While it's easy for a hoary old lord in a draughty hall or a grizzled innkeeper in the taproom to give out a quest, sometimes an employer might want to keep their identity secret. Here are some mysterious questgivers you can use in your game!
1. Masked Monk: This person wearing the furry robe of a local monastery and a porcelain ritual mask carries a shepherd's crook and several colourful paper lanterns. They intone their request in a sepulchral voice, asking for assistance. 2. Reluctant Thief: The employer meets the players far, far into the darkest corner of the tavern, with doused candles and a drawn curtain. A dark hood conceals their identity as they tell of something they stumbled across during commission of a crime. 3. Helmed Noble: This luxuriously-dressed noble wears a helm with a closed visor, and their guards wear no livery on their coats. They tell of dark secrets of a discreet war between families, and offer payment by way of a small velvet bag, filled with polished rubies. 4. Monstrous Entrepreneur: Meeting under a bridge in the middle of the night, this tall and muscular employer seems oddly hunched under their concealing robe. As they move, there seems to be the swish of a tail behind them. 5. Absent Overseer: A series of notes, left with neatly-packaged envelopes of coin and hand-written instructions, point the way to a mission. 6. Surprising Nemesis: Set up under the guise of an unassuming bystander, the players are met by a powerful enemy- one who explains that a common foe threatens something they both hold dear, and offering a grudging concession to carry out their request. Games with high stakes can be a thrilling affair standing as a metaphor for the interplay between factions or individuals, as seen in Casino Royale's poker match between Bond and Le Chiffre, the ultimate Mahjong game between Rachel and Eleanor in Crazy Rich Asians, and the apocryphal tale of playing dice against Death himself for your life. Sadly, in a D&D game, this usually comes down to one player being told "roll your gaming set proficiency plus ... uh, Charisma, no, probably Intelligence?"
Here are some ways you can make a game (within your game) exciting, memorable, and something around which you can base a story or adventure. - Dangerous Game. A warlord or monster accepts a challenge by combat- and the weapons are game pieces. With the fate of the city of kingdom resting on two NPCs over a single game (or the best of three, for dramatic purposes), can the players defend their own champion from interference, and perhaps subtly influence the game? - Send a Message. At an extremely diplomatic event, where the PCs have strict orders not to cause any tension, one of the ways of sending a message to a spymaster, wicked lord, evil cardinal, or other villain, is to make a point with a game- whether that be Three-Dragon Ante, Gambit of Ord, Wicked Grace, Regicide, or something else that allows you to cleverly demonstrate your luck, strategic thinking, and ability. For bonus points, the villain's minions might be represented by specific game pieces (and even carry customized pieces with them, allowing the PCs to prove their point handily by 'capturing' a piece in-game and then revealing their loot). - Magical/Clockwork Puzzle. Like the chess puzzle in the first HP book, a dungeon might hold some kind of puzzle to prevent intruders without particular skills from entering a room. This might be a life-size Dragonchess board, or require you to slot wooden or stone cards into a door to make the winning hand. This might give one of your players who has spent a valuable tool proficiency slot on a gaming set feel useful and able to contribute. - Themed Quest. In a more subtle way, you might theme an adventure after a particular game- perhaps a mad mage recreated their passion in life size, or perhaps this dungeon inspired the game? Facing rows of slow-moving golemlike defenders, bolstered by agile knights and limitedly-mobile defender units might give it away quickly, or perhaps your players won't pick up the hints. You could theme it on Snakes and Ladders instead, Mousetrap, or an in-world game. - Shared Culture. Backgammon is played across the world, but especially around the area it came from - the remains of the Persian Empire. All around the Indo-Persian region, Backgammon can be played a cultural touchstone and pastime. In a similar way, particular games might be popular along the Sword Coast, the Moonsea region, and recognizing an NPC playing a familiar game at a coffee-house or game table may give a PC a way to make a new contact, check in with their homeland, and/or find a new quest. Well, I've struggled through and I've made to ONE HUNDRED subclass archetypes written over the last few years!
Some have been invented whole-cloth, or based on characters, concepts, and ideas from popular culture such as the Dragon Age universe, Arcane, and the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Others are adapted from earlier editions, converting them to some form of playability for 5e. Most have updated after playtesting or feedback. So without any further ado, thank you all for being faithful readers. Treat yourself and your players to some more options! The download link for vanDorne's Class Compendium volume II is HERE. (Due to download size, this is the 'print-friendly' version. If you'd like the versions with colour pictures and a little more readability, you can find links to the individual posts here) Alternately, if you're looking for threats, check out my archive with over 100 new creatures, NPCs, and ideas to populate your dungeons and worlds. Feel free to send on any feedback you've got, or requests for new ideas! -vanDorne I've written... a lot of content over the last five years here. At last check, about a year ago, it was about the length of one of the Song of Ice and Fire books, or most of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series put together. I don't say this as a brag (maybe a little bit), but mostly, it gets a little tricky coming up with new ideas sometimes.
