/r/loremasters

Photograph via snooOG

This is our private blog, a special resource for Reddit's GMs. Feel free to share and discuss original lore, story arcs, sub-plots, and plans for quests and encounters of all sizes.

Welcome, GMs!

This is our private blog, a special resource for Reddit's GMs. Feel free to share and discuss original lore, story arcs, sub-plots, and plans for quests and encounters of all sizes.

Utilize this subreddit like an incubator for cunning schemes. Need a quest for your next session? Search for one here.

Posting Rules

Unless linking to an online [resource], use self-posts and embed your media within them.

When asking for critiques, please provide specific questions or issues.

To simplify searches, use the appropriate title format for self-posts on the topics below.

  • [NPC] RP strategies and backstory for a paranoid halfling Mages Guild alchemist
  • [Faction] Mysterious tiefling gypsies that keep sell their demon-hunting skills for gold
  • [Monster] Shore-dwelling goblin tribes that wield nets and tridents
  • [Item] A glass that never spills when you drink from it
  • [Trap] A tripwire releases a gelatinous ooze on the far end of a hallway
  • [Puzzle] A dungeon floor is covered with rellanic symbols, and must be crossed using a certain path
  • [Dungeon] The PCs find themselves in an organic structure that glistens with slime – that's because they're inside a Great Wyrm
  • [Encounter] A goblin ambush for PCs traveling by wagon
  • [Minor Quest] An odd sculptor goes missing in his workshop
  • [Major Quest] A dwarven king tasks you with uniting his broken kingdom
  • [Location] An industrious dwarven city situated deep below a mountain range
  • [Campaign] In a low-magic world dominated by militaristic tribes, an enraged god plans to destroy all life
  • [Resource] Web dungeon generator

Tips

  1. Be sure to hyperlink to your [campaign] post whenever you mention it, so others can get the context they need to help you out.
  2. When you're ready to launch a new campaign, head over to /r/lfg or /r/roll20lfg, where you can find PCs who are looking for dedicated GMs like you.
  3. Inspired to write about your histories more descriptively and in-depth? Head over to /r/fantasywriters and /r/scifiwriting to get started.

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/r/loremasters

19,764 Subscribers

5

What exactly is the rivalry between Tasha and Mordenkainen?

I'm running The Wild Beyond the Witchlight and I'm slowly adding in lore about Tasha for my players to learn. I can't seem to find much of anything on this topic other than the fact that they're frenemies and sometimes play chess.

4 Comments
2024/11/30
01:15 UTC

0

[Story] "Whispered Words Sharpen Knives," A Rumor Can Be As Dangerous As A Blade Among Changelings (Changeling: The Lost Audio Drama)

2 Comments
2024/11/28
19:06 UTC

10

What are some interesting "enemy of my enemy"-type scenarios you have seen or created in your campaigns?

A relatively well-known D&D example is the Blood War between demons of chaos and devils of law. There are many other possibilities. Maybe an important bulwark that defends the land from a demonic invasion is the undead army of some lich king, who would prefer to dominate the world rather than see it fall into fiendish hands. Perhaps the primordial titans have shattered their bindings and are devastating the planet with flames, storms, quakes, and waves, but eldritch hierophants and cultists call down alien horrors from beyond the stars to defend civilization: for elemental annihilation is not, in fact, the "correct" eschaton. On a much smaller scale, perhaps the shady criminals in town can be convinced to steel themselves and help hunt down the man-eating werewolf terrorizing said town.

What are some memorable examples that you have seen or created, and how did the PCs get involved?

1 Comment
2024/11/26
09:00 UTC

0

Durgap Dale: a decayed valley in Gnasha, where giant worm corpses teem with Limbo. Home to the Gispianid and fertile ground for towering mushrooms, a twisted legacy of Saminas' experiments.

0 Comments
2024/11/25
20:38 UTC

3

A setting where great rulers apotheosize into minor gods, but upon their deaths, become malice- and resentment-driven undead overlords?

I have been considering a setting where one of the main quirks and threats, maybe the biggest, is that rulers who attain a certain threshold of glory, renown, adoration, etc. apotheosize into minor gods. With their vastly superhuman abilities, they can lead their people to greater heights.

But a minor god can still die, whether in battle, to assassination, to mystical cataclysms, or to the most pernicious of poisons and curses. The ruler becomes a malice- and resentment-driven undead overlord. Some cling to their people maniacally and overprotectively, while others turn on their subjects due to some perceived slight, such as failure to prevent the ruler's death. This is always a dark time: wars ignite, plagues and famine strike, lesser undead rise, and reality-rifts disgorge horrors.

