I won't ask how you survived the "Crack" and the lawlessness of your world dying, unable to support life as we knew it, I presume. I will tell you if you will bring with that trauma and chaos into this world that I am committed to being the new beacon of hope for us all, you will be put down, swiftly and voilently

• Unknown Eldritch Warden

In the realm of Dór-o Estel, a haven for the remnants of countless doomed worlds, the air is thick with the weight of countless sorrows and the hopes of fragile new beginnings. This world, once a blank canvas, now teems with the remnants of numerous realms, each bearing the scars of their apocalypses and the trauma of the time after "The Crack" .

The portals that appeared in the dying moments of these worlds became lifelines, snatching away the desperate and the faithful alike, depositing them into this shared sanctuary. Often becoming the focal points of new settlements.

The Elves, with their unparalleled longevity and meticulous records, were the first to recognize the cyclical nature of these cataclysms. Their ancient songs and stories spoke of worlds rising and falling, a relentless cycle known only to those who endured long enough to witness its repetition. Now, as the shattered masses converge in Dór-o Estel, the truth of this cycle is undeniable. Some see this as validation of the wisdom of the elves, some as proof they knew too much and must have had some hand in the cause of it.

Rebuilding is a herculean task, fraught with peril and uncertainty. Civilizations, once mighty and proud, now struggle to reclaim a semblance of their former glory. The survivors bring with them not only their customs and knowledge but also the monsters and dark forces that once lurked in the shadows of their old worlds. Each new settlement is a crucible, where cultures clash, evolve, and sometimes perish under the weight of their histories.

You remember the time between the "Crack" and your trip through the portal. When the rich and powerful were the first to escape, they used their resources to organize and protect their caravans. They took with them their worldly goods, and copious amounts of resources that could have aided the masses, leaving behind a power vacuum in their dying worlds. With the collapse of social norms and the social contracts that enforced them, chaos reigned as those left behind struggled to survive in the remnants of their decaying societies. You survived, that is the important thing.

Old knowledge becomes a double-edged sword. Innovations spring forth rapidly, driven by desperation and the need to adapt. Power structures, fragile and ever-shifting, are both bolstered and toppled by these advancements. Magic, a force both feared and coveted, is rediscovered daily, its potential for abuse ever-present. In Dór-o Estel, the line between saviour and tyrant is razor-thin, often dictated by the whims of those who wield arcane power.

To safeguard themselves from another apocalypse, the denizens of Dór-o Estel have turned to world anchors—arcane constructs designed to stabilize their new home. These anchors, once thought the domain of gods and deities, now serve as the bulwarks against the chaos of the multiverse. Yet, even these anchors cannot provide true peace. The gods, fragmented and fickle, appear in myriad forms, their intentions inscrutable need to return or at least get their shit together.

Stability remains an elusive dream. In a world where the very fabric of reality is unstable, concepts of right and wrong are mutable, shaped by the experiences of each refugee. The universal truths of one realm become mere myths in another, leaving the populace adrift in a sea of moral ambiguity.

The horrors of Dór-o Estel are not confined to nightmares and legends. The refugees face terrors they could never have imagined—creatures and curses from realms they never knew existed. As they navigate this new, perilous world, the only certainty is that survival demands both vigilance and an unwavering will.

In the heart of this dark fantasy, where hope and despair are inextricably intertwined, the people of Dór-o Estel must forge new destinies from the ashes of their pasts. Will they rebuild and thrive, or will the remnants of their old worlds drag them into new depths of suffering? Only time will tell, and time, in Dór-o Estel, is a merciless master.

Hey, I've got the barebones idea for a campaign but I'm crap at the fine details and how to place a campaign properly into the Faerun world (geographically) So I'm going to toss out my Concept and Hook and after that if you're still reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Premise: Civil unrest has shaken the entire country, and distrust shakes the foundation of society and a renewed war looms in the near future. The players stand as a small group forced against a government bent on destroying its own country.

