Showing posts with label game masters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game masters. Show all posts

TTRPGs Need Deep Character Customization

By RJ on 29 January 2023.


I love being able to customize my character in games of all sorts. In tabletop roleplaying games, I love the freedom to describe my minotaur blackguard as a hulking, eight-foot-five-inches tall, grizzled beast of snow-white fur and curled blood-red horns. In video games such as Path of Exile, I enjoy the ability to create a build unlike any other, worming my way through a seemingly limitless skill tree while collecting terrific and terrible pieces of gear. In virtual reality games like Beat Saber, it's great I'm able to choose what I want to play when I want to play it without any bindings on my arms or blocks in my path.

It's also important the choices we as players make about our characters matter. What our characters say to the vampire queen should have an effect. What magic items our characters wield should turn the tides of the battle or play a key role in the story. How we build our characters, mechanically, or what we choose to be, should be important. These choices shouldn't be meaningless.

Presently, Orrery is built on three fundamental design pillars, which I promise are not mere buzzwords: deep character customization, simply powerful rules, and improvisational freedom. Each interweaves with the next.

My in-development tabletop roleplaying game absorbs elements from various systems, tabletop and not. In some cases, directly, unedited. The rest of the swiped mechanics and ideas? Altered for the better. A few examples include Path of Exile's skill tree, Pathfinder 2E's action point system, and 5E's addition of advantage and disadvantage.

Altogether, every element aims to support each design pillar.

Let's begin this series of articles discussing Orrery's design with an inspection of the first design pillar: deep character customization.

RJD20's Patreon 

If you would like to see bits and pieces of Orrery as it develops, become a patron on Patreon for a $1 per month or more. In addition to regular Friday drops of expanding Orrery playtest content, you receive exclusive access to 5E-compatible extras like Character Class Foe Generators, inspirational villain ideas, and insight into my home games you won't find anywhere else!

Every coin of assistance helps. Thank you for your support.

Player Characters are the Heart of Every Game

The player characters are indisputably the most vital part of any successful game system. If character design isn't appealing to a wide audience, the game won't be enjoyable. It will fail.

Orrery's character creation and constant customization help build compelling characters for everyone.

In Orrery, players choose a definitive ancestry, an inspiring background, and a unique path through the Orrery for their character. During play, each aspect evolves, and new mechanics take hold, like artifacts and boons. However, it all begins with character creation.

The Importance of Ancestry in Orrery

Character ancestry in Orrery determines a character's appearance and provides typical points of origin in the world. While exceptions and oddities exist, Orrery provides plenty of inspiration for players with typical descriptions.

In addition, every ancestry provides a powerful passive and/or active ability to a character.

While not as strict as other games, Orrery places emphasis on your character's chosen ancestry, unlike the current iteration of 5E.

The human ancestry includes +3 to all ability scores, while the halfling ancestry grants a strong ability to fight the Feared condition, an optional dinosaur companion, and +2 to Constitution. Both also detail typical regions and settlements frequented by each, a brief history of the ancestry in the setting, and what they typically look like.

Orrery's section on ancestry stresses that while appearance and point of origin may vary greatly from individual to individual, ancestral bonuses and abilities do not. When a player chooses an ancestry for their character, it means more than appearance. It affects their character for the rest of its life in the game and world.

Choosing a character's ancestry is an important choice, not meaningless or pure flavor.

Setting Up the Board with Background in Orrery

Backgrounds in Orrery are cloud-piercing mountains of inspiration. They are also hyper-focused on setting up a character's place in the world, what their initial goals are, and how they are connected to the other characters in the group.

There are oodles of roll tables. Plus, each background gives out a slightly randomized set of items, so no two Soldiers or Merchants ever start off with identical inventories.

This game's backgrounds address a major problem I see in other games with similar backstory creation systems. It also tries to help those who love crafting their character's own history but forget to connect it to the story at hand.

Each background includes a snippet of inspiration about a character's former profession, interesting traits they might have as a result, a good reason why they are adventuring now, and a couple sample goals. None of the roll tables or snippets need to be used verbatim, though they can be. Instead, players can use them to set the board their character once played on and the board they will play on in the future.

