken it is, but I feel like this addition is on brand for this kind of concentration spell.

Thanks!

I'm running the From Ancient Grudge for my party (5 adventurers of level 4), which is a one-shot all about ghosts and undead. We got halfway through it, getting into the first fight but had to cut it short due to time constraints.

We have a death domain cleric and I realized that every single goddamned enemy in this module but one is immune to necrotic damage and everyone are immune to poison. Which are coincidentally the two damage types a death domain cleric does.

So I'm kinda looking for one of two things from people who may have stumbled upon such a situation:

• A) reassurance that it's probably gonna fine and the non-damage spells in a death domain cleric's list are entertaining enough that having damage options be limited won't be that bad.
• or B) thoughts on how to adjust fights - do I just throw up my hands and go "fuck it, I guess they have no immunity, only reistance?". Or do I......well, actually that's kinda my only idea at the moment

Early flavor established a giant ball of yarn as this village's only interesting feature. Now some time has passed and we're at the climax of the story. The big bad is going to light the ball on fire and roll it down the hill towards the town. I was just going to wing it, but I'm second guessing myself and wondering if there should be some kind of mechanic.

story time + asking for input:

running dnd for 3 friends that have basically never played before. Sort of stole the opening quest hook from New Vegas; bandits are harassing a town for harboring a person they planned to kidnap and sell for ransom.

The group get to talk to the target, a nobleman’s son, and immediately decide the best course of action is to beat the shit out of him and pretend they killed him, showing off his “dead” body to the bandits so they…get scared and leave? This does NOT work and instead the bandits are extremely pissed that their ticket to a bunch of money is supposedly dead, and ride off to wherever they’re camped to bring back more of their friends to pillage the town out of revenge.

Session ended with the group planning to stock up and track down the bandits to their camp and I’m pretty sure they want to kill em all but they’re three lvl2 adventurers versus probably 20-30 bandits lmao. How do I prevent them from dying horribly without it seeming lame?

5e

I've been digging around for lore on fallen aasimar and angels and not finding much. There are about 3 sentences in volo's and you can poke around the backstory of zariel but not much else. Could anybody point me to more?

I'm a bit amped about some homebrew I'm working on for angels and fallen angels themed on theories of justice (Retribution, restorative and isolation/protection) for the purpose of law and punishment.

The idea would be to have fallen angels that are mirror images (protecting evil people, corruption, and freeing evil or dangerous people/creatures in the name of free will)

I wanted to draw on official content to add context but I'm just not finding any.

Hey all, I'm planning a mini-campaign set in a world based on rock, paper, scissors. The setting revolves around three main nations: The Quarry Kingdom, Papyra, and Ferrotia. The whole plot is that the residents of the Quarry Kingdom have vanished, leading to a huge power gap where the balance of the world has been "rocked" as the Ferrotians attempt to lay siege upon Papyra. My parties job will be to fix this in some way I haven't figured out quite yet. Basically, I want to take a goofy concept and make it super serious with political intrigue, mystery, and puns. (Think Crown of Candy meets Avatar: The Last Airbender)

My main question is if I should actually make the lands and people be made out of these materials or just inspire their cultures and appearances off of the materials. I'm at an impasse about which idea to go with, as I have a lot of ideas for both. I don't know what would be more narratively pleasing, or make the most sense. I'm also looking for any inspiration or ideas anyone has that I could "borrow" for my game.

Hello All,

My players are getting ready to fight a battle/war against the big bad. A Colossus. They have a way to lead it to a battle location and set up a ambush. They want to find a valley to constrain it. How do I create a session? They have rough dated maps but the terrain may have changed since the map was made. Bit of a cataclysm happened to the land. Should I create a rough map they can use? This is a blasted land with lots of undead.

I wanted to get in to dnd for years, so i studied the mechanics of the game years before i actualy started playing, and when i joined a game a few monthes ago i was hooked, and now i want to play more dnd, but there is no other game i can join as a player at the momment so i thought i would try dming, but i'm abit intimidated, so i'm looking for an adventure that is easy from a dm standpoint

I tried looking on line, but the general lists i meneged to find where not clear about why an adventure is good for a new dm, so i thought i'll try my luck here

I'm looking for a not too long one, as it's the first one i'll be dming, and i don't want to commit too hard in case i wont enjoy dming , but i know if i start i would like to finish the champaing it would feel bad stoping mid way, i do think i'll enjoy makeing a homebrew champaing, cus i really love world building and game disinge, but i kinda want to start with something prewriten to make it easier the first go

Here is the idea

There are going to be big/tall containers on the map filled with potions (rays). The alchemist (who can fly) can drink these potions and use the rays. These containers are really tall so no PC will be able to drink the potions as far as i can assume.