So I'm turning to you, my audience. Let me write something for you- a subclass specific to a concept for your world, a creature for your game, a table of items that a merchant might sell, or something else useful. Give me enough information for inspiration, and something to inspire me, and I'll see if I can write something useful for you! I'll post them here and over on Game Masters Stash so I can then let people know when they're 'out', and hopefully it gives me some new ideas and you some homebrew content you can use for your world. So have a think about what you want to see, be prepared to break it down into what makes that exciting and interesting, and give me some ideas to work with! An attack by Orc forces should be a terrifying thing, not just a bunch of low-hit point humanoids rampaging from outside of fireball range, but a bunch of dangerous, unpredictable, destructive raiders. Orc raiders are independent warriors motivated by personal glory and opportunity for themselves. Here are some consequences the PCs might face for unattended or unaddressed orcs during a raid. You can roll for each or pick out a few and multiply for scale.
1 - A building is set on fire 2 - 1d3 commoners or other noncombatant NPCs are slain 3 - 1d2 town guards or other combatant NPCs are wounded or slain 4 - An important building is damaged, defiled, or looted 5 - 1d3 livestock creatures are slaughtered or stolen 6 - A fortification or construction is damaged 7 - A fight breaks out between raiders and one or both of them is slain 8 - An important NPC (a family member, friend, or town leader) is wounded or slain Sometimes it can be fun to challenge your players by giving them an encounter that they can't (or at least, shouldn't) just cut their way through. A good example of this is someone with some kind of legal or inherited authority (usually, with witnesses), whether that's a squad of guards wearing the local lord's livery and collecting taxes, a spoiled noble, a well-connected employer, or the child of the royal family themselves. In all these cases, the PCS probably shouldn't just kill their opposition because it'll result in bounties levelled against them or warrants for their arrest.
Be cautious though, as these encounters can easily lead to Chaotic Stupid syndrome (or equally, Lawful Stupid syndrome) where someone decides to start fights for laughs and then derails your campaign as they're suddenly wanted for murdering the Crown Prince. Ideally, you want these encounters to be clearly nonlethal (guards brawling and using their spear butts rather than swords), and be able to lead to gathering some kind of evidence that could lead to their arrest or revocation of their legal authority, if they have crossed a moral line that the PCs just can't put up with (killing commoners, for example). I've talked previously about how important it is to be able to de-escalate situations that spiral out of control when you don't expect them, and the example was of a corrupt guard force trying to tax adventurers, after the adventurers had found evidence of children being mistreated in their city. The PCs spiralled very quickly to "we'll kill these guards in a fight, in plain view of the citizens" because they thought the guards were full-on Big-E Eeeevil, when it was intended to be an annoying encounter rubbing in just how lazy and uncaring (low-level small-e evil) they were. You could also include a non-combat 'out' like paying a bribe, persuading the other parties that the PCs' cause is important, and so on. Bearing this in mind, here are some examples of legal authorities you could use in your game:
I hope these examples give you some ideas you could work with! Those familiar with earlier editions often complain of 5e lacking in combat options, and may be pleasantly surprised to find that the Dungeon Master's Guide touched on several of these already, with options for dealing with initiative differently, as well as several options for different combat actions, and other familiar options like death from massive damage, and morale.
