D&D Campaign Ideas?

[Wannatripbaby]

Hello my fellow nerds!

I'm a new DM and have recently started a campaign with my friends. We're 4 sessions in and, while I have ideas for stuff I want to happen later on, I need some ideas for "filler" sessions. I would be greatful for any ideas, be they simple or complex, especially if they involve more than just combat. Anything could spark my imagination and become my next adventure.

Thanks in advance! 

[Firefly 35]

Here's some that I can think of:

- Mysterious path/dungeon someone stumbles upon

- Annoying NPC that insists on staying with the party for a day (or 5)

- Magical device going bezerk

- Stupid magic stuff (trying to charge a cell phone via lightning spells, playing football with magic missles, attempting to levitate at 5000 mph, etc)

I hope this helps!

[Wannatripbaby]

On 6/4/2018 at 1:27 AM, Firefly 35 said:

Annoying NPC that insists on staying with the party for a day (or 5)

He'd be dead. No question.

On 6/4/2018 at 1:27 AM, Firefly 35 said:

Magical device going bezerk

Funny story: Last session my party helped a man remove a cursed ring from his finger (by cutting it off of course) and one thing lead to another and the Rouge & Death Cleric held the Halfling Sorcerer down and put it on him. It turned out to be a Ring of Contrariness So for the rest of the session the Sorcerer had to speak the opposite of whatever he actually wanted to say. And to reinforce this he takes psychic damage any time he says something the right way.

It was a fun time.

[Firefly 35]

6 hours ago, Wannatripbaby said:

He'd be dead. No question.

Funny story: Last session my party helped a man remove a cursed ring from his finger (by cutting it off of course) and one thing lead to another and the Rouge & Death Cleric held the Halfling Sorcerer down and put it on him. It turned out to be a Ring of Contrariness So for the rest of the session the Sorcerer had to speak the opposite of whatever he actually wanted to say. And to reinforce this he takes psychic damage any time he says something the right way.

It was a fun time.

I bet.  

[bbykimmy]

Here, I'll give you one of my favorite traps:

You stand at the doorway to a room, with a strange black and white checkboard pattern on the floor that stands out in stark contrast to the hewn stone you are standing on now.  Along each of the walls is a series of six levers, each with a gem embedded in the wall directly above it.  At the far end of the room, there are a pair of enormous iron doors with intricate designs - runes that you realize mean "Treasure" and "Riches".  What do you do?

The levers, when pulled, each light up its corresponding gem.  When you pull 3 levers, they all reset and snap back to their original position.  Each time a lever is pulled, everyone in the room takes 1 damage.

The levers do nothing other than damage the heroes.  The doors stand in front of a solid wall, there is nothing on the other side.

The question is, how long will they stand there and shock themselves before they give up?

My party rested to heal twice (having to fight off goblin reinforcements each time) before they gave up.

@Wannatripbaby

[Wannatripbaby]

@bbykimmy HAHAHA! How maniacal!

However, I don't think I could do that based on a somewhat similar and very nasty trick my DM pulled on us in the last session of a separate game I'm in.

He created an ancient ruined temple with... absolutely nothing inside! No treasure, no traps, no enemies, just to see how long we'd fumble around looking for stuff.

The answer: 2 hours. 

Which pushed the session till almost 2am that night!

I don't think I could do that to my players... Of course that same DM is also a player in my game... hmm... 

[bbykimmy]

This is what you really want:  https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/03/22/need-an-adventure-one-page-dungeon/

Grab the "Winner Collections" from each year and flip through them.  Most of them aren't very good, but there are a few gems.  You'll have to tweak the monsters and the plot, but you'll have ideas and maps for days <3

[Wannatripbaby]

Cool! I'll check it out! Thanks, Kimmy. You're the best. ♡

[Foundling]

I second the one page dungeons site. There's some real gems in there, and you can also develop them further if you need to, either at the time or bring them back later. Check for balance though- some of them are really out of whack.

Another good resource is the older printed Dungeon magazine. They had a recurring section called Side Treks that were specifically designed to be dropped in between adventures. And they have one big advantage over the one page dungeons, in that they went through editors before being published, so tend to be much more balanced, have a solid purpose and plot, and are spell checked.

There are also random dungeon generators. I particularly like donjon: http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/

Generate a diminutive dungeon of about 7 rooms. Between thee random dungeon name, the dressing in the dungeon and the creatures and traps involved, you can usually get a solid idea of a story for what comes up.

Another good resource are the old AD&D book of lairs- there were two of them, but they were all official one or two page adventures that TSR came up with for different types of monsters. Any one of those could be short `in between' adventures.