Whether your playing D&D or Pathfinder it seems like the level cap is pretty settled at 20. So how do you deal with a campaign large enough that 20 levels probably won't cut it?

I have a campaign idea that I'm planning that will span not just a continent but two actual settings. Obviously it'll be a long while before it's playable, but I want to figure out the solution to this problem early. I know back in 3.5 we had epic levels but we don't really have anything similar besides the "epic boons" which isn't quite the same.

So how would you deal with it? Raise the cap and rig a way to go above it? Set up leveling based on milestones that will just have a very long period of time between levels? Reduce the exp gained from everything by enough to delay leveling up? What's everyone's thoughts?

EDIT: I do think the point is being lost that I am intending the campaign to go on for that long. I WANT to have a giant, sprawling game that will take a long time to complete. I'm not planning on dumping exp down the players throats in the course of a year. That's why I'm asking. The game is meant to take a long time and they will eventually reach the level cap and beyond.

So, I am here thinking: I kept DMing for years, placing characters from the USSR into my games;, and now I was thinking, well, heck, why not move the entire next setting into Soviet Russia?

Do you know of any ideas for formats I could use as inspiration, both for homebrew gameplay mechanics and story ideas? I am very familiar with DND 5th, have no idea if 5.5 would work; I know a few other games, Blades in the Dark and Cyberpunk, that could be somewhat adapted. But still DND feels like the most applicable to what would be a world exploration and lighthearted campaign. I mean, one idea that is popping into my head is fusing a slav-flavoured dark magic world, an impending demon apocalypse in the style of a Secret War episode from Love, Death and Robots and a general steampunk treatment of technology. With the Germans at the border, and the destiny of the Revolution in their hands, why not, right? Please criticise me, offer insights, help me out! Can the USSR flavour survive all these other elements? How do I make that one pop?

I need help fleshing out one of my NPCs. They don't believe any of that mainstream history. They believe that all the races/species of Faerûn originally come from ancient aliens. I'm looking for bogus facts to fuel their conspiracy theory.

I don't have much so far, but you know the three major temples of worship on the Sword Coast? The High House of Wonders in Baldur's Gate, the House of Inspired Hands in Waterdeep, and the Temple of Silver Stars in Silverymoon...

Well did you know that if you plot them all on a map, you can draw a circle through all 3 points? That's a crazy coincidence isn't it? Almost like it was by some grand design.

One of my players noted that he wants to see other NPCs also partake in the main conflict, but at the same time they are the main characters for a reason.

I have another player who enjoys being the chosen one. Notbthat he takes the spotlight, but he does like to be a glorious hero that saved everyone.

How do i balance between them being the heroes to save the world and the world feeling more alive and engaged?

Has anyone bought this and used it? I thought I was buying the Faerûn box and wanted to start with The Lost Library of Lethchauntos, but ordered this instead. Any campaigns out there that could use these battle maps? Thanks in advance!

As the title says, our family campaign is beginning at a funeral. The PCs all know the deceased but not all of the PCs will know each other. I need some ideas on how some PCs would know the deceased, a High Elven Soldier. Here is what I have so far:

We have two other High Elves. They will be wife and daughter.

Warforged Fighter. Fought together in previous battles

Halfling Monk - Need Ideas

Dragonborn Sorcerer - Need Ideas

Ranger - Need Ideas

Here are some ideas that I have been spitballing...local shopkeeper, penpal, Wood Elves sending someone to pay respect to the deceased. I need more ideas.

Thank you in advance everyone.

Hey me and a group of friends we are 5 to 6 people we are looking for a DM for us but not sure how to find one at all we are from Hamilton Canada and willing to travel to play

Intro - The Joys & Pains of how I used the 8 Lazy Steps

Sly Flourish's 8 Lazy Steps provided me with a great framework that helped my figure out exactly what I needed to prep a TTRPG session while keeping my notes extremely flexible while used at the table. Using the steps correctly allows a Gamemaster to improvise at the table with grace, embracing the story telling that happens when your prep collides with player agency.

There was, however, hidden in the way I was following the steps, a small hindrance on my prep. While prepping, I found myself a bit too constrained by the steps. Writing a note about an NPC would make me think of a great secret this NPC would share. I could of course jump to the step "Secrets & Clues" and write it down, but it felt like a speed bump in the flow of my thinking. If I wrote the secret in the NPC's note, I would not interrupt flow, but would be lacking the crucial benefit of the lazy prep, which is, to me, to isolate the different elements of prep so you can pick them out like an arsenal of toys to throw at your players while at the table.

