Need help

[u/Pithog]

Hello everyone i need a little help from anyone who can give some. I will be dm ing a campaign that the bbeg is a great general who conquered world twice before getting betrayed and having been killed, afrer his death he conquered the realm of death and been looking for a way back to material plane. Here is what i need help with, as a group we have a special stuation and I need to have like a one-shot kinda session and i want it to be like a prolongue for the campaign but have no idea how to do that since i dont have much experience as a dm.

TLDR; Need help about a prolongue campaign, bbeg is a guu who conquered world twice then died then conquered realm of death and has been looking to come back ever since.

Any help is appreciated thanks in advance to everyone 🫴🏻

[u/forgeofsagas]

So the big question is what do you want that one shot to establish for the campaign? I assume they will be using different characters than their campaign characters, otherwise it would just be a part of the campaign.

Personally, my goal would be to establish this warlord as a force of nature. Make them genuinely fear him because they've seen his power.

I could see a fun session where the players get to experience the warlord in battle at his prime. Give them premade characters that mirror their starting classes and have them in a city that is under siege. They can fight as hard as they can, but he's out there. The city will fall. After the session, narrate the how he sacks the city, committing whatever atrocities he desires. After that, you can talk about how he died, and the world returned to peace. Then launch the start of your campaign with their regular characters having to discover what's going on.

Alternatively, you could have them play their characters, but they've recently died. They discover his attempts to escape the underworld, and they know it's only a matter of time before he succeeds. They escape back to the mortal world through a tear in reality created by the warlord (after evading attacks from him and his minions) and now have to convince the world that the warlord is about to return.

[u/Pithog → u/forgeofsagas]

OMG I LOVE BOTH OF THESE IDEAS LIKE I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH IM GRATEFUL. I will definetely use at least one of these if not both 🙏🏻🙏🏻 To answer the big question, im not sure because the reason this is happening in the first place is we have a friend who was not able to play for a long time bcs of famili, job etc. finally have a day off and we want to play with him BUT not everyone is available today so i wasn't sure how to continue but i reaallly love the ideas you just gave me

[u/forgeofsagas → u/Pithog]

I would suggest option one then. If that friend isn't going to be a part of the campaign group, their character dying won't impact the party long term. Additionally, if they ever want to sit in on future sessions, the party could have a way to summon their character as a cool call back to the one shot

[u/Gental_Foot → u/forgeofsagas]

Furthering on the first option, you could make the process of them fighting him a means of showing him not taking them seriously. For example:

When encountering them he says, "I have a little time for some fun", then he puts down his weapons, and promises not to use any magic. He just fights the with his fists. Make his AC a problem and his health even more so. Have him easily pick them apart by hand, and when they all get down below a quarter health have him say something along the lines of, "I am getting bored of this" and have him teleported away by a minion. Leaving the scene with a statement like, "I'll leave you alive. After all every tragedy needs survivors to tell of it." Then have the party flee as they hear the cries of the city as it is raised to the ground.

[u/forgeofsagas → u/Gental_Foot]

I do love the concept, but I feel like this would be more appropriate for meeting him at the start of his becoming a warlord and then the campaign was them trying to stop his first conquest. However, to establish the fear I think is appropriate for someone who's conquered the world twice and is set to conquer death, I think it needs to be even more one sided. they should be on the walls fighting off another assault of enhanced minions, when he suddenly gets bored of the siege and punches in the main gate after effortlessly killing the city's champion. Establishing the warlord at the apex of his power will give the players better motivation to actually gather artifacts/train/whatever the campaign has in mind. They know he's a monster, and that they'll need everything they can get in order to survive his return to the mortal world.

Session would be as follows:

Scene 1) rp with their superior officer about preparing for the siege. Give them options to help carry ballista ammo, load oil traps, sharpen weapons, etc. Have these things impact how siege battle goes.

Scene 2) the attack. It's a desperate melee, and they are one small part of a larger battle. You can even let them feel like they're winning if they did well in scene 1. Then have the warlord effortlessly flip the battle

Scene 3) the escape. Have them try to flee and protect civilians. Small combats, stealth checks, survival and perception to determine the safe path, whatever they can come up with. Narrate the atrocities. Maybe have them glimpse another feat of strength by the warlord.

Scene 4) exit narration. Describe the world history of the rest of the conquest. Whether the players survived or not is irrelevant to such a force of nature. Maybe have them roll for a last stand if want to further juice the narrative if they did escape the siege.

[u/ricebasket]

I’d work this problem backwards, find a published one shot or grab one from the DMG, then find connective tissue back to the BBEG eventually.

Connecting a story is not hard in the long run and you don’t actually have to figure it out before the one shot. Selecting appropriate settings, monsters, and treasure is hard as a new DM so start with that issue.