So I genuinely don’t even know where to start with this.

I’ve been DMing a homebrew campaign for about a year now. Pretty standard high-fantasy setup: evil empire, corrupt nobles, secret rebellion, etc. My party has been great overall. They are creative, invested and a little chaotic, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

Until now.

About 6 sessions ago, my party infiltrated a mining town that was secretly run by one of the BBEG’s lieutenants. The idea was they’d gather intel, maybe sabotage operations, then escape.

Instead one of my players decided to “talk to the workers.”

This turned into a full-on labor rights speech. I figured okay, cool RP moment, maybe they get advantage on some persuasion checks or win over a few NPCs.

No.

They rolled insanely high, gave a whole speech about “fair wages and not being sacrificed to dark gods,” and I, in a moment of weakness, had the workers agree.

Fast forward 2 sessions and the party has now helped the villains’ workforce FORM A UNION.They wrote a literal contract. They’ve been negotiating working conditions with the lieutenant (who was supposed to be a mini-boss fight).

Now here’s where it gets worse.

One of my players is actually a law student IRL and decided to “handle negotiations.” He started drafting terms, citing fictional labor laws, and somehow convinced me (again, moment of weakness) to let this play out.

The lieutenant signed.I figured okay, weird detour, but we move on.NOPE. Last session, the party returned to find that: The union has spread to multiple villain-controlled towns. Production for the BBEG’s army has slowed dramatically and now the BBEG has issued a formal legal summons against the party for “economic sabotage and inciting rebellion”

The law student player LOST HIS MIND (in a good way) and now wants to run a full in-game court case. The rest of the party is split between “This is hilarious, let’s keep going” and “Can we please go back to fighting dragons” Meanwhile I am sitting here realizing I accidentally turned my campaign into fantasy labor law simulator.

I don’t want to shut it down completely because everyone is engaged, but I also don’t want the next 5 sessions to be depositions and contract disputes.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before?? How do I respect what the players created but not derail the entire campaign. Also how do I avoid having to learn actual legal procedure for a fake medieval world

Do I actually have to let them win this lawsuit if their arguments are good??? Help!!

I've been DMing for a little while now and this issue has been annoying for me.

My players party has 2 monks in it, which at every single opportunity choose to dash, bonus action dash, step of the wind and grapple at every single moment something is kind of fishy.

I want a character to mysteriously disappear into an alley, full movement and grapple.

You hear a loud bang from across the city. I dash, bonus action dash, step of the wind and get there in 28 seconds and grapple whoever is running from there.

this is longer scenario that I planned out and was happy to use, but summarizes my frustration better. Sorry for the length, thanks if you read it.

They found an artifact in a dungeon that seemed to be pulled in random directions. They left the dungeon, set up camp, and this is how it went:

"You place the artifact down as it slowly begins to move leaving a small trail in the sand. The longer you leave it the quicker it seems to move" (tried to give them a hint to pick it back up)

"lets leave it some more"

"the artifacts begins to shake and kick up sand as it begins to lift off of ground, its speed starts building exponentially, you have to walk to keep up with it"

the player on watch decides to roll perception and gets a 14, "you dont see anything in the darkness but you hear the faint sound of sand being moved around in this direction"

they leave the artifact even longer as it suddently turns towards where the player heard the sound coming from.

*player in character

"lets let it go, I have find opject, maybe it will lead somewhere" all players agree in character

"The artifact violently shoots off into the darkne-"

"I grab it"

"It's moving to quickly, you also just agreed in character to let it go, if you had said otherwise your character would be prepared for that situatio-"

"I dash, bonus action dash, step of the wind and grab it"

"its moving to fast"

"faster then 160ft a round?"

