Common Cliche Campaign Concepts in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

[@scarletbanana6429]

Monty moves his eyes a lot I've noticed. That man is telepathically operating the cameras by the sheer power of his mind alone.

[@kazzsaru]

So GOOlock patron? Or a very high lvl AT rogue maybe?

[@exomancer3632]

@@kazzsaru Sorcerer with Subtle Spell.

[@alex2legit]

12:52 hehehe

[@lukedennison5368]

He controls them as a bonus action. He animated the objects.

[@madhurdhingra4525]

I-L-L-I-T-H-I-D

[@duffman2625]

The cult needs the Rod of Seven Parts in order to summon the Evil Overlord who brings about the Age of Darkness, and when that succeeds it becomes a Post-Apocalypse run by an Anti-Magic Inquisition

[@mattpace1026]

So, Warhammer 40k but D&D?

[@AdarinMonk]

I like the idea of "the characters start out in the Post-Apocalypse replete with an Anti-Magic Inquisition, wherein they must recover the Rod of Seven Parts before the Evil Overlord uses it to travel back to the Age of Darkness" just a little bit better.

[@Tselel]

You guys honestly have some of the best D&D content on KZbin. There are channels with more dense information/recommendations or more wildly creative entertainment value, but nobody quite strikes that balance of being informative and personable you guys have found playing off each other. Thanks, Dudes!

[@TiberiusAudley]

If you like Dungeon Dudes, I recommend also The DM Lair, he's a little more dialed up on the fun bits, but also very straightforward in his information without being dry. These guys and he are my top 2 DnD channels for Talking Heads videos.

[@DungeonDudes]

Thank you so much.

[@danielearnshaw8392]

@@TiberiusAudley he sounds too much like he is trying do a class lecture.

[@subduedpotato7216]

@@danielearnshaw8392 he's just easily distracted with rants. Still entertaining to watch

[@g3th_]

I love how you both critically assess the clichés and offer creative tweaks and alternatives to them. Also, thanks for not making me feel so bad about using them, lol.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I love the comparison between X-Men and the Anti-Magic culture. Got me thinking about upcoming campaigns. Personally, my favorite trope is the extinct ancient power. A civilization long past that had magic or technology way beyond what now exists, and these artifacts and knowledge are there to be discovered from ruins and what have you.

[@Temujin.Thinketh.]

Matt Colville said a really good thing about how all DnD campaigns are automatically post apocalyptic due to magic items.

[@g3th_]

I use the same thing, it's a wonderful way for low magic campaigns to not limit PCs' magical powers while tying them into the story. Also, no high level wizard NPC to deal with.

[@mal2ksc]

@@Temujin.Thinketh. I explicitly set mine as post-galactic colonization. Parts of the galaxy have basically been settled lightly by humans, and then more or less ignored when it proved impossible to maintain any sort of empire across those distances. Millions of years later, humanity has split into all these other races -- some natural, some synthetic, some a little of both. Also, there are still explicitly non-magical planets with conventional human populations on them. This is not a good place for an adventurer to end up, as there's pretty much no way back out except spaceflight. All planets in the galaxy are part of the same Prime Material Plane, and there is only one set of planes -- you go to the same Feywild, for example, no matter where in the galaxy you come from. This allows sufficiently powerful characters to transfer between planets, so long as they support teleportation circles. A lot of this was done because from the very beginning we realized we'd probably want to rotate the DM duties around, and this provided an easy way for someone to make a world that fit their vision while not contradicting anyone else's.

[@weefslider]

That sounds like Breath of the Wild! I'd take inspiration from it, I think they did it super well

[@VinceValentine]

@@mal2ksc Sounds a lot like Warhammer 40k sprinkled with Spelljammer.

[@Maninawig]

1. Every one of these videos have me smiling, stating "Oh, like ____ in Dungeons of Drakenheim!" 2. Clichés help 2 other ways: a) Simplicity. You don't have to spend exposition on concepts people are already familiar with. b) A chance to right wrongs. Like Monty said, they might be aware, but if they don't enjoy that premise, as long as the DM is aware of their hang-ups, the premise can be used for the player to write the wrongs. (Ex, saving a princess locked in a dungeon might turn around that she is a badass who had herself captured to find where the Chancellor has been taking her people)

[@lauramcmillan9592]

Ha, yes! At least four of these cliche subversion ideas have obvious prominent use in Drakkenheim-proof of concept! Really cool to see both the thinking behind them, and them used seamlessly in a story.

[@HiddenNerdySide]

Man, these dudes sure know a lot about dungeons. As someone who is running a "Rod of 7 Parts" style campaign right now, I 100% agree on your take. I've personally made it so every item is located in its own unique area/comes up in its own unique way. On top of that, I have a different villain NPC chasing that item who has their own unique set of abilities AND even have the player's backstories linked in some way to a particular item that they themselves don't even know about. It's helped the party (and myself, the DM) stay interested in how the party achieves their goals since how that's accomplished is usually widely different each and every time. Awesome video, my Canadian brethren!

[@roberttschaefer]

What does a Rod of 7 Parts “style” mean?!

[@HiddenNerdySide]

@@roberttschaefer Haha essentially it's a mix between the evil overlord cliche and the Rod of 7 Parts but with more complexity the more you dive into the motivations of the main villains and the actual use these items have. Basically, there are five powerful magical items that only work when they're together. However, their magic has also been sealed away by a blood magic ritual hundreds of years ago and they've been scattered around the world. There is a group of rogue mages who are after these items and the party is trying to find them before they do. There are also only two people in the world who have the blood required for the ritual needed to lift the seal on these items. So there are a lot of factors: 1. Do you just find the two people, drain their blood, and be rid of them? 2. Do you try and find the items and use the blood of these two people to destroy them for good? 3. Do you just try and kill/stop the mages? 4. Do you try and use the items for yourself? 5. Do you try and find out what the mages actually want with the items and possibly join them? 6. Do you do something else entirely? Essentially, it's an evil overlord and Rod of 7 Parts campaign but can be interpreted and turned into an array of other types of campaigns.