The geography: The country is large with varying terrain surrounding it and the heart of the country is a large swathe of rich farmland dubbed The Table. Though many of the races relied on these lands for farming, the Humans were the group to settle in the heart of the country, building agriculture and trade throughout the centuries. As they did their borders expanded in all directions and began to encroach on the lands of the surrounding races. Half Orcs and Tieflings in the tundra to the North, Elves in the forests to the West, Gnomes and Haflings in coastal cities to the East and Dwarves and Dragonfolk in their mountains to the south.

The Past: The human expansion across the countryside was welcomed at first as the trails and roads being cut through The Table brought trade and communication between the far-flung nations. But expansionism brought tension and disputes over territory and the Last War was begun. Named because many thought it would be the end of their family lines, the Last War to be seen by their children and kin. The war lasted for centuries, breeding distrust and prejudice that was passed down from parent to child even among the long - lived races such as the elves. This was war that defined much of the architecture in the country as any building older than a few hundred years was built with siege fare in mind.

The war ended however due to a religion that began in the battlefields, born from the hopes and dreams of better days and peace and understanding as neighbor grew tired of fighting neighbors. They prayed to a NG god who would bless his faithful with peace and rewards if they were good. A prominent speaker rose up and approached the council of nobles to beg peace and treaty. Under their guidance, an accord was struck with the other races, boundaries set, and trade reopened.

The Present: Peace brings prosperity and over the years as trade renewed the races intermingled sharing culture. The capital city in the heart of The Table is a bustling metropolis with multicultural influences and languages where trade flows through and from. The Council of Nobels, their titles passed down by named successors as much as by heredity, lead alongside the Church leaders.

Nearly half the population has embraced this new cosmopolitan lifestyle, mostly the younger men and women born into a mingled society. But the other half, mostly older folk or long lived races still remember the old grudges and warnings told to them by their parents, or grandparents. Some still look at their neighbors with distrust and scorn. Some of the longer-lived races still remember the war itself, having fought on its fields or worked to feed its machinery. The council itself is split on opinions and has been unable to make meaningful changes the past few decades due to a stalemate in votes.

The Church leadership has soured in faith over the years. With such a pronounced time of peace and prosperity less and less people turn to the church for Hope. While the masses are content with the future they turned their worship to other deities for more tangible rewards like luck, good health, romance of a successful business. The Church has begun spreading dissent among the population, telling its human worshipers that the mingling of the races will be the doom of humanity as everything they've earned is at risk.

Hook:

One of the aging Nobles has named a figure head of the church as his successor, breaking a long-standing tradition of keeping the council families and the ecclesiarch separate. The Church figurehead, will be sworn into the council in sixty days when the Noble steps down to retire. The church is already spreading xenophobic propaganda and riling up half the human population into fear and acts of violence. A Dwarf is mugged on the street one night, a Elven shop vandalized the next. A growing voice of a "humanist movement" has begun, secretly spurned on by the church's leadership, speaking out against all the foreigners in their land.

A member of one of the other races, a spy who's been watching the slow corruption of the church over the last two hundred years, approaches the character and reveals that the Figure Head being appointed to office intends to usurp the council with the support of the church loyalists. Once the other nobles have been forced to fall in line or 'removed' by the others and the council and church are free to act as one, they plan to strike out at the non human races and start a new war that could tear the entire country apart. The group has 60 days to find a way to stop it from happening without letting the city break into utter chaos. They also need to reach out to the representatives of the other races to prevent things from escalating before the coup happens or the nations may go to war on their own without the council being overthrown.

Someone should totally help me come up with traps and different combat senerios in an evil enchanted forest

As the title states I need help with expanding upon this idea of mine pasted below, anything is appreciated.