These containers are breakable (they hv HP and AC) which can add a fun layer esp for melee martials

There are also going to be multiple electric spheres on the ground that emit an antimagic forcefield. These are again breakable

As a lair action, the alchemist can choose to repair any one thing partially (roll for health)

Here is the problem:

As per now, I can only justify the alcheist drinking 1 potion per action. How do i make it so he can drink 3 potions? One option would be to make him attack 3 times with a single potion but thats not fun and may be too weak/strong

The PCs are level 5 btw. I've already reduced the legendary actions to 2 per turn and ray can only target twice

I am a DM running a campaign for a party of 8 level 8 PCs. The player classes are as follows: A grave cleric A college of lore bard An edritch knight fighter A Paladin(i dont know what his oath is, i cant make contact with him as of writing this post) Warlock, The fiend A thief rogue A circle of the land druid A way of the open hand monk

Generally my PCs havent been struggling with my encounters, but as time goes on i have been trying to increase the difficulty of these encounters. For the last couple sessions i have been increasing both the amount of enemies to combat the PCs monopoly on the action economy, increasing enemy CR, and making the PCs fight in more challenging arenas or terrain. None of this seems to make much of a difference. None of my PCs really get downed, and in the case that they did, the grave cleric would nullify its effect anyway. Across our 7 sessions so far, only about 3 downs have occured in combat.

To make an examble out of the most recent encounter: Only 6 players were present for this session, the paladin and monk were absent, the players had 15 minutes to prepare for the fight. They had placed themselves in such a position in the arena as to make it very hard for the enemies to get to them. The druid made a large area of difficult terrain using plant growth, causing many of the melee enemies to spend their turns just walking towards the PCs, slowly. The players had placed themselves in such a position as to make it very hard for enemies to close in on them, and as many of them are spell casters, they were able to wittle away at their HP bars before the fight even started. The enemies they faced were 5 kuo toa 1 kuo toa archpriest 2 minotaurs 1 mind-flayer 1 oni 1 salamander 1 air elemental 1 earth elemental

The players did face some challenge and did take a bit of damage, the druid and cleric were left with very little health near the end, though no healing spells were cast all fight.

Overall, all the players are pretty new, though they do tend to stratagise and prepare well. I am hesitant to add more enemies, as that may just draw combat out to be too long. I am also relatively new to creating combat encounters, as encounters cant really be taken from player handbooks or online sources for this campaign, as it has double the amount of PCs as a normal one.

The players do enjoy the encounters, but i feel like they may enjoy them more if they were truly challenged.

Maybe the solution is truly as simple as raising the CR of the monsters, or maybe it has to do with crafting more enemy-sided terrain. The campaign is also of such a nature that there is little restriction on ebemy variety. I am open to any discussions, tips or questions! :)

My pcs are about to deal with an imbalance created because Geshtai, a goddess of wells and water was kidnapped. I figure they should face a mix of angry water elementals and newly forming "dryness" elementals. I need ideas for dust and dryness themed monsters and monster effects.

Dust mephits for sure, obviously. But what else? Some version of efreeti? Camel creatures?

I ran side adventure last weekend while my reborn spores Druid was out that involved the other characters getting knocked out by spore coming off him and waking up in a psychedelic, necrotic mushroom land. It was going to be a simple, linear thing where they beat a big mushroom zombie boss and then wake back up where they left off, but we had to cut the session short at the second to last encounter. Now the Druid’s player will be back for the next session, and I really want to include him somehow in the last encounter.

The lore, which the player doesn’t know the details of, is that his reborn nature is the result of this psychic, necrotic mushroom colony infecting his corpse, and it’s trying to spread from whatever this psychedelic mushroom plane is to consume other planes. I have some super cool mushroom zombie minis from bestiarium that were the inspo.