[@roberttschaefer]

Hidden Nerdy Side - very cool my man! Thanks! 👍🏼

[@agilemind6241]

I'm also working on a campaign that incorporates a "Rod of 7 Parts" but there is no set list of the parts so the party can essentially find as many or as few as they want, before facing the BBEG. The more they have the more easier it will be for them to succeed, but the BBEG is working on his own plan and if they don't face him before he finishes it, he will be neigh instoppable. It's really fun to come up with different histories for each of the parts so that every arc feels unique and different rather than repetitive. For instance one of the parts will be a well known artifact that is used to protect a city in the world, whereas another has become a symbol of the Best Thief in the World and has been stolen and restolen many times over, and other is sealed in a vault in a ruined city.

[@HiddenNerdySide]

@@agilemind6241 nice nice! I love that concept

[@kokosan09]

for somebody who is still putting together her first campaign, this is both extremely helpful and reassuring at the same time. and big compliments to the editor: the cuts are very well done!

[@DungeonDudes]

Kelly here, I do the editing as well so thank you so much! You made my day.

[@kokosan09]

oh wow, I didn’t know! seriously, you're an extremely talented editor. the cuts are impossible to notice in the audio; it all seems like natural pauses and I only know they're even there because of your bodies' positions 😁

[@_emory]

@@DungeonDudes Kelly I love your shirts :D I love both your shirts but I have a soft spot for the heroes in a half shell

[@deadcalled]

I was affraid my anti-magic organisation was cliché but i'm reassured now. Thank you for the content you share with us. Cheers !

[@benjaminrizzuti510]

I was just about to introduce some rumors about a group of people working to remove spellcasting ability from people in the session I'm running tomorrow 😳

[@canadian__ninja]

@@benjaminrizzuti510 Do it. A single act or idea can be cliche or perhaps overused, but what _comes_ from the idea is what's important and what will stick with your players. What is happening to the magic this organization is stealing? Perhaps it's being funneled into something that gives the big bad an almost unlimited amount of power when it's complete, or that the raw energy is the required resource to supplant a God and take their place.

[@noahmehringer29]

One DND group I follow has an 'academy' that monitors wizards and the like. Warlocks, Druids, Clerics and Bards are less regulated and Sorcerers are looked upon with a lot of fear. Key thing is magic above 5th level is illegal but that's only if the players get caught.

[@eclectic_nerd]

I love the "rod of 7 parts" trope, and I probably would have no issue playing a linear game like that. That said, I think one of the best changes to that trope I've seen is in Matthew Reillys '7 Ancient Wonders'. The party knows they are starting out at a disadvantage, and all they want is one piece of the artefact to have a say in the potential apocalypse. Almost every piece is a race, a battle, or impossible. But there is hope that the next one they might get, and they have to keep trying.

[@grinningtaverngaming395]

23:00 to 24:00 Some additional ideas: One piece is secured by a denizen of a swamp, say a Troll shaman. The piece powers its foul magic to some how alter the behaviour and physical attributes of nearby Treants, Axebeaks, etc. Another piece is locked inside a formidable citadel. The PC’s are encouraged (by an NPC) to employ a heist style strategy to retrieve it. Another could be held by a powerful curse. The curse needs to be broken in order to access it. As always great content dudes!

[@Georin]

The advice of using one cliche premise to transfer to another cliche premise for an interesting combo. I'm going to use it for the camp I'm writing for my upcoming sessions.

[@ciphernine9296]

What is the Infinity Saga if not a 7 rods, mixed with an evil overlord mixed with a "summon an ancient evil" triple threat?

[@arjan_mann]

Once again, the Dungeon Dudes release a video that is *scarily* apt for where I'm at with running my homebrew game- seriously this is like the 6th time, it's like you guys know what's going on in my brain and provide the perfect source of help haha

[@euchiron]

Doing a campaign now where the "rod of 7 parts" is a series of portals unlocked by various arcane keys. It's helping keep the structure of the campaign flexible because it allows many combinations of unlocked gateways to eventually reach the BBEG.

[@RepKyle95]

The whole anti-magic Inquisition thing where you mentioned "a 10% chance of summoning a demon" as being an argument against magic made me think... Maybe 40K would disagree 😂

[@ecp2014]

You guys are cranking out so much content these days! Thanks so much :)

[@jonasackerman9953]

It's awsome

[@DungeonDudes]

Thank you 🙏

[@johnquiett1085]

The way I did the "Summoned Evil God" was I made it a prophesy that kept reoccurring. The cult and the PCs were racing to thwart or fulfill the inevitable fight, until the absolute last fight.

[@sethmokami]

So you went with a Legend of Zelda-like approach, huh? That works!

[@johnquiett1085]

@@sethmokami Yeah. If they didn't stop the cult at level 5, they would have no chance at winning the boss fight. Once they got to the higher levels, the fight was more fair. But there were several chances for them to fail again along the way.

[@davidpellecchia4360]

My Dm decided to have a man ascend to godhood after the other gods were trapped it was a fun 3-phase boss fight

[@PersonsandPen]

"Is magic bad or good?" Is exactly the campaign I'm running right now! This video was a garden of ideas, thank you!

[@mattmartin326]

You can attach to most of these tropes the trope of the BBEG turns out being a tool of secret BBEG who is actually an NPC that the party has met or even considered an ally.