You begin in 2035, the world has advanced slightly from the modern day however there are more intelligent beings other than just humans (Goblinoids, Elves, Gnomes etc.). The P.C.C (Player Controlled Characters) are in the Republic of East Kasrk; REP is a highly militaristic country with the forced enrollment in the armed forces at the age of 15 with a minimum requirement of 6 years served. The PCC's are in the city of Polaniac, the capital. They are apart of a Private Military Group called East Kasrkian Privata Militaria Hendrerit, Or East Kasrkian Private Military Bureau. Though they are commonly referred to as "The Hendrerit" or "The Bureau". They are an elite PMC group hired by many countries for "private matters" concerning anything from security of political figures or Anti-terrorism activities, even those unsanctioned by governments. The PCCs are walking around a store buying items as a shady individual walks in, the individual has on a baggy Grey hoodie with his hood slouched far over his head and a greasy black beard on his neck. He appears to be holding something in his hand as he walks to the back of the store. All of the sudden an explosion rocks the store and sends debris flying everywhere. The PCCs are mostly unharmed, however it is clear now that the shady individual they had seen was a West Kasrk Corporation soldier. West Kasrk is an extremist country that is backed by the Purpura Mare Foedus Foederationum, or Purple Sea League Of Federations; A League of 8 different countries spanning over to the next continent. They are responsible for terror attacks worldwide causing mass spread panic as a second cold war has set in. Proxy wars are the norm between the different unsanctioned PMCs running amuck over the continent.

Hello,

this is a champaign skeleton for DMs out there. Because of this nature you have to add your own spin to it.

The hook:
In a hard to find place, almost off the grid, there is a ruin of an ancient temple. Nature surrounded and took it over. It made the terrain of the temple a bit difficult. No monsters are here, only maybe wild animals who enjoy the silent around this place.
The center of this "has been temple" is strangely free from the vines of nature. In the middle stands an altar, surrounded by 5 pillars in a ~20-40 feet radius. Each pillar has two carvings on it. The top one is in an unknown rune language, the bottom one is in celestial. Each pillar describes a mission, a deed, a request for item, and starts with the following line: "Thee, who seek ascension should ....". As they read it text out loud, the words get a green highlight on both the celestial and the runes, on every pillar and on the altar (if the word is there).
The altar only contains one line in runes. On further investigation you will find that the pedestal has many of the gods and goddess' name carved into it.
This is a place to ascend to godhood.

What the DM should design:
As I mentioned this is a skeleton. The 5 missions, deeps, items the players have to find and bring back, and the text needs to be designed. All the acts should have a similar tone, indicating what kind of god/goddess they could be: eg. for a brutal god you need to act violently, for a merciful god you have to act with compassion, and help those in need.
One thing is a must: The rune on the altar says: "You have to show sacrifice!" To find that out each word should appear at least on one pillar. (Hopefully they figure it out.)

The ending:
When all the missions are done, and the players return to the temple, each pillar will start to emanate a green aura in the order the players performed it. When all 5 of them light up, the environment turns pitch black and only the this place remain. The players do not see or hear anything from outside (long distance communication spells do not work either). One player suddenly will not be able to move or speak with the others. While in this state the others cannot move or interact with the player either. All the frozen player see is the text form the altar levitating in front. After a few seconds, the text changes and take on a reddish hue: "You have to show self-sacrifice! A god cannot exist in a mortal body!"
The player have to decide to either give up on ascension or "unalive" theeself. If the player gives up on ascension, another player will experience the same thing. If the player choose godhood, the others will see the player die, and another player will experience the same thing to decide. This cycle continues until all the players made a decision. After that they return from the darkness.
Those who choose godhood will remain dead. Those who remain will see the items the mission(s) requested disappear (if there was such), the greenish aura dissipates from the pillars, and on the altar they will see the name of those who choose godhood carved into.

I hope you will find it worthy.

I'm trying to do a campaign with some of my friends but I don't know how to start it off, I have some really great ideas once it gets started. But I have no clue how to get them hooked on the campaign and be excited for the next session.

Going to do my second ever campaign as dm, my first was one of the pre written ones, Lost mines of phandelver. All I want is a slight idea or the starting hook/plot twist that I can let my ideas run wild

I'm currently running a Jurassic park campaign that takes Place on Isla Sorna. I made STALKER the game monster manual a while back and I'm currently building a Jurassic Park one if anyone is interested.

