#campaign ideas

[macabrecabra]

I want to DM a campaign again so badly! I just got another idea for a campaign that leans heavy into body horror, mystery, and horror-esque vibe! I call it "The Carnival of Carnage"

The premise is the the players all are performers in a rather large and well known carnival but have woken up with no memories of the past few days and are in the carnival that is at first, seemingly deserted, but as they explore, they find the the other employees and guests, all warped into horrific dark-soul level monstrosities.

The players must find clues to piece together their memories, to figure out what has happened to the carnival and find a way to save as many as possible from the forces that have overrun it. Can the players save the others? What role did they play in this tragedy?

What horrors will they have to face as they enter... the Carnival of Carnage.

---

The whole of the campaign will take place in the carnival with some interesting mechanics for gaining levels and for taking on the monsters of the carnival. They need to recover clues that can help to jog their memories c: How it will work is I take the backstories of the characters and some questions about dreams and goals and weave it into what has happened to the carnival, making it a personal voyage for each. It has the option for multiple endings, depending on player choices and how they interact with the NPCs, enemies, and each other!

Also lets me design some super twisted circus/carnival inspired enemy designs, bosses, npcs, and much more, as they make their way into the depths of terror. Very much some eldritch horror and not everything is always as it seems and giving it creepy atmosphere....

I just want to do a really creepy campaign ;w ;

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Idea

Establish your campaign as a nested narrative! For example: "Personal log of Captain Cormorant: I found a derelict space freighter, with signs of struggle and a blood-stained diary. The diary said..." and then within the diary the writer hears stories and accounts from other people, adding additional layers.

The benefit of this as a medium is that you can set different moods and special sessions, opening each time with a reminder of who's narrating this part. Players and GM alike can reference the layer: "Captain Cormorant's reflections on this confrontation remind them of their own turbulent relationship with their father. How do you contrast with their approach?" Or maybe "As you face the scorpion-frogs of Venus, your battle leaves a mark on the ship that will be visible in the future."

[icantflyjets123]

HIII

So I'm making a campaign with the fallout RPG book and I was wondering if anyone had any story ideas? I've taken some inspo from some actual game missions but I have no other ideas lol

ALSO my dice for it finally came in ( I just wanted to show them off)

[pixelizedgenocide]

Here is list of DND campaign ideas I love but down have time to do anything with, if the wording is weird that’s because I just copied it from my discord messages, please take them

1 - a campaign where various random characters are cursed or hand picked by a chaotic deity and forced to participate in a game much like Game Changer. The goal of the campaign is to get rid of the curse or deity but when not on the show the characters return to wherever they were originally and none of the characters know each other

2 - A small street of shop or stall owners who aren’t adventurers and have zero levels in ANYTHING defending their livelihood from murder hobos, accidentally leveling into different classes until they no longer have to worry about theft or threats

3 - A monster high based campaign would be really fun now that I’m thinking about it

4 - Quest to defeat a cult of evil wizards, after reaching the end of one of the dungeons or towers you discover this guy has been faking having magic this whole time

5 - Ancient Greek that is Inspired by the Epic musical where the party members all have goals that might set them in opposition to certain gods and the goal of the campaign is to

A -succeed at your goal

B -not be killed or cursed

C - leave as little problems as possible for your descendants

And secret 4th thing where once the campaign is over and all the characters pass on, your actions throughout the campaign are taken before the Judges and they decide where your character ends up in Punishment, Asphodel, or Elysium

6 - So there’s this rpg set up called Masks the new generation and I never got to play in it but I was thinking about it and it would lend itself really well to a Miraculous Ladybug rpg

7 - Consider a Curse of Stradh campaign but all the players are characters from scooby doo

8 - I want a campaign where theres a great evil and a Prophesied hero - only the the party thinks the chosen one is an asshole and for the sheer spite of it, decide to defeat the evil before he can get anywhere near it. the people in power spend ages training this kid up, meanwhile a band of dumbasses are screaming and running like headless chickens, winning by the skin of their teeth and horrific violence. they defeat the great evil very publicly. theres absolutely no way they're the ones the prophecy meant. It was definitely meant for that specific guy and that specific evil at that specific time. Just rather than sitting back and waiting for the Prophecy to happen, they went and did it themselves

9 - the urge to play in a campaign where we're all normal ass people who got sucked into a dnd like world cause of some bullshit magic and no, we actually can't go back so we gotta learn to live there

modern people learning to live without plumbing

or internet

or books

on the brightside, if I had to pick between being anxious about getting to work on time and bills versus getting eaten by a monster and having shit sword skills, I'd pick the second

I'd still be anxious but itd at least be fun

[eerieeclipse25]

DnD Campaign Idea

You start in a tavern–just like your typical campaign. The party meets up and looks around, finding a mysterious figure at the bar. They are told of a magical artifact of some kind that will give the party a ton of power. This is the start of their journey.