For the last encounter, I think it would be super cool to have the Druid there somehow, but I’m not sure how to involve him in a thematically and mechanically compelling way. I want something that hints to the lore in some way, while also giving the players a challenge. Maybe they have to do something while in the last combat that sends them back to their bodies in the material plane? I dunno. I’m totally at a loss.

Hi Guys,

I previously posted this logic puzzle asking for advice on it and to see if it worked. Well, I'm back and after taking in some feedback, I have a new version!

So, for context, the capital city is under siege and the party are coming in halfway through (having been off pursuing other important objectives). The defending commander is out of action following a skirmish and his underlings must try and piece his master plan of defence together using the info/clues they have.

The goal is to place the correct friendly formation, in the correct location, against the correct enemy, with the correct weapons. The categories/options are:

• Friendly Formation: Iron Clan, Orc Warband, Cuildiran Watch & Blue Lizards
• Weapons: pikes and bows, close combat maces, spears and shields & swords
• Enemy Formation: Phoenecian's Children, Swords of Cuildir, Godgretan Guard & Demons
• Station: Main Gate, Western Wall Breach, Southern Wall Breach & Eastern Wall Breach

The clues provided by friendly commanders are:

• The 4 formations are the Cuildiran Watch, The ones that should be outfitted with pikes and bows, The ones who should fight the Phoenician's Children and the ones who should be stationed at the southern wall breach
• Of the Cuildiran Watch and the Orc Warband, one formation should be equipped with spears and shields and the other should be stationed at the Eastern Wall Breach
• The Formation that should fight the Demons is Not the Iron Clan
• The Cuildiran Watch need less range than the Orc Warband
• The Formation that should fight at the Western Wall Breach need maces
• The Formation that should fight the Phoenician's Children is not the Blue Lizards
• The Formation that should fight the Demons should do so at the Southern Wall Breach
• Either the Formation equipped with spears and shields or the Formation equipped with close combat maces should be stationed at the Main Gate
• The Swords of Cuildir will assault the Main Gate
• The Western Wall Breach will not be assaulted by the Godgretan Guard
• We must place our Formation equipped with pikes and bows against the Godgretan Guard

The solution is:

• !The Iron Clan should be outfitted with close combat maces and should fight the Phoenician's Children at the Western Wall Breach!<

• !The Cuildiran Watch should be outfitted with spears and shields and should fight the Swords of Cuildir at the Main Gate!<

• !The Blue Lizards should be outfitted with swords and should fight the Demons at the Southern Wall Breach!<

• !The Orc Warband should be equipped pikes and bows and should fight the Godgretan Guard at the Eastern Wall Breach!<

Does it work? This is for Saturday so would appreciate a quick turn around lol Thanks guys!

Edit: I'm also looking for consequences of getting this wrong.

It's my first time being a dm and I didnt played many games so far. However I would love to make an adventure for them. I have a doubt. When chosing which enemies and how many they should find, how i do it? I heard that they should find 1 enemy of their level on average per encounter or the equivalent of that. Is it correct?

I joined a club that does 7 session games multiple times a year. I've played in one game and I wanted to DM but need an adventure that would last 7 sessions at 2.5 to 3 hours each. 

I was thinking of doing dragon heist since I really enjoyed playing it and the seasons thing would be good for mixing things up a bit while still keeping things similar enough it would be easy to run multiple times and not have to relearn everything. I would probably have to cut bits out, i think it was about 10 sessions when i was a PC in it

I did DM Stormwreck isle but didn't really enjoy the adventure very much and i think it only took 4 sessions so i would have to expand things a bit

Here's a list of the books I currently own if anyone thinks any of these would be good for 7 sessions. 

• Dragon heist
• Stormwreck Isle
• Dragon of Icespire peak
• Wild beyond the witchlight
• Decent into avernus
• Curse of Strahd
• Light of Xaryxes
• Rime of the Frostmaiden
• Journeys through the radiant citadel

I haven't played or DMed in any of them apart from the 2 I mentioned earlier. I would be willing to purchase anything else as well that might be good.

Cheers.

To make a long story short, my party is 4 very well equipped and smartly playing level 17 characters, and they have found a ritual to call down the essence, or avatar, of Hadar down to the material plane so that they can bind it and kill it.