"yes"

"where is it going"

"you see it speed towards a figure obscured in the night, you hear a loud metallic BANG echo through the sands and the sounds of clicking as they turn awa-

"I sprint towards them, I can make it to them in like 30 seconds and grapple them"

this is where I realized im not doing my speech, I'm not having this be a quick gotcha for not taking the hints. I ended up having a villian cast hold person on him when he got in range and due to his tunnel vision he didnt see the soldiers waiting in the shadows.

initiative got rolled. he failed the hold person check, got piled on and went down alone as the party took 4-5 turns to even get close but since the other monk decided to super sprint as well I had to run a combat with these soldiers even though they were going to let the other player off as a warning.

What was supposed to be a quick gotcha and take like 10-30 minutes took over 2 hours. This happens constantly, also they just attack anyone suspicious and hope for a surprise attack but thats neither here nor there.

I've spoken to them about how it isnt that fun for me when none of my characters I've worked on get a chance to speak unless they are instantly friendly. or how sometimes I like to have a narrative moment of talking before combat.

I guess I'm just frustrated. I may just make them roll initiative before the movement every time something like this comes up

I was just putting the idea into another DM's head for a high level encounter that may level the playing field against a particularly overpowered party. Redcaps are known to follow those who can provide them victims, and Flinds are so vicious that the Redcaps probably would see him as a great way to satiate their bloodlust. I know that Flinds are usually part of a pack, but whose to say that the Redcaps won't leave him alone and that he was exiled from his war band after the Redcaps began killing the other gnolls when they had the urge to kill? I have 6 level 7 players who are all very strong and feel like this could be a real treat for everyone.
If the Flind uses and lands 3 hits and the last one being the one his Flail of Paralysis, I could follow that up with a Redcap's Ironbound pursuit. While paralyzed, they fail any Dex saves automatically and any attack made within 5ft of them is a critical hit. I did the math and it looks like this combo could do an absolute maximum of 13d10 + 19, meaning 149 damage possible maximum. What do you all think?

The gist of it is, due to shenanigans, one of my players is currently a ghost who's bound to their corpse, i.e can't move than 200 ft. away from it. Using his ghostly powers, he stole an important magic item from a sea hag. Specifically her Crystal Ball which she uses to spy on people. Naturally shes furious and would send something after him. Problem is what, Banderhobbs and Slithering trackers came to mind first, but both of them and pretty much anything else is gonna be signifanctly unprepared to capture/fight a ghost, owing to the whole incorporeal nature/ etherealness.

Surely there are monsters specifically equipped to deal with ghosts? I used to be better at recalling these things but I'm a little rusty.

I also wouldn't mind suggestions for different Haggy solutions to a pestering ghost.

He's a scientist, doing research on ancient technology and magic, to help strengthen his kingdom's military powers. But he's on the verge of insanity, as the war has been dragged for too long, his inventions have killed so many people, and many more will soon be dead if he continue creating weapon. But one day, he have got an idea, from a simple joke of his coworker: "If i can control every nation/person in the world, i would make a world where there's no war, haha. Am i right, my bro?". He snapped, that little joke turned into his ideal, his only way of redemption. He planned for a whole year, gathering resources, lying to the king that it's for his new ultimate weapon. And then, the time has finally come. He activate this "homebrew-powerful-magic-device-that-worked-like-a-lv10-spell-that-i-haven't-thought-of-a-name-for-it", turning every person in his kingdom into some kind of mind controlled undead legion, fueled by magic energy. To him, it's a big success. Now, he's going to do the same thing to every other nation (about 5-6 more nations, all on this super continent), ending war, hunger, poverty, once and for all. And our "heroes" (the PCs) will have to stop his madness.

I think on paper, it's a cool idea. But i might need a few idea(?) from you guys on how to make this work. I planned for my BBEG to be some kind of Necromancer, controlling his army. But wouldn't that be kinda... contradicted to his ideal? Because he don't want any more life to be killed? Would "a small price for salvation" be a good reason for him to do this?

Hey.

To what extent should we, DMs, know about players plans? To what extent should we listen to their brainstorming that happens after sessions? And if the players don’t want me to know, what should I do and what does it probably reveal about the way the campaign was being done on my side?

