5 Epic D&D Campaign Ideas to Transform Your Next Adventure | DM Tips for Creating D&D Campaigns

[@Barquevious_Jackson]

3:08 - Reminds me of Persona 3, where after midnight a gap of time called "Dark Hour" begins and everything grinds to a halt and the entire world changes. For 1 Hour every one is frozen in death like sleep except for a select few exceptional people in touch with their inner essence, their Persona.

[@theGMGuide]

Hadn't played it or even seen it until people started pointing it out, but I can totally see that. 😉

[@Barquevious_Jackson]

@@theGMGuide The whole Shin Megami Tensei gestalt of media is such gold mine of creativity. It's Pokémon but better, and more internally diverse, and it came out first by like a decade. I'm not saying you ripped them off, just that they've covered a lot of ground and pull from so many real world and fictional sources to create a one of kind- aesthetic (for lack of a better word). It's like the best case scenario for kitchen sink. You should check out the wiki's "Demons" section and just see how they can interpret so many different things each in their own many different ways. These games are hog bonkers man. Each one has at least its own campaign in it.

[@amberlight5991]

I actually love the dragon idea, and i think I'm actually going to implement it into a campaign I'm currently brainstorming as coming up with an 'end goal' for it was proving difficult. Luckily, this dragon curse provides both a necessary balance as well as a story element that all the players characters will be invested in because the campaign at base I've been working on has been, at its base, 'Dragons doing a LARP', where the basic premise is that a bunch of different young adult dragons gather together to do their own take on D&D, but in the D&D world, while using Change Shape to transform into any of the various humanoid races to put on a faux show of being adventurers, while actually being adventurers. Maybe changing it from being a prophecy into instead being the players that unintentionally release this curse, and because they're all change shaped by powerful dragon magic, they're not effected...at first, but they are carriers for it. Then whenever they change shape back into their dragon forms, they roll a high con save or they start to deteriorate like the others.

[@theGMGuide]

Not my style but that sounds amazing. Go crush it!

[@Eretrine]

This video was exactly what I needed, absolutely love the idea of a world heart and a different take on the underdark. Thanks for the content, definitely earned a new subscriber.

[@theGMGuide]

Thank you so much, and welcome aboard. 😄 I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@chrisf7639]

I like the dragon plague idea. I can see a lot of room for epic scale adventures and battles on that one.

[@theGMGuide]

The dragon plague is one of my favorites

[@socialistmapper3060]

Bro I just watched this and realized my DM stole campaign two. I did not know that

[@theGMGuide]

I didn't post this that long ago. Maybe he got it from someone where else, or maybe he is streaming your campaign, and I was watching. LoL.... How is it going so far?

[@socialistmapper3060]

@@theGMGuidepretty good, and it DID start about a month ago so maybe he saw idk

[@theGMGuide]

@@socialistmapper3060 😀

[@FrostSpike]

03:10 Here's a variant on the Eternal Empire. Let's say that, at some point in the not-too-recent past, there was an Empire that went through a cataclysm and was unable to support its large population with the sudden lack of resources. Rather than falling into Chaos, the powers that be invoked great magics, made an infernal deal, created a technology, etc. and instead "timestopped" a different 90% of the population each day, turning them into lifelike petrified statues (either real statues or somehow their frozen condition just made them effectively like stone). Only 10% of the population kept awake. At midnight each day, when the curfew strikes and people are generally asleep, that 10% are "frozen" and the next 10% "wake" to find a world that has strangely moved on whilst they slept. Now, even though the cataclysm has passed this magic hasn't been removed and for centuries that civilisation has been working in these "shifts" and the general population might have forgotten why things are as they are. Could be there are some stories to be written here; Are there effectively 10 civilisation living in the same place, each one interleaved with the others? Would one shift want to wipe out the others - and if they did, leaving the fields and factories untended 90% of the time what would happen? Is there a problem that needs multiple shifts to work together for it to be solved? What if some people can avoid the nightly rotation - they could be seen to be aging at ten times the speed of the general population and would stand out. Just a thought.

[@theGMGuide]

Great take, love seeing the different takes people have on these ideas.

[@angelalewis3645]

Thank you girl the ideas!

[@theGMGuide]

Of course!!

[@rickyetter]

Been struggling with what to throw at my PCs late game and I think I may modify the rise of the machines for an excuse for an army of automatons

[@theGMGuide]

Absolutely do that! 😀😁

[@willhewitt2218]

Super good ideas

[@theGMGuide]

Thank you! 😊

[@simontemplar3359]

Whoah! The Dragon zombie-pocalypse is insanely cool! I am going to start writing immediately! Thank you for inspiring me today! new sub, just bummed I didn't find you sooner!

[@theGMGuide]

Really only been here 30 days tiktok for a year, but I love the longer content

[@jewabeus]

Thank you for these awesome ideas. My group is currently playing Curse of Strahd & I'm already playing it like a blend of dimensions with another dark realm trying to enter Strahd's, but the idea of adding steampunk in makes me want to throw in a steam powered car. They refuse to go into the mists, now I want to see what happens if a few really bad rolls causes them to drive into it. 🤣 That just opens up what else might be lurking in this land that leads to the next campaign.

[@theGMGuide]

That sound awesome, I'm a huge fan of fantasy steampunk, I would love to see it done more.