Mostly free tools. Based on ++ reviews on Reddit: https://tools.tabletopy.com

Ok so I'm most definitely biting off more than I can chew but the basics are a group of randomly picked people brought back in time 150ish years having the sole purpose of becoming legendary heroes/villains they are thrust into an unfamiliar time by a (god of mischief or something idk). They have a finite amount of time before the god becomes bored or maybe the gods in trouble too, if they fail they are blipped out of time or maybe sent to a never-ending hell.
Any ideas would be wonderful I've taken to Chat gpt to help me polish some other stuff lol.

For context, I’ve already run this campaign and my players LOVED it. It’s by far the best campaign I have run in the past 5-6 years of DMing and had some extremely memorable moments. That said, this is a psych horror campaign and can be very intense.

If you use this hook, please please please do so safely. Safety tools are of the utmost importance for a campaign centering death, grief, trauma, and regret.

Here’s the description I gave to my players:

Life and death. Two intertwined constants that persist in an ever changing world. The flow of time does not discriminate, as all souls eventually leave the material realm behind. But once they leave, what awaits them beyond the tangible?

In this adventure, you will explore the complexities and mysteries of life after death. Your mortal corpse has repelled your soul, pushing it towards the vast unknown. But a strange tether keeps you from reaching your final resting place.

The journey ahead may be treacherous. But a journey always has a destination. What will your destination be, and who will you be when you reach it?

Genre: Psychological Horror

Combat: Flexible to player desires

Roleplay: High (emphasis on individual character arcs)

Exploration: Flexible to player desires

Content Warnings: Death, despair, grief, regret, existentialism, explorations of character trauma, PTSD. Any other concerns are flexible and will be addressed at Session Zero

Additional details:

All PCs have died, yet have ended up in some liminal purgatory along with other lost souls. Each character stuck in this place is somewhat similar to a revenant in that they feel a deep sense of unresolved business and dissatisfaction with their life. I described this as the characters subverting all potential for a better and more fulfilling life for themselves, whether due to their actions or not.

The main mechanic of this campaign was “memories”, which pull individual PCs into a core memory / flashback to their life upon a failed wisdom save. These memories would start out normal, but would slowly morph into a twisted, darker, distorted version of the memory — twists that feed into the character’s flaws or insecurities.

Memory Example: Our Paladin perpetually sought the family oath of glory, sacrificing his relationships with his wife and eventual children in pursuit of it. However, he never made a name for himself, and never learned from his cockiness. He died challenging a Lich to a one-on-one battle, and was instantly disintegrated.

In one of his memories, he visited his adult daughter after 15 years of no contact, and met two of his grandchildren for the first time. The memory started as expected — awkward family dynamics with attempts to reconnect. After some time, his daughter started repeating lines like a recording. Very uncanny valley. To escape this tension, he went over to talk to his youngest grandson, who was drawing with crayons. However, looking at the drawing, the Paladin saw a childlike drawing of a lich defeating a paladin — aka, the culmination of the paladin’s “glorious” life.

The kid says some creepy stuff that describes our paladins life like a tragic story, ending with “[paladin name] left his family and never came back. [paladin name] is a bad man”, repeating the last line over and over. This clearly isn’t what really happened — this is a manifestation of the paladin’s regrets for abandoning his family. This regret is being used by the magic of the realm to try and trap him in this despair, consuming his life force.

What made these so memorable is that one other PC could “enter” into the memory of a PC currently trapped in one, in an effort to pull them out. These formed some really crucial interparty relationships and roleplay moments.

This is a prep-heavy campaign due to the emphasis on character arcs and growth, but I found it helpful to ask my players for core memories that affected their characters the most. The first memory for each PC was how they each died, which was a character building question. Overall, this was a very special campaign and the concept can be applied to so many settings and worlds.

Every century, during the Crimson Moon, an ancient curse awakens, bringing forth hordes of monsters that terrorize the land. Legends speak of a powerful relic, the Moonstone Amulet, capable of stopping the curse. However, the amulet was lost ages ago, and its pieces are scattered across the monstrous realms of Vardelore. Will you stop the monsters?

The title says most of it. You're a Kindergarten class trying to get through the day.

Step one) All of your players roll a d20, the person rhat rolls closests to a 20 is the teacher. Anyone else is a child in the class. Best fun fact, voted on by rest of the group, is the tie breaker. Winner gets to choose what they are.