In order, the pieces of a background in Orrery are:

  • The background itself
  • Quirks
  • Core Beliefs
  • Ties
  • Motivations
  • One background-specific aspect
  • Equipment and bonuses

For example, the Sailor background in Orrery inspires the player to think about their character's final voyage as a sailor. Where did they go? What happened? Why was this their final voyage? Is this what caused them to pursue life as an adventurer?

In addition, it provides information on what sailors typically do in the game's setting, sample personality traits, and randomized equipment all characters with a Sailor background can roll to obtain before the real game begins.

Crafting a Unique Class with the Orrery

Once a character's ancestry is chosen and their background outlined, they begin their journey through the vast Orrery, the RPG's namesake.

The Orrery is a skill tree. Presently, every character paths through the same Orrery, but that may change in future iterations of the game. Passive nodes called orbs grant minor passive bonuses to characters, while passive and active nodes called keystones grant characters powerful, varied abilities. They define a character. Other nodes do exist, but we will explore them at a later date.

Depending on a character's path in the Orrery, they can be a warrior who wades into battle and defends the weak, a raging berserker who hits little but whose hits deal massive damage, or a fighter who can home in on their foes and annihilate them with perfect focus. Eventually, a character could merge all three of these playstyles, becoming the pinnacle of their domain in the setting. They might even rush toward a certain keystone and then look for a portal node, which can take them to a completely different area of the Orrery. A warrior-centric character might portal into the magic-user sphere, or a gunslinger path character may portal into the divine sphere of the Orrery. The possibilities are numerous.

Here are a few keystones found across the Orrery:

Ancestral Bonds

Keystone Type: Active

Description: The spirits of your ancestors connect you to another when you rage. You gain 6 health points and +1 armor class. When you enter Rage, you may pool your health points with one other creature. All damage dealt to either you or the creature affects the pool. Once it hits zero, you both suffer the effects of hitting zero. This effect ends when combat ends or you choose to end it with an action point.

Explosive Surprise

Keystone Type: Active

Description: Not all bullets merely pierce. On a hit with a gunpowder weapon, using an additional action point causes your damage to spread to all creatures within 5’ of your target.

Mighty Blows

Keystone Type: Active, Passive

Description: Your rage strengthens your weapon like nothing else. While raging, you critically hit on rolls of 19 and 20. In addition, you can use 2 action points to turn a non-critical hit into a critical hit a number of times equal to your level per rest.

Steady Aim

Keystone Type: Active

Description: Sometimes staying still is superior. If you elect to use zero movement during your turn, you gain +2 on attack and damage rolls during that turn.

Wrath Deified

Keystone Type: Active

Description: You wield the destructive might of your deity in the palm of your hand. Once per rest, you enter a Deified state using an action point. While in this state, you gain +4 to attack and damage rolls, flying movement of 20 feet, and you may maximize damage dealt by one of your spells once per round. This state ends if you choose to end it, 1-minute passes, or you drop to 0 health points.

Your sneak peek ends here.

This dynamic system allows players to craft a unique class. While simple at first, clever players can take advantage of various keystones and orbs to create wildly powerful and peculiar builds. It's vital that although this is the essence of Orrery and needs to be approachable, it remains deep enough to draw players in session after session and character after character.

Ongoing Character Customization

Character customization doesn't end with ancestry, background, and their Orrery path. Throughout the game, a character will find incredible artifacts, potent boons, and develop their story far more than their initial background tale.

A few magic items, the essentials, are common, but all other items are artifact-level in strength. They grant awesome passive bonuses, gripping active abilities, and even concepts that entirely change the way a character plays.

Here is an example of an artifact in Orrery:

Enzoul, the Love Eater

Shortsword, artifact, attunes itself to he or she who wields it. Only death or great magic can separate Enzoul and its wielder.

This hauntingly dark blade is immaterial, able to transform into a sword of biting black mist at-will. Its last wielder, Casto the Butcher, passed it unwillingly onto Mia Stark. Where was the Love Eater previously? Perhaps it shall reveal that eventually. Perhaps it shall not. What is certain is what the entity within the dark blade seeks: consuming love and life.