Climbing onto a bigger creature Letting 'standard' player characters that are Medium or Small climb up onto a larger creature, treating it as difficult terrain either in order to access a different place, or to access a vital spot, can be a really fun option to liven up movement and make for a great dynamic combat. Disarm A staple of swashbuckling, being able to remove the weapon that your opponent is attacking with (or an arcane focus, magic staff, or the like) can change the way an opponent comes at you. Taking away the weapon they are attacking with, the bat guano they're about to use to drop a fireball on your friends, or the horn they're about to use to sound the fortress alarm, can really help you in a clinch. Mark An option that's adapted from 4e, marking opponents when you land a hit on them can really help, giving you advantage on opportunity attacks against that foe. This is a good one to implement because it really gives more of a feeling of a combatant focusing on one of their opponents. Overrun Moving through a hostile creature's space is sometimes necessary to get to a downed friend, get out a door, or reach another objective. This rule gives you an option that means overrunning a smaller opponent is easier, while trying to overrun something larger than you gets much harder. Shove aside This option allows you to use the Shove attack to push someone aside, rather than just away from you. Tumble A favourite of 3e/3.5 and Dark Souls players, this option lets you use Acrobatics to move through a hostile creature's space. This might let a Rogue or warrior-type get to a more tactically-useful position, or just evade an attack. Hitting Cover Whether someone is taking refuge behind a hostage or wants to gather their ammunition afterwards, it can sometimes be really useful to know what gets hit when you miss with a ranged attack. Cleaving Through Creatures Another old 3e/3.5 favourite, this option allows melee attacks which deal high damage to a low-hit point target to deal any remaining damage to other targets in reach. While it's not locked behind a few feats like it was in earlier editions, this is a good option to add as it gives a little more usefulness when fighting low-level monsters like Goblins. Injuries An option I've discussed a few times before, this option suggests that you could gain a lingering injury under a few conditions, including: - When you take a critical hit - When you drop to 0 hit points but aren't killed outright - When you fail a death saving throw by 5 or more These can be a little painful to sustain as a player character, but can make the game feel a little more dangerous and realistic. Massive Damage This option forces creatures that take large amounts of damage in one go to make a Constitution saving throw or make a System Shock roll, which might drop them to 0 hit points immediately, or just leave them a little shaken. Morale This option can force enemies to be scared off if they're surprised or if they lose their leader or enough of their number. While this needs a little extra work on the behalf of the GM, it can mean that particular enemies might be more brave or more cowardly than others, and might influence the tactics of the player characters. If you need to find any of these options, they're located on pages 271- 273 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 8 January 2022. Sometimes you or your players aren't really up for a world-saving grim and dark epic. At this point, knowing how to change the tone of your game can be really important. Pitching your game at a different level can be quite doable without much change to the core mechanics of a D&D game.
Here are some quick changes you can make to change up the tone of your game, whether you're playing with kids or just want a lighter game than normal. Tone of Quests - A typical D&D game might involve seeking out ingredients for curing a plague, getting home just in time to save a few after horrible casualties. For a lighter tone, having the plague incapacitate people and require them to be cared for, but not die, lowers the tension level and means that the players aren't under quite the same level of concern for the victims. - A band of bugbears or orcs might capture their prisoners for use as servants, rather than as food. - War might be threatened between two kingdoms, but this could be averted by quick-thinking adventurers able to bring proof of the conspiracy to the rulers in charge. - A crazy wizard might be kidnapping local animals and turning them into monsters temporarily, but their tower might contain an artifact they've used to 'hold' concentration on the change. If it's broken, it might be able to cancel all of their spells and save the animals. Tone of Combat - Using monsters rather than humans or other 'people' as enemies can make the game less morally-conflicting, and humanoids who fight to stakes other than 'to the death' can be really useful. - Bandits or goblins might capture enemies to ransom them (and poorly-trained ones might not tie their prisoners up well). - Having enemies pause to grandstand, caper, or be doing less-than-optimal things like trying to get hold of a magic ring rather than fighting people directly can be handy. - Describing hit point loss as "avoiding death narrowly" rather than being wounded is one way of making action still feel exciting, and danger still feel present, without describing gory blows. - For enemies and PCs, being reduced to 0 hit points might mean being defeated rather than wounded or killed. It's important to allow enemies to genuinely give up, and not undermining that by having them lie about it. This way you reinforce that allowing enemies to live is a good thing. Tone of Adventuring - Here, 5e's "long rest cures just about everything" mechanic can really be handy. If every day is a new day, it means that players generally don't have to worry about too much in terms of consequences. - Exploring ancient ruins, forbidden dungeons, and lost tombs can still be a thing. These might have been blocked off because they're dangerous to people, and questing into them can be necessary to recover something, find a clue, or discover a bad guy's identity, rather than for treasure. If you've got any ideas you've used, leave them in the comments! Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 22 December 2021. It is said that grief does not change you, it reveals you. This can certainly be true in a roleplaying game context- whether missing a beloved NPC, mourning the loss of a favourite character who rolled poorly, or even the loss of another player who has left the table. This should also be seen in NPCs during the game- unlike a pre-programmed video game, NPCs should notice when people they love die, whether that's from a dragon attack, a party of murderhobos invading, or a vile plot.