Step two) All players roll a D6 or higher, they choose a spell off a table of the DMs choosing based on what they roll. They can cast this spell at any level.

Step three) Get through the day! Leaving this part open ended for now.

I feel like something like this would be good for a one shot.

Let me know whatcha think!

This is a idea i have for a campaign, basically theres a massive amusmentpark which functions as a massive dungeon that appears, many adventurers are given inventation ticket which allow then entry to this strange amusment park. But many who enter but a few returned. The player characters are one of adventurers who gain these invite tickets to this dangerous amusment park known as dungeonland as they search and find the truth behind dungeon land.

The campaign is inspired by the arcade shooter carnevil as the players traverse through the many area's of dungeonland, fighting monsterous mascots, adventurers who gone mad, trap filled attractions etc

Before session 1, I told my players to create characters and have a story for how that character DIED.

The premise is that these characters were risen from the dead by a powerful necrotic wizard. They aren’t fully alive and they must earn their lives again by toppling a kingdom for this wizard.

My overall goal with this campaign is to have the players do a bunch of horrible things to the kingdoms people and feel guilty about their actions. Then once the kingdom is taken over, their lives are given back to them.

Hopefully, once their lives are given back. They will attempt to undo all the horrible actions they committed and defeat the necrotic wizard that they were forced to bring to power

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas I could add to this campaign to make it more interesting?

The campaign is set in any DnD city and all the player characters are children, a group of friends who play around in the streets and go exploring. ( noble's child, orphan, knight's apprentice, wizard's apprentice, ...etc). The group decide to explore the cities wizard's tower or upper level of the tower if you have the wizard's apprentice. As the group sneaks around passing a few throwing saves and checks the find the wizard's potions shelves, stash, vault, whatever you like. The kids will look around and eventually knock over a potion that falls and shrink the group of children. Now they must make their way down the tower to the wizard at the bottom or up to the top of the tower to get the wizard to bring back to normal. The group of children will fight bugs, rsts, mice, solve puzzles and such. The animals can run away instead of killing them if you want to keep it PG. The children will use training wooden swords or stick swords to fight and when they reach the wizard they have to work together again to get the wizards attention.

I am a relatively new dm, having only dmed one preconstructed campaign.

I have been wanting to make a campaign where the pcs are vampires who awoken from their slumber after a thousand years as other dark fantasy monsters have agreed. In this world, people see vampires and other dark fantasy monsters as myths only existing in fairytales. As they explore the world, they realize meet other groups (like werewolves) and ally with them to topple towns and kingdoms.

The BEG is a king that rules half the continent (whereas the other is composed of smaller countries and kingdoms).(not too sure about that part)

I am not sure how to make the campaign concrete and I looking for ideas to had to this barebones campaign.

Hello everyone,

TL;DR: New DM here, looking for help with my homebrew campaign plot. What I have so far: The main villain is a half-elf duke who obtained magical "Soulstones" from the Feywild, trading his home village for them. He uses the Soulstones to siphon life energy from other villages to prolong his life and make his land prosperous, with the help of two wizards. They expanded and enchanted a forest to isolate the "drained" villages. The campaign starts in a town near this dangerous forest, where players should uncover the duke's plot while investigating local troubles like werewolf attacks (maybe). Players will (hopefully) uncover the mystery of the Soulstones and the duke's deal with the fey. Looking for your feedback and suggestions to improve the plot! Also open to the option of making the villain a wizard who hides in the forest instead of a duke, or just hearing your ideas how you'd go about the plot (magical fey artifact to steal life, action focused in the enchanted forest with some abondoned villages). Is the wholde idea of "Soulstones" even viable/is there smth like this already created?

For more info: Fairly new DM here (had a few one-shots) with two campaigns under my belt as a PC. I want to create my homebrew, larger-scale campaign, but I'm still struggling with the premise and find it somewhat lacking. I'd appreciate any suggestions or improvements on the overall plot (also just constructive critique tbh), and more ideas too. Also, let me know if it's just too ambitious and I shoud tone it down a notch (or like a lot).