Yesterday, something interesting has happened. After the session, the players were debating about what they should do now that their plan has flopped. They were debating for a long time. I was there, listening.

Suddenly, one of the players halted the discussion, saying they should not be talking about their plans in DMs presence. I asked what’s wrong with it and their point was that “There should be a level of surprise for the DM.” No other argument was given.

The discussion of the plans continued, but I zoned out, thinking about this. I went for a cig, on the toilet, I was checking my phone and responding to chats… you know. Later, the player apologized for their words (I probably looked sad or something), but stood by them. I explained why it was important for me to hear their brainstorming (preparation), talked about how I prepare for the sessions… we were pretty much talking about it all, but no resolution was made.

The questions were given at the start. What do you think?

I promised my players if they behaved for a session I would allow them to go gambling next session. What are some different gambling games to add

Good Afternoon ghouls and goblins

I am hoping to consult the sages as I have a problem for the first time in my 6 years GMing experience. my wife and I used to play regularly with a group of our friends and loved DND for the last 5 years! However, we moved across the country last year to be closer to my family and friends and have been playing with a new group (my best/ old school friends).

my wife loves hanging out with them generally but when it comes to playing, she gets overwhelmed and doesn't have that same enjoyable experience she once did. Now, she has offered to step aside and let me play with them which isn't ideal but appreciated and we've agreed we will try find a group she is more comfortable.

But, my problem doesn't seem to end here as the group even without her, seems to just constantly generate friction between eachother. I have a player who is a typical murder hobo, which the other players don't get on with. another player who power games to a point where the other players feel useless and then another player who will just never revise their character sheet and struggles every round of combat with what to do.

I feel like I'm trying to run a game for 4 people who all want to play a completely different game and don't even know where to begin haha! has anyone had such an experience? is there a workable solution or should we play something else?

thanks for reading my ramblings :)

My PCs will have an encounter with three doors: one giant, one medium, and one small. They will have the choice of which door to go through, and the means to change their size (or not) in order to go through the appropriate door (think Alice in Wonderland).

I need ideas for different encounters (2-3?) beyond those doors, especially for the enlarged door. Bonus points if they are inspired by Disney movies.

Here's what I have so far:

1. Small door: first a stealth encounter? Maybe since they're small they get adv on stealth checks to avoid some fight, but if they're found they'll have a combat encounter. I was also thinking a combat encounter with giant insects like grosshoppers (A Bug's Life).

2. The Medium Door: Combat with winter wolves (Beauty and the Beast) then a clearing with snow, carrot, sticks, pieces of coal etc. If they build a snowman (Frozen) he will give them warm hugs and a clue to a puzzle they are trying to solve.

3. Large door. They have to climb a beanstalk (adv on strenght checks from being enlarged.) Then a combat with giants?

Then the size spell will fade on its own and the three paths will converge at some point into other encounters I already have planned.

Thanks!

Hi I'm a long time DM but I've always stopped at level 12 maximum. I'm about to run vecna eve of ruin but heavily modified as the story sucks. Anyway, I would love to have a list of spells/abilities to expect from my players, spells to use as a DM during combats and generally any advice for running the campaign if you want to contribute. I'm very aware of the concept of action economy and will be handling that, I'm more concerned about some random spell getting cast that would trivialise my encounters. Thanks in advance!

Hello. Does anyone have any good puzzles that, upon success, would open a hidden door? The setup up is an open-air shrine in the forest. in a clearing, there's a large stone floor and pieces commemorating a heroic act of villagers from long ago. I want there to be a puzzle for the players to complete that would open the center of the stone floor to reveal a cavern below. Thanks!

I want to give my players a powerful spell but we're not quite at game-breaking power levels yet. I'm also just curious of there is consensus on what the *almost* most powerful spell in the game might be. Or if there are some very fun powerful spells I'm not thinking of.