Their first challenge is to get past a group guarding something important. The party defeats most of them, but a couple escape. However they are able to get the object and move on.

As they continue on, they get attacked by…bandits. They defeat them easily, but as they go to the village other people act kind of weird around them. They turn away, or don’t talk, or just give you whatever you want. It’s oddly quiet, but maybe it’s just a slow day.

Eventually the party gets to the place holding the magical artifact, but are interrupted by a group of enemies trying to get the object first. (They ignore the fact that they look so young). The players win and go on to set up base somewhere and enjoy their treasures.

But those enemies come back. And they attack. Despite trying their hardest the players are defeated. But right before the final player is killed, the leader of the other party tells them they lost. It’s over. You won’t hurt anyone else now.

And that is when the players realize they were the villains all along.

[alastairdragovich]

Random Perfect Draw Campaign Idea: In something reminiscent of Bakugan's original conceit, alien beings disguised as playing card monsters drop their cards all over the place. Their hopes are to use their hyperadvanced science to harmlessly power their own civilization with the excitement and general highs and lows of 'card game BUT REAL' being played by kids and teens and the adults still holding onto their sense of wonder. (Again, their science is super advanced and bonkers because they've gone from where we are with 'that's not physically possible' to 'we've found a set of universal mechanics that let us do that - took us a century to crack avert circumventing ftl restrictions but what can we do, eh?' Somehow this comes back to boiling water in exotic ways, hilariously.)

However, their 'target audience' isn't as hyped as they should be, and upon cursory investigation conclude that the various parasitic behaviors of unchecked capitalism and the varying degrees of facism and authoritarianism across the globe have created entire systems and schools of oppression that are destroying the emotional spark in people. In other words, the people are too exhausted and depressed on a broad scale due to The Normalized Atrocities.

Horrified morally, the majority who signed up to be the summons set aside their original goal and now help the various people whose resilient souls haven't caved in the face of overwhelming, invisible societal pressures to fight back against the systems in place using the madcap strategies of Card game mechanics, the indomitable human spirit, and the power of these weird aliens they made friends with along the way. Nothing says 'power of friendship' quite like summoning a dragon to summon a little guy who can turn the roads into forestry and walk-able sidewalks.

The enemies are mostly just rank and file mercenaries/troops who *happen* to be arranged and come into the scene like their superiors are playing them as their own deck of cards (or the occasional 'we're on the same side but violently and incompatibly disagree over how we go about it' conflict) but given what the original mission statement was I can see some aliens being swayed to the evil side if the military or corporations think it'll save them resources in the long run. And by that I mean both sides are thinking that about the other, because some things like greed and apathy never change.

Anyway the player group's job is to pick or agree to tackle an issue the GM and players can be mature about and then spend an entire campaign fighting socially and physically to upturn it into a better tomorrow. And i do mean an entire campaign because anything less would be silly given the premise. ;P

[dungeonsandkobolds]

Master Post of My Fave NPCs in My Campaign:

Old Man Riddles

(Can appear anywhere and it'll make sense)

Entire deal is he sits in a puddle of mud splashing about and throws mud at the party if they get a riddle wrong

Chester

(Again can appear anywhere without explanation)

A mimic that talks! He takes the form of a chest, you throw 10 gold into his mouth and he spits out a random, maybe useful potion. He does not know what any of the potions do

Sofa

Chester's best friend. Essentially a dog. Licks everything, but mimics are adhesive so he gets stuck to things a lot.

The Meat Traders

(Found on the road)

Curse by the meat witch to trade meat for meat. They can ONLY accept meat in payment and only have meat to trade.

Frat Boy Doomsday Cult

Having a massive rager to celebrate the end of the world. The world doesn't end. They fight with lacrosse sticks

Billy McGee

Local old man that does tours of the catacombs. All of his ancestors are in the your, having died of riding animals such as "2 dragons". When asked how they were riding multiple animals at once, his answer is "badly"

Thray

(Owns Thray's Curiousities)

Gay vampire that runs an Antiques Store. Refuses to uncurse the cursed items cause they're more fun the way they are. Beefs with all other arcane practitioners, currently banned from the wizards uni.

I'll add more as I remember more

[magicaleraser94]

My dad came up with a D&D campaign idea for all those DM's with a murderhobo party. Here's the basics of it--

True Neutral to Chaotic Evil party. LET THEM GIVE IN TO THE INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS. Let them lie, steal, kill- hell, allow them to betray each other if they want. Their ONE JOB throughout all this is simple- transport a red dragon egg across a country. The reward is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of money, power, and influence, far more than the party could ever dream of.

Here's the problem. They cannot break the egg or kill the dragon inside. And the egg can hatch at any moment. If the egg does hatch, they still have to transport the dragon without injuring it. The dragon, however, has no qualms with killing the party members. To get their reward, the party has to learn self-control and teamwork. Who knows? Maybe your party will learn the value of patience and story-telling. They might be truly engrossed in the game by the end.