I'm aiming for a mix of villain- and location-based campaign: the villain is behind the plot, but all clues and consequences are tied to one area. My villain is a half-elf duke who, 50-100 years ago, got his hands on a magical artifact. Initially, I wanted to make him a king, but for extra motivation, I downgraded him to a duke/noble. He started as an adventurer seeking a way to negate the drawbacks of his human half, to prolong his life and gain more power. Early on, he ventured into the Feywild and discovered Soulstones - a pair of magical ~orbs~ that siphon life energy from one source and redirect it to another. Life energy is interpreted broadly, for example, draining a tree to extend one's lifespan or to fuel arcane powers.

The Fey, having both in bundance, used the Soulstones more for pranks (does this make sense?), like spoiling a fey dancing party by stealing the host's magic temporarily or ridding fey food of magic. However, the duke recognized their potential on the mortal plane and struck a deal with the Fey to obtain them: he would give them his own home village and its people in exchange for the Soulstones. Now, I know that Fey are usually the ones to offer a deal that sounds better than it is only to return with some small print and complicate things, so here's where my first problem arises. What would the Fey do with a whole village (even if it's just a small one)? They kidnap kids and take firstborns, but the whole village? Would that make sense?

Anyhow, the duke leaves the Feywild successfully with the Soulstones and "plants" one either in the same village or a nearby one to start draining its energy. At first, he could only redirect the energy to prolong his life, so he sought help from two wizards who could help him "redistribute" the life energy more efficiently: enhancing crops, filling mines with more iron and copper, perhaps even more precious minerals, and making his people healthier and sturdier. By making these seem like the results of his governance, he rose to become a duke of a prosperous county.

No one noticed the effects of the Soulstones as both the village given to the Fey and the ones he drained were cut off from the main part of the county by a large, dense forest. I imagined these villages as already being situated in dense forests, so with the help of the wizards and a fraction of the Soulstones' power, they enchanted the forest and expanded it to encompass the entire region, swallowing those villages so that no one could enter or leave. The wizards though started having their own ideas, one wanted it for themselves, while the other saw its destructive potential and sought to destroy or return it. The latter stole the Soulstones and fled, while the former stayed to maintain appearances and keep the duke unaware of the theft. The good wizard can't return the artifact themselves because the other can track them down, so they seek trustworthy individuals to deliver the artifact where it needs to go (is it justified enough). To do this, the wizard dsubtly nudges a party to start an adventure, watching over them, to see if they are trustworthy.

The forest is the primary location where players will uncover the entire plot. The campaign starts in a town neighboring the forest, celebrating a festival that marks the county's richness and the duke's history. The players either come for the festival or hear rumors of trouble in the woods. I'm considering werewolves as suitable forest creatures that attack or kidnap livestock ans scare townfolk. At some point, the players will end up in a tavern after the festival, where they'll learn about werewolf rumors. Later, a distressed farmer will burst in, seeking help to retrieve his sheep that ran into the woods due to the fireworks. In exchange, he offers money and health potions, as his bedridden wife was once the town healer/alchemist. The party, hopefully, accepts the quest and enters a buffer zone where the forest is still just a forest with some dangerous but simple enemies, like living roots, blights, or shadows. They save part of the sheep, but some run deeper into the forest. Here, the players find out that two of the sheep are actually the farmer's children, cursed by fairies. (Perhaps this family escaped the village given to the Fey, with conditions: the children were turned into sheep, and the parents could never reveal the truth.)

The party then ventures deeper into the forest to rescue the children, eventually finding the drained village and the one sold to the Fey (what would it look like, are there still people there?). Both villages hold clues to the overall plot. I'm also planning on including a forest guardian spirit as a guide/helper for the party. But that's for late, for now, I'm just focused on the overall plot and planning the first encounter.

Should I simplify the plot and not do the ruling part? Perhaps the half-elf adventurer finds the Soulstones and just becomes more of a wizard seeking immortality, retreating into the forest and using the Soulstones to expand and enchant it t. The players could then investigate why nearby towns' crops are withering or something similar and venture into the forest to find the cause.

Any feedback, critique, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!