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  1. - Top - End - #91
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Nov 2011

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    A gnome Shaman of ours found four fledgling Assassin Vines that were barely medium creatures so I created just a mini game for her to feed them and watch them grow.

    It takes 100 points to make them full growth (as per the typical stat block):

    • Feed it a tiny creature = 2 points
    • Feed it a small creature = 5 points
    • Feed it a medium creature = 10 points



    Then once per day per plant, she can make a nature check and whatever that roll is, she can add that total to the tally for the particular plant.

    So for example, she spend a couple hours hunting and has a rabbit, rabbit, and squirrel (tiny animals). She also managed to slay a Faun (medium fey). She can choose a few different way to spread the food, but for simplicity of this example lets just say she feeds it all to one plant.

    That would be 16 points and then she makes a nature check. Say she rolls an 18. Her total of 100 points for that one plant will be 34/100.


    I of course warned her, once large size (100 points) they will attack anything on site if not chained and kept under control.
    Path of the Nefarious: A Way of the Wicked Journal.
    Please take a look at the adventures of my group going through Fire Mountain Games's Way of the Wicked, An evil based Pathfinder Compatible adventure path.
    http://d20evil.blogspot.com/

  2. - Top - End - #92
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Hook:

    A cleric of Olidammara is paying money to anyone who brings him live rats, which he needs for combination rat-baiting/animal sacrifice

  3. - Top - End - #93
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Oct 2013

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay R View Post
    The Wandering Stars
    Out of interest, I don't know what The Wandering Stars are, or why those planets are called that, could I learn more about this?

  4. - Top - End - #94
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Feb 2016

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Draco_Lord View Post
    Out of interest, I don't know what The Wandering Stars are, or why those planets are called that, could I learn more about this?
    In ancient times (because they had no telescopes) the only discernable difference between planets and stars was that the relative positions of the planets in the sky changed from night to night.

    Now for a plot hook...

    Plot Hook:

    The cult of the Abyssal demon lord Pazuzu pays the characters to travel to the Shelves of Despond in Baator, where souls arriving to the Nine Hells arrive, and graffiti Pazuzu's name all over the place (speaking Pazuzu's name aloud three times can forcibly turn the speaker chaotic, which would deny their soul to the forces of Baator, plus Pazuzu can send an aspect to any place where his name is thusly spoken)
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2016-12-18 at 01:19 AM.

  5. - Top - End - #95
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Encounters

    Death Knight Variants


    Recently I tried to begin a campaign involving seven orders of knights who each exemplified one of the classic Seven Virtues (in Dragon 335) and their opposition to the Seven Deadly Sins (as given in Dragon 323).

    And then since everyone loves to see people fail, I corrupted the Grand Master of each Order to create new evil anti-paladins that embraced one of each sin.

    But since that was not nearly enough, I decided to create new Death Knight Templates for each sinful knight. Good fun.

    This will be a work a long time coming. I asked the 3.5 boards for input on it, and I ask help once I post them for determining CR and whether are too imbalanced and welcome tweak input.

    Coming soon...
    Plot Hooks. Campaigns and Encounters - an aid for DMs in a hurry. A resource for all to enjoy! (Now archived)

  6. - Top - End - #96
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Mini-Campaign: The Renakor Foreign Legion Part 1

    Level: 1-2
    Synopsis: A springboard for a DM who doesn't like PCs meeting in a pub.


    Spoiler: BackgroundB
    Show

    [QUOTE]Four nations (Magocratic Ekern, Paladin Kingdom Entaurus, Theocratic Jenador, and Military Dictatorship Renakor) have been at war since they have been nations. However a growing superpower, the Empire of Thenes, has become an expansionist drive, and any of these four nations would quickly fall to them. However, united they are equal or greater than the Empire.

    Thus the Treaty of Ekarsh has been signed by all four nations. While not friends by any sense of the word, there is now a Détente cordiale, wherein if one of the four nations attack one of the others, all three others are obliged by treaty to destroy the belligerent nation.

