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Finding Inspiration for 5E D&D Campaigns

Constructing a 5E D&D One Shot
The Desert World of Athas -- Dark Sun Campaign Setting

Hey friends, Nerdarchist Ted here. Running a campaign in fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder or any other tabletop roleplaying game is hard and writing material for said campaign can be even harder. When doing so you have to predict possible actions your players will make and be prepared for the most obvious options but as as Dungeon Master where do you come up with the ideas?

D&D campaign narrative module tabletop roleplaying game

Protip: include amazing locations in your D&D campaign and the players will find adventure whether you planned for it or not! Click the image to visit the artist’s ArtStation page. [Art by J.C. Park]

Campaign inspiration

dungeons and dragons

I am am an avid reader with hundreds of novels under my belt. Well not literally, that would just be silly, but I have read hundreds of books. I started off my reading career so-to-speak with reading comic books in middle school. Begging rides from parents and friends’ parents to get to the local comic shop became a chore.

Eventually I moved up to reading novels when I stumbled onto a book titled The Source of Magic, by Piers Anthony. I was drawn to this as a young teenager by the cover.

It had a griffon, a dragon and a man wielding a sword. With all this on the cover and magic in the title it had to be the best story ever. Again this is through the eyes of a young teenager never exposed to the wonders of novels. I enjoyed the book and it has lead me down a path filled with inspiration.

Tabletop roleplaying game inspiration can come from anywhere. It can be in the large details or in something small.

If you are a beginning Dungeon Master feel free to explore the world of published adventures and campaigns  But if you feel you are ready to create your own adventure and need a little guidance look at the stories you enjoy that have already been written. Essentially a campaign is a novel that has not been written down yet.

One of the first series I read was the Tribe of One trilogy by Simon Hawke set in the Dark Sun campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons and it was phenomenal. I absolutely loved it. Many years after my initial reading I was drawn back to it for a reread and I was truly inspired. Tribe of One  is about a character who has many voices in his head, each with their own set of abilities. So I thought maybe I could run such a game.

I had to play this one kinda cool as I did not want to tip my hat too soon. I contacted one of my friends and asked him if he wanted to be in a campaign I was going to run, and I told them I needed a fighter type character. He was used to it so he said sure, and the bait was hooked. I then talked to others and asked them to make characters but let them in on the secret.

As the campaign began, the main character, the fighter, quickly learned of the extra voices in his head that had been silent up until this point. Crazy news of his backstory was revealed and the quest began for world, and self, exploration. As this was a game I ran in college its popularity grew and it gained an audience. Some of the audience liked it so much they wanted in.

Every once and a while a new voice would show up into the mix. I ran it as a very story-driven game, not wanting to spend time with too much dice rolling, but wanted to keep it action packed. A d20 was used to either struggle over control of the body or to denote success or failure of an action and the severity of it. I would then describe the outcome to keep it flowing.

I would have to say this was my most successful campaign I have ran and was enjoyed by many. As long as the main person was present all was on schedule and if a person could not make it to the game or even left the room the action continued on while another personality was dormant and inattentive.

That was an entire campaign based around the concept of a character in a novel. You can take a story, change a few details and your players may never know where you got the inspiration from. If you say you have an evil artifact destined to ruin the world and it needs to be destroyed as the basis for your game, everyone will guess you are getting something from Lord of the Rings. But if you build the campaign up a bit while characters aimlessly adventure and then stumble onto this dark artifact, you let them guide its fate and they may not notice or care where your story comes from.

Another great example of specifically where I drew inspiration from is a Dungeons & Dragons game I ran after reading Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. Some major stuff happens in these six books so I will not give away anything, but the stuff hits the fan in this one and rather than do a buildup to it like in the novel I started out from the humans at a losing point and started a campaign from there.

Also from the same author I did a Dresden Files game in Mutants and Masterminds. It was quick and dirty style of running and being a modern city style game it was easy for players to not be in attendance as every character had real lives going on and something can always come up.

Just a few books I read provided and hours and hours worth of sessions easily planned and played. And hopefully everyone enjoyed them. I like to think so anyway. I hope you can get your inspiration as easily as I have found mine over the years. Maybe our many videos can also help guide you down the path of the Dungeon Master.

You can always ask us if you have any questions you can always reach out to us and we can do our best to help guide you. This is Nerdarchist Ted saying, until next time, stay nerdy my friend!

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

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