Hadar will first manifest itself as memories of memorable moments throughout the story, with the players fighting through 3 waves of deadly level encounters, linked below, within a massive summoning circle. Each wave will distill Hadar into a more and more pure version of itself, until it manifests into a lesser star spawn emissary, and finally culminates into a fight with “Hadar’s Avatar”, a greater star spawn emissary.

This is the last fight of the campaign, so I want it to be different, memorable, and exciting, and somewhat of a “best of” fight with the manifesting memories of creatures they’ve fought before. Advice for anything I can change, leave out, or add would be appreciated.

Help me out, experienced high level DMs! I feel like there’s some other layer, I’m missing, but I can’t think of it.

Link to Encounter Waves and Maps

Hello fellow DMs! I'm a fairly new DM (one campaign, a year or two of experience) working on an ongoing homebrew 5e adventure. I have often benefited from and really admire the material I've seen in this group, so I wanted to come to you all with a question about my own campaign. Thank you in advance for reading!

In my campaign, I have a wizard PC who has a great backstory involving a struggle with an evil wizard who is essentially trying to gain control of this player's body and mind in order to come back to life. I came up with a concept--Dark Inspiration--that I think could be really cool for this, but I haven't been able to make it streamlined enough to be useful. The basic premise is, awarding points to track this character's inner struggle with the dark wizard, and have a concrete indication of how much "sway" this wizard has over him. Ie, if the player engages in a cruel or violent act (perhaps intimidating an NPC, murdering someone, lying, etc) or comes somehow into contact with material relating to this evil wizard, even accidentally (perhaps through cursed texts, etc), he gains a point of dark inspiration.

My hope was to make it a scale whereby with each point he becomes more like the evil wizard, but also could be given some benefits to tempt him as well. So at each step, there are features that would make it easier for him to act cruelly and harder to act good (ie., bonus to intimidation or something), representing the evil wizard's growing influence. If unchecked this would culminate in him becoming fully possessed by the wizard (which the player character wants to avoid). Kind of a Star Wars dark side thing I guess, but with a possession/loss of identity twist.

Is there some elegant way you could imagine handling this? I love the idea but so far my efforts to make a progression have felt too unwieldy. THANK YOU in advance for any advice!

My players have arrived at a major city and I wanted to have a vampire as the city villain. A string or grisly murders throughout the city have the population on edge. After investigating they suspect there may be a vampire causing these deaths.

I would like to have the vampire as a noble or person of importance in the city. What are some ideas for who he could be?

What would be some good motives for a vampire choosing his victims other than just ‘he’s a vampire’ to make a compelling murder mystery?

I’m making a Bloodborne themed campaign and I have no idea which monsters and creatures to use in encounters Iva already picked out bosses and orders and have every started the world building and custom mechanics, any suggestions?

Hey guys, so I'm DMing a game right now that I've rushed a bit, and I'm looking for some guidance on what to do next.

Recap: the players got to the major city for the campaign just in time to see the bad guys execution. However, before he is killed, the king dies just before he deals the fatal blow. Now there is a power vacuum and each of his children are trying to claim the throne.

The issue I have is a lack of connection. The characters showed up, saw a dramatic thing happen, but don't actually know anyone involved, and the same in reverse. There is no connection between these events and the characters and I'm not sure how to establish a connection in a way that feels organic.

I have a laundry list of characters with hidden motivations making moves in the high courts, I'm just not sure how to connect them to some random adventurers that just showed up along with thousands of other travelers.

Thoughts?

Does any DM knows of monsters that are similar or identical to Intellect Devourers but stronger ? I could buff up the normal statblock but I want to see if there's something else instead first.

Thanks in advance !

A friend is opening a store, knows I have a reputation for running a good game, am a teacher, and that I am looking into getting into pro-GMing. Hence, he has asked me to teach a class introducing new players to 5e.

You might notice I say “GMing” and not “DMing”. Thats because my main system isn’t D&D (all hail Savage Worlds). Heck, I don’t even usually run fantasy, instead opting for superheroics, scifi, pulp adventure, and horror. The thing is though he wants a class to introduce his customer’s to “the world’s greatest roleplaying game”.

Now, I’ve of course run 5e before, having run the game for my son’s and his friends and my students. I’ve listen/watched a ton of Critical Role. I also know that if I’m going to make a go of going pro, I’m going to need to know 5e like the back of my hand, because that’s what will most be in demand (it also means I’ll have to preorder the new books, sigh). I just have avoided it like the plague when possible and am hence very rusty on the rule.

