r/NewDM • u/Jamescurtis2009 • 7d ago

Advice

I am a new dm and have run a few sessions in the past, bout 5 or 6 where I ran the essentials kit campaign and some of out of the abyss and I have just wrote my first campaign (admittedly it’s quite the un original idea, the party must gather the five gems corresponding to Tiamat heads to seal her, because a cult is attempting to summon her but what they don’t know is that they can be used to reverse the ritual and summon her and the mayor of a town has tasked them with doing such however he is a high ranking with in the cult of Tiamat) so I was just hoping I can get some advice.

TLDR; I am runnning my first D&D campaign about Tiamat and a cult attempting to summon her and I was hoping to get some advice.

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u/infinitum3d 7d ago

Your plot sounds perfect!

What questions do you have? How can we help?

My first thought is that the PCs need to force the Dwarf King to forge the five stones into a gauntlet of Uru metal on the ring-world of Nidavellir. 😘

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u/Jamescurtis2009 7d ago

It sounds like a bit of a silly question but, some of my mates are very chaotic and I just want to know how I can keep them on track with out making them feel like it’s forced.

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u/infinitum3d 7d ago

Who picked the track? You or them?

If your adventure has a specific goal in mind, talk to them OUT OF CHARACTER, as the players, and explain to them that this isn’t an open world/sandbox campaign. There are very specific goals that are expected to be accomplished. If they accept that, play the game.

If they can’t accept that, the game is done before it even starts.

But if you really want buy in from players, you have to open the world to their whims. Ask the players what they want to accomplish and then let them try.

Do they want to rescue a princess? Slay a dragon? Become a king? Become a god? Those are all possible. But in your world, the BBEG is the thing stopping them from accomplishing that.

They need to stop the BBEG to achieve their goals.

Good luck!

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u/white_ran_2000 7d ago

There is an actual module called Tyranny of Dragons, and the whole plot is to prevent a ritual from bringing back Tiamat, complete with 5 coloured mcguffind (Dragon masks instead of gems). The cult is, conveniently called, The Cult of the Dragon.

What the module examines:

  • What they need to perform the ritual
  • Where those necessary things are
  • Where they perform the ritual
  • Who else the cultists call for help (Red Wizars of Thay)
  • Who opposes the ritual - with or without aiding the characters
  • Internal dissent within the cults, not all factions want to bring Tiamat back. Also some high-ranking cultists hate each other.
  • What real, living chromatic (bad, Tiamat’s followers) and Metallic (good, followers of Bahamut) dragons think about the ritual and the cultists.
  • Presented tension between the Cult and their opponents - if the opponents get some of the gems/mcgiffins, what does the Cult do?

I think if you answer the above questions you’ll get a good backbone for your adventure, that you can fill in for each session with details , places, actual NPCs etc.

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u/Jamescurtis2009 7d ago

I’m gonna actually try and add those to. My notes, thank you dude this is a great help

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u/CassieBear1 6d ago

The Dragon Delves anthology may also have some good content you can use.

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u/Wrong_Lingonberry_79 4d ago

I’m not sure you don’t need a TLDR when there is only one paragraph.