[@greatconfabulator]

I'm setting something like that up right now. The BBEG is actually going to be a player character from a previous campaign, used as a vessel for an evil god....

[@zbyszkoklockiewicz2149]

I kinda like the idea of mixing the evil overlord and age of darkness campaigns but in another way - what if the evil overlord was actually amassing all this power and creating authoritarian regime to stop the coming of another age of darkness, so when the PCs finally defeat him/get close to defeating him it turns out now there's a greater threat out there, so they need to step in and finish, what the evil overlord was trying to do, if using bad and unmoral methods? I'd play a campaign like this.

[@strangeenigma2846]

Fable 3 did this, overthrow the king then realise he was only making horrible choices to fund an army to fight the true BBEG

[@Hazel-xl8in]

Zbyszko Klockiewicz be careful with this, some players really won’t like it. don’t rip the rug out from under the players saying “they were actually a good guy all along and you killed them, aren’t i so clever? i bet you feel foolish now!” i know i wouldn’t like it.

[@zbyszkoklockiewicz2149]

@@Hazel-xl8in well I'm not saying I would make him a good guy, if I were to do that, which I'm not really planning to right now, I'd rather spin it like "well, he was a lesser evil that would have to be stopped nonetheless'

[@zbyszkoklockiewicz2149]

@@strangeenigma2846 I never really played any of the Fable games, but I guess it's true - "there's nothing new under the sun"

[@zbyszkoklockiewicz2149]

@@Hazel-xl8in also, important note - it would be entirely possible for the PCs to piece the story together before killing the overlord, that would be even more awesome :D it ain't no fun making players look dumb

[@TheHareedo]

Am I the only one who misses the old "sword swipe scene changes"?

[@talongreenlee7704]

I’d love to run a high level short campaign specifically based around destroying the Wand of Orcus. I don’t think you could do it in a one-shot, but I’d still like to keep the campaign short, based solely around this one quest.

[@ethancaldwell2422]

I'm starting up an antimagic campaign where an organization, lead by a very charismatic and convincing leader, has been attempting to rid the world of most of its spellcasters, except those who use their powers for healing. They believe that magic is a dangerous weapon that, if left unchecked, could destroy the world. However, they are attempting to achieve this by slaughtering every spellcaster they can find. I'm also thinking of making the leader use the organization as a front for gathering power for a patron that grants him power in return; haven't decided yet. But seeing this video not only gave me more ideas for how NPC's may think, but also confidence that maybe this isn't a bad idea. Lot of good quality content coming from this channel!

[@abishek98xxx]

Just a suggestion: you could add instances of certain caster NPCs being mind wiped to forget the use of their powers rather than losing their powers. And he starts another organization that runs parallel to his which focuses on rehabilitation of casters. And convinces the people that in order to get their powers back they need to pledge allegiance to his patron creating a following for his patron and an army of casters for himself.

[@biorph8597]

I am so in sync with Monty's Walking Dead mini rant/tangent. :)

[@GiveMeMarw]

So what you are saying is that I need to run a campaign whose story is set in a post apocalyptic world caused by reckless magic, with an Overlord who use his anti-mage paladin order to suppress the people and magic, while they are searching in old ruins for artifacts in order to summon a dark entity that can reverse the world back to when it was whole at the price of 10,000 souls? Does that about cover it?

[@eoincampbell1584]

c-c-c-combo!

[@corwyncorey3703]

Bah.. been there... done that... Twice. Lol kidding! Nice combo lol

[@mmelmon]

The "Age of Darkness" cliche reminds me of the observation someone made about Final Fantasy: "None of this shit would have happened if you just stayed in bed."

[@NapoleonSoares]

Someone sounds a little upset about The Walking Dead ;)

[@agrivaraes2841]

"...and I just wanna find out IS THIS GONNA WORK OUT?!" I feel this so hard. My spirit can't take it anymore.

[@OhNoTheFace]

I mean, it really just waffled and went nowhere

[@badmojo0777]

TWD, just like modern politicsin america, will NOT work out until wer get the petty greedy people out of control... sad and depressing but so true

[@darkbringer1440]

Instead of a rod of 7 parts I'm inclined to use 7 rods, each independently useful. Just like the infinity stones they can be used separately and as long as the party can keep some of them out of the hands of the enemy they still have a chance in a fight but obviously getting more of them stacks the odds in their favor.

[@StuffSayoSays]

So I'm running an "Age of Darkness" mixed with "The Rod of Seven Parts". In the campaign I created the nations of the world are separated by a very powerful magical barrier created by the Archdemon before being sealed away by a young Holy Maiden and the united army of each nations. Only the Goddess's Champion can destroy the Archdemon but before the Champion was able to do so, he was defeated in the final battle so the Goddess chose a young and pure maiden and showed her a way to defeat the Archdemon without destroying it. But something that powerful cannot be sealed away in one place. So 10 powerful guardians each took a fragment of the Archdemon to safeguard it from those who might want to get their hands on it. The campaign starts 20 years later, the Holy Maiden has become a mediator to the neighboring kingdoms and things took a turn for the worst as war is inevitable. She hired a group of adventurers to check on an underground sanctuary which she informs the party that she has lost contact with and she even sent knights to investigate but they never returned. With the other kingdoms hellbent on total war, she cannot send anymore men to investigate the sanctuary as she plans to mobilize her army to the borders. She sent her personal knight to guide them. The party reached the sanctuary, found our the knights she sent has all been killed and turned into minions of a Lich which was easily disposed of by the knight that's guiding them. After figuring out a puzzle room, and getting access to the main room, they realized that the sanctuary was used to hold a fragment of the Archdemon in which the Knight took it and used its powers in hopes to easily subdue the warring nations. But immediately gets taken over by it's dark and evil magic having the party fight him off. When the party got back to the Maiden they informed her of the situation and now she tasked them of looking for the 9 remaining fragments and their guardians in order to protect the fragments and prevent them from being taken to unleash the Archdemon and it's army back to the world.