Here are some plot hooks you can use to spark off an adventure, themed around grief, loss, and mourning. 1 - Denial: “Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.” -George R. R. Martin Driven onwards by rage, a friend has passed into death without realizing it, awakening as a revenant to seek vengeance. Bearing horrific wounds, they seek out their friends for aid in locating their enemy. 2 - Anger: "My father was slaughtered by a six-fingered man. He was a great swordmaker, my father. When the six-fingered man appeared and requested a special sword, my father took the job. He slaved a year before it was done. The six-fingered man returned and demanded it, but at one tenth his promised price. My father refused. Without a word, the six-fingered man slashed him through the heart. I loved my father. So naturally, I challenged his murderer to a duel. I failed." -Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride An NPC asks for assistance in a quest of vengeance against someone protected by legal or illegal means. 3 - Bargaining: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” -J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings An NPC has been arrested for their role in a death in a different city or kingdom, and faces extradition under guard. However, other parties are trying to kill them off early. Do they deserve to be protected from these people, and will their crimes warrant the punishment they may face? 4 - Depression: “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” -Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral's Kiss Facing the loss of lifestyle and happiness resulting from a spouse's death, an NPC begs for help in relocating. This will involve sorting out debts and owed favours that cannot be paid any more. 5 - Acceptance: “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” -Lao Tzu An NPC long ago sold their soul for power, and their debt has come due. While they have made peace with the time that has passed, they ask the PCs to look after the family they have left behind. 6 - With Great Power...: "You're not just anyone. One day, you're going to have to make a choice. You'll have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be. Whoever that man is, good character or bad, he's going to change the world." -Jonathon Kent, Man of Steel A good person dies protecting the PCs or other NPCs from harm, leaving them with a debt to pay. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 14 December 2021. I thought it might be useful to do a bit of an 'agony aunt' GM column, taking questions I see in the wild or get asked personally (feel free to contribute any in the comments) and provide some useful and insightful answers on the issues involved. For our first question, I harvested this from Reddit's r/DMAcademy, with a question from user /PigeonSouped:
"How do I stop my players from immediately murdering my NPCs for no reason?" "Title says it all. I'm a new DM and my brother asked me to run a campaign for him and some of his friends who haven't played before, online. I'm putting together a loose campaign for them to play to get the hang of the game and learn the ropes. "One of my players (my brother) claims that his character "doesn't like people", and his alignment is chaotic evil. He has literally asked me (ooc) "at what point can I kill them?" after I told him not to point blank try to kill my NPCs for no reason. "I worked really hard on these NPCs; none of them are aggressive (little shopkeepers and folks who run the various little things around town), and I love them a lot - I don't want them to be killed off at first glance just because one of my players wants to be a dick. "How do I combat this?" Well, that's a big question, and one that comes up more often than any of us would like to see. There are a few portions of this, so I'll try to break it down. First, well done on GMing a game for the first time! That's a big step, and a really useful role to have. As a GM, you'll rarely find yourself short of players, and there will be a lot demanded of you, but there's a lot of joy to be found in the role to pose great challenges for your friends, and to tell and share stories. As a writer and creator, it can be really hard to put together a plan and watch it all go to pieces. There's a piece of writing advice attributed to Nobel Prize-winning laureate William Faulkner, which is "kill your darlings". He meant it as a method of stripping away all the little bits you love that don't tell your story, but in our medium of second-person fantasy storytelling, it can also be taken as letting that those things you love which you've created, be exposed to danger. I appreciate that you've put effort into crafting a whole town of NPCs and shopkeepers, but once they hit 'contact with the enemy', you can't easily control what happens to them. Whether that's an arrow going astray in the middle of a battle, or a band of murderhobos rampaging through town, once you've made something, you have to be ready for it to be destroyed in the context of the story you're telling. This is something I struggle with as a 20-something year veteran GM, too- making lasting decisions that can entirely destroy or rewrite something that you've put effort into is really hard. But it's a skill that you need to embrace as you tell more and more stories- there have to be casualties and collateral damage, or your stories won't feel like they land. It sounds like the second problem here is your players. It feels like your brother, at least, is taking the "your characters can do anything you want them to" concept to the extreme, and thinking that that won't have consequences. Especially since you mentioned that you've already point-blank asked him not to kill them all and he seems to have refused or tried to