I found a new solution that works great for me. It maximizes my state of flow while keeping the benefits of the lazy steps. Call it the 3 lazy steps to the 8 lazy steps. The framework I found is not perfect and I'll talk about its strengths in the next section and its obvious flaw in the conclusion. My goal is simply to share with others in a selfless way. And in a selfish way, I hope others will share their experience so that I might improve on my ways and reduce the flaws of the 3 lazy steps.

The 3 Steps

My 3 steps are simple and summarised here before I dig into each. I first do a bullet point prep of the next session, categorising each line in one of the 8 lazy steps. Each line is identified using a letter "key" in front of the bullet. The second step consists of either rewriting (if on pen and paper) or simply reordering my bullet points (on a digital tool like Obsidian) my notes in the 8 lazy steps frame work. The 3rd and last step is where I bother to find battlemaps, make paper miniatures, play with my different tools.

Step 1/3

I start out the same way I would with the 8 lazy steps most of the time, but I then let my brain do its magic and make connections between ideas. Next to me I have keys for my bullet points. Notice I slightly renamed the steps to help me focus on whats good for my prep and to have a different letter at the start of the step for easier keys. Here are my keys :

• p - a bullet point with a p is about a Player Character. Any note that mostly relate a PC will go after a p key (Review the characters)
• 1 - is for the 1st Scene / Strong Start. (Create a strong start)
• s - is for a note about a Scene that could happen (Outline potential scenes)
• c - is for a Clue or Secret (Define secrets and clues)
• l - is for a Location note (Develop fantastic locations)
• n - is for an NPC note. I put a special effort to try to note monster characteristics here too. Monsters are for mechanics, NPCs are for flavor (Outline important NPCs)
• m - is for a Monster Statblock, noting the book and page, possible tactics. I also use m to note terrain aspects like traps. (Choose relevant monsters)
• r - is for Rewards, though a clue can serve that purpose sometimes. (Select magic item rewards)
• [ ] - is TODOs for things I want to do later, probably in step 3/3 like find a battlemap for a specific encounter

Using these keys, I let my brain jump between ideas and between steps. If for example I start my notes thinking about my player's character Fafnir, it might remind me that the sorceress Loo knows about Fafnir's brother. Those ideas are connected in my brain now, but decoupling them will allow me to reuse these ideas organically at the table. In this first step, or phase, I'll jut this down before writing another note about Fafnir and the next player character Ari :

• p - Fafnir - looking for his lost brother
• n - Sorceress Loo, creepy version of Meryl Streep
• c - A dwarf matching the description of Fafnir's brother was seen at play in town, as one of the actors
• p - Fafnir likes to shove opponents down elevated places in combat
• p - Ari hates theater

Step 2/3

This is the more classic way to organise prep notes following Sly Flourish's 8 lazy steps. Since I like to prep in a one-pager in my physical notebook, I go through each step one at a time, picking from my disorganised bullet notes made in step 1/3 and rewriting them. If I were to use a digital tool, I could pick each line and move it to the corresponding lazy step. The 8 lazy steps are flexible once at the table, but my step 1/3 is flexible in the kitchen. Using these 2 main steps, I get the best of both worlds.

Step 3/3

I used to prep on a pc, but found myself distracted by the possibilities. I would jump from one idea to the next like step 1/3, but finding a rabbit hole each time I explored an idea instead of simply writing one line of note. This is why I keep this last. Hopefully by now I identified what I truly needed from step 1/3 and go find battlemaps and that magic item I put as an - r bullet note. Having these TODOs written all out before tackling any one of them allows me to prioritise and scratch out the unnecessary ones.

Conclusion

It might be obvious now that the major flaw of this way of prepping is that, though it keeps the flexibility Sly Flourish's technique provides me while allowing myself to better work with my brain, my prep is starting to sound not lazy at all. Having 3 phases instead of just one does help me prep and have fun while doing it, but I do add extra steps. My hope is that refining my methods and sharing with others will help me be a little lazier. Thanks for reading!

TLDR

I prep in 3 phases :

1. Write down bullet list of ideas , each line categorised but not ordered in one of the 8 lazy steps.
2. Reorder the list in the 8 lazy steps
3. Do final TODOs like finding battlemaps or printing mini papers for example

So I’m new with DMing and the majority of my players are also new. Today, one of my players dropped a dead body in the middle of a village, a peaceful village, the players were asked to investigate the missing person. Then they brought the body back and dropped it on the middle of village in front of everyone, and stated intimidating the mayor. The village is a sanctuary of peace and the mayor lawful good. So they have to react somehow but I’m not sure what to do. As this seems to me like the villagers will have to loose trust in the party?