[@HeyyItsDaleVODS]

Reminds me of Legend of Zelda 1 finding the pieces of the triforce and I love it

[@StuffSayoSays]

Pixel Perfect I took inspiration from a lot of sources mainly video games. Like later the party finds out that the so called Goddess’s Champion wasn’t dead. He was alive but decided to hide, turns out that the world had been destroyed 5 times already in the past, the Goddess recreated the world every time making her weaker. But the Champion started questioning the Goddess as why was he the only one who remembers everything. He clearly remembers the same people that stood and fought with him die every time the world confronts the Archdemon. As he questions the will of the Goddess his strength and resolve fades and with that his divinity too fades. Now he’s testing the party of they are worthy of his divine gifts before he turns into a mortal. Got the idea from Link reincarnation’s every game but gave it a darker turn. Basically I’ll give them an extra feat.

[@connorryan2715]

I’m a first time DM but a lifelong writer and fantasy fan. This campaign I’m writing has a dark overlord spin that I’m having a ton of fun with. I went with an evil god who was cast down and humiliated, sealed away. To make a long story short, to take revenge on the gods who defeated him he aims to create a world of undead to dominate and pervert the world of mortals that the gods love. My party has just stumbled into his slow bod to return to the world and we’re gonna see if they can stop his return, if they’ll have to battle him as he’s revived, or perhaps they’ll even help him

[@jamesoakes4842]

On the Rod of 7 Parts style game, if you've got an idea that necessitates the players having all 7 parts, there is an interesting failsafe you can build into the campaign: just have other people looking for the parts as well. If the players fail to get some of the parts (or perhaps show a lack of interest and go somewhere else) then npc's who have some of the parts can show up trying to collect the pieces the players have, or be willing to trade them for a favor. It's an easy enough contingency to design, and lets the players decide what they want to do without derailing too far from your central plan for the campaign. This also has the added benefit of making the world feel more organic. It makes sense that others would be looking for the same objects of power the players are. They can have their own motivations and be either allies or enemies. It does a lot of the worldbuilding for you by just fleshing out how your central plot would impact everything around it.

[@susanwalls3580]

When you guys got done with explaining the 1st cliche (Evil Overlord), I couldn't help but think that what you guys described, was Ainz Ooal Gown / Momonga from the anime & light novel "Overlord" to a T.

[@EitherProductions]

Your description of Evil Overlord x Age of Darkness is basically the central core of something that I just started writing out earlier today. What a coincidence!

[@CyberGhost42]

16:20 One way to mitigate this is make the players too late before they even begin in Age Of Darkness campaigns. If a cult is trying to summon some creature of destruction make it so it happened a month before the campaign and make it take 6 months to get to the setting, in that time the cult could be setting up rituals to boost the creature, or to try to make it arrive faster. On the flip side this also opens opportunities to allow the PC side to make or modify their own ritual to weaken or slow the coming doom. Mechanically you could give or take Legendary actions for instance. If the cult succeeds then the creature could go from having 3 LAs per round to 4, if the PC are able to stop the cult and modify the ritual (either the PCs themselves or a companion) then instead of 3 LAs the creature would be reduced to 2. This would also allow the players to prepare for a sabotage the arrival of the creature. Perhaps the PCs could change the summoning point so instead of the creature being greeted by a feast of cultists it's greeted in the center of a fort being surrounded by 2 floors of cannons aimed at its head while sitting on a platform over acid all under a spiked, droppable ceiling. Basically instead of making the campaign about stopping the creature from arriving at all, make the campaign about preparation and sabotage for its inevitable arrival.

[@mattkennedy9308]

I've seen a similar premise where the good guys couldn't stop the resurrection of the old evil and weren't supposed too, but rather they were trying to weaken it so the Big Good that employed them could kick it's arse.

[@lord6617]

My party discovered we are part of the "predestined/chosen one" trope last week, after like half a year of play. Suddenly tons of things clicked together, we discovered who the real (we think) bbeg is, and how we are representatives of powers of our world. It was awesome, trope approved.

[@SkuffD]

I'm running a campaign with a couple of these layered on top of each other, drawing inspirations from various sources and its gone well. 29th session is next week and the party is close to level 8.

[@etbenson]

This critique on these tropes are very useful for anyone and a good way of helping build up someone that is just starting out as a storywriter of any genre, or even a vetern

[@beckettgrabner5437]

You guys are great. Thanks for all the campaign ideas and tips.

[@murraytowle2123]

You guys really hit some great ideas and showed understanding of the cliches and how to make it fun for a campaign....really amazing

[@johnmobley9369]

As someone who didn’t necessarily look out for story, tropes, but happen to notice them across the wide variety of mediums I enjoy it’s hard not to put things into categories at times. I can only imagine being at the center of a story trove that is unfamiliar to you can feel grandiose and amazing and since it’s unlike anything else you’ve ever seen, Joe probably have so many opportunities to subvert it.

[@g3th_]

I feel stupid commenting twice but this video was really useful to me, it's helped me overcome my current writer's block a bit, so thank you so much guys! Your insight into narrative is very helpful.

[@nathanbartlett2770]

Together again good to see the dungeon dudes back in the same room

[@garyvincent7397]

My bbeg I'm running is a black dragon mafia fammily.