find a way around that. For first-time players, this is not going to give them a good idea of what to expect in a game of D&D, and they're likely to pick up on the tension at the table is your brother is raring to kill some helpless folk, and you're desperately trying to protect what you've crafted. Often, the best way to avoid this is to hold what's called a 'session zero' so that the players (which includes you!) can discuss what their expectations are, and any issues you'd like to avoid or confront, where you can. In this instance, telling your players that you'd like them to be what you'd consider "standard fantasy heroes" - people who can at least get along to a degree, and aren't kill-crazy murderers with an evil alignment. If your players aren't willing to play along those guidelines, maybe you can compromise- whatever happens to your town and beloved NPCs in this game might be just a 'bad dream' that you can reset from, or you could use it as some kind of past event, and the next time you use the town might be some time down the road, with scars on the inhabitants and burned-down buildings dotting the landscape. This lets you keep moving forward, inventing some new NPCs who have moved into town, taken on new roles, or taken advantage of events to change. If you keep moving forward like this, it's also good practice in writing, and being able to adapt your plans to deal with the events your players bring up. You can beef up the guards of town or have some skilled bounty-hunters hanging around, but this doesn't solve the problem, so much as cutting it off, and that means that it'll likely frustrate your brother and maybe escalate some of his actions. This could have a flow-on effect to the other players - you don't want to stop someone having fun, but it sounds to me like that kind of game is not your idea of fun, and you're a player too. What's really at stake here is that it sounds like your expectations and your brother's aren't on the same level. I'd recommend having a heart-to-heart with your brother to discuss this idea, and especially to talk about the idea of providing a good experience for completely new players, and giving you a break as a first-time GM. For a one-off game, I'd also recommend either using pre-generated characters which have basic personalities and some links to one another, or everyone building their characters together (which is more fun, but can take up a lot of time for a single session). Either of these means your players have an expectation of working together, and not being evil-aligned, which can be really hard to work with for first-time players, and a first-time GM. See how these ideas work for you, and if you have any ideas of your own, feel free to let us know in the comments! Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 11 December 2021. Coming up with original and culturally-themed names for locations can be a bit tricky sometimes. Whether you jump on your favourite name generator site and whip something up, jumble together some random syllables, or just pick a noun and slap "-ville" on the end, if you want things to sound consistent, you can build up some good naming conventions for what you're doing. If you look at the real world, these naming conventions have been built up by the cultures that have inhabited the area, and if you lean on these, it means you can use shared cultural assumptions to name a place something that sounds 'right', whether or not it is.
Looking at the areas of the United Kingdom that were once ruled by the Roman Empire, the names of many places go all the way back to Roman naming conventions. Here are a few, with examples, and their meanings, and ways you could incorporate them into your game: -bury or -borough (Avebury, Glastonbury, Edinborough): This meant a fortified enclosure, in Old English. Places with names like this might have wooden or stone palisades, or if the name is old, there might be an 'inner city' that was once the fortified area. -caster, -cester or -chester (Lancaster, Worcester, Rochester): Denotes a castle, from Latin. This might have been a single keep, or a larger castle. -ford (Bradford, Stafford): The place has a ford that crosses a river. These areas might be built around or on a large bridge. -ham (Buckingham, Tottenham): This comes from Old English, and means 'farm' or 'homestead. A town with this sort of name might have an extensive farming region. -hay (Cheslyn Hay): Actually refers to a hedge growing around an area, so it might be a large farm or estate, or might be some kind of Druidic enclave. -ington (Walmington): Refers to the people of a village. Likely to have been settled and grown from a small group of settlers and named for them. -mouth (Plymouth, Portmouth): Denotes a town at the mouth of a river, on the coast. -shire (Yorkshire): Denoting a larger region ruled by a Count. Likely to be a few towns or the region around a larger city. -stead (Hampstead): Means 'place' or 'enclosed pasture'. Something like this is likely to be a rural region. -ton (Brighton, Everton): Meaning 'estate'. Possible the domain of a noble family. -ville (Farmville, Shelbyville): From Norman settlers, meaning 'village' but earlier used to mean 'farm'. Again, likely to be rural. -wich (Droitwich, Norwich): Came from settlements with extensive trade and production of goods. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 2 December 2021. Mortality is a powerful motivating force in real life and in fantasy gaming. D&D has methods for dealing with character death, but sometimes these seem mechanical, robbing the narrative of consequences for failure as quickly as just forking over a 5,000 gold piece diamond and 10 minutes. However, there are ways you can make this more interesting or engaging without making it just a quick fix solution.