[@belgarath97]

The idea of the reality ending is cool... got me thinking... what if the big bad already won. That's where you start.

[@theGMGuide]

I love doing that

[@spencer2041]

Sounds like the Mistborn books

[@skinnycartman99]

I keep toying with the idea of players being drawn to a (mostly) water world desert island via a storm that travels from world to world throwing people out (along with whatever stuff they had ships etc. ) to the water world at the end of the universe. A place where in ancient times hubris of magic destroyed or fractured the gods of world and unleashed the storm. The world is dotted with old temples and parts of fallen gods, with new civilisations being forged from the people that land there - brutal pirates, god hunters, underwater drow cities (like diving bell spider silk webs under the waves) but as of yet I’m not sure what the story is and whether having a survival horror D&D game where you struggle to scavenge supplies for your crew mates is fun or type 2 fun. Ideas here also draw on Lost, Waterworld, the Poseidon adventure (escape the ship as a dungeon crawl?) and the idea of patching together a new god from bits of the old akin to Gloranthan Lunars or perhaps the avatar trilogy in forgotten realms

[@theGMGuide]

Sounds like a very cool idea

[@Efrostling]

2nd one reminds me of horizon zero dawn love all of these

[@theGMGuide]

I can totally see that. You know I still haven't played Zero Dawn but it has caught my eye a few times.

[@nirosenb]

Love the videos! Do you have any tips on creating a home brew world? Looking at starting up my first campaign here soon!

[@theGMGuide]

Yes whole series coming soon.

[@TheAzureSkyy]

Im literally running 3 of these concepts 😅 and can confirm they are a blast

[@theGMGuide]

That's awesome, which 3 and are they all running simultaneously in the same camapign?

[@TheAzureSkyy]

Rise of the machines, the dragon curse and the world heart, and no, they're 3 separate campaigns with 3 different groups.

[@theGMGuide]

@@TheAzureSkyy nice!!

[@lincolnholocinski-francis9063]

The fifth sounds like a Ravnica campaign.

[@theGMGuide]

I can totally see that!!!

[@azazelvictorique]

I was already doing campaign 1 😅 but it did help

[@theGMGuide]

Nice

[@meatKog]

Can't you just have an eventful game without the players having 5 classes each and gods being destroyed as a finale? Where are the lost days of adventuring in a semi-stable world, battling evil (or good) and raising to ripe old level building your own castle on the edge of wild lands or taking control of a small city once ruled by despots?

[@theGMGuide]

Why can't you? Sounds like a great game

[@calebcyphers9605]

Complain about how people run games by running games

[@tristanhalkes7782]

campaign idea 2 is just the lore of horizon zero dawn

[@theGMGuide]

I have actually never played it, seen it, or read about it, I saw it a few times on advertisements but that was it. Must be a truly original idea.... LoL

[@ThatGuyStevel2k]

Im into the idea that a dragon(s) start as domesticated and then turn extremely intelligent after a traumatic event or fed up with being caged. Then they are hunted to extinction. (Combination of the movies planet of the apes and reign of fire)

[@theGMGuide]

Actually I really like that as well.

[@IraDWhite]

Can you be my GM? Love the video. Thanks.

[@theGMGuide]

I would love to DM for tons of people. Working on making that happen. 😀

[@liamcage7208]

How does time stop for a Week? A week is a measure of time.

[@theGMGuide]

For those not affected a week passes while everything else is stopped. One example

[@jamesnell1999]

How about the party sneaks past some orcs by using the overgrown drainage ditch? Yeah, keep it simple. Draw great maps with real topographic features.

[@theGMGuide]

Nothing wrong with simple.

[@danadavidson2407]

*promo sm*

[@theGMGuide]

??

[@Kizzy-qb9si]

What would an elven family reunion be like?

[@theGMGuide]

Depends on the type of elves. I keep picturing wood elves like well spoken rednecks.

[@Kizzy-qb9si]

@@theGMGuide the idea I had was if all the subraces tried to make amends, but there are reunions on a smaller scale

[@theGMGuide]

@@Kizzy-qb9si I like that idea!

[@Kizzy-qb9si]

Although I don't know how it would be set up

[@theGMGuide]

@Kizzy-qb9si that's super dependent on the culture you have set up for all the elves the reason for the reunion ect... I would focus more on the purpose of the reunion and let it be purpose driven

[@Snoil]

Too over the top, first levels need some 1st lvl action before these very good ideas,

[@theGMGuide]

Remember, the backdrop of a campaign can still be there, and the players can grow into it. It doesn't have to be the focus at the beginning.

[@Snoil]

@@theGMGuide That would be a lot like how my current campaign is running. And they started with a classic sewer crawl. So far they're loving it

[@Drudenfusz]

For me all those ideas feel rather flat. They are not necessarily bad, but I find such impersonal saving the world stories not that compelling. And prefer to have me personal campaigns, with character arcs and thus things. But then, that is why I usually play other games and stay away from D&D.

[@theGMGuide]

I'm honestly really confused by your comment. I don't like this, but it don't play this, and I find this impersonal. If you would like to add to the conversation instead of a list of negatives, I'm down. 1) These are campaign settings, back drops for the personal interaction and story of the players. 2) what are some campaign settings you would like to see and share without taking the specific players at the table (we do this to give people ideas) 3) I support whatever way and whatever game you decide to play, instead of being negative how would make these ideas not be so flat.