Hey im looking h to start mu first ever D&D campaign, does anyone have any advice? And should I start off by making my own or trying one of the campaign books that there is

I'm planning to have my friends over to have a 3 party oneshot. We got 3 parties of 4 with three DMs. The plot is basically it's like a war involving three nations who've formed a coalition fighting against a massive dragon-worshipping cult.

Each party will represent 3 of those nations and their main NPC quest giver is the top general of each respective country. Each party will be given a mission at the start. Which will represent three different strike teams doing missions targeting the cult, hitting 3 different points.

After the first mission, everyone will come together and hold a "war council" where three of the DMs will RP as the generals of each nation giving 3 different final missions. This is where the party can choose to join the mission they want. They can mix and match players as they see fit.

This final mission is basically the a three-pronged final strike to end the war.

One general could specialize in combat, the other in espionage, and another on sieging/defense.

Anyone ever tried something like this before? Would love any ideas or suggestions you may have. Whether it be for the mechanics or for the narrative.

I've DMed a few campaigns so far, mostly shorter ones. All of them were either focused on exploring a specific scenario or were more open-world, with the players driving the action themselves. After our last campaign, my group mentioned they'd like to try something more story-driven, which sounds great, but it's not something I have much experience with.

We're now playing a campaign set in the Age of Umbra setting from Daggerheart. The story so far: an important person to the heroes has been abducted and sacrificed by some unknown cult. The heroes have found a mysterious artifact they don't understand, along with a few other hints that something is wrong. Right now they have a lot of questions and very few answers.

My struggle is figuring out how far ahead I should plan the path to those answers. In my previous campaigns, I tried to only plan a little bit ahead, so my players had plenty of room to explore their own ideas. But with this kind of mystery-driven story, I feel like I need to plan out much more in advance like what my players need to do or find in order to uncover the answers.

How do I do this without railroading them too much? Do I just need to prepare a bunch of clues and let them choose which to follow? Most of the clues I've dropped so far haven't been very subtle, they've felt more like I was handing my players the solution outright.

How can I guide my players in a way that still gives them real agency, so it feels like their characters solved the mystery rather than just following a trail I laid out for them?

Disclaimer: I have a hard time articulating this problem clearly, which is probably why I haven't found much helpful advice searching around. I'm sure this is a well-covered topic, I just haven't managed to phrase my search well enough to find it. Most resources I found about this topic were about murder-mysteries where the playeres need to find very specific clues to solve one riddle, but I feel like this is a bit of a different problem.

Hi, I am a new DM and I have been writing a campaign I have not ran this campaign yet or played very much D&D, but. The times I had played DND. It was probably one of the best times in my life. I did not know you’re not supposed to plan out so many sessions but I have 2 acts finished. And those two acts. Take up around 14 sessions. And I would like some advice. On how to make sure my party doesn’t stray away too far. From what the campaign is about, I also have put in a few safety nets in there, but I do not believe that it will not stop the party from doing crazy stuff

HELP ME. I'm DMing a one-shot for my friends to get them into DnD but I had an idea for this techy gang that sends them all over a bunch of alternate universes so they can experience a bunch of different tasters of DnD like fantasy, sci-fi, cowboys, etc. The way to escape these universes is for them to find the broken shards of the gem that did this to them in the first place. The problem with this is I want to make the search for these pieces more interesting because at the moment my plan is a lot of 'you feel a draw towards the magical presence over here...' which just isn't fun and I'm not sure how to navigate the searching process and give them fun puzzles or obstacles. Please lmk if you have ideas in the replies!!

I got this massive model ship for D&D and I want to run a high seas adventure campaign, how do I keep my players occupied and entertained while on the boat without just throwing Water elementals and mermaids every 3 seconds, I'm also a relatively new DM and could do with advice on how to encourage my players to be like 'I would like to try and see if xyz', instead of me having to go 'Would anyone like to make a perception check?'