Here are a few ideas you can use for allowing characters to return from death. Most involve varying or removing Raise dead, Resurrection, and True resurrection as spells, replacing them with actions or rituals as below. Quest to the Underworld Hearkening to Greek mythology, this option involves a metaphysical or physical journey, entering the realm of the dead to liberate their fallen companion. This journey usually needs some kind of bargain or offering and takes some great time, as well as overcoming dangerous enemies, to avoid this just being something routine. Like Orpheus' journey to recover Eurydice, this might even involve impossible tasks that test the willpower and resolve of those who choose to make the journey. Such a quest can be used to build the mythology of the world and the deities that inhabit it. Deal with Death In this option, the force of Death is personified, either as a deity or some other powerful creature. Those who die in heroic ways might be allowed to make an offering or trade, or as in the popular trope of playing dice against death for your life. If this is the case, it can allow the players something to do during their turns while dead or dying, as well as giving some use for the underutilised gaming tool proficiencies. Loss against death might render a character permanently dead or lead to some ongoing effects like level loss or penalties to Constitution. Returned, with consequences Some kind of ritual magic might be able to restore life to the deceased, but they come back changed somehow. Like with Buffy's resurrection following her death, they might have spent time in Heaven (or their version of it, at least), and returning to the mortal realms might leave them overwhelmed and bewildered for some time, or maybe until they would gain their next level. Such a development means there are still consequences for dying, and a heroic death still feels earned and appropriate. Exactly who returns them from death might be up for grabs- an enemy, an ally, or someone uninvolved, perhaps. Returned, to walk a different path The character is offered the chance to return to their allies, but at the cost of their soul or service. Becoming a cleric is always a classic here, but the paths of druidry, a paladin's oath, a warlock's pact, or some similar service works neatly. It might even be a mundane service- returning to an abusive family, agreeing to perform a service for the Thieves' guild, joining the college that has been trying to leverage someone's attendance. The essence of this path allows you as the GM to further a narrative- perhaps one for which you have laid groundwork earlier, or revealing a new threat. Returned, but changed The character is changed into something different- an undead or some kind of different creature like a lycanthrope. They might be able to be transformed back or helped to regain control somehow (another quest for your players to follow!), or perhaps this means having to lose some levels, in exchange for the additional powers of whatever creature they have become. Ritual return Matt Mercer's rules for resurrection (which can be found at Geek and Sundry) lock resurrection behind a mechanical roll that requires actual contribution, rather than just a spell slot. This option makes the resurrection track more with the rest of the game, which requires rolls for success. This still allows for magical restoration of the deceased, but can require research into the life and interests of the deceased to make it function. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 27 November 2021. Sometimes, just surviving and getting out is an adventure in itself! While confronting a dragon in its lair reduces the chance of collateral damage to bystanders, the same doesn't exactly hold true if the dragon decides to pay you a house-call. A dragon can wreak unimaginable disaster on a densely-populated area- even if its breath weapon doesn't kill people immediately, the property damage can be colossal (for example, the damage from the Battle of New York in the Avengers movie is estimated at around US$80 billion).
Here are some encounters you can use to build up the stakes and wear your characters down before they get to deal with your big threat, whatever it is- a dragon, giants, a portal full of monsters, a big beam of light shooting into the sky. - Escaping a building as it collapses around you - Helping civilians trapped under wreckage - Scaring away opportunistic looters from an armory or treasure-vault - Dealing with a squad of enemies who are advancing through the rubble - Exploring a toppled ruin, now sideways, that bridges a moat, crater, or crevasse - Helping civilians get to safety while destruction rains down from above - A rooftop battle, as the building falls away - Finding an underground haven and negotiating with the thieves' guild to give shelter - Dodging the notice of a colossal beast or flying creatures from above Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 13 November 2021. While in a real-life setting, most people have some kind of self-preservation instincts that make them hesitate or value their own lives, with D&D being a fantasy game, most players want to tell a story of heroism, and will fight until their (character's) dying breath. The preponderance of healing and revivifying spells generally don't help here, treating wounds as being quite temporary, non-debilitating, and relatively painless inconveniences.
