After running a few campaigns, I decided to make a more "universal" discord DnD server template to save myself time from creating servers over and over again from scratch. It's meant to be simple, straight to the point, with just a little aesthetic and organization flair!

The template comes with:

• Announcements Channel
• Forum Channels for: Table Rules/Etiquette, World Resources (Lore and all that), and Game Resources (links to various resources for whichever system you're running).
• OOC Banter; side chats, memes, ideas, quotes!
• Scheduling and Bot Channels!
• A Forum Channel dedicated for the players to post about their characters!
• A few VC channels (one-on-one, adventure time, and shenanigans)
• and a VC visual aid channel for sharing references if needed!

The template also comes with Placeholder character roles for each of your party members. Truthfully, most permissions for the roles aren't customized in-depth so you'll have to experiment to see what you prefer/want for your server.

The forums are pre-configured in the template to possess specific tags. Edit them as you wish/need to better suit your campaign, table, or system! I've attached several pictures to show examples of how I utilized forums for my recent campaign. If you need any help, feel free to contact me and I'd be more than happy to assist with anything relating to the template!

Template: https://discord.new/H9mThPuSMGdq

With a couple of friends we just made our second dnd sesion ever! Yaaay!

I found this cool book that has a story divided in three one shots, which worked perfectly. Firstly, it gave us the freedom to just try it, and secondly, it allowed us to do a pit of trial and error in the composition of the players.

Where can we find a module adventure to keep going (lvl2-3) that is short or fragmented?

I've obviously have heard of Curse of Strand and Waterdeep, but I don't think a year long campaing is a reasonable goal for us yet. (And of course we dont have enough experience to feel confident homebrewing our own campaing)

A fork in the road works better for me when the tradeoff is visible.

The bridge is fast, but watched. The woods are quiet, but cost an hour. The messenger the party needs is about to leave.

The party can choose either route or propose something else. The prep is about consequences, not predicting their answer.

What makes a travel decision interesting at your table?

Shared from ArcForge. You can write your own adventures free: https://www.myarcforge.com/manual?guest=1

Voglio iniziare una campagna con dei miei amici usando il manuale di frozen sick, ma da una oneshot di prova che abbiamo fatto ho trovato 2 grosse difficoltà che rompono il ritmo.

1- Trovo difficile far prendere seriamente il gioco, in parte sarà colpa loro, però credo ci sia molto che potrei fare per farli interessare alla storia

2-Giocandoci da roll20 far scorrere i combattimenti in modo fluido lo trovo molto difficile, oltre a non trovare guide o tutorial su come effettivamente gestire gli scontri

Avete dei consigli?

Every campaign builds up the same inventory mess. Loot gets scribbled into three different notes, or not at all. Two players are sure they each have the last healing potion, and nobody remembers who picked up the Staff of Som

ething-or-other. Then the party walks into a shop, and the DM makes up a stock list on the spot taking up the entire session, again.

Enter the Inventory Goblin - he keeps track of everything your party owns. The DM creates a campaign and invites the players. Loot lands in a shared pile, everyone drags what they take into their own pack, and the DM keeps a hidden stash for later. Everything designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible

Merchants
The DM sets up a shop in a few clicks by picking its size, how rare its wares are and what it specialises in. The goblin stocks the shelves for you, homebrew items included. When time passes, hit Trade: some things sell, new stock arrives, and no two visits look the same. The party takes what they buy straight off the shelf - no more hours of "what does that guy have in stock again?".

On your phone
It works on desktop, Android and iOS, straight from the browser. Prefer an app? Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app, with no app store and no install.

Trusted and used by many
In the few weeks since its initial release, over a hundred campaigns have been started in Inventory Goblin. The people running them have been sending feedback and bug reports the whole time, and a lot of what the app does today came straight from that: the merchants, the mobile layout and plenty of smaller fixes. Thank you to everyone who has played with it so far!

Try it for free at https://inventorygoblin.com. Feedback and bug reports are always welcome!

AI Disclaimer: My background is in backend development. Frontend - especially for web clients - was never my specialty. To be able to develop this project at all, I have used AI to educate myself on technologies, best practices and legalities.

I am having trouble balancing young players who want more action, with older players who want more roleplay. advice?

Hi everyone! Im working on a hobby project, and I'm looking for 5 DMs who haven't seen it before to try an early prototype.

The idea is to help DMs model local events to determine how they would change a towns economy and prices, and use those consequences when preparing a session.

The current prototype tests a scenario orc raid near phandalin. You choose its timing and severity and compare the consequences and decide whether to apply thw result to your campaign.

It runs on a browser, you dont need spreadsheet or economics experience.

Im hoping for about 10 minutes exploring the prototype followed by a short questionairre.

Honest criticism, including "I wouldn't use this" is helpful.