While wielding and attuned to this shortsword, you gain the following benefits:

  • You can stow the blade at-will within your body. You may also draw it at-will.
  • You deal 1d4 necrotic damage on all hits with this shortsword and heal for the amount of necrotic damage dealt.
  • You gain the artifact keystone Relentless.

Relentless

Keystone Type: Passive

Description: Not mere magic nor lack of foes can sate Enzoul. Once per rest, if you were to be Paralyzed by a spell or effect, you automatically succeed. Separately, when you kill a creature in combat, you may automatically attack another creature within 5 feet freely.

Enzoul, the Love Eater, obscures its full potential. Who knows what other powers this longsword hides?

Separate from artifacts, boons are blessings from iconic patrons and the most powerful creatures in existence. They act like keystones on the Orrery but tie back into the story and world at hand. Each game should have a unique set of boons and each World Master should attempt to make them relate to the adventure or campaign.

Aside from mechanical and flavorful customization, every character in Orrery should tell and participate in a tale or legend of some sort. The story is at the forefront of the system, all mechanics feed back into it. Combat, the Orrery, artifacts, and all else seek to ease the World Master's and players' troubles with weaving stories with mechanics. At the end of a session, adventure, or campaign in Orrery, everyone around the physical or virtual table should emerge with a lasting memory of great times with good friends, built by a game that helped and did not hinder the final tale.

In Summary

A third of Orrery's three game design pillars is deep character customization, one of the most vital pieces of tabletop roleplaying games. Remember:

  • Ancestry is an important choice in Orrery. It defines character appearance, typical points of origin, and provides a set of interesting passive and active abilities for use in the game. Players should be encouraged to try out various ancestries as they play. Each should sculpt their experience in the game and world.
  • Backgrounds in Orrery provide a path to what's on the horizon: an easy way to connect a character to the world, set up a few goals, and place them with the other characters. More than anything, this should shape the beginning of a character's story and set them up for a rich quest of fun, adventure, and danger.
  • The Orrery allows a player to form a unique class and a character to be unlike anyone else in the game or world. A character's path through the Orrery shapes their present and future in the game mechanically and narratively, and it's always shifting. Luckily, it can be simple and straightforward, or as deep as the ocean.
  • Beyond ancestry, background, and the Orrery are numerous other aspects of character customization: fascinating artifacts, plot-relevant boons, the ability to shape a legend that will last a lifetime in and out of the game, and much more.

If you enjoyed this week's post, check out last week's article in which I explored how to start a successful RPG campaign.

Also, yesterday I released the first video in quite some time on the RJD20 YouTube channel. Give it a watch now!

Related Articles

Want More RPG Tips & Tales from RJD20?

As always, thanks for reading. Please send all inquiries to rjd20writes@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Why and How I Would Run a D&D Campaign in the Hells

By RJ on 25 April 2022.


Dungeons & Dragons campaigns rarely begin in realms other than the Material Plane. However, if we Dungeon Masters would like to attempt something unique and daring, we might look to the worlds beyond the mortal to kickstart our D&D campaigns. We might be tempted by the Feywild or the Shadowfell, perhaps the streets of the great city of Sigil, yet in this article, we are exploring what a D&D adventure based in some version of Hell or the Nine Hells would look like. Specifically, how I would run it as a DM.

But why? Why would you run a D&D campaign in the Hells?

Because a D&D campaign in the Hells would be dissimilar to any other campaign you've run before. The characters would be immersed in exotic environments every step of the way, interacting with devils of all types from the opening moment. Evil would be all around them! Think of the characters they could play and get away with. A D&D campaign in the Hells is simmering with interesting characters and places, opportunities for the players to create unique, weird characters.

The enemies they might face are countless; the Monster Manual alone houses a great number of devils, from the lowly lemure to the mighty pit fiend. Additionally, plenty of monsters can be reflavored to fit the Nine Hells. A bandit's stat block can easily become a troubled soul stat block, while a rhinoceros stat block can quickly transform into the statistics of an infernal war beast. A D&D campaign in the Hells is easily craftable.