So, how can you change that? How can you make defeat more than just a case of having to sit out or roll a new character? Capture for ransom is a time-honoured tradition popular with bandits, mercenaries, and other civilized beings (while Orcs might eat you, Hobgoblins are much more likely to want some kind of recompense for their effort, and the potential casualties they'll face in taking you down. Enemies armed with nets or manacles can change up the flow of an encounter, and seeing someone downed be targeted for an attack that isn't going to harm them very well may alarm your players more than a failed death save would. However, you can't just arm every creature with manacles... can you? The rules on knocking creatures out from the Player's Handbook are quite short and simple- they simple say that "When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable." On inspection, this can actually be a little more fiendish that a quick read-through would make you think- unconscious creatures don't get to roll death saving throws, so they can't just "wake up" and feel better unless someone takes a hand in healing them. This can turn the tables quickly if you have enemies who focus their damage on one target at a time and beat them down. This means that you can use some big-hitters like Assassins, or at a lower level, Spies or back-alley cutthroats, to pump up your damage but not have to 'worry' about killing your PCs off. Instead you can hurt them in much nastier ways- in their coin-purses! Honourable bandits might help themselves to some loot, dump the PCs' weapons a mile away, and leave them tied up by the side of the road. Dishonourable ones might take their armour and weapons and dump them down a well, tattoo or mark the PCs as condemned criminals, or cause some other kind of complications, like stealing valuables or highly-prized items. Be careful, because these can easily lead to players vowing eternal vengeance, even on enemies who have actually spared their lives. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 6 November 2021. A staple of fantasy movies through the decades, the vertical labyrinth is a hard one to pull off, but especially cool if you can do it with a physical model. This merely consists of a series of interlocking bridges, usually within a cavern or room to give some limitation, where creatures within can walk the stairs to navigate the maze and reach their destination. A variety of more dynamic routes can be taken, including jumping from place to place, or crawling along, down, or up surfaces. These bridges and columns can also be damaged or destroyed, allowing for perhaps more rapid transit than originally planned, such as in the Bridge of Khazad-Dum scenes of the Fellowship of the Ring.
But how can you effectively map and plot out something like this? Starting with a basic map is a good start- use a blank crossword, or generate something from a resource similar to Donjon. You want some fairly small sparse rooms (landings) and twisting corridors (stairs, bridges, and so on), to begin with- this is just giving you a framework. Once you've got a basic layout, work out heights- where your top is, where your landings touch the sides, and what's at the bottom- lava, bottomless pit, spikes, rough rocky floor. You may want to have some way for PCs who fall to save themselves by falling to safety or grasping on, because killing a character on the basis of one failed saving throw does not make for fun gaming, generally. Once you have your general levels, try to work out what additions are necessary to join them- a steep staircase, a switchback landing, or perhaps the stairs that once joined these levels are gone, and descent via rotting ropes, enormous spiderwebs, hanging vines, or a leap of faith are the only way to reach them, whether or not the journey will be able to be made in reverse. Lastly, populating your vertical labyrinth. While navigating challenging terrain can be exciting, if there's no pressure, it turns into a simple and laborious problem-solving measure, and half the players go to their phones while someone dusts off the "Explorer's kit" they've had on their character sheet since level 1 and starts plotting out piton use and rope. However, throw some marauding Spiderdrakes in, an army of Goblins chanting some kind of name as a fiery light follows them, or a few well-hidden snipers on concealed balconies, and suddenly you've got seat-of-the-pants decision-making happening, and tactical movement becomes important due to calculating how quickly you can get down to the next level, or how far you can fly or leap in a turn, or what weapon range you're in. And you can always spice this up with the usual dungeon-dressing- darkness, traps, crumbling architecture that can force plans to change, and throw in some time pressure for fun- can you reach the platform where the evil cultists are, before their ritual is complete? Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 4 November 2021. D&D's Hags are canny manipulators, and although they have skin like iron and tremendous strength, they shouldn't be starting a straight-up fight. They'd much prefer to sow chaos by turning friend against friend, whether by honeyed words or by magical domination. Hags should have allies and protectors, whether enchanted knights, fooled town burgomeisters, or innocent civilians who will protect the hag from danger.
You can consider adding the following ability to any kind of hag to make the encounter more challenging: Beguiling Influence. The Hag can use charm person as a ritual (saving throw DC is Charisma-based). Any creature that remains charmed for 24 hours becomes charmed permanently, which ends immediately if the hag attacks the creature. Having defenders adds an extra dimension to battling one- do you cut your way through its unwitting defenders, or try to neutralise them nonlethally? Even if a defender's life is spared, even if the wool is pulled back from their eyes , will they ever forgive the PCs for shattering their world-view? This could be a way to lead to an NPC returning to even the score, or as a nemesis who wants to destroy their worlds just as entirely. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 3 November 2021. Gravity Falls' phenomenal Weirdmageddon sequence features the laws of reality being completely undone, when the bad guy has achieved his goal of reaching the real world. For a D&D game, this works quite nicely if you have an extraplanar bad guy like one of Eberron's Daelkyr, the Lords of Dust, a greater demon or deity.