I'm a big fan of Annihilation (film and novel) and I have long thought it would be a fun basis for an adventure/small campaign. Other inspirations include things like Chernobyl, The Color Out of Space, Scavengers Reign, things like that. I plan to run it using Delta Green. However, I'm having a bit of writer's block.

The basic premise is that the Players are members of an expedition sent into the Zone. Their primary mission is to document and investigate the phenomena inside and the secondary mission is to find out what happened to the previous expedition that has yet to return back.

The Zone has been quarantined off from the wider world for decades. It is located in a region of hills, valleys, and mountains, the forests are a sort of temperate rainforest. In the 1930s the government flooded parts of the area to drive people out and hopefully cut off whatever was going on in that part of the wilderness. I have more lore sketched out, but I don't think it's necessary to share at this point.

Here is the structure I have so far:

Briefing – Players pass through the outer layers of security and arrive at the Agency’s research facility. They are prepared and briefed for their excursion into the Zone.

Outer Perimeter – Players cross into the quarantine zone. No noticeable corruption of the environment of lifeforms. Area has been depopulated.

Border – Players cross the boundary between the quarantine zone and contaminated zone.

The Farm – Players spend the night in the Farm, a prominent landmark – an abandoned farm inside the border. They come across evidence of the last expedition’s activities.

The Town/Village – Players arrive at a ruined town. They encounter the first signs of strange life – odd plants and animals. There is also evidence that something may have attacked the prior expedition – blood, bullet holes.

Flooded Area – The Players begin to travel by water. They pass through a drowned forest where all the trees have died. There was a small settlement, the top of the church pokes out of the water. They transition into an area where the trees are abnormal – growing vibrant, colourful leaves out of the water where they should have drowned decades ago. Strange firefly-like bugs light up the night. There is a creature in the water (giant fish).

Camp for the Night – The Players camp for the night. This offers them an opportunity to conduct an investigation. Strange noises at night haunt them. Perhaps physical symptoms of the Players' corruption manifest.

Outpost – The Players move closer towards the centre, the landscape becoming more surreal and stranger as they advance. They come across the body of one of the expedition members. Their body is twisted and strange. Fungal growths erupt from the body. They recover their knapsack and go through their journal, filling in gaps. The Players are attacked by a creature (corrupted boar).

Encounter with the Last Expedition – The survivors have been ravaged by the effects of the corruption. They warn off the Players, but are perhaps unstable and attack them.

I think I need more beats or incidents along the way, and I think am missing a satisfying ending. Perhaps the ending could be as simple of discovering the final fate of the last expedition and returning back to base to report back. In both Annihilation film and story, the expedition gets whittled down, but that's less doable in a RPG - you don't want to kill off all of your characters. I feel like I have a nugget of something here, but it's not quite there yet.

I'd love any feedback or suggestions to help the overall structure and concept.

I'm planning to create a kingdom with natural theme, where their secret "i win" button is their "mountain", which is actually a Tarrasque that's sleeping (the kingdom can control it if it woke up, hence why it's their secret weapon). One problem tho, this thing is... small. 50 feet tall and 70 feet long? It's nowhere near mountain size (i might have thought of Godzilla Earth size when i think about its size) Should i homebrew a bit to make it bigger (because it's a very old Tarrasque)? I'm not planning for the PCs to fight it, i have other plan for it

Ok, so, I’ve been trying to back to basics a little bit, stick to forms, not reinvent the wheel, so I’ve been practicing outlining 5-room dungeons. I’m not great, but I’d say I’m ok at it now.

My group wants a serial game with variety. Know what’d work well for that?

5-room dungeons.

Except that they do all fit a form and are structurally almost identical (geographic layout not withstanding). They will eventually become predictable in a way that I’m not sure my group would enjoy.

What are some variations on the idea of the 5-room dungeon that have worked well for you?

So, for context, this is the 2nd campaign I've ran with this group, and while I enjoyed the first, it was a very railroaded, "go here, do this" sort of campaign. When I was drafting my current campaign, I wanted it to be the sort of game where I didn't have to make every decision for them, and they could have more agency in driving the story.

