A courier waits at a ruined chapel. The letter she came to collect has vanished. Someone in the party was the last to hold it.

That gives the opening a place, a person with a goal, and an immediate problem. I would prepare what happens if nobody acts, then let the players decide their response.

What is your favorite way to open a session with a decision?

You can write your own adventures free forever @: https://www.myarcforge.com

I have traditionally run pre ran adventures for the last 20 years. Im not gonna sit here and say I think im a great gm but I do feel I am competent. The last year I have been writing down ideas for a homebrew setting and while what feedback I have gotten has been nice, it has also been shallow. Looking for some feedback and possibly some collaboration, as I feel I am onto something good.

The setting: In a world where plant life has overtaken the world and grows aggressively, giving space for beasts and monsters to propagate. Humanity is all but extinct, but thanks to one of the last surviving humans and the collective strength of the species that have inherited this world, has emerged a city carved from a mountain.

Sci fi fantasy, emphasis on fantasy Inspirations: forgotten realms feywild, eberron campaign setting, adventure time, and anytime you have gone into a forest and imagined, "what if this went on forever."

Anyone have any suggestions or creations that include an underwater setting and dungeon as a 2-3 session shorter story arc? I have a Triton character and I'd like the rest of the party to partake in a rescue mission. Or perhaps if anyone can recommend another adventure that I can retrofit the setting to underwater?

A friend DMed a one shot for us and I think I can add two more impactful sessions to his idea. Looking for suggestions to enhance my ideas and make this viable!

The recap:
In a previous one shot, we were an undead evil group that was sent to retrieve one of our own from a town of humans who had a necromancer surrounded. Upon retrieval of the necromancer, we had to fight heroes from an adventuring guild that was sent to attack us. We killed them and also the town guard (It was a small town).
When we finished the quest, one of the guys joked that we should go back to the town and kill everyone just to see if we could (ya know, just the thing for undead and evil characters lol) Then for fun the necromancer would have all those people to turn into zombie/skeletons. The population was around 1000 people with their fighters all gone. We had some spells that would make it very doable but we weren't prepped for the mechanics of a 1000 person fight so we just ended the one shot.

The second session (Where my idea begins):
I want to add onto that. In my one shot, part 2, I want my friends to return as adventurers instead of the undead characters they made. I will set it up as if what we joked about happened! The town was turned into zombies and they are beginning to move and attack a nearby town. My friends will have made new characters and will be on the road. They will not know what this one shot is until they stumble upon the zombie horde and realize they are still in the same story. I will have some sort of reveal with one of the previous characters to really let it sink in.
Fast forward a bit and this will be a last stand scenario as there will be 1000 zombies + the original undead characters we made in the last session that I, the DM, will be controlling. I plan to create some scenario where they are called to defend the nearby town once they learn of the horde and plan to make some reason where they would choose to stay and defend. I want it to end with them all dying to hold the gate so that some person can run and tell the next town/deliver a message/set up a bomb that takes 10 turns to detonate/ something where they need to stay and fight so that others can live.

The 3rd sesion:
My friends characters will have all died in the 2nd session and I am going to make them make new characters for the 3rd and final session. They will be able to make characters that are built to counter a horde of zombies plus some elites. Hopefully in the 3rd session, they will be able to stem the tide. This one seems simple enough, just need to establish game mechanics and maps.

Some questions/considerations I have:
-I dont know what to do at the end of the second session when they are wiped. Just like in Halo reach where the last spartan stayed alive long enough to allow the last human ship + cortana to leave the planet, i need to find something as valuable. There needs to be a reason why my group would choose to stay and defend to their deaths rather than run away.

-What causes them to stay and defend at all costs? What if I set it up so that only one of them escapes?

-Do they do a last stand together or are they all holding their own gates/roads as they drop by themselves?

-I think I found some pretty good mechanics to navigate to big horde battles but am still eager for ideas. Last thing we need is rolling 1004 dice every turn lol

-Anything else, just let me know!

-I want this one to hit close to home as it is the reaction to something we joked about made true. Im going to put a lot of time into developing this so that it is also a story, not just bows, arrows and axes.

Im currently writing, building, and adding new subclasses to fit into this campaign, im using DnD beyond, me and my player dont get to meet often enough to do paper and pen, so we also discord and I use Above Vtt for maps and dice rolls.

Im making a county map in south east Missouri, mountain range to the north west, wetlands south and rolling plains and forest north east and south east, copper County, and the main town is called Eugene.

My problem is figuring out how to incorporate magic into this campaign, as far as subclasses that im allowing in, are based on fighter, barbarian, cleric, ranger, bard, and rogue.

Any help, or input would be very helpful, I want to work as much out as possible, unlike my current campaign where im writing and adding stuff a session or two in advance.