    Each nation is also involved in the fantasy equivalent of the Great Game, wherein they scramble to build hegemony in less-developed nations (the better the spread their dogma and exploits the local resources) and to build empires abroad in newly discovered lands across the oceans. With shared "frenemy" borders and a greater threat breathing down their collective backs, each nations now fields armies of either bottom-of-the-barrel mercenaries, fanatically religious "volunteers", or slave conscripts to manage their colonial interests.

    Of these armies, the one of interest in this campaign is the Renakor Foreign Legion. Any class, any race and any alignment the DM will permit can be recruited into the RFL. So long as you are not a citizen of Renakor and you obey orders, you are welcome to join. Renakor's foreign policy involves dividing and conquering sovereign nations. In the land of Taldras, a multi-faction civil war of succession is in full swing. The RFL has been dispatched to aid one of the warring princes who wishes to take the throne. Once the Legion ensures his victory, the prince will then-whether he likes it or not-become the head of a new client state.


    Stationed in a dusty desert outpost typical of the land of Taldras, the PCs are raw recruits in the Legion.

    One day at dawn a pair of RFL deserters appear, being chased by some native fanatics (not aligned with Renakor's puppet prince) who claim they had desecrated a sacred tomb, and demand they be surrendered. The base commandant-a half-iron golem half-ogre-refuses, since the deserters are subject first to martial law. The fanatics depart, warning the camp will be destroyed at dawn the next day if the deserters are not surrendered.

    One of the deserters dies of his wounds and the other is incarcerated. That night, the dead Legionnaire rises as an undead compelled to free the other deserter and open the gates. By the time this is discovered (the base is on high alert and the PCs have drawn midnight watch duties), the gates have been breached, and forces unknown are attacking the outpost.

    The living deserter escapes, and the commandant orders the PCs to pursue him. But first they must navigate a battlefield filled with seasoned soldiers and siege golems.

    The surviving deserter heads back to the very tomb he allegedly desecrated, where the pursuing fanatics (a cadre of half-orc paladins dedicated to preventing foreign invasion) intercept both him and the PCs. Battle or negotiations can ensue, and the aftermath shows the 'deserter' was a Legionnaire captured and magically compelled to defile the tomb, riles up the natives and get back into the outpost.

    After sorting this out and returning to the outpost, the PCs discover the base has been overrun and the garrison slaughtered. Approaching the outpost directly would be suicide, but after a skirmish with sentries, the PCs are met by other Legionnaire survivors.

    The surviving legionnaires must trek back to the main Taldras outpost, doing their best to avoid the locals, random desert encounters and hazards as well as not succumbing to dehydration or exposure.


    Arriving at the main RFL HQ, the PCs are debriefed. From the account of the attack, it sounds like tactics of Ekern Friekorps (the Ekern equivalent of the RFL, natch), which would be construed as an act of war.

    The PCs are healed up, re-equipped and sent to find out who attacked the outpost, and why?

    Esprit des corpse!
    Plot Hooks. Campaigns and Encounters - an aid for DMs in a hurry. A resource for all to enjoy! (Now archived)

  7. - Top - End - #97
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Eberron Plot Hook
    The Planar Shepherds have enlisted the PCs' aid in a dangerpus and controversial mission to move the bound Daelkyr lords back to their home plane

  8. - Top - End - #98
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Nov 2011

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    None of the above:

    I give 500 exp to the party each or to a player if I make a mistake on a rule or totally screw something up with my players.
    Path of the Nefarious: A Way of the Wicked Journal.
    Please take a look at the adventures of my group going through Fire Mountain Games's Way of the Wicked, An evil based Pathfinder Compatible adventure path.
    http://d20evil.blogspot.com/

  9. - Top - End - #99
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Hook
    The PCs are contracted by a dwarves lord to retrieve ancient Dwarven artifacts from an ancient dwarf settlement in the north. They are also to investigate rumors that a massive meeting of worshippers of evil gods, from both civilized (humans, gnomes, half-elves etc.) and barbaric (orcs, gnolls, goblins, etc.) races is to be conducted in the same region.