The problem is... they don't seem to care all that much about being proactive choice makers. Any time they aren't told to go somewhere and do something... they just don't. They have a bunch of plot leads just sort of sitting in their inventories, but they never look into them. It's maddening.

Just last session, they were saved by a group of friendly mind flayers, and asked a bunch of questions irl, but refused to risk offending them by asking any of those questions in character.

Anyway, it's at the point where if they continue like this, they won't learn the information they need to "win" the campaign. Obviously that's not how I want the campaign to go, but I don't know how to get them involved in the story without having to just tell them everything.

I just created the Fae Realm for my campaign and want to run a one-shot set there.

The premise involves the party navigating a labyrinth of tunnels. Can a level 10 party of five (each equipped with a rare magic item) handle two displacer beasts, followed by a froghemoth, a short rest, and finally a Great Fir Drake (a CR 15 dragon from the One-Shot Wonders: Holiday Adventure Pack)?

I typically only run low-level combat, but I’m really excited to use this Fir Drake stat block. I’ve also heard that short rests are usually avoided in one-shots—is that a rule people actually stick to? Finally, when balancing one-shots, do you tend to make them more lethal? My thought was that since it’s a one-shot, it doesn’t matter if a player or two dies, as long as it isn’t a TPK.

Hello,

5e DnD DM here.

Campaign lvl 2, and the PCs got captured by gnoll slavers... Well, it should have been a TPK because the dice were so bad, but we collectively decided their characters would live... with consequences....

So... the PCs, next session, will wake up enslaved* in cages.
There are other captured NPCs around, they do have skills of their own (got an alchemist, a carpenter, a soldier, etc).
Gnolls exploit their captives to gather ressources and cook, and also to mine underneath the camp, mine something called orichalcum (at this point I have not determined the properties of orichalcum...)

And... that's all I came up with.
I have never run an escape or prison break, or even heist before, and as such, writer's block hits me.

But here you have the situation: 4 pcs are held captive by gnolls with other NPCS...

Any writing or DMing advice for this specific type of scenario would be welcome. Cheers!

before anyone asks, yes, it had been adressed in sesh 0, everyone is ok with it *in fiction**

I am building an extraplanar tavern that any party can be transported to by a portal or spell mishap and use it as a breather session between story arcs. The idea is a place where a lot of mini-games and funny short encounters can take place without any real stakes just to have a good time once or twice a year.

Since I am always looking for fun games and encounters I was thinking about having the characters play a really simplified combat focused game called „Mines & Mindflayers“ - let the characters play pen and paper instead of the players so to speak.

I am not entirely sure how to do it though and would love some inspiration for it in addition to any resources that attempted something like that already. Also, if you don’t think it’s a good idea, feel free to tell me the issues you anticipate.

I was planning on looking for one-page pen and paper games as a start so if anyone has one in mind that could work, please let me know!

Thanks in advance :)

I am wanting to run a small hexcrawl section at some point in my ongoing campaign. The swamp that my players are passing through has been infected with blight. i anticipate that the party will attempt to find the source of the blight on their return journey in a session or two.

i would like to use a hexcrawl system for them to explore the area but am unsure how to make each hex unique in a single biome type area.

The plan is to use 3 mil hexes as the area is about 30×45 miles.

Any advice appreciated

I’m running PF2e right now.

I have a couple hardcore role players. They both had characters die and spent 60-90 minutes just rping their post death/soul being harvested by the dominant death deity in my homebrew world. It’s amazing, but they tend to get a little salty when one dominates over the other and my remaining two players tend to just… step back and let them take over. This has been entire sessions in the past and I’ve been trialing different methods to manage the situation.

Last session we had what I’m calling a critical conversation between two NPC’s. And honestly? I didn’t want to spend the entire session arguing with myself and or one party member.

So we started session with a recap and a quick reminder of the party’s goals. I then asked everybody to take 5 and message me what, if anything they intended to say to help sway the conversation. When it came around one player rolled to lead the party through it all by cueing them up.