How many groups do you know who've played a D&D campaign in the Hells starting from level one? Even if the campaign only lasted a few sessions, it'd be a story to retell for countless years. A D&D campaign in the Hells is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a wild ride waiting to be had.

This isn't Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. This is a campaign that starts in an infernal realm, surrounded by vile souls, conniving devils, and dangers unlike any in the Material Plane.

One day, I'm going to run a D&D campaign that begins and is primarily set in the Hells, just for the raw experience. Once that happens, I'll be sure to let you all know!

Okay, now it's time to think like a devilish DM and worldbuilder. How would I run a D&D campaign set in the Hells?

The Initial Hook

To prep for a campaign like this, I'd need to construct a few blocks, modular enough to be swapped around as the campaign progresses. They're big in concept and relatively freeform, broad strokes with plenty of room for interpretation. This initial block, though? It needs to be compelling. Grabbing. Provoking. The players must latch immediately, bite our proverbial campaign hook and swallow it fully.

So, knowing the campaign will be in some sort of Hell (whether the Nine Hells of Baator, a place like Eberron's Shavarath, or my own version of the plane), I'd write out three or four hooks and present them to the players. They get to choose the one they enjoy the most.

Here are four initial hooks:

  1. Escape from the Hells, levels 1-12. Sinister devils commonly fish souls from the many streams into the afterlife and bring them to their domain to act as servants and slaves. You are one of these poor souls, taken from the peaceful end you deserved, now enslaved by a cruel devil. As an opportunity to break free arrives, you might be able to recapture your ultimate prize, though it will spark the adventure of a lifetime.
  2. Demons and Devils, levels 1-20. You bargained your soul to a devil for power in life and now you serve the infernal legions in death, eternally. However, when an invasion unlike any other strikes, the fate of the Hells and the multiverse itself hangs in the balance.
  3. On the Styx, levels 1-9. Life as a sailor on the River Styx is Hell, literally. Yet it's profitable for all involved, as long as you can stay sane, swallow your pride, and slay the most frightening foes imaginable.
  4. Citadel of the Damned, levels 1-20. No mere entity, devil or mortal, finds themselves in the service of the Archduke of the Hells. You, however, connived your way into one of the greatest citadels of the verse in the deepest reaches of the Hells. You won't just need strength to survive, political savviness is the best weapon here, especially as the Archduke's primary rival makes a play for his position.

Levels 1-4

By far the most structured arc of the campaign, the level 1-4 block or the "starting adventure" is how we begin our D&D campaign. In Hell? Well, there are a few possibilities. For this block we need a villain, a few of their goons, a dungeon or two, and some sort of grand reward (on top of reaching fourth level).

Glancing over each prompt, I think the people I play with the most would choose the first one: Escape from the Hells. 

In the rest of this article, I'll lay out a general overview of what that campaign might look like from the outset, with the caveat that I always allow the players to change the course of the adventure based on their characters' decisions throughout it.

Breaking Infernal Chains

The characters begin as downtrodden slaves to a sinister devil, out on an expedition in a remote landscape, perhaps a mine for infernal metal or a voyage across a boiling sea of lava. By their own smarts or the help of a fellow NPC, a revolt against the overseers of the resource excavation mission begins and the characters have the chance to break their chains. 

However, this act pits them against their former master, an archdevil of the layer/realm of the Hells they're currently on. I'd suggest a deeper layer such as Stygia or Malodomini if you're using the classic Nine Hells. Stay away from Avernus! We don't want this to be an "easy" trek out of the most sinister realms in all the verse. Anyways, Archduchess Zariel has seen enough action as of late.

Not all bearded devils need to be green and armed with a spear, as showcased by boudicca.

This archdevil ascends to be the primary antagonist of the campaign and they send a maleficent lieutenant to wrangle the characters. This NPC must drive a serious wedge between the archdevil and the characters, pushing the desire to not only escape the Nine Hells, but take out or seriously harm the NPC's archdevil master. For a detailed look at which archdevil's currently preside over each layer on the canonical Nine Hells, check out Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. If we'd like to be a tad precarious, we could even choose an archdevil not ruling a layer, adding an extra element to the story of our primary villain. They're after the characters for escaping their grasp and attempting to topple the current duke or duchess of their region of the Hells.