They vary in form: skeletons, zombies, vampires, ghosts, some in between. Twice, an apotheosized ruler entombed themselves deep beneath the earth, all "king asleep in mountain" style. One was assassinated regardless, rising up as a wraith. The other still lives, fearful of death, yet willing to aid their nation in a dire time.

Legends hold that a few of these overlords, for whatever reason, elected to simply leave the mortal world. They gathered in the Negative Energy Plane. This small circle of long-undead rulers has been concocting some scheme through which they may optimally reclaim the world that they departed from. Do they also plan on backstabbing one another? Probably.

What would you do with such a setting? Would you have the PCs start in a nation whose ruler just became one such undead? Would you have them start in a nation externally imperiled by an undead overlord: perhaps while their own nation's ruler is a still-living minor god, worried about dying? Whatever the case, I imagine that PCs could be the ones to finally unearth the source of this phenomenon and break the curse once and for all. (Of course, even a still-living great ruler can be a conquest-minded villain...)

7 Comments
2024/11/25
10:24 UTC

2

The Warpwalker Order: humanity's last stand against the madness of the Warp. Three crusades, no victories, yet rumors say Menos still fights in Oblivion's depths.

0 Comments
2024/11/24
19:47 UTC

0

Warp Sovereigns: powerful souls born of warrior legends, nurtured by sacrificed lives on Sovereign trees. Each unique in form and purpose, they inspire Oblivion's faithful and plot unholy deeds, perhaps even in a hidden Sovereign Senate.

1 Comment
2024/11/23
18:46 UTC

2

The Makari Mountains: a frozen expanse in eastern Menos, home to elemental creatures, Stults, Oln tribes, and rumored Valn. At its heart lies Voldyr’s Peak, where the Demi-God abandoned his cauldron of elements.

0 Comments
2024/11/22
18:32 UTC

2

The Conqueror's Desert: where weapons of fallen warriors tell the tales of battle in Menos. A place of remembrance for those who fought for supremacy.

0 Comments
2024/11/20
19:47 UTC

0

Perennial Cult: the fanatical followers of Limbo, led by Dean Saminas. Known for their grotesque bioengineering and creation of Limboids, they seek to enslave all life into a single network under Limbo's control. A name that inspires fear and revulsion.

1 Comment
2024/11/18
17:03 UTC

1

Salugar Sorun Skyras: the Lord of Arms and ruler of Lugron. An undefeated warrior and absolute ruler, he enforces brutal discipline to forge a unified world under his iron fist to stand against the Warp's chaos.

0 Comments
2024/11/17
15:55 UTC

3

Voln, the heart of Lugron: a city built by giants, once an unbreakable fortress, now ruled by the Skiras family. The Conqueror’s Tower stands tall, symbolizing the emperor's promise to unite the Shattered World and challenge the Warp itself.

0 Comments
2024/11/14
15:09 UTC

3

I find a recent video game quest about a memory-artificer and her daughter to be very memorable, and I would like to import it into my ongoing game

I find the recent Genshin quest about a memory-artificer and her daughter to be very memorable, and I would like to import it into my ongoing game.

Let us start with a warning, first off: the quest involves child abuse and gaslighting. Any players will have to be vetted to see if they are fine with this.

To significantly simplify the quest into its most basic form (and taking a few liberties with the order of events), the party meets a talented artificer. Her specialty is crafting items that record memories, and the party has some sort of pragmatic or personal interest in this.

The artificer happens to have a daughter. The artificer explains that the daughter is sickly, suffers from memory loss and delusions, and sometimes says strange things (#1, #2, #3).

The party gets suspicious and investigates. The inquiry is complicated by the people in the surrounding community having only spotty, hazy memories of the artificer's daughter. The party is resourceful, though, and manages to reconstruct a disturbing sequence of events.

The artificer's biological daughter died years ago. Shortly afterwards, the grieving mother adopted an orphan with a similar appearance, and renamed that orphan to match her original daughter's name. The artificer mundanely groomed the orphan to pretend to be her original daughter. Eventually, this escalated into the artificer drugging the orphan towards greater pliability. This further escalated into the artificer lining the orphan's bedroom with crystals containing copies of her original daughter's memories and personality, designed to gradually overwrite the orphan's own memories and personality. Between the drugs and the crystals, the orphan's physical and mental health declined, thus doubling as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. All this unfolded over years.

The people in the surrounding community have cloudy memories of the artificer's daughter (and therefore have a hard time realizing discrepancies) because the artificer was distributing her crafts amongst them. They were secretly designed to absorb memories of the original daughter.

The party confronts the artificer and her "daughter," but the artificer is ready. Using some sort of doohicky, the artificer and her "daughter" are whisked away to some secret lair. The party fights their way through the workshop, where they see the artificer ready to undertake the most extreme step possible. With the help of a large cache of memory crystals, the artificer's ritual will fully rewrite the orphan's memory and personality with those of her original daughter. The party has come all this way; they might as well stop the ritual, save the kid, and apprehend or kill the grieving mother.