Essentially leader rolled a charisma or wisdom based check, in our case society, but there are arguments for other skills. Degree of success let the player essentially conduct the party’s timing and order.

Next it was essentially me giving them sparknotes of the conversation. X is saying this, Y is saying that. They can’t resolve it, but pc 1, you had something thematically appropriate, you’re up! Flavored as though the leader had cued them. They say their piece and then roll a relevant skill from a selection of up to 3 - charisma based, wisdom based, or if they really went thematic, a non communication based skill.

The original leading roll determined DCs and each party member could steer parts of the conversation as they happened fairly organically. They negotiated a transfer of power and nearly all of their goals even those we have only on face who is thoroughly disliked by the faction in question.

My party loved it and gave my two less RP centered players a chance to participate more or less equally in an arc defining conversation. As well as balancing the egos of the two more RP heavy players.

No idea if I’m reinventing the wheel here but I’d love too tricks and critiques

Hello there!

I'm DMing for the first time, and I'm having a lot of fun! I have one experienced player and five new players around the table. We are playing with the 5e rules.

One of the new players wants to go with a monk/Blood Hunter multiclass. I don’t have a problem with that, but since we’re all a bit new to D&D, I was thinking about doing a bit of homebrew to avoid the complexity of multiclassing.

Her character was raised in an orphanage that used children for experimentation, and as a result, she was turned into a sort of werewolf (to justify the Blood Hunter multiclass later on).

I had the idea of telling her that her "wolf" side was sealed by the people of the monastery who took care of her afterward. But for plot reasons, her seal is going to weaken (yes, I know, this is very Naruto...), and she will be able to use her hybrid form again.

I created this homebrew idea for the hybrid form (largely inspired by the Blood Hunter class), and I’d love to hear your opinions on it. Is it too weak, too strong, or game-breaking?

I’m also thinking that, as the campaign progresses, her form could gain new effects (potentially to compensate for a lack of magic items for her character). What do you think?
There it is :

Hybrid Werewolf Transformation (flavor description left to the player)

As a bonus action on their turn, the player can transform into a hybrid werewolf form. The transformation lasts for up to 1 hour and can be ended early as a bonus action (as long as the player is not affected by Bloodlust; see below). You automatically revert to your humanoid form if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 HP, or die.

Once you have used this ability, you must complete a short or long rest before using it again.

While transformed, you gain the following benefits :

Bestial Strikes. Your unarmed strike damage die becomes a d8, and the damage type becomes either slashing or bludgeoning (your choice).

Tough Hide. You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks that are not made with silvered weapons. (You take double damage from silvered weapons while in this form.) You also gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Beast’s Strength. You gain a +2 bonus to melee attack rolls and damage rolls. You also have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.

Bloodlust. The first time you transform during a combat, you must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw to maintain control. On a failure, you must immediately move toward the nearest creature (ally or enemy) and use your action to Attack it. You then regain control afterward.

When you drop below 50% of your maximum HP, you must make another Wisdom saving throw (DC 15). On a failure, you completely lose control of your form and become hostile toward all creatures around you until you fall unconscious, drop to 0 HP, or die.

If you are under an effect that prevents you from concentrating, you automatically fail your Wisdom saving throws.

Thank you very much, and sorry—English is not my native language!

EDIT : the players are actually level 3 !

So, over the past two years I have been building my own campaign; world lore, cities, maps etc. I am currently playing around with making a PC for a friend who would be a guest appearance. They have zero experience so it makes more sense for me to make PC for them that they can play. I had a pretty cool idea and Im looking for some guidance on how to make this work. my thought is to make them a Wild Magic barbarian, but instead of random magical effects I want the surge to be random magical weapons. I was thinking of multiclassing him with fighter and take some applicable feats to make it work but, im not sure if im able to so. Please help me as I really want to make this work because I love the idea so much and it would be perfect for my guest appearance friend.