What resources, short of just reading the PHB (which I somehow own three copies of) and the DMG (2) cover to cover.

I’m looking for cheat sheets, YouTube videos, podcast I can listen to while I clean around the house, tips for making the class go smoother. Anything you’ve got, I’ll take it.

I’m a new DM, like, first campaign kind of new, and am running one of WoTC’s premade campaigns (Horde of the Dragon Queen.) to try and give myself a chance to learn. The problem is that I recently discovered this module has something of a reputation for unbalanced encounters, and some of those are probably coming up real soon.

Any good DM would just rebalance them, but I’m so inexperienced that I worry about overcompensating, or just not nerfing them enough, which’ll ruin major combat encounters for my soon to be level 3 party. All my players are new, and far from adept at optimizing builds, which I’m fine with. I have a Druid, a healing focused bard, and a fighter, all level 2. So far, my party has almost completed the first chapter with relatively low damage, and, I’m not planning to have the fight with the dragon at the end of it. But there’s only 3 of them, they’re just as new as me, and it seems the next couple chapters have much tougher enemies. Ambush and guard drakes, a half-dragon, elite Cultists, ext. and I don’t want a TPK on my hands, for obvious reasons.

So do ya’ll have any tips and tricks for how to balance combat while keeping it fun? While I’m here, I might as well ask if it would be a good idea to potentially give my party 1-2 companions to up their combat power. Think BG3, where the characters work with the party, but can also come with potential side quests.

Plantfolk

• Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
• Creature Type. You are a Plant.
• Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
• Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
• The Wind in the Leaves. Through your mystical bond with nature, you gain the ability to glean information from Plants and vegetation. You have advantage on Nature and Survival checks related to plant life.
• Plant Biology. You do not need food to survive. Instead, you must be exposed to sunlight for 1 hour per day, or another source of bright light for 4 hours per day.
• Natural Foliage. While lightly obscured by plant life, you can attempt to hide and have advantage on stealth checks. Additionally, as an action, you can change your form slightly to appear as an ordinary plant of your type. Any items or equipment you are wearing or carrying meld into this form as well. You cannot move or speak while in this form, but may remain in this form indefinitely. While in this form, you are indistinguishable from an ordinary plant. As an action, you may revert back to your normal form. Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Subraces

• Treefolk
  • Tough Bark. While you are not wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.
  • Entangling Roots. As an action, you send your roots into the ground, causing them to sprout from the ground and entangle nearby enemies. Each creature of your choice within 10 feet of you must make a Strength saving throw (DC = 8 + prof + Str) or be restrained for 1 minute, or until you lose concentration (as if concentrating on a spell). Restrained creatures can repeat this save at the end of each turn. As an action, you can cause these roots to constrict and deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage to every creature restrained this way. While this effect is active, your movement speed is zero and you cannot be forcibly moved.
• Flowerfolk
  • Smell the Roses: As part of a short rest, you can grant temporary hit points to up to six creatures within 30 feet of you. The number of temporary hit points equals your level. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
  • Visage of Petals. You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill.
  • Fleeting Movement. Your walking speed is 35 feet.
• Thornfolk
  • Spiky Skin. Your body is covered in thorns, which can be used as natural weapons. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or grapple a creature, you deal 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
  • Vengeful Thorns. As a reaction when you take damage from a creature within 5 feet of you, you can attempt to strike that creature with your thorns. The creature must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + Dex + prof.) or take 2d6 piercing damage. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
• Kelpfolk
  • Aquatic. You have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed, and can breathe underwater.
  • Slimy. You have advantage on checks and saves to avoid or end the grappled or restrained condition.

Variant Race

• Sporefolk
  • Darkvision (replaces The Wind in the Leaves). You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
  • Fungal Biology (replaces Plant Biology). You can consume any biological material as food. Additionally, you can survive without water as long as you are not in an arid or frozen climate.
  • Toxic Constitution. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
  • The Rot Consumes. As an action, you can release a cloud of harmful spores. All creatures within 5 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + Con + prof.) or take 2d6 necrotic damage. The damage increase to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th, and 5d6 at 16th level. Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

Main concerns: is a Plant-type (as opposed to Humanoid) race balanced? Is the Kelpfolk too weak compared to the other subraces? If so, what would you add? Is the overall power-level of each subrace/variant consistent with official races? Any advice is appreciated.