The characters must defeat or overcome this lieutenant and begin their journey out of the Hells, which concludes the first act.

Levels 5-10

At this point, the characters are likely developed and pursuing their own interests in the Hells while advancing the "primary" plot. Remember, we always focus on the story driven by the characters, but they all must be united by one string. Many other strings may sprawl from this, side plots and character-specific goals, but they all weave into one masterpiece.

They're trying to escape the Nine Hells while outsmarting the archdevil antagonist. Generally, they should stick to the layer they're on for most of the act, with a hop or two to a different layer to make a key ally or recover a powerful artifact. If you haven't already, it's a great time to incorporate the River Styx, a waterway of bubbling souls and madness that connects each and every layer of the Nine Hells in the typical D&D canon.

Connected to the Hells

While the core narrative moves and grows, each character should also develop their own story or side quest. An excellent way to ensure each character is connected to the events occurring in the Hells is to build them from the ground up with the Hells in mind.

The two characters below are tied inexorably to the Hells in some way. As the big story progresses, their own story will evolve too.

Phalia Morningstruck. When Phalia was forced to serve in the Nine Hells, she thought her life was over and she'd suffer eternally. However, she found comfort in another individual who was taken from their afterlife. In the rare times of silence, they'd stare into each other's eyes and mouth words of unlimited meaning. Even in silence and eternal work, they found strength and compassion in each other. Yet, this individual was taken mere days before Phalia broke her infernal chains. She wants to find this taken individual before she escapes the Hells.

Gordo. Contrary to the situations of the other folk captured and brought to the Nine Hells from their afterlives, it's no mistake Gordo is in the Hells. This giff traveled from beyond this verse on a mission to find and assassinate a being of supreme power, called an archdevil in this particular verse. The "coincidence"? It's the archdevil antagonist of the campaign. While Gordo must escape from the Nine Hells eventually, he cannot do so without the head, soul, talisman, whatever he needs of the archdevil pursuing the entire group.

Levels 11-16

Everything continues to heat up here and many character-specific arcs likely conclude. Ensure the characters confront the archdevil villain multiple times during this arc, whether in the flesh or through some form of long-distance communication. At this point, they'll also be able to escape the Hells through smarts or spells (depending on the party composition), but if you would like to hit sixteenth level with this campaign, you'll need to give them a reason to care about the conflict and characters in the Hells.

Whether it's by hatred or love, that's up to you.

Of course, you also have the option of running a completely binary campaign. If the group's primary goal is to escape the Hells and they escape, that might be the end of the campaign. That's totally fine! Move on to a new story, maybe a new set of characters, and reminisce about the journey through the fiery fields and blasted peaks of Baator.

Otherwise, draw them back in with some of the plot hooks below.

One More Hit of Hell

Once the characters escape from the Hells, the campaign might be over. However, if there's a compelling enough story remaining...sixteenth level is achievable with this particular campaign choice.

Underestimating the villain, especially if it's a devil like this one by nJoo, is usually a poor idea.

Here are four plot hooks to draw the characters back into the Hells once they've escaped.

  • The archdevil who initially pursued them captured the souls of their loved ones and will only make a bargain for them back in person, in their domain.
  • A power vacuum left behind by the group's actions spurred the rise of a new faction in the Hells that is causing more havoc than any organization in the past. Multiple parties beg the group to return and deal with it.
  • A complication in the verse causes the group to travel back in time to the moment of their initial freedom, with all their memories intact, as soon as they exit the Nine Hells. What happened?
  • Seizing on its rival's weakness, another archdevil tries to kill the group's primary foe, fails, but weakens the foe greatly. The group may have a chance to fully destroy this incarnation of pure evil.

A D&D Campaign in the Hells

That's why I'd run a D&D campaign in the Hells. It'd be unlike any campaign I've run before and challenge the players and their characters in new and interesting ways. They'd be surrounded by evil, the environment could always be absolutely wild & wicked, and it could conclude at any moment at the end of a barbed devil's tail.

Would you want to run a D&D campaign in the Hells? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below or somewhere on social media. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Related Articles

Want More RPG Tips & Tales from RJD20?