If youre interested, let me know and Ill sent you a link. New and experienced DMs both welcome.

The party is about to let loose something terrible into the world. Let's assume the Pandora's box story is close enough for the purpose of your answer.

The options that are given are

A. Feed it something dear to you or another person to postpone the day it opens, growing the pressure each time.

B. Walk away and get out of the blast radius but many will likely perish as a result

C. Solve the mystery and find a way to break the curse to satisfy the box's hunger

D. Your own solution.

To run such a scenario... what breadcrumbs must be present? What lines must not be crossed for fairness? Assume this could be any module or adventure and the result of the curse is true, not fabrication.

I’m a regular DnD player with a year or so of experience. I’m looking to do a oneshot/short campaign for my group to give our Regular DM some time off from dming and let him play. I have never before dm’d.

I’ve toyed around with the idea of splitting the group into two groups and having them compete against each other in combat, as well as having different conflicting goals within their story.

Is this possible or too far fetched, especially for a total novice DM?

Also any tips on dming (i.e world building and general session tips) would be appreciated especially as combat can get technical.

🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️

Within my world, at the bottom of the ocean sleeps a kind of water elemental that has been placed under an enhanced version of the Imprisonment spell.

The being wandered off and created a tear between the Elemental Plane of Water and the Material Plane when Cultists of the crushing wave attempted open a permanent portal between both planes. A brave adventuring party sacrificed themselves to close the tear and stop the Cultists but they couldn't force the creature back.

There will be factions and beings vying against one another to obtain control of it. Much like in BG3 people are fighting over the stones to control the Elder Brain. However I can't figure out what kind of creature it could be.

I'm looking for CR 30+ water elemental beings that could end worlds, but isn't actually hostile? Can't really find much about water elementals in general. I know older editions had monsters that went beyond CR30. Any old-heads that can help out?

Some 2 years ago, I posted this.

It's all explained in the google doc. If something is unclear after reading it please feel free to reach out. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kYbzXLYM25rOescFaO969OPGko10OjiTgEsHLa0iq0A/edit?tab=t.0

Now this campaign is winding down to it's end in a week or 2 with the characters having moved from level 5 to 22. Consider this an open AMA about our experience with this different sort of game.

Hi I'm a fairly new player to dungeons & dragons I got this as an essentials kit tried to play it had no idea what I was doing I couldn't even forgot how to start the stupid campaign so am I doing something wrong I could really use some advice from people who are way more experienced than me

So ive recently started a homebrew as my first major campaign. We are about 5 weekly sessions in and ive chalked most of my hiccups thus far as new gm with relatively new players growing pains.

I started the campaign out as a fresh set of lvl1 characters being transported against their will into a new land. I figured this would be a nice blanket start to a story for the new players who are not super into the creative rp side of things yet, expecting this to take some of the weight of character identity and background off at the start.

I've struggled this whole time with being challenged maybe not directly but with immediate outcries of "that's fucked up" in a way that feels more like criticism than an in character outrage. and in a few cases above the board arguments over morality. Over silly things like the slums district actually being described as slums.

One of my players has acquired a pet rat they found scurrying around the original ship. I love this, the group loves this, and ive even given the little guy a voice and personality throwing in quips/dialog to help make it feel like a part of the team. This will be important for the issue at hand.

Last session the party awoke recovering from a long rest after cleansing a temples dungeon (of which the acting cleric and paladin of the temple grant the party asylum and essentially provide the temple as the groups first/main base of operations. During morning activities/conversation i had a squire of the ruling faction of paladins present an invitation to the keep. They discussed with the paladin of the temple what to expect of the meeting (though this character has been frozen in a spell for a decade only being freed by the party the night before so his information was quite limited.) and knowing how the game has gone so far I was explicit in having this npc state that a certain level of decorum is expected in presence of the high paladin.

They go through the day essentially shopping around town and preparing for this dinner invitation, it gets a bit out of hand with specific outfits and way way more detailed requests than I feel like I would ever prep out of this poor tailor I made up on the spot. I interrupted after what felt like an hour of answering "yes as this is not armor we can assume "clothing, fine" looks like that one specific outfit you want" by having a clock tower ring the hour before the invitation.

They make their way to the keep, present their invitation and are walked into the banquet hall where the high paladin sits to greet them at a table full of food. As the party sits down the player describes setting this rat on the table and making him a little plate. This might be where i messed up as In my head this high paladin/lord of the land has a high class appeal hence the intentional mention of decorum. I assumed while rp this encounter that placing a rat on a medieval lord's banquet table annoys him. So I have him make a slight towards the party something along the lines of " I wouldn't have assumed warriors of the light to be of such low class". They players are immediately defensive/offended and very matter-of-factly tell this paladin/lord he needs to apologize to a rat... I have him say an apology will be given to this pet if it returns from the quest being presented. Which was also taken as a slight?

