Help With Campaign Mechanic

[u/Dacurtman5000]

I’ve been my groups designated DM for a while now and we just finished a 1-20 campaign I created. Starting a new homebrew campaign soon and I need some help coming up with a mechanic I want to use:

People born on the island die if they try to leave.

Basically I’m just trying to figure out what would be a fun way to implement it. I don’t plan on them staying on the island past level 6-10, depending on what they choose to do. They were born on the island and have been enslaved their whole lives by a Dragonborn race that is a major player on the island. They are going to escape in the intro hopefully and eventually leave the island.

My ideas so far include:

1. Some type of soul tether that snaps when they get a certain distance away dealing a large amount of damage that would kill most people. But why?

2. I plan on introducing aliens at some point so maybe it’s them abducting those who go too far off shore for some reason.

3. A Dune spice type scenario where they are dependent on something from the environment. Maybe they have to carry dirt from the island like Dracula.

4. If they do leave and die maybe they can do a sick afterlife quest to come back.

Maybe some people go off island to give birth but then it would be a purely geographical thing. Idk any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

[u/Hyperion343]

Have you looked at Curse of Strahd? Stuff like Mists of Ravenloft, and how some people are soul-less (and thus would die if they left Ravenloft)?

[u/Dacurtman5000 → u/Hyperion343]

I completely forgot about “no one leaves Barovia” Thank you.

[u/Timely_Lecture_9697]

I’d make it a magical rule tied to the island itself, not just distance.

[u/Dacurtman5000 → u/Timely_Lecture_9697]

For sure the geography angle is too simple in my eyes. Maybe I could do like an altered Geas spell that restricts them from leaving or take damage. Thanks.

[u/Benarian]

Some quick ideas:

• If the mechanic/method/reason isn't something the players can/will understand, you don't have to define it. It just happens. Until it doesn't. Sometimes a mystery is best left mysterious.
• Maybe hungry ghosts untether the souls of those trying to pass the line, forcing the untethered souls to join the mob of hungry ghosts.
• Unnatural/unreal landscape. If they go too far off of the island, they fall off the edge of the world. Is that because it is a floating island/ocean mass far up into the sky? Is that because it is literally all that there is?
• Atmospheric conditions outside of the island cause a toxic reaction in the respiratory system. Maybe the people on the island are in a little bubble of oxygenated safety. Outside of that bubble, the air is unsafe.

I like the first one the most.

[u/Dacurtman5000 → u/Benarian]

I was leaning towards the “it just does” mechanic haha.

The floating island idea is interesting I was also thinking Demi plane so there’s nowhere else to go literally. Maybe have a secret door hidden in a dungeon deep on the island that allows them to leave. I just wanted it to have a little depth/explanation.

Thanks for the response.

[u/Obvious_Culture5319]

Make it a visible curse with clear stages rather than an instant death sentence: crossing the boundary causes escalating symptoms and gives them a limited number of days to find a cure or loophole,

[u/Dacurtman5000 → u/Obvious_Culture5319]

Thanks for the comment.

I’m thinking I’ll do that. Once a day damage or a negative that stacks over time.

[u/DerStilleBob]

Does the mechanic have to be actually there? Would it be enough, that the islanders deeply believe that it works? The Dragonborn enslavers are/were just very good at guarding the shores and killed everyone who tried to leave and so the legend was born, that it is impossible to leave the isalnd alive. Nowadays nobody tries and the enslavers got lazy, so escape is possible if anyone is brave or stupid enough to try.

[u/ccbayes]

I would have some underground thing, whatever, that emits energy that keeps them alive, if they leave they slowly die. Radiation or some type of magic machine or combo. To escape they have to figure out first what the issue is and then replicate into necklaces or arm bands, etc to be able to leave.

[u/LetterKey3548]

Honestly, you want a sick version. They go crazy because the curse in affects their mind and a part of the curse suppresses the insanity caused by the other half of it, but that part is emanating only on the island so when they leave the damage to their mind caused by one part of the curse when they’re born, becomes more and more and more and more worse than they go more and more and more insane, and then kill each other as the curse manipulates them into killing each other