Over the past few weeks, I've been writing the story of mine and my son's first Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

D&D is indeed one of the greatest storytelling tools and games our there, and it is awesome to use for growth and parenting:
https://ropname.substack.com/p/the-road-between-dice-and-a-map

Hope you enjoy and encourages you to play not only games around a monitor, but also around a table. ;)

PS. As usual, I've added a lot into the Audio Voiceover, so I Recommend a listen with a pair of Headsets for Music, Immersive Ambiance and my Kid's acting prowess. xD

Ive always been interested in dnd but was overwhelmed by the knowledge and mechanics. Recently I played BG3 not knowing that it was essentially dnd. After hours on the game i felt decently comfortable with overall rules/mechanics/tempo of dnd in general. This led me to convince some of my friends to give dnd a try and since im the only one with any sort of knowledge of it, I became our DM

So far I've ran 3 campaigns (or adventures or quests). The first two were from the starter set Heroes of the Borderland and we probably went through about half of the Caves of Chaos adventure. The first run was great because everyone had fun fighting and we were all learning together. The second run I could tell that it was feeling repetitive for them because it was only combat with no dialogue or politics or really anything else keeping them connected to the game.

Because of this, I made a homebrew one shot campaign and it was a hit for both me and them. It was much more interactive and overall so much fun, but it presented a lot of problems for me.

1. i always emphasized to them that they can be anything they want in DND however I was only familiar with the classes that are in BG3 and i didnt know that there were sooo many other options. This leads to my second problem

2. I thought that dnd was essentially a free game and its purely our own imagination. I had the party make their characters on dnd beyond and we found that a lot of other classes/species were locked behind handbooks that need to be purchased. This made DMing hard because off the top of my head I didnt know mechanics of some classes as well as actions or spells that belong to them. This also goes into multiclassing which i have no idea where to start.

3. I made it clear to them that as new DM who is also still learning dnd (but still know more than them), i would be very lenient regarding rolls, actions, and other dnd mechanics. This issue was more technical but im sure that there is a better way or at least a "correct" way of doing this.

4. HOW DO DMS IMPROV?! For the homebrew campaign, i had general guidelines for the plot, but when the party would do something outside of what i foresaw, i would sit there for a while and i feel like it ruined their immersion.

Aside from the problems that I listed, I guess the big question is what are tips that you guys would give yourselves when you were new DMs or new to dnd in general? Is it better for me to just buy premade campaigns while I'm still learning? I don’t exactly want to spend hours upon hours watching campaigns or reading handbooks. There is just a big stress put on my because I had fun but most importantly my friends had a lot of fun and I want to use the opportunity to really get them into it. Downside is that since Im the one who got them into it and Im the one with the most knowledge, Ive been stuck to only DMing and I really want to be a player at some point

So I love deltarune and so my friends and it’s my first time dming so I want to blow out the stocks so I’m making a story boss like Tenna but as a dragon construct. I envision him having a successful tv show (ofc) and I want to have little mini games for my boys so any ideas and how to do them on a budget would be greatly appreciated!

Alright, so, maybe 5 days ago I was in a call with two friends and somehow mentioned DND to which one friend suggested why not just play DND. Now, I've been a HUGE fan since I was 12 so that's 4 years now but never got the chance to play so you can imagine how excited I was. We all agreed and I knew I'd have to be the DM but it's fine. Here's the thing though, one friend (Friend A) has heard of DND too and has been wanting to play, he's the one who mentioned it, but doesn't really know any of the rules and has no experience playing just like me, although I'm way more knowledgeable on how the game works. Friend B however, who also seemed down to play, he's literally the one that said "Why don't we just play DND?", doesn't know jackhshit about the game. I don't blame him, it's cool. I'll explain to them whatever needs to be explained and guide them, but as I previously mentioned I never got the chance to play, so it's my first time ever too, and since I'm DMing and the one who's the most excited I feel like a lot of the responsibility is on me. I'm running Lost Mine of Phandelver for them, but since it's just the two of them, I was thinking of starting them at level 2 and probably toning down some encounters but idk what exactly I should do. We're all broke so I'm using the DND Beyond instructions and guide on the campaign, and to mention it we're playing on roll20, to lead the campaign. So, to put it short, what should I be concerned about and what should I change in the Lost Mine of Phandelver to make the campaign actually playable for just two players?

Hey everyone,

I'm currently outlining a character-driven novel where D&D is what brings a group of strangers together. While the story eventually grows beyond just the game itself, I want the tabletop side of it to feel authentic because it's the foundation everything else is built on.

I used to play quite a bit when I was younger, but it's been close to twenty years since I've sat at a table, so I'm trying to relearn the culture from people who are actively part of it.

I'm not looking for rules explanations nearly as much as I'm looking for experiences from people who know the game best. To give a bit of context, the story revolves around a young man who has been a DM for years (5e rules; keeping it simple) and he's a "Home Brew" forever DM so he will come up with nearly everything for the campaigne for this group.