[@DnDandVideoGames]

My campaign using the post-apocalyptic setting. My idea is "what if the real world, right now, merged with D&D?" and is about what current day would look like if worlds collide. For me, to get over the hump of "why hasn't your world recovered after 200 years?" --- well... dragons just got teleported to a new world, so they are fighting over territory! It's a fun game and I like those kinds of games and players are diggin it.

[@S0lstickan]

Amazing video as usual! Oh, and the thing you mentioned about having this big massive end goal plot, but trying not to reveal the big drive at level 1, instead trying to build up the information along the story.... It's a great advice, and I agree completely! And... a great way to succeed with that is to do what I did in the current game I dm. Eh.. basically.. I started dm'ing last year, and while I'm an experienced player for many yearsm I was new to dming, so.... I grabbed some friends. They happened to also be new to d&d or in the case of two players, just a little bit, and a while ago. So.... we started with a simple pre-written oneshot adventure. (Temple of the Nightbringers, by M.T. Black), and that was all I had planned. After we finished that oneshot (took 3 sessions because we were all new, plus player shenanigans)...... weeeeee decided to keep going on... But not like, new characters, new story, new everything, nah.. we just kept going from where we were. So.... I literally can't accidentally tell them the whole big endgame BBEG plot line.. because.... I'm making stuff up as we go. x) The two current BBEG's I have are currently unknown to the players, but have spawned from other stuff... like.... one of the goblins in the oneshot adventures was... for some reason captured by the players, and is now kept as a pet by them..... yeah he's vowing for escape, and revenge, but hey don't know it yet, and are hoping for Stockholm Syndrome... The other one... was just a traveling merchant I whipped up in 10 minutes as a random encounter along the road, and.... has now been a recurring NPC showing up here and there.... and... eventually... things have been added to that NPC's,,, ultimately being tied as a major person in a worldwide criminal network, playing the public facade... But in the beginning,, that was just a traveling merchant.... So.... making stuff up on the go without any particular plan is a great way to not accidentally spoil too much of the story too fast, aaaand it also makes stuff WAY less linear, because you kinda adapt to what he players do and where they go. And when you come up with ideas, you write them up as potential notes instead of fleshing it out superbly, because... if you do, I can guarantee you that they will go somewhere else and all that work you just did... won't even come up. :P

[@anastasiosfotopoulos2966]

What a nice video! I have been pondering over a new campaign to DM for some friends of mine and so far I have constructed a very basic story so far, with the inclusion of some things that you mention here. But your explanation and analysis of these concepts is so nicely put that sets a great perspective for those ideas and helps make the expansion upon them much simple! Thank you!!!

[@sophialambert2616]

You guys are the first I've seen mention that if you're going to have a McGuffin Treasure Hunt, give your players options on what the McGuffins are. And I appreciate that you did. I threw one at my players several campaigns ago- when they got to higher levels, a faction of gods who were dealing with their own celestial drama tasked them with restoring one of the other goddesses to power after a treacherous plot incapacitated her, and she was needed to help put to rest the celestial battles going on. They were given a vague idea of what key aspects they needed for the ritual to bring the goddess back to her old self, but I left it up to them to use their knowledge of the world, and their personal skills and talents, to make each artifact out of various materials and spells they had at their disposal. The next section of the campaign was them saying ahead of time, "this is what we think will work for X artifact, and what we need to build it", and me crafting the encounters for them to try getting what they wanted. If they failed in one aspect somehow, it wasn't the end of the world, they just needed to figure out an alternate material to collect. After each scavenger hunt, I had them make crafting checks to complete each project, with modifiers to aid or hinder success based on the quality of the stuff they hunted down. In the end, they made all the needed artifacts, and pulled off restoring the goddess with a final ritual. To show her gratitude for their aid, they were granted some spell-like abilities and a special homebrew feline companion, who was the size of a lion and had a few special powers of its own to help protect them in their end stage adventures as the divine war was reaching its climax (the goddess they aided was basically Bast).

[@NordOwl7]

I really like the direction you took on this video about cliches, great job!

[@daemon_otaku]

I was thinking of combining the overlord and the 7 parts. A very simplified version of my idea is that there is some bbeg that wants to unlock a seal that is keeping demons, devils, or some other monstrosity sealed away. The bbeg or one of his lackies manages to unlock the seal, and the PCs, after defeating the bbeg, must find the now shattered and broken shards of the seal to reseal whatever was released. I might also add some of the cult idea as well

[@bassett_green]

For the advice on having the Inquisitors only in major cities, you can also invert that if you know your campaign needs magic in cities- imagine the "federal" government dislikes magic, but the enforcement is left up to local governments within the cities (and the city governments refuse to enforce that law). Think about marijuana laws or Sanctuary Cities for IRL examples of this trope

[@gromaxe]

And inquisitors being mages themselves

[@subduedpotato7216]

hehehe. The campaign I'm running right now has elements of each one of these cliches....and it is AWESOME

[@sorenjames1143]

Thank you dudes! My favorites on KZbin right now

[@linkmax91]

This is very helpful. I am running a “Rod of 7 parts” campaign and I take a lot of inspiration from Legend of Zelda. What I do to create a more dynamic environment is that the setting is currently expiring a civil war (the PC are part of the army for one of the factions), and the opposing factions compete to complete the “Rod of 7 parts”. The PCs also get sent of combat missions in-between dungeons. I have not yet revealed the BBEG so the PCs are kept in a bit of suspense.

[@GnarlyDude12345]

2023 was the year I got into D&D, I'm brand new to the scene. You guys have been the best guides I could have hoped for, thank you so much

[@negative6442]

On the age of darkness bit, one thing you could do is that if the players make enough right actions, the final boss that's getting summoned is significantly weaker than it would be otherwise. As for the Inquistion, instead of "is magic right/wrong" it could be the Inquistion is hunting magic users, it's so that they and whoever they serve are the only ones with magic.