I find this compelling. I think it would make for an interesting scenario in a tabletop RPG. Do you think it could work well? How would you try to get the party invested in this scenario?


Some extra thoughts: This quest has an inherent degree of resistance against unexpected action, mostly because the artificer and her "daughter" can contingently poof away.

For example, if the party were to aggressively accuse the artificer on their first meeting, she and her "daughter" could feasibly poof away. Then the party would have to track down the lair regardless, reconstructing what had happened regardless.

There is also a degree of resistance against lie detection abilities. Namely, the grieving mother's mental state is such that she sincerely believes her own fabrications to an extent.

1 Comment
2024/11/13
18:35 UTC

1

Warplings: frail, mindless beings formed from the weakest souls trapped in the Warp. Once innocent lives lost to the War of Change, they now haunt the shifting landscapes, hiding in packs to ambush the unwary.

0 Comments
2024/11/13
17:33 UTC

1

[Resource] Speaking of Sundara: Cults And The Challenges of Faith

0 Comments
2024/11/13
16:41 UTC

3

Limbotops: once gentle herbivores, now undead war beasts twisted by Saminas and his Perennial cult. Corrupted and remade, they carry cultists into battle, with spell-casting altars fused to their frills—a haunting display of dark ingenuity.

0 Comments
2024/11/12
16:46 UTC

3

Frog Ogre: once peaceful giants of Gnasha, now twisted by Limbo's reach. With powerful hind legs, they can leap vast distances, their bulk turning any landing into a crushing force.

0 Comments
2024/11/11
16:21 UTC

1

Drefog: winged beings dwelling in the Makari peaks, absorbing elemental power from Voldyr himself. Most are infused with the chill of ice and frost from their home near his frozen peak.

0 Comments
2024/11/10
18:39 UTC

1

The Mole Ogre: native to Menos and tamed by Lugron’s empire. With powerful claws and digging prowess, they’re indispensable for building infrastructure and hauling war machines for the conqueror's legions.

0 Comments
2024/11/08
14:25 UTC

2

Gears of Galudon (Minecraft Roleplay) (Java 1.19.2) (Active for over 1+ Year!)

Do you like Dungeons & Dragons? Do you love the idea of lore SMP’s and want to dive deeper into a lore-based server? Then Gears of Galudon is perfect for you!

Gears of Galudon is an 18+ Minecraft roleplaying server set in the steampunk era, featuring an extremely welcoming and friendly player base, averaging 15-30 players online at peak, an intricate character creation system that allows for combat, magic, and even inventing your own creations that can change the fate of the city itself. Interested in politics? We have that too! You can join Gears Of Galudon today by going to our Discord below. We hope to see you there!

Note: Due to adult themes such as violence, gore, and age safety, you must be 18 years or older in order to be whitelisted!

https://discord.gg/xrdQTFM87Q

0 Comments
2024/11/08
05:12 UTC

0

The Warpicar: twisted creatures born of the Thirst of the Warp. With warpstone carapaces and a grotesque fusion of limbs, they serve as both transport and hiding places for the denizens of the Dark Sun Monolith.

0 Comments
2024/11/06
16:00 UTC

2

[Resource] Discussions of Darkness, Episode 9: Addressing (And Inverting) Stereotypes in The World of Darkness

0 Comments
2024/11/06
14:23 UTC

2

The Silver Monarch, the Cycle’s relentless enforcer and keeper of forbidden truths. Made of countless silver beings, his form shifts as he silences those who seek the mysteries of the Shattered World.

3 Comments
2024/11/04
17:53 UTC

0

Sakra’veth, the Numen of Authority, born from the shattered depths of Oblivion. Its tendrils weave through the minds and bodies of mortals, claiming their memories and will. Who can resist the grasp of the Warp’s first-born?

0 Comments
2024/11/03
18:00 UTC

1

Voldyr, the Numen of Seasons, once the mighty curator of nature’s balance, now walks among us in mortal form. Disgusted by humanity’s descent into chaos, he has abandoned his role, leaving the seasons to fate.

0 Comments
2024/11/02
16:00 UTC

19

In a setting where vampires generally have to "sleep" during the day, and burn in sunlight, what is the incentive for vampire hunters to hunt vampires at night?

A common argument I see is along the lines of "Well, the vampires sleep in very secure locations, and have loyal guards." That, to me, rings hollow; unless the security is overwhelmingly ironclad, and vastly greater than the vampire's entourage while out and about in the night, I am sure that a vampire hunter would prefer to tackle said home security rather than whatever superpowers a vampire can actively dish out.

14 Comments
2024/10/25
18:31 UTC

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