As always, thanks for reading. Please send all inquiries to rjd20writes@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

3 Ways a Home Base in D&D Will Improve Your Campaign

By RJ on 20 October 2020.


Tuesday night. The characters of the Caught in Galen campaign are all gathered at what they’ve dubbed “home base”, a structure on the western end of their community named the Faded Ember Inn. After almost every adventure, the characters return to this cozy inn to recuperate and discuss the calamity that seemed to be befalling Galen. Concurrently, they confer with many of the colorful characters they’ve met throughout their quests and convinced to come stay at the inn: Rea, an aasimar acolyte of Bahamut and love interest of Ignis; Unread Book, a tabaxi turned mad by the beholder-like expurgat Ixigana; Blast, a brief enemy and current ally forging iron defenders for the party; and those are but a few!

At this point, the inn is nearly at full capacity and has been the site of at least one major combat. After a quick discussion, the characters prepare to depart. Alas! The inn’s owner gasps and points out the window. Barreling through the sky is a great airship, heading directly toward the Faded Ember Inn. The symbol of the Eldritch Knights: a suit of animated armor with a blade in one hand a fireball in the other, illuminates as a flash of lightning arcs in front of the flying vessel. More visitors to home base.

Fantastic.

The player characters are usually adventuring across the land in their pursuit of riches, power, and glory. They hunt green dragons in tepid bogs, delve into the ruins of frost giant warmongers, and save the world from the machinations of maniacal archmages.

In many of these situations, they might not have roots anywhere. The player characters simply squat in whatever town or settlement they are near: the joyous tavern near the river, the wizard’s tower overlooking the endless plains, the underground hideout kept secret by yuan-ti rogues.

They might already be deeply invested in the world and the campaign but there is an easy way to draw them in further. Sometimes, you might need to hint at it, others, they might jump at the opportunity without any nudging.

If you want to help your players and their characters care more about your Dungeons & Dragons game, prompt them to or help them construct a home base.

Art by Anna Stokes.

This act will invest them into your campaign and world, provide a plethora of plot hooks and quest ideas, and give everyone the chance to try out a new type of gameplay.

Improving Investment

When a place is your own, you care more for it. Compare an apartment to a house. With an apartment, you know someone else owns it. You call others to fix issues, are unable to make it your own, and are confined to a few rooms and a patio. With a house, you know its yours. You put time and effort into it, fixing what you can yourself and decorating it as you see fit.

The same goes for home bases in D&D.

If the player characters are hopping from camp to camp, to places they do not own, their care for each will be shallow and simple. Sure, they might enjoy verbally sparring with the sharp-witted kenku innkeep along the Eastern Way, or laugh hysterically at the cult of whispering trees that surround a druidic citadel in the Allgloom Forest, but their connections to those places are brief. You will be lucky if they last more than a session.

Once they own their own place, their care will rapidly ascend.

The player characters will ensure their home base looks interesting and resembles their adventures. They might decorate it with the rewards of their prior quests. They will also want to know who lives there besides them. They could invite a humble cleric or a reputable merchant to make it their own and start to build a following there. After adventures, they will have a place to travel back to. There, they might relax, recover, and recount their fantastic accomplishments and solemn missteps.

For these reasons and a few more to come, the players and there characters will become more invested in your campaign and world once they have a place of their own.
Here are a few ways you could encourage the characters to establish a home base.

  • The characters discover an abandoned keep in the middle of an ancient forest. With a bit of renovation, it could become a formidable citadel.
  • A wealthy patron offers the characters a plot of land and a blank writ of credit in exchange for the completion of a dangerous quest. They will be able to do what they want with the land, but it's set atop a hill and would make an excellent location for a massive tower.
  • Remind the characters that they're accumulating a lot of wealth...too much to carry around on adventures. Unless they want to open a bank account or hide the treasure somewhere "safe", they are going to need to set roots somewhere.

Art credit Wizards of the Coast (Hoard of the Dragon Queen).

Improving Story

A home base in D&D provides plenty of opportunity for Dungeon Masters to wrap the plot further around the player characters. In addition, it gives the player characters ample opportunity to pursue downtime activities unrelated to the main plot.