    Encounter
    The PCs need a verbal password to open a locked door. The only thing in the area that knows it is a talkative taxidermed wolf's head. Which only speaks in puns. Only use if you wish to "Pun"-ish your players
    if it can't be solved by a Druid casting "Call Lightning", then don't ask me about it.


  10. - Top - End - #100
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Hook/Plot Twist:

    Some Yugoloths have been running a scam wherein they spread false rumors that a powerful artifact of evil can be destroyed by dumping it into Mount Chemada in Gehenna. It can't. They sell the artifact. Wait for it to fall into the hands of do-gooders looking to destroy it. Wait for the do-gooders to come to the peak of Chemada and either waylay them and strip their bodies and souls of useful materials if they seem weak, or else hang back except for a few expendible minions and retrieve the artifact from the volcano later if the do-gooders seem powerful. Then they sell the thing again and wait for it to onve again return to them.

  11. - Top - End - #101
    Titan in the Playground
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    Lima, Peru
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Hook 1

    Recommended starting level : 13 and up.

    A sinister and very crude winter has began ravaging a small duchy and spreading towards other lands and even mighty kingdoms.

    Divinations and other spells have proved fruitless to stop the winter itself, which has manifested in the middle of summer, but many Seers have identified the source as coming from the duchy.

    PCs hear about this or are in the duchy itself and decide to investigate.

    Turns out that the winter is a result from a forest beyond the duchy. Ancient and protected by mysterious fey, an old pact has been broken and a rogue Court of Unseelie have returned to the Material, with their leader attempting to reclaim everything back by freezing the mortals in her realm, seeing them as interlopers.

    Why did they come back? How? And how to send her and her legendary fey warriors back to the Unseelie Realms? especially when the fey that protect the forest are not getting reinforcements from the Seelie Court, supposed to answer immediately to such a breach?


    Plot Hook 2

    Recommended starting level: 11 and up

    A zenythri (MM2) inquisitor has recently arrived into the PCs' home town, replacing the deceased previous inquisitor to the Cuthbertine Church.

    The fact that a zenythri would be in town as acting church head is odd enough.

    The fact that she has a Kolyarut by her side at all times makes it even stranger.

    Turns out the zenythri carries with her a box. In it, is trapped a minor slaadi lord, captured by her ancestor generations ago and passed down her family line until a definitive way to get rid of him can be found.

    The Kolyarut has held the box in his hands, having his raw LN essence keeping the box and the slaadi inside at bay...

    However, a group of local rogues training to become Temple Raiders decide to stupidly rob the Cuthbertine compound when the Kolyarut is being fixed for maintenance.

    Unknown to everyone but the zenythri and the inevitable, the slaadi lord can posses any body and eventually take over and awaken his powers. The more chaotic the creature, the faster he will take over and the faster his powers will awaken.

    The rogues responsible happen to be in good terms with the party (maybe one of the rogues is a PC) and with the box missing and the slaadi lord hidden deep inside an unwary vessel, the zenythri has sent the Kolyarut in a merciless hunt to catch and slay anyone who may have taken the box and its contents before the entire town is drowned in chaos.

  12. - Top - End - #102
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Campaign
    It occurs to me that one could life the most of the plot of Fallout 3, replacing the Capital Wasteland BoS with the White Paladins, Vault 101 with an insular community, possibly Dwarven or otherwise underground dwelling, Vault 112 with a Society of Sensation facility, and Aqua Pura with Holy Water.
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2016-05-27 at 12:05 AM.