[@d.k.t.3380]

7:45 "Game Theory" has an episode that answers this question for fallout: some known side effects of nuclear fallout are distrust and paranoia (as clearly demonstrated by faction leaders down to the everyday people throughout the series). Couple that with the cumulative, persistent PTSD from the many dangers of the waste (New Vegas DLC even has a questline directly connected to PTSD, and helping a doctor retrieve books to help him better understand and treat PTSD), and it isn't surprising at all that society has been limited to smaller groups and hasn't truly rebuilt itself, even after hundreds of years...

[@keithm8027]

"Players accidentally helping out the evil being come to life then the next quest being to undo the damage they did." So much fun. My players were trying to steal stuff from a rich artifact collector and accidentally re-esembled a demi-lich's phylactery unleashing it into the world.

[@ZachM525]

The summoned God trope a GREAT example of an epic battle / ritual stoppage can be seen in World of Warcraft vs Kil’Jaeden as he’s rising from the portal into the world the players beat him back into the hole as he’s halfway out fighting them, fighting the ritual process, and the ritual summoners from TBC.

[@Darkwintre]

So far mine have several villains 1) Vecna trapped in the Shadowfell trying to seize control of an ancient artefact the Crown of Rulership that he is very much vulnerable too needing help to return to the Prime Material Plane hoping this weakens its power letting him seize control. 2) Endemon the Guildmaster is trying to help free Vecna in return for lichdom his first attempt narrowly failed and now he's on the run looking to restore his fortunes. 3) Torag the Patriach a former Dawnfather Cleric now follower of the Strife Emperor his effort to seize power was overturned when a surviving Dawnfather Cleric aided by the Lantern Archon Kestra alerted Pelor to Torag's treachery forcing him to flee the city and underground but far from beaten. 4) The Grinner a former Royal Guard Commander and Paladin of the Strife Emperor he was recently forced to flee the city to assist in a pick up at the fishing port of Wrenn where his forces ran afoul of a Cult of the Cloaked Serpent that has taken over the Church of the Wildmother. He's a recurring nemesis intended as the big bad for one of the PCs whose yet to notice this fact! 5) Rhys Lythandor, Gith Warlock creator of the Regalia of Chaos and artefact that plays a major part in the campaign and his presence casts a very strong shadow over events in the game only time will tell before his legacy becomes more than a mere legend... Not sure if thats either enough or planned out well enough but it is a start!

[@zackaryw8407]

I’m writing a campaign where the Evil Overlord is an eco-terrorist.

[@qwertyuiopaaaaaaa7]

Doesn’t sound too “evil” too me 😬

[@theomegapotato370]

Poison Ivy?

[@ollep0lle]

Grimm If he killed your family to attain his goal, would you still not consider him evil?

[@juanvelasquez1930]

I did an elven warlord leader of an empire that is also a Eco fascist

[@guycalgary7800]

Way to real !

[@alexmehner8224]

I love the noticable increase in their production over time keep up the good work Dudes

[@gromaxe]

Combine their nicknames for this video, and get a Kobold BBEG! I'm gonna put it in my campaign.

[@drokangel]

Rod of 7 parts meets overlord/dark god seems like a common coupling. I’m running a game that has a dark god skin but is really a masked overlord that they are unknowingly working for.

[@agatheringofplayers]

Great to see you both together again and not the isolated videos.

[@andrewlegalley7161]

Funny thing, I'm actually going to be starving a campaign this coming up weekend that actually combines a few of these ideas, I didn't expect it to have all of them on this video, but I'm confident that I've come up with a good campaign plot.

[@עידוארבילי]

Dungeon Dudes, I had watch a lo t of your videos lately and I think this is your best. It is so Inspiring me as a DM and it's give a lot of ideas not just for how make a really good advanture it also help me understand how to do an adventure that put the players in the spotlight. Thank you and please do more things in this style

[@dgmisal1979]

Love the Morgoth reference... great mace swinging, flinging elves left right and center. Or maybe you meant it as a Sauron reference. I choose to believe it was Morgoth though.

[@metarmored]

Thank you so much for this content. I've usually avoid cliches and try to be original. Then, one of my players have a character that is trying to live all the stories that he heard while he was a slave. And in my head, I've got into an internal conflict about including those classic problems and adventures when I'm usually against them. This helped me alot with the creation process. Thank you!

[@thegamemeowster]

nice to see the dudes back in the same room! props to canada for being solid on the virus front. here's to more shadows of drakenheim!

[@Lobsterwithinternet]

About magical Inquisitions. I had this character who was an outcast from this island city-state based on a combination of medieval Milan/Venice that, as a result of a world-altering magical calamity, outlawed all magic and instead embraced technology and was in the middle of a steampunk renaissance with factories producing automatic crossbows and knights swearing clockwork power armor. And before anyone asks, they are very isolationist and are content to act as a trade hub for the rest of the world while protecting their own borders from ’outsiders’.

[@thehalfa95]

My first d&d group refused to use tropes or even common monsters because "everyone has fought a goblin"... I played for 3 years before i fought my first goblin, it was a magical experience

[@andrewdavis200]

It took me almost 2 years for me as a DM before I had a party fight a dragon in a dungeon and it was amazing. Sure don't need to add every classic fantasy trope into your game but at the same time, you don't need to reinvent the wheel as people think.