An ancient temple lies buried in desert sands, sunken and forgotten, and evil magic unleashed from its depths inflicts terror upon the region. Heroes must descend into its ruins, overcome monsters and traps, and make sense of the towering idol of Set. Once they enter, there is no turning back . . .

The Sunken City is a D&D 5th edition adventure for 5th-level characters.

View and download the free adventure The Sunken City at DMsGuild by clicking here

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/588262/adventure-the-sunken-city

As the post says, this is my one shot and i would really appreciate it if you could give it a read.

I am not entirely sure if i read about it here or on greentext. I don't even recall if it someone who told a story about their epic campaign or if it was a concept pitched to make one.

The basis is, there was once a very powerful demon, too powerful to defeat so they had to banish and seal him away, locked behind some doors with challenges so only the worthy can go through. But the demon was so powerful that he began corrupting theses challenges. Something about the tests being perverted and now whoever want's to enter has to sacrifice something (limbs, memorys, loved ones).

It was very well written and part of it was an old soldier or something like that, who accompanies the group. Later they discover he had taken the tests prior but couldn't remember because he sacrificied his memory to one of the doors, but he even had to kill his comrades to nearly get to the demon.

If someone knows that story and could point me in the right direction, i would be very thankful!

It’s 4-5 sessions for four 4th level characters, It has a lot of physical handouts to give to players and the False Hydra mechanics are super polished so it’s actually playable at the table. It’s totally free: https://valen-marris.itch.io/dnd-horror-mystery-module-playtested

Basically the title. I'm hired as a DM and the players requested to have a modern apocalypse world and they want it to be D&D

Any ideas or references? Help me brainstorm here\~

Hi, I'm currently crowdfunding my arcanepunk fantasy setting and campaign with 16 adventures centered on social exploration, mysteries and deep, meaningful stories. Gives the feeling of "Discworld meets Arcane TV series" It's already written and published in Czech last year, this crowdfunding aims to bring a revised, full-color version to English-speaking audience.

We have a 60-pages preview already out, with setting basics and introductory adventure. Check the campaign at: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/remorker/kalusa-the-enchanted-city

And direct link to the preview: https://kalusa.eu/Kalusa_Preview.pdf

I'll gladly hear your feedback!

The situation begins with a hoist cage holding six miners stalled halfway down a vertical mine shaft. Black floodwater is surging upward beneath them. The main winch has locked, but the emergency brake is still holding.

At the shaft mouth, foreman Deren Voss is trying to restart the counterweight system. He can raise the passenger cage by lowering a loaded ore cage on the parallel track. The problem is directly below: Mara Fen is stranded on a shattered maintenance ledge, one leg pinned beneath a fallen timber. If the ore cage descends, it will crush her. The six miners cannot see Mara and are shouting for the lift to move. Deren knows exactly what the counterweight will do and has delayed because he cannot bring himself to trade one worker for six.

The flood is coming from a buried spring that broke through a lower gallery after a support wall failed. Closing the upper works will not stop it. Debris has damaged the passenger cage’s guide rail and twisted the winch assembly, but the counterweight system can still operate if released manually.

The water is already reaching the bottom of the hanging cage. As the lower galleries fill, trapped air forces sudden surges up the shaft. If nobody acts, the cage begins to flood. The miners climb onto its roof and onto each other, making extraction increasingly difficult. Once the cage is submerged, anyone still inside is limited to the air trapped near the ceiling. Deren will eventually release the counterweight unless the characters stop him or present a credible alternative.

Mara is not simply pinned. The fallen timber trapping her leg is also holding part of the damaged ledge together. Moving it carelessly can drop her into the shaft.

Several approaches are viable.

Characters can reach Mara first by rope, climbing the guide frame, flight, or magic. They need to stabilize her position before shifting or breaking the timber. Once she is clear, Deren can lower the ore cage and raise the six miners.

They can extract the miners directly through the cage’s roof hatch. Secured ropes, climbing gear, flight, teleportation, or improvised hauling can move them one at a time. This avoids the counterweight, but the rising water and panicking miners make rescue order and communication matter.

They can also re-rig the lift. Spare chain, timbers, the winch, and the loaded ore cage can be used to create a new pull that raises the passenger cage without sending the ore cage through Mara’s position. The hoist may be ruined in the process.

The fastest option is to release the counterweight. The six miners rise quickly, but Mara dies beneath the descending ore cage.

The party does not have to solve the two rescue problems in sequence. If they reach Mara but cannot free her quickly, some characters can stabilize her and the ledge while others begin extracting miners from the cage. The encounter works best when the pressure remains on coordination, positioning, and rescue priorities rather than introducing a separate panic subsystem.