  13. - Top - End - #103
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook
    Lawful neutral druid/artificer needs help repairing some climate-change-preventing inevitables (whatever the local climate's equivalent of the Anhydrut from Sandstorm is) before the local climate goes to crap
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  14. - Top - End - #104
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    NinjaGirl

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Complication Idea

    The recent activities of a serial killer have made it hard for the party to move within a town important to their quest. So for example the killer disguises themselves as an uncommon race that happens to be in your party, and so the town guard have become more apprehensive towards members of that race. Or as another example the killer could bare an uncanny resemblance to one of the party members, leaving the rest in a race against the clock to prove the accused's innocence.

  15. - Top - End - #105
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Plot Hook
    A party member or quest giver affiliated with the churches of Heironeous and/or Murlynd is tasked with securing, in the name of the Order of White Paladins, the remains of inevitables destroyed in a recent battle before the baatezu claim them and use them in the construction of Hellforged constructs
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  16. - Top - End - #106
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Mini-Campaign: The Renakor Foreign Legion Part 2

    Level: 3-5
    Synopsis: The second part of a min-campaign to get your crew together.


    After recovering from the assault and loss of their outpost, the new RFL recruits are tasked with reclaiming it. As you recall... From the account of the attack, it sounds like tactics of Ekern Friekorps (the Ekern equivalent of the RFL) why Ekern would an act of war and endanger the Four Nations' Treaty is hard to discern.

    A small sally port (really the midden chute, so enjoy!) can be used to access the outpost. The PCs are required to subdue the guards and open the main gates in time for the main Renakor Foreign Legion force to attack.

    Stealthy investigations discover that it was a false flag attack. Agents of the Thenesian Empire were the actual perpetrators of the attack, and with it hoping to break the Treaty of Ekarsh, and with the traditional tactic of Divide and Conquer, Thenes can sweep across the warring nations and destroy them all.

    Or they would if it wasn't for those meddling PCs.

    They must kill or disable the commandant of the Thenes forces, open the gates somehow before the attacking force is caught at the gates by the siege golems and warmages stationed there.

    Upon completion, the PCs are given commendations and are marked for Special Forces training. From there the DM can send them off to all sorts of wacky adventures.
    Plot Hooks. Campaigns and Encounters - an aid for DMs in a hurry. A resource for all to enjoy! (Now archived)

  17. - Top - End - #107
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Villain or Encounter:
    A bandit similar to the one from Alfred's anecdote in The Dark Knight, who robs people simply for the fun of it
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  18. - Top - End - #108
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook:

    Inevitables dedicated to the idea "You Can't Get Something For Nothing"/"Nothing in life is free"/"There's no such thing as a free lunch" have invaded the Big Rock Candy Mountains on the plane of Ysgard
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  19. - Top - End - #109
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    ClericGuy

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    My current campaign I'm running:

    You awaken in a cell, with no memory of who you once were. What do you do?
    78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.

    Where did you start yours?

    In a mountain after a cave-in.

    MY STATS OFF THE ELITE ARRAY:
    Str: 14 Dex: 8 Con: 12 Int: 15 Wis: 10 Cha: 11

    Quote Originally Posted by Vrock_Summoner View Post
    I wish I had you for a DM...
    Please critique my 5e Beguiler Wizard subclass!

    https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...izard-Subclass

  20. - Top - End - #110
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook/Encounter/Adventure:
    Strange goings-on in the forest, including unusually tough animals (and occasionallg also travelers waking with either more or less rations than tthey had when they went to sleep), are eventually traced back, by the end of the adventure, to a ruin containing Nomnom, an intelligent magic dinner table that can cast Heroes' Feast and in yhe absence of a human(oid) master has been making food for (and occasiona;=lly also from) the forest animals
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  21. - Top - End - #111
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Encounter

    You are randomly attacked by valuable art objects (treat as animated objects of appropriate size). They are remnants of a dragon's horde.

    The dragon was killed centuries ago, but a vestige of its soul lives on in the old treasure. The PCs must find and collect all the items to exorcise a ghost dragon.
    Plot Hooks. Campaigns and Encounters - an aid for DMs in a hurry. A resource for all to enjoy! (Now archived)

  22. - Top - End - #112
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Mystery:
    A series of bizarre "thefts" have occured in a town recently. The culprit turns out to be a rare life-themed inverted counterpart of the death slaad. This creature has been animating random objects, which have then wandered off
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  23. - Top - End - #113
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Misc
    A concept: (As a background to this you need to be familiar with the canon that the Mind Flayers originally came from a distant future from which they time-traveled) What if the Illithids were, unknowingly fo both parties, the distant descendants of the githyanki, the result of a process similar to that described in the pseudoscientific treatise The Beginning Was the End (except with psychic talent being increased and sex drive decreased)
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  24. - Top - End - #114
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook for Antiheroes/Antivillains:

    Recruited by the cult of either Lolth, Zuggtmoy, and/or Iuz as part of an combined inquisition by the three of them to oust Tharizdun's followers from the Cult of Elemental Evil.

    Adventure Concept:
    Town tries to send the PCs after a dragon that they say robbed their treasury, but it turns out that this was because the town owed the dragon money for services and refused to pay
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2016-08-18 at 12:13 AM.
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  25. - Top - End - #115
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook

    In a terra nova region, a war between lizardfolk and troglodytes rages.

    Turns out it is a proxy war orchestrated by two rival kingdoms nominally at peace.

    The PCs need to find proof of the local governors of the kingdoms colonies shenanigans before the humanoids are annihilated and the war spreads.
    Plot Hooks. Campaigns and Encounters - an aid for DMs in a hurry. A resource for all to enjoy! (Now archived)

  26. - Top - End - #116
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hook:
    Someone is sealing all of Sigil's portals from the outside. (Possibly Vecnite cultists with an axe to grind)

    Character:
    A Bhaalspawn who resembles a goth version of Jesus. "In my father's house there are many tombs" and so forth

    Hook:
    Internecine conflict within the Athar (a radically anti-theistic anticlericalist cult from the Planescape setting) due to the appearance of a moderate subsect advocating the worship of deities whose actions or teachings stress the fallibility of the gods (ie. Zagyg, Karsus, Prometheus, etc.)
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2016-12-18 at 01:32 AM.
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

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  27. - Top - End - #117
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    RogueGuy

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Death becomes Them

    "Due to either a miscalculated spell, a nefarious plot or simple bad luck the party has died. Trapped in the Ethereal Realm our brave adventures must seek out a way to revive themselves or forever be trapped, unable to pass on."


    So many people as DM's and players have a small far that somehow the party will wipe. Early enough in the game rerollong isn't too big of a hassle but at some point people do not want to lose a character they have invested so much into. Especially due to simply bad rolls.

    I present my solution to the problem. Should your party wipe completely, instead of dm fiat to simply revive then or having to re roll, have an adventure as ghost, success or completion results in revival. True death of they fail. Considered a second chance at redemption my adventure hook here gives players and DM's a final fallback before losing a character completely.




    How the players achieve this is up to you. I keep it fluid with a standard end of meeting some God that if pleased by their actions or if they complete some moderately difficult task the Gods send them back to the material plane.

    For setting remember the Ethereal plane and material overlap almost exactly. Use your current setting and environments but apply ghostly greyish appearance to everything.

  28. - Top - End - #118
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    Ken Murikumo's Avatar

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    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    I've got 2, one i'm running now, and another when im done with this campaign:

    Campaign idea

    Players eventually learn the world is a far far future not a fantasy past and the gods are actually gargantuan constructs left over from the human era that can warp timespace (use magic). Main antagonist learns this and how to control them. Players must discover the truth, find a way to disable the "gods" and stop the big bad

    Players see (and feel) cities getting NUKED from very far away. Investigation leads them to a heavy guarded underground facility. Magic keeps blinking on and off depending on where they are. They learn there are multiple areas like this on the planet. The highest order of rulers (and mages) do NOT want anyone finding out what is inside. When the players find the "bottom" of one of the heavily guarded facilities, they enter into a very abstract, but technologically superior "dungeon dungeon" (a cute name my players call it because it's literally a dungeon that has a dungeon). They eventually learn it's actually the (mostly) dormant remains of one of the gargantuan god constructs. Eventually the party learns how to disable the gods and cut off the main antagonist's infinite power. Epic battle ensues and then the end. The state of the world after is completely up to my players choices.
    Yes it does sound kind of mass effect-like. "Even a dead god can still dream" was the quote that inspired the construct god beings

    Idea 2 (this is gonna be a future fantasy setting. I would like to get my hands on Starfinder, but thats not available for another year, so i'll make it up as i go)

    Campaign Idea

    Players wake up on derelict ship with spotty memories. They've been asleep for over 500 years. In that time a religious order has gained popularity and descended into horror. This "holy" order has been glassing planets and destroying civilizations on the assumptions that they are heretical and impure. Effectively they are so good that by comparison everyone else is a dirty sinner not worth saving. Big plot twist, one of the "Old Ones" has infected the religion and is twisting it into his own personal religion. With the forced deification and the Old One knowledge it plans to do cataclysmic things to the universe

    ^ Summary is really all i got. That and populating the ship they wake up on. Kind of like Motherbase from MGS5, but in space... with magic...

  29. - Top - End - #119
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    RedSorcererGirl

    Join Date
    Jun 2016

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    This only works during a great battle.

    The Tarrasque erupts from beneath the battle scene! The commotion must have awoken it.

    Use this super weapon to destroy it, or die. (Complicated mechanism and a long reload time, make for combat in between using the super weapon.)

    Was a lot of fun.

  30. - Top - End - #120
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Newfoundland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

    Hooks

    I've posted these in other places before, but I'm expanding a little on them here.

    Hook #1: A low-ish level spellcaster accidentally starts the Wightocalypse, and you must stop it before the entire world is nothing but wights.

    Plot Summary - This adventure would probably include the introduction of the somewhat bumbling spellcaster, who gets humiliated by X (possibly the PCs?) in public, becoming a bit of a laughing stock. He hatches a plan of revenge, researching the Locate City Bomb trick, one step at a time, with each step being revealed to the PCs as some sort of crime to be solved. They eventually piece together his idea, and must stop him before he releases the wights upon the world. If they fail, he realizes how bad his mistake could become, and turns to them for help stopping it.

    Hook #2: Word is getting around the Abyss that Pazuzu is bragging about corrupting a kobold paladin. Things get out of hand, but a time-traveling artificer has an idea.

    Plot Summary - This starts with a very common kobold raid plot, then discovery of the kobold warren, where thy find a sacrificed kobold, and some mention of the name Pazuzu. Soon nearby towns are also being raided, and some are whispering the name of the kobold in charge, who appears to have strange magical powers: Pun-Pun. They find and confront him, only to be soundly defeated. Luckily, before they are killed, they are deus ex machina'd by a time-traveling artificer, who has a plan of how to defeat the kobold. This might result in some Groundhog Day-like time loops.

    Hook #3: A meteor impacts in the desert or wherever, killing most of the population within miles. Wait, that's no meteor, that's a spaceship. And contains an elder evil, or something.

    Plot Summary - I would place this in a world without psionics. The story starts with the characters seeing a falling star that impacts with the ground in the distance. They may choose to go investigate, or wait for problems to arise. And arise they do. With the landing of the asteroid, it released quantities of starjelly all over the countryside, granting psionic powers to various creatures, driving them somewhat mad. After encountering some of these creatures, they discover the starjelly. The PCs can also use the starjelly (works similarly to potions, but each time you use it you slip slowly into insanity). Investigating further, they find that the quantity of starjelly increases as they get closer to the asteroid (resulting in more and increasingly powerful affected psionic creatures). The asteroid itself is like a large building (spaceship) containing a captive Elder Evil that has worked its way free, killing the crew, except for one survivor, who tells them how to reform the evil's seal.
    Settings: Weird West
    Work in Progress: Fulcrum

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