[@MerridianPrime]

Good to see you guys back on the same screen. I imagine you both feel more comfortable and happy this way

[@cordellschneider3917]

I have been working on a campaign villain for some time now on the idea of him being this mass conqueror much like the evil conquest villain. Only instead of being seen as a bad thing it's a good thing. He's a warforged with this mechanical army who basically protect towns and help the people live simple happy lives with a lot less stress. He views them as less than him but in his mind what better way to take over the world then let the people be unaware they are even being taken over, or even if they are aware they are so comfortable and complacent they are fine with it. The robots who watch the cities and towns keep the people safe and are not mad tyrants or brutal monsters they give people directions, protect them from bandits, offer safe walks in the night, help get cats out of trees. I like to think this adds an interesting dynamic for the party to face as this warforged would be the BBEG of the entire campaign.

[@zarokaleon4974]

My second campaign, they started in a town with an anti magic organization, ruled by a red dragon, where the whole land had been in 1000 years of darkness and had no contact with the outside world which was ruled by a half god evil emperor, and the whole objective was to gather the shards of a sword and reforge it so they could defeat the evil emperor once and for all so he couldn't cast the world back into darkness. Every single trope in one.

[@marcosaguilar5622]

My favorite collect the pieces trope, is to have the characters and head houses already attaining items of such worth that are not recognizable. Until the villain of said story grows an understanding as the story progresses. Maybe they steal one heirloom from a player that starts the party’s search for the “villain” maybe that villain is a righteous NPC doing the deeds done for the greater good only for the party to group up on a hunt or to remain convinced that the hunt is a bad idea. Giving the artifacts low knowledge but high accessibility yet maintaining it as the big mystery and the mode of understanding as the moral dilemma is a personal favorite story path for my campaigns to follow.

[@Tamashikiri]

I've been chipping away at a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting for the past while myself, and your suggestions on how to approach that particular trope got me thinking about just my ideas for my campaign setting. For example, the question of how society hasn't rebuilt in so long reminded me of how originally the setting's present day was set nearly 900 years after the magical apocalypse, but then I realised that would have made basically everything in this world unrecognisable to whatever came before, so I've since condensed the timeline down to just roughly a century; long enough that the current world is all that a lot of people know, but still recent enough that one can still see vestiges of what this world once was. Also, it's less of a Mad Max/Fallout style apocalypse and more akin to Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind or Breath of the Wild, where society has slowly but surely started to rebuild and adapt to the dangers of this new world. Some societies attempt to rebuild the nations and kingdoms of the old world, while others have started fresh from scratch to build entirely new nations. I've also tried to avoid the "everything is a barren desert" model of apocalypse for my setting, since worlds that only allow for one kind of biome are super boring to me. While the world's different environments have been warped by the storms of wild magic that plague the land, there are still plenty of forests, jungles, mountains, swamps, oceans to explore (although there are still deserts).

[@basicallyafk7494]

I feel like you guys have taught me everything about D&D... I've seen some of your videos multiple times ... I just got into D&D last August lol

[@salamshalom]

So good to see you two together again!

[@degarzet]

Thank you guys for sharing the common campaign cliches. This really helps organize my thoughts on what I want to do in my campaign. Appreciate your vids!

[@DungeonDudes]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DOOMsword7]

Rod of seven parts can be lots of fun if you play with it and my favorite way to tweak the trope is to have a competing team looking for the parts as well. Gives a little bit of spice to it. Let's the players be creative in how they tackle the vilians and how they out smart them. Maybe halfway through, the bad guys already have half the parts and now it's a heist to steal them back!

[@noahmehringer29]

One DND group I watch, Nat19, had a good example of an ancient evil being called upon in the form of a powerful demon, but they didn't find out about it until close to the end of the Campaign. And even then, there were several other factions who all had potential to be the big bad at the end of the game. It just depended on which group was taken out first via player agency. There were hints about what each faction was up to through random encounters and info gathering like stumbling upon a slaughtered church that had been sacrificed to demons, or a group of thieves and gangsters taking over a town to use as a stronghold while another faction had turned an entire forest into a Shadowfell-esque environment filled with monsters.

[@dianacarolina3399]

Whelp... that feeling when you're running Tyranny of Dragons and get 15:26 mins into this video xD At least the players were level 8 when they found out about the end goal but only have small clues on how it'll happen

[@keithcurtis]

Great job on approaching cliches and tropes from a positive, constructive point of view. Too many people react negatively to the power of familiar symbols and themes.

[@Chris-vg3ml]

9:53 I love the extra half second before the cut that makes it feel like the answer is "no. no it won't"

[@robertowens7457]

So my home brew game is similar to the dark age. There is a group individuals is trying to release three imprisoned primordials. However, they don't know that yet they are handling other quests slowly im dropping subtle hints of a darker power at work in the world. They are basically dealing with various connected quest without know it.

[@brennanforsberg1733]

I'm in a heavily homebrewed campaign set in the Kaladesh planeshift from Magic: The Gathering, and it has several of the tropes mentioned here. The government has a ban on magic primarily because the main resource used to power technology there reacts with magic to cause wild magic effects. Also we have rules for making cool magic items and constantly are creating things like a crossbow with bolts that can inject magic meth, a light saber powered by said magic meth, iron man style rocket jet boots, and the first wireless communication devices in the universe.