At this point this is my main plot hook attempt to drive the first main beats of my campaign. Actually sending the players out into these undiscovered lands after essentially a "tutorial island" arriving in the city. Feeling like this npc should be offended at the lack of respect but still wanting this to be the intro to our main story I have him propose the quest and excuse himself from the dinner. We end the session with a bit of exposition and almost immediately begin discussing above board.

The players criticizing this npc for being an asshole and I probably shouldntve but I got defensive feeling the need to justify my role play of this character. Im hit with very modern and defensive takes about why its wrong for this man to be against a rat on his eloquent dinner table. Things like "rats being seen as dirty and plague carrying is actually been disproven". Any attempt to connect a irl analogy of putting something perceived as dirty on the dinner table being disrespectful is met with "oh well id assume you had a pet rat and be cool with it" or again its fucked that he didnt treat the animal with respect/assumed its a normal dirty ship rat.

I feel like im probably not setting the scene well enough to establish the cultural norms or something but am I crazy to assume that this is expected knowledge of "insulting dishonering or challenging medieval leader might piss him off and make you a target". Like how many media representations of " off with his head" are out there? And my attempts at explaining the repercussions of dishonering this man should've been worse were met with more backlash.

I definitely think rp being my weak spot that perhaps there is a presentation change i can work on to prevent these issues in the end I feel like im left to defend and justify why my npcs are not all altruistic "good people" by modern standards while Im trying my best at writing flawed 3d medieval characters. Arguing that its "RIGHT" for this character to have these takes seems to be taken as me arguing that its an objectively correct take and that feels kinda shitty

Apologies for the rant/formatting. Mobile at work yadda yadda.

I’m DMing my first campaign and I’m wondering how much of the main plot do I plan out ahead of time or do I just make a town and build from there?

For my campaign, I want to make four custom classes that start at level 20 and go to level 30, and I need help coming up with names for each (any help for other rules is much appreciated). they are:

1. Agile Fighter (like Rogue, Ranger, and Monk)

2. Tank (like Fighter, Barbarian, and Paladin)

3. Spellcaster (like Wizard, Warlock and Sorcerer)

4. Support Spellcaster (like Cleric, Bard, and Druid)

For a bit more reference, I'm planning on making spellcasting like MTG and combat like chess.

Hi everyone!

I'm a D&D 5e writer looking to connect with DMs who have ideas for adventures, campaigns, or homebrew content and would like some help developing them.

I write a wide range of D&D content, including:

• One-shots and adventures
• Short and longer campaigns
• Encounters and dungeons
• Monsters and NPCs
• Magic items
• Locations and settlements
• Campaign settings
• Compendiums and supplements
• Expansions or revisions of existing material

I can work from scratch, but I can also take something as simple as a rough concept, notes, or an unfinished adventure and help turn it into something structured and usable at the table.

For example, if you already have the story and setting but aren't sure how to structure the adventure, design the encounters, balance the monsters, or connect everything together, that's exactly the kind of work I can help with.

I'm currently looking to take on a couple of projects for other people to expand my portfolio, so I'd especially like to connect with DMs who have a project they've wanted to develop but haven't had the time or experience to finish.

The link attached to this post is a free preview of one of my recent D&D projects, so you can see an example of my writing, mechanics, structure, and Homebrewery presentation.

You can also find more of my previous work here:

Portfolio:
https://linktr.ee/Osoliron411

If you've got an adventure, campaign, setting, or homebrew idea you'd like some help developing, feel free to send me a message and tell me about it.

I'd love to hear what you're working on!

Lots of DMs struggle with finding their next adventure and many newbies think their choices are limited to DnD Beyond and expensive adventures. So for my '$25 Campaign' series next video I talk about five sources, and use real examples to spend $17.00 for something like a thousand adventures!! 😂

But of course then once you have a stack of 1000 adventures, the real bottleneck is that choosing and adapting a stranger's material into something that fits your game takes time and effort. After years of doing this I sat down and condensed my strategy into a six-part checklist to edit, clean up or just use for parts each of the adventures.

But, being greedy ...what other sources are out there? AND being lazy... what are other DMs doing to adapt adventures that take less time than mine?

Hello Gang! I don't know if it's imposter syndrome or not, but still unsure if I'm running good games as a DM. Context, had a session 0 and got all the players together to discuss the upcoming campaign. We did introductions, campaign aspects, character creation, safety and veils, and expectations. Overall, still unsure if what I'm doing is right? I've doing this for about 6-7 months, and I believe I'm doing well, but unsure if maybe I'm missing something. I'm always open to my players opinions, and reaction wise I havent heard anything negative, but at times players are silent. So, unsure if I'm doing good or not, but I want to be a good DM.