Let’s take a look at both concepts.

Improving Main Plots

My player characters currently station themselves at an establishment called the Faded Ember Inn. Many of their allies live in or around the building and almost everyone knows they’re staying there — including their enemies. Over the course of the campaign, this has given me a plethora of chances to entangle the inn with the main plot. I’ve achieved this in many ways.

The entire family of a noble house paid the tavern a visit, renting it out for the day and treating it as their own summit spot between them and the party. This meeting flung the Faded Ember Inn into the spotlight and highlighted the party’s relationship with this powerful faction.

A deadly thieves’ guild for hire working alongside the party’s primary foes attacked the inn. The encounter was quick and brutal, involving minotaurs attempting to steal away close friends and vicious halflings posing as jolly patrons.

Four high elves, heads tattooed with bulbous brains, drew the party into the street. Using their mind magics, they thickened the plot and revealed secrets about one of the player characters that might interfere directly with the troubles they were facing day-by-day.

Each of those encounters built on top of the main plot. They all used the party’s home base as a catalyst.

Improving Side Stories

Let’s continue to use the Faded Ember Inn as the example here.

One of the PCs works at the inn. He has forged bonds with the others who work there: the inn’s owner (Immi), her daughter (Nala), and a tabaxi cook (Unread Book). When the PC retreats to the inn to rest, he interacts with each of these characters. The owner, a fire genasi like the PC, has taken on a motherly role; the owner’s daughter has a crush on him; the tabaxi cook is his best friend. Since the campaign’s start, these relationships have grown and changed — all the characters have also had some hand in the primary plot. Immi provides safety and comfort for the entire group after an arduous battle. Nala adds a bit of bubbly positivity to the somber atmosphere of the story. Unread Book pops in to muddy the already mysterious plot.

Alongside improvements to the main story, this home base has provided room for the personal story of this character to grow. Without it, it’s unlikely this type of development would take place. Instead, the vast majority of time would be spent building on the main plot.

Improving Gameplay

Narratively, a home base provides numerous chances to build on a campaign. Concurrently, it allows players and Dungeon Masters to test and master new gameplay systems.

Here are a few gameplay systems you can play around with if your PCs hold a home base.

  • Strongholds and Followers by MCDM. This supplement creates a foundation for you and your players to build the greatest stronghold in the land, whether its a druid grove or a barbarian camp. It’s a super in-depth system with lots of room for customization, roleplay opportunities, and mechanical addition to gameplay.
  • Downtime activities. Many of these rules are outlined in the fifth edition Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Activities include running a shop, creating magic items, and constructing a following.
Both of these options provide depth to your game and, while being primarily mechanical additions, will definitely provide a framework for more narrative gameplay.

Art credit Wizards of the Coast (Volo's Guide to Monsters).

Skyreach Castle

Wizards of the Coast included an example of an awesome home base in the first hardcover module (Hoard of the Dragon Queen) for fifth edition D&D: Skyreach Castle. Discovered by the PCs near the end of the book, the flying castle could serve as a great first home base in D&D, as long as it survives the adventure.

When trying to hook your players on a home base, take inspiration from Skyreach Castle. It's a truly fantastic location and that's what we want our home bases to be.

  • It's the former stronghold of giants; that's rad.
  • It's the location of the adventure's climax, which should instantly fill it with fond and dark memories.
  • It's a flying castle!
  • It has an interesting navigation system.
  • It has a storied history.
  • It's wanted by other factions.
  • It has plenty of room for construction, storage of treasure, and housing for patrons and allies of the party.
Art credit Wizards of the Coast (Hoard of the Dragon Queen).

Lessons Learned

Encouraging your players to create a home base or iterating on the one they’ve already constructed is a stellar way to improve your D&D campaign. Remember what we discussed.

  • Home bases compound on your players’ investment in the game and world.
  • Plots that surround home bases can be personal and world-shaking.
  • A variety of gameplay systems revolve around home bases and downtime activities. If the player characters own one, this gives everyone the chance to play around relatively untouched or brand new systems in D&D.

Want More RPG Tips & Tales from RJD20?

As always, thanks for reading. Please send all inquiries to rjd20writes@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,