[@mjr8888]

Well, thank you guys for this video. I am using the last two tropes together, actually for my very first campaign so these tips do help. Though I'm gonna talk about the plot just in case anyone wants to throw in any advice that be great? First off, it is what would be considered to be a glorified fetch quest. The item pieces they need to collect are shards of an orb that once assembled is basically The Weave in physical form. It's basically a "knot" of magical lines all coming together and forming into this crystal. If whole, it grants the user the use of a Wish spell, but has a 50% chance of shattering. It was how the Raven Queen came to be, she found it, wished for the death of the god of Death, then wished to take that God's place, and that second wish shattered the orb, sending pieces all across the PMP. Now, it's been hundreds of years, so how come no one else has found and restored it? Well, since the pieces are basically the Weave in physical form, and since the Weave is basically a layer that is underneath the physical layer of our world (as I see it), then when you try to find it by any magical means, you're basically looking for magic, in a magic world; it's hard to find something that is tied into the fabric of reality. You can only find it by physically searching for it, which you can hunt down by looking into folklore, etc. Now, a bit of my world: 80% of the drow population turned their backs on Lolth and joined with Eilistraee after a long uprising. It was bloody, and those drow left the Underdark and live within a settlement in a mountain range. Lolth, knowing of the Orb and it's pieces, is trying to find it to be allowed back into the PMP (the Gods are physically locked out). Tiamat has joined in to help because she wants the fuck out of Avernus. So, there are two cults trying to find the pieces, and when the campaign starts, they already have some pieces, so they know they can find the rest. The major problem is drawing this out so the players can reach higher levels, and also thinking of what the pieces can do when they start being put together, because obviously the more you have the stronger it is and more you can do with it.

[@knate44]

OK, raise your hand if you want a Wall-E D&D splat book. Just me? OK fair.

[@dakat5131]

24:00 I've had an idea like that where, on the surface it looks a lot like something that exists, there are ideas I really like- but yet the core story and how it plays out ends up being very different. I don't necessarily disagree with the source material, but yet there's a specific spin I wanted to try out

[@frostdragonking5336]

In my setting, there is a continent which magic is outlawed in not because it's bad or "dangerous" in a sense that they fear it's regular form of destruction, but rather because there a very good sturdy material used in their construction to their homes which reacts somewhat violently to magic for an unknown reason.

[@owl4115]

Follow-up to the Rod of Seven Parts - Thundercats (2011) leaned heavily into this trope with the power stones, one of which already resided in Liono's Sword of Omens. Could be cool to make an object(s) already in the PCs possession part of the MacGuffin. And the answer to how they came into the possession of the PCs could be side quests, or a whole other campaign.

[@davidpellecchia4360]

Thinking about my last campaign’s bbeg is almost like a combination of Evil Overlord and Age of Darkness. One man who was a bit misunderstood tried to ascend to godhood after leading a coup de at. In the final battle we fought him after he had ascended (his domain was materia (and was allowed to because all gods were almost powerless because of a divine gate))

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

A nice shortcut for the Rod of 7 Parts is for the players to have allied groups working with them. Maybe those allies have gathered 5 out of the 7 parts concurrent to the player's actions, and some intel is known about the last two locations. Then the players get to 'choose' their next dungeon crawl. It's also a good way for the world to exist and flow with its own agency without detracting from player choice.

[@T3h_Marganus]

I'm starting session 1 of a campaign this weekend, and decided that Neverwinter now has its own Adventurer's Guild because we all know how much Neverember LOVES his adventurers and their stories. The PC's are going to have a series of one-shots until level 3 where they get some renown and then an actual storyline starts to form. It's a 2 player campaign so I'm going to be giving each of them a "sidekick", an NPC they control in combat but I control in RP/exploration (who make zero decisions or skill checks unless asked by the PC's specifically) and the choices of sidekicks I've created can make for some interesting RP within the party, as well as the NPC's that inhabit the Guild. I'm debating on what the actual story arc will be once they get to it, I haven't actually planned that far ahead.

[@novaprime9084]

Always love your content. Was working on a campaign and now have a better idea for its structure. Kind of post apocalyptic but the players would have a chance to rebuild and influence this city.

[@Klaital1]

One of my favorites, which wasn't mentioned here, is one where the player characters create their own villain, which is kind of what you did in dungeon of drakkenheim with the rat prince, although I assume that wasn't pre-planned by Monty and just kind of happened organically during the campaign. But anyways, something like early on in the campaign, create a situation where the player characters have to choose one of several different factions/individuals to side up with, and then after they help those people get into power, they will then later become the main villain and the characters will then have to face the consequences of their previous actions.

[@msmaggie357]

Wow. AMAZING video guys. You should be very proud. I will be referring to this again later to take notes and sharing with ALL my DM friends. Stellar work.

[@Mathlover91]

I'm writing a campaign that I feel mixes a several of these. The overlying is the many parts that my characters will need to collect, while dealing with an evil force trying to return to the world, while an overlord leads the charge. The overlord isn't necessarily evil, but doing what he thinks would help his people/organization survive in the world. However, there are a few player characters that have the mission to insure the "treasures" are not gathered and used against the evil force. I'm basing this loosely on Pirates of Dark Water. The "traitors" will help gather the treasures but not allow them to make it to the lighthouse to chase back the dark water.

[@deathbyd4]

I'm always prepared for the "Big Bad Evil Guy" in every campaign to eventually pop up. It's a prominent cliche, but it's also one that can be done well and organically, so I don't discourage its use even to newer DMs, as it can still be a nice way to just get things rolling for their long term campaigns. That said, I do tell them to avoid ripping off a famous media property. I don't think anyone would enjoy having to quest across the world just to throw an evil ring into a volcano.

[@GoodOldGamer]

Another way to spice up a campaign is to have a semi-friendly rival group of NPC adventurers in the background, especially if you're collecting items to beat the bad guy with. If your party messes up and doesn't get one or two, and feels like they might not make it, their rivals could show up in a clutch moment before the final battle with those items. Depending on the RP, they could join forces together, or try to one up each other during the battle and beat the baddies anyway, with a 'until we meet again' rematch promise and sequel bait at the end.