If your party keeps encountering a drunken wild-magic hobbit named Bingo, you should leave now.

No seriously Ren.

Ok now that that’s handled - after this weeks session I realized that I have a fairly large gap in where we are and where we are going. Through a combination of over stress at work and under sleep at home I need some outside help.

Some background. The primary setting is a half dozen cities on the backs of giant tortoises that collapse their orbits and converge at a whirlpool in the middle of the ocean every 700 years. No one in memory has seen dry land and it is now believed to be a myth.

A cult of a death god has arisen using giant kraken to pull underwater one of the tortoises and generally threaten their society.

The party passed a worthiness trial and was asked to taken on a mission to save the world by going back to the old continent and returning with a force of dragons stationed there.

Now I have some great world building done for the new location but I’m stuck with the how to connect these two right now.

The continentals have only faint historical memory of the exodus that left and formed the tortoise nation, so why would they believe the party or sign on to help them?

The dragon riders have withdrawn from their roles as neutral arbiters and protectors due to a “crazy” leader so they are already isolating from their current responsibilities.

The power vacuum in their city has been filled by street gangs of various positions on the good/evil scale and will help or oppose the party for the right price.

If I drop the party onto the new continent they will be in a classic fish-out-of-water or dorothy in Oz scenario. And they’ll be likely judged as crazy at first.

How do I give the party time to experience and explore the new world without rushing things due to the time pressures of the impending apocalypse at home?

Happy to fill in more detail if it helps. Thanks

edit - Missed an important detail. The party thinks they have 2-3 weeks to save the world, that's the clock that is pushing things for me. Also the mainland and the tortoises don't know the other exist - just myth and fairy tales.

Hey everyone!

I’d like to get your thoughts on an idea I have for our campaign. We're several sessions in, and I think it would be beneficial for both the story and our characters if we spent some time deepening the connections between them.

Our current campaign, set in Faerûn and involving many giants, is going great. However, I feel that our characters need stronger reasons to travel together, care for each other, and handle conflicts when they arise. This is especially important when a character does something controversial, like stealing, disrespecting others, or associating with criminal contacts. Not all these actions are inherently bad – for instance, one character is secretly a Zhentarim agent, and another has a compulsion to accumulate wealth due to their draconic heritage.

I understand that part of the problem could have been resolved with a better campaign start, a more thought-out session zero, but I didn’t anticipate some of the recent actions the players have taken. Additionally, I have already discussed these issues with them, both as a group and individually. It’s an annoying problem but not as serious as some situations I see on Reddit. My hope is to resolve it not just by asking them to behave differently, but by giving the game a more immersive reason for them to feel connected.

What I propose is that, before our next session, we work together to add more depth to our characters’ backstories. Specifically, I’d like to develop some additional details about the days or weeks leading up to the start of our adventure.

Our story began in Daggerford, where the characters united to tackle the problems in Nightstone. Let’s expand on how each character arrived there and what events or relationships led them to join forces. This can help create a more cohesive and compelling party dynamic, making their journey more meaningful and their bonds stronger.

To help, here’s a quick rundown of our players and their characters:

1. Barbarian Goliath: Just, honorable, and kind-hearted. Fierce in combat, but with a reserved and cool personality. (He is one of the character that dislike bad actions and doesn't like bad attitudes)
2. Tiefling Druid: Cheerful, righteous, and fun-loving.
3. Human Illusionist Wizard: A Zhentarim member who was once a slave to giants. Ambitious and selfish, he's with the party for the organization's interests and roleplays well. (He is just a selfish character with criminal connections, the other characters don't like that)
4. Elven Ranger Drakewarden: From the Feywild, with a deep connection to red dragons. A mercenary with a good heart and an innate desire to accumulate wealth. (His impulsive actions toward stealing and wealth already made some good NPCs die, like guards watching him stealing good and attacking)
5. Human Cleric of Talos: From a place where his people venerate the god of destruction out of fear and for mercy. A naturally quiet and good person, he's a warrior and defender by nature, deeply connected to his god. (Good character that may have problems with his god when he stop destruction, not cause it)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas!