The only idea blog you'll never need

Your one-stop shop for all the extensive, evocative and efficient worldbuilding and DnD notes, tips and prompts you'd never actually implement! Warning: prolonged usage of these tips may result in mild memory loss, bird mafias, TPKs, players growing emotionally attached to NPCs you never planned on implementing, and insomnia.If an implemented idea from this blog persists for more than 4 sessions, seek medical help.

[prokopetz]

More inadvisable ways to introduce a replacement for a dead Dungeons & Dragons character mid adventure: 

Hanging from a gallows, apparently dead, only to speak up and request help getting down at the party’s approach; when they ask how you survived, simply remark that you have a very strong neck  

Appearing in a flash of light in response to some seemingly innocuous action, tearfully thanking the party for “finally breaking the curse”  

The next ogre or other large humanoid the party encounters is wielding you as a club  

Wandering aimlessly from around the next bend, peering at an enormous fold-out map and loudly insisting you could have sworn this was the way to Waterdeep  

Falling screaming from the sky, and landing miraculously unharmed; if questioned, mutter something about bats and refuse to elaborate  

(replacement character is at least one size category smaller) It turns out that you were in the deceased character’s backpack the whole time

[dnd-homebrew5e]

You can't do the bury your gays trope if every character in your campaign is LGBTQ+!

[actuallybestrpgideas]

Did I ever share my character's personality on tumblr?

[wegottagetouttahere]

Straight DnD parties be like: *calm elf warrior* *angry orc barbarian* *seductive tiefling rogue* *squishy human bard*

Gay DnD parties be like: *purple tiefling druid* *purple tiefling paladin* *purple tiefling warrior* *8 year old lizard* *drunken dwarf guy* *squishy human bard*

[poly-carbon-based-lifeform]

D&D but with Dark Souls style lore- you can make your character, but the DM determine your backstory in addition to world lore.  The only way you learn anything about yourself is when you make rolls and the DM uses info from your backstory to give you the information you need.  

i.e.  "History- do I recognize the armor these soldiers are wearing?“ 

 "You do.  Soldiers like these stole your sister from you, imprisoning her far away.”  

“I- I have a sister??”

[probablybizarrerpgideas]

Having trouble coming up with worldbuilding details for your setting? Why not browse Yahoo answers and take inspiration from there? Some of the most confusing questions about how things work could slot in perfectly in a magic setting.

If you act fast, your players won't be able to catch you since they won't be able to access the website in a few days. It's the perfect inspiration!

[probablybizarrerpgideas]

Painted a dwarf.

[probablybadrpgideas]

All dragonborn are called Reginald.

[prokopetz]

Low-level diplomatic incidents for your Dungeons & Dragons game:

Two villages on opposite ends of a great valley have become embroiled in a dispute over hunting rights that’s about to boil over into open war. Each community is flat broke and can scarcely field a dozen men-at-arms, but neither can bow out of the approaching confrontation without losing face. Both village leaders attempt to hire the party as a secret weapon; neither is aware that the other has also done so.  

The local lord’s contemptible offspring has resolved to slay the dragon that lairs nearby. The townspeople, however, have secretly entered into a mutually beneficial arrangement with the dragon; they would prefer to resolve the situation without revealing the bargain, and ideally also without getting the awful brat killed and thereby sparking a vendetta that would likely result in real dragonslayers entering the fray.  

The party is accosted by robed acolytes who declare that one of the party’s number is the Chosen One, destined to defeat their god’s foes. The god in question proves to be a very minor deity whose domain consists of a stream that’s been polluted by a nearby smelting operation. In response, the small god of the hill the mine is sunk into – who benefits from the miners’ propitiation – soon nominates their own Chosen One!  

A gang of phantoms haunting the local graveyard have taken to holding nightly festivities so raucous, they’ve been declared a public nuisance. Being spirits, however, they’re immune to any force the townspeople (or the party) can bring to bear, and exorcism has thus far proven fruitless because – metaphysically speaking – they have every right to be there. How do you enforce a noise complaint against immaterial perpetrators?  

An enormous sinkhole opens beneath the town courthouse and plunges the building deep underground. Upon investigation, the party discovers not a monstrous incursion, but a Deep Gnome geological expedition that’s become lost due to a math error and ended up much closer to the surface than they thought they were. They don’t really want to hurt anyone, but they also don’t want their mistake to become public!

[sonneillonv-deactivated20220218]

I personally love how many of your campaign ideas boil down to, ‘why assume malevolence when you can assume incompetence?’

[prokopetz]

I find it’s easier to achieve moral nuance when everyone involved is a colossal fuckup.

[onekattoruletheworld]

I’m bored so anyone who reblogs this I’ll make you a DnD character sheet of what I think you’d be based on your tumblr

[utilitycaster]

martial class players be like “how do you remember so many spells? that seems so complicated” and then go “I attack with my greatsword and I’m going to use great weapon master so that’s 12+10 to hit but minus 5 so that’s 17. That hits? Okay then I get 2d6+6+10 so 23. Let’s go again, great weapon master, natural 19, that’s a crit with this weapon, so that gives me an extra attack, and I have savage attacker, so that’s…7x2+6+10+2 from savage attack so 32, so total damage 55, extra attack, not doing great weapon master…that’s just a natural 4, though, does 14 hit? no? Um…not going to action surge this round, I’m going to wait. Are they looking hurt? Okay, well, they used their reaction this round, right? Then I will move 20 feet - yeah over there - to get next to the guy the rogue was focusing on, and they can’t get an attack of opportunity. Okay that’s an entirely normal turn for me. Thank god my entirely normal turns aren’t checking if a single die roll with a single modifier exceeds a single other number and then adding up a few d6s and potentially dividing the result by two while remaining exactly where I am, 60 feet away.”

[linootte]

Commission for @probablybizarrerpgideas! This is Feroxus.^^ They are a kineticist hobgoblin!

[prokopetz]

More inadvisable D&D characters, silent protagonist edition:

A gym-rat-themed human barbarian who communicates exclusively via an ever-changing array of pithy slogans displayed on their enchanted novelty t-shirt  

An elven rogue who refuses to speak aloud out of a professional commitment to stealthiness; when the need arises, they produce artfully handwritten notes from their numerous pockets  

A halfling warlock who traded their voice to their patron for some unspecified favour; their toad familiar, who speaks on their behalf, sounds exactly like a 1950s radio announcer, static included  

An orc wizard who speaks a unique three-handed dialect of sign language with the assistance of the mage hand cantrip; when otherwise unoccupied, the mage hand is prone to rude gestures  

A bard whose spellcasting performance skill is being a professional sports mascot; nobody knows what species they are because the suit never comes off

[prokopetz]

A tiefling fighter who uses their innate magic to conjure cryptic omens hinting at their will; it’s legitimately unclear whether they actually can’t talk, or whether they just like messing with people  

A half-elven cleric cursed by a rival priest to speak only in rhyme; it was manageable at first, but one day they foolishly ended a sentence with the word “plinth”, and they’ve been stuck ever since  

A dragonborn paladin whose draconic parent had a sonic breath weapon, leaving them with a speaking voice with no register between “inaudible whisper” and “2d6 thunder damage”  

A gnome druid who understands all the languages of birds and beasts, and no others, relying on random critters – who apparently do understand Common? – to translate when necessary  

A dwarven monk who observes a strict vow of silence, except at dawn and dusk, when they pause to scream at the top of their lungs for a minute straight; nobody’s sure what’s up with that

[prokopetz]

More inadvisable background templates for your Dungeons & Dragons game:

Time traveller

False cleric

Obstreperous peasant

Tax collector

Childhood friend

Failed messiah

Nefarious servant

Contrived example

Potion tester

Former skeleton

[prokopetz]

Inspiration-seeking playwright

Dwarf impersonator

Disreputable relation

Hooded figure

Unorthodox physician

Fraudulent knight

Fashion designer

Bad omen

Several raccoons

Old coot

[probablybadrpgideas]

Instead of dice everyone gets a fortune cookie at the beginning of the session and uses the lucky numbers on the back of the fortune as their roll. They can only use each number once and when they use up all of their numbers they get a new cookie and start all over again.

[fatsexybitch]

No this one is brilliant

[i-am-the-incendiary-anarchist-d]

I’ve seen fortune cookies used in game, but not like this.

I was part of a game where there was a fortune teller NPC and a couple times the players went to her for fortunes and we all cracked open fortune cookies to see what our character’s fortunes were. For this reason we usually planned fortune telling sessions around ordering Chinese food.

[probablybizarrerpgideas]

If you don't have a fortune telling npc, you can always use fortune cookies as the results of an Augury spell. Just make sure to rewrite your adventure so the cookie isn't wrong!

[probablybadrpgideas]

Instead of dice everyone gets a fortune cookie at the beginning of the session and uses the lucky numbers on the back of the fortune as their roll. They can only use each number once and when they use up all of their numbers they get a new cookie and start all over again.

[fatsexybitch]

No this one is brilliant

[probablybizarrerpgideas]

Looking to capture Critical Role's exciting energy of passing out cards with magic items on them to the players, but don't have the time or creativity to think up detailed flavor text? Buy a handful of greeting cards from your local dollar store and simply replace words, cross out or add as needed. Players will love the detail and effort put into the game, and you can wish them a happy new +2 longsword at the same time!

[pwbi]

This actually sounds like an awesome idea

[cat-with-no-name]

what i want is a way to capture that excitement in a voice-call game. It would be so fun and dramatic to be able to hand out cards but my players can’t meet in real life due to shitty life stuff

[probablybizarrerpgideas]

Simple- order food to the player's physical address and ask the delivery person to write the magic item's information on the packaging. Easier with pizza than with takeout soup, but theoretically doable.