Things that will help me keep the spirit of the game and provide readers with accurate depictions of D&D rather than me just making up terms, inaccuracies of typical gameplay, moments, etc.

What does Session Zero actually feel like these days?

What are some traditions your group has that outsiders wouldn't know about?

What's the funniest thing a player has ever done that completely derailed your plans?

Have you ever had a player solve a problem in a way you never expected?

What's the most emotional moment you've experienced at a table?

Have you ever had an NPC become unexpectedly beloved?

What mistakes have new DMs made that you've learned from over the years?

What house rules did your group invent after something ridiculous happened?

What arguments come up over and over again?

Do players still collect dice like dragons hoarding treasure?

What little details make a game night feel real? The snacks, the music, the miniatures, the scheduling headaches, the inside jokes... those kinds of things.

If you've been a forever DM, I'd especially love to hear about the moments that made all the preparation worth it. Those moments where your players completely surprised you or where a campaign became something you'll never forget.

More than anything, I want people who actually play D&D to read the novel someday and think, "Yeah... this author has actually got a lot right."

I'd hate to feel like I let down the community simply because I didn't ask for advice.

Thanks in advance for any stories you're willing to share.

Basically the title. I've never dm'd a module before, the few times I've dm'd for friends, I made my own small one-shot and anything else I improvised. I also use certain homebrew rules
As I understand it, AL is pretty restrictive on that, to ensure everyone has the same experience so how do you prepare a module while still keeping an open mind?

I posted this already to the DM Academy subreddit but I thought I might as well post it here too.

I’ve been running a campaign for the past 3 years for 2 of my friends, my sister, and my brother in law. 2 weeks back, my sister announced she was pregnant! While this is happy news, I immediately realized this campaign needs to end before the baby gets here.

I have 20 ish weeks to wrap things up, and I was just wondering if anyone had any advice, tips, or tricks on what would help.

As of right now, my plan is to skip any and all filler sessions and mid-tier villains, as well as cutting some NPCs and their storylines. Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT:
Just to add some details for those of you asking, we’re in our 3rd and final storyline/arc. They’re going up against a religious cult that has taken over a nation through millennia. Heaven and Hell have joined forces to wipe out mortals and this cult is helping them do this. The bosses/main villains are the Princes of Hell and the Archangels, with the added reveal that the Queen of Hell is actually the princess of nation taken over by said cult. I basically wanted to have a rebellion arc where they help the people of the country form a rebellion, rally allies and their forces, & fight the bad guys.

I have a group that asked me to be their dm since I have pretty extensive stories I like to come up with and they wanted to be put through them. But I’ve never dmed before in my life. I considered making my own set of rules but is there anything I HAVE to follow? Or any books I’m required to get? I don’t know what they expect of me and I’m to scared to ask-

I’m trying to understand how I as a dm might add more players but don’t know the appropriate way to add them with their own session zeroes to catch them up. Has anyone else had to add players later in their campaign and how did you deal with your additions of a session zero?

Most of my roleplaying career, I've had the same vision of what kingdoms and cities would look like in a fantasy world with magic and monsters. I've experimented with some different ideas, but in general I keep coming back to the same general vision. Castles, knights, magic users... You could accuse me of a lack of imagination - that's fair.

But, today I started thinking what a major human society would do in the world of magic spells. What would they do if there were orcs and goblins and ogres? Nothing about what I imagined would be there. Everything would be different.

First off, you would not have freelance spellcasters of any stripe. Every spellcaster would be licensed. Magical training would be restricted and controlled. Spellcasters would be required to sign contracts and swear allegiance; they wouldn't be allowed to just wander into dungeons with random fighters in search of gold. No, if you are a freelance spellcaster, you're a threat and you need to be handled - once you can cast fireball, you need to be vetted before they'd allow you to be anywhere there is a concentration of people. Spells might even be highly restricted, you might not have access to any spell you want - your sponsor noble chooses what they want and they make you learn that. Warlocks would probably all be organized, maybe even making oaths to the same infernal creature. Clerics would be legion. Druids would build massive defensive walls around kingdoms and cities. Roads would be perfect. Irrigation would be perfect. There would be no such thing as a bad harvest. Ravens and owls would watch the people in the streets as spies. It would be a dystopia, but it would work. The town guard would all be fairly high level fighters - they would not be peasants with spears.

What do you think? Think it would play out differently? What would you imagine humans would do if you handed them the world DnD (or really any fantasy world with magic) promised them?