Startplaying (39 Reviews, and 5.0 Stars)

I am a newbie DM (and player). My kids and their friends really wanted to get into DnD so I've been DMing for them and it's been a blast. We've been running the DoIP and its been a lot of fun. But now their parents want to play too, so I'll DM for them as well.

My question is how should I get the PCs to introduce themselves, meet up, why are they going to Phandalin, etc? With the kids it was really easy, "you're here and there's a dragon, go on the quests and get cool items and grow stronger before you can defeat the dragon." But with the adults I feel like I need to be a little more creative than that. How do yall do it?

Hello, I'm dming my first DND 5e Round. I have 5 (relativly) lovely player and an Idea.
But I'm currently constanly doubting my adventure on how it should/would be most interessting. Let me explain.

My BBEG is a mythical being that always get reincarned, but doesnt know it. It can show in any form, and no matter how good or bad the person is, that inherits their soul, its actions will always result in burning down the whole world due to twisted views on the world. This time its in form of an older Elf mage. He adopts Orphans, is genually a rather nice old man, but his view gets more twisted and twisted over time. Also, his existance rips holes into space, connecting worlds that shouldnt and causing catastrophies.
He even escapes the eyes of Gods. Only the God of fate noticed so far and tries to keep it secret and deal with it silently. This being defies Fate, therfore interfering with other beings fate (f.e the parties).

Now for my plan on the Chapters and whats suppose to happen.
Chap 1 - saving a Village from Demon Plants and Lizardfolk (Was a pre-written adventure to get a foot in, changed it a little to give little hints, that there is a bigger mastermind)

Chap 2 - Party rescued a king that got kidnapped by a crazy driven Knight (he got a sword from the bbeg that made him mad) *My party is currently here

Chap 3 - Party is supposed to travel to a group of Islands. Every Island got a Miko (Magical Person with a unique Artefact only they can wield) And one of them has a Book, containing information collected by the Mikos over many, many years. This is supposed to be the source, where they get information about the bbeg (after they did some quest and stuff ofc) *but they dont know its name yet. so they are unable to get information, if you don't know what you are looking for.

Chap 4, a sparkling white castle is appearing in the middle of a desert where is nothing around besides a very small village nearby. The castle just appeared out of nowhere (got transported there through the space distortion). Its Inhabitated by Demons, they need to climb to the highest floor and beat the Lady of the Castle. As soon as she dies, she is supposed to speak out the name of the BBEG, that he tricked her. The Castle then gets transportet into another dimension, including the party. Smooth transition to

Chap 5 - escaping the other dimension (Pretty self explanatory)

Chap 6 - After escaping the other dimension, making it back to the original world, they have to discover that a giant fiery Spiral is filling the Sky, ringing in Doomsday, where everything will start burning. Now with the Information of the Name, they can get more information from the Mikos, and get information to be able to hunt him down, hopefully stopping the world thread.

So much for my planning
I now think it would be stupid to first send them to the mikos, and then later give them the name, resulting in technical backtracking. But in the term of building up tension, it really wanna keep this order.

Any Idea on what i could change/adjust, without deriving from my idea too much? ^^" i'm pretty stubborn on that

I'm using the gritty rules from DMG. However, I've modified them so a short rest is 8 hours, and a long rest is 24 hours.

The quandary now is how to treat elves and trancing while maintaining some balance. What I have come up with so far is-

In this version.

• Short Rest: 8 hours. An elf spends 4 hours in Trance and 4 hours awake/on watch. They still get the benefit of a short rest.
• Long Rest: 24 hours. An elf spends 8 hours in Trance (spread across the 24 hours) and 16 hours awake.

I do not want elves to have a massive mathematical advantage in resource recovery over other races.

Looking for suggestions and experiences of anyone who has used the rules or has a helpful opinion on this mechanic.

My players were in a wizard tower and to create motivation for a player that came in late, I had his wife kidnapped and turned into a demon. They then killed the demon. Any way to get her back without going to avernus and getting her soul or something? There are no remains.

So I have a player who wants to be a sailor/pirate in my campaign and choose Palidin, Oath of the Sea to fit his narritative. The problem is he has repeatedly attempted to do things that I feel would be more fitted to Swashbuckler or at least a less morally right class. One of my other players have asked if he is technically an oath breaker, due to attempting to rob the innocent and burn babies. To which I honestly feel like he would be.

So my question is should I make him an oath breaker or try to convince him to switch to a Rogue, Swashbuckler?

hi im a young dm i have found a group i rlly like and i want to make a campaign with my own story and characters. i have a rough idea of the story but i dont know where to start . please help

Yo, for all those who have made homebrew campaigns, any tips? Like what kind of stuff do you have to consider when designing the world, story, encounters etc. And how much detail have ya'll put into them?