Here are some of the effects you could use to demonstrate the bizarreness of such an event, or creatures with control over reality: - Stone statues or objects melting and flowing like honey - Tentacles bursting from the ground in patches - Animating objects into mimic-like monsters - Transforming NPCs into animated objects, but retaining their personality and awareness - A gigantic rotating building hovering in the sky - The sky turns red and flame-like - Water flows uphill or into the sky - Waves of 'weirdness' turning some creatures into mutated creatures - Static 'bubbles' of different realities where people who enter change to match the reality - Time itself seems to stop - The wind is made up of whispering voices - Two-dimensional objects animate and walk about, and three-dimensional creatures become flat - Creatures reference players rather than their characters - Coloured lightning flickers from place to place - Objects break open to reveal loose teeth - Grass bleeds when you tread on it See if any of these are interesting, or if you have other ideas you could contribute! Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 28 October 2021. The 'Lost Empire beneath the waves' myth is a powerful one, both in the real world (having been written about by Plato over 2,300 years ago) and in fantasy. As an exploration-adventure location, a place that was abruptly wrecked or isolated some time ago is perfect. Here are some of the things you might have to consider when constructing a lost empire adventure:
Setting:
Inhabitants:
State of Ruin:
These might help you in building a useful location for exploring. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 20 October 2021. As a Game Master, there's a fine line to walk when your players are planning some kind of heist. Do you pre-plan everything, and let them plan against it? Do you listen to their plans and make counter-plans to allow for intelligent opponents and competent guards? Do you let the plan go off without a hitch if it's well-enough done, or make it more dramatic so that it's an enjoyable caper? All of these questions are well worth considering if you have some kind of heist about to happen (and with most adventuring parties, some sort of plot is eventually likely to happen).
Blades in the Dark is a heist game, and has mechanics for this around choosing the kind of plan you'll use from six options (Assault, Deception, Stealth, Occult, Social, or Transport), and applying Details submitted by the players to expose vulnerabilities, cause interference, and so on. D&D handles this pretty poorly using rules as written, because it usually assumes a pre-written adventure and then the player characters happening "to it" rather than interacting with it. Remembering to be a fan of your characters, and to allow them to do cool things without just letting them run roughshod over your campaign setting, can help to strike a balance and let them have fun, while still allowing for random elements (additional guard patrols that weren't planned for, a mage friend of the target who has dropped by, and so on) to make things not run exactly as planned. It's quite important not to just hear your players' plans and immediately counter all of them, as much as just letting everything go off flawlessly and reduce everything to a series of "I cast this spell, then we do the thing, then I walk out again" - neither will be fun for you, or for your players. In addition, immediately countering what they have planned will reduce their trust in you as players, unless this is the moment that a traitor NPC in their midst reveals themselves, or some similar narrative reason for this exists. Even if they plan well, some poor die rolls can quickly derail a plan and cause some threat and narrative tension. The main lesson is: don't make this not fun. If your players are committed to carrying out a heist, let them- but remember that there will be be some threat, there will be some tension, and there will likely be consequences for what they do. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 7 October 2021. Player Characters generally tend to be the ones of the "taking" end of robberies than being the victims of one. And should they have some belongings stolen, you are more likely to have them swear a vicious campaign-derailing oath of bloody vengeance by taking their favourite +1 longsword than you are by having a villain burn a dozen orphanages. So, fair warning: use this sparingly and with caution, as a theft like this can very much undermine your players' confidence in their own safety, and make them personally feel attacked.
While a simple smash-and-grab certainly gets the effect across, a real proper master thief who can get in and out unnoticed will quickly earn their ire, and they will almost certainly drop everything they are doing to retrieve whatever has been stolen, plot be damned. The variety of spells that can quickly locate a stolen object or even a person are quite wide from about 5th level onwards, and can quickly derail most thefts from anything other than a dedicated team of magically-equipped burglars. However, you can put this 'on rails' somewhat by offering to steer their quest for vengeance- perhaps the thief has broken some law of the local Thieves' Guild, and they offer assistance (maybe with some strings attached) to help track down the thief and recover their belongings. Another option would be having this rash of thefts affect another NPC- perhaps a noble or mage who can pool resources with the PCs and offer a clue. If you are going to spring this on your PCs, it would be wise to foreshadow this by mentioning that thieves are common in the area, and to demonstrate the levels of guard activity on the streets as they pass by. If you want to add further complication, you could take a leaf from other heist stories, and add extra teams of thieves, bounty hunters, or archaeologists who are trying to recover artifacts (possibly even ones that the PCs have just 'liberated' from an ancient ruin themselves). Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 2 October 2021. |
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