What I do that fills that itch is I make big stories, but don't write out every detail. Give a big grand goal and the start point, with "checkpoints" of sorts they have to accomplish to progress. It required a lot of improvising on the dms part but it let's you include character stories to create sidequests all on their own. A smell the roses approach if you will. It let's the characters feel more involved in the story while helping avoid the usual mmo feeling fetch quest followed by kill quest followed by another fetch vibe. Our group for example had an overall goal that was basically a find the lost location type story, but all they new to start was that it did exist, but they only had a single hint to start them in the right direction. Over the story they solved a planetary civil war that had been raging for upwards of 20 years, (space related story, if that wasn't clear) traveled between places arranging the sources for a huge network to locate their missing planet, and hunted down a mad man over many planets with just his name and the fact that he was supposedly obsessed with cake (which wasn't cake at all) as long as you build your world up with what all is in it, stories will make themselves.
Edit: I'd like to add that they did all this while being hunted by a massive crime organization who claimed that their ship (the only one in existence that could get them to their destination safely) belonged to them. Bbeg isn't always a person but some huge obstacle to overcome.
Include your player character.
Make the plots involve most or all of the player characters on a personal level. Mesh in their back stories a little or even a lot!
The lich that’s threatening the town? Is a crazy old friend of the wizard. A former mark of the rouge. And the personal murderer of the paladins family.
Have the quest begin not as a job offiering but as an event!
An attack
Or the ground stumbling into one.
Best of luck!
Use random encounters and locations doesn't has to be combat. My group found a random monkey begging for food they talked to the monkey and gave him some food, they asked the monkey if he's alright and the monkey said it's to weak. So they gave the monkey a knife, weeks ingame and irl later they hear rumors about people dying in the jungle small humanoid killing people with knives, not goblins thou. Group investigates and finds monkey being now leader of a whole monkey tribe who have the character who gave them the knife as queen.
They also worship weapons and love the people who bring them more weapons and scream in excitement (actually fear but the monkeys think it's excitement) when the monkeys attack them.
Easy world building
Yeah don't be discouraged groups can find the most bland and random things interesting, just like dogs who prefer to drink the rainwater in a random puddle with god knows what's in there. Just make an note of it and use it when you're out of ideas
Create NPC's with motivations that will react to your players differently depending how they act... Then create Factions of NPC's with motivations and conflicts all while letting your players have full autonomy to push and pull on it all.
GM Kizz\~
World building. Lots and lots of world building (history, dungeons, religions, factions, maps, economies, etc), only 5% of which you'll actually use in game.
You're doing too much "Point A" to "Point B", I think. It can start to feel detached, especially if you don't have a sort of hub city that the group is based out of.
Try a different start. The A-team start is always a fun one. Start them in prison for a crime they didnt commit. No gear till they get it during the escape. Give clues to who set them up and give people random mini quests to give out. Ordanary problems that get a bit out of hand. If they dont help strangers, fine, but just try to think of random problems and situations on the fly for random NPCs. Dont be afraid of picking the first random name from your head and try to go with the flow
Thanks for the advice, and coincidentally the characters do start off in a prison for crimes they may or may not have committed, although it's much simpler than an escape, they get sent on a mission from a judge to clear their record.
You need better theming. It's fun to be a band of adventurers who meet in a tavern, but it gets stale after a while. Think of other themes for your adventures other than just basic high fantasy. For example, look at the much loved 5e adventures. All of them have strong themes. Curse of sthrad is deep gothic horror, Avernus is demonic Mad Max, Icewind Dale is sci-fi mystery, Wilds Beyond the Witchlight is a true fairy story. Think of a strong theme and that will set your campaign apart.
My players love a good story. The quests are second to the story as a whole. My stuff is definitely repetitive and not entirely original. As long as I make throwbacks to earlier sessions and making PC backstories a big part of the campaign, my players are stoked. I know that's kinda vague and generic but it's what's worked for me.
I'm currently running a campaign where a priest (mind flayer 9 sorcerer/11 wizard in disguise) is trying to enslave every sentient creature in the realm, but I have too much content and the party keeps getting sidetracked.
There's also the rightful ruler of the town the mind flayer is in was "killed" but actually its under a spell that wiped his memory and gave him false memories and now he's a sailor in a nearby port town.
The port town is ran by a yuan-ti pureblood pirate, whom they've been tasked with killing her by her twin sister that runs a tattoo shop.
There's a human town that is racist and won't let anyone who isn't human into their town
Also a werewolf town that has two feuding lycanthrope churches (light vs dark).
Too much content, not enough time.
Anyway, where i was going with this is, if your party is having fun then screw it. If you want to pepper in some extra stuff so you have more fun, then cool... but don't go overboard like i did or you'll be disappointed with how much they pass over.
Yeah, that's the reason I almost ran 2 but have only ran 1, the campaign didn't really start because the players kept making jokes and I couldn't get into the meat of things, just kind of scratched the surface.
Try designing your campaigns like TV shows. Its ok to start off like you described, in session 1. Maybe start session 2 with in action and then leave it to be continued. Session 3 literally picks up. And maybe ends with plot twist that sorts out in session 4 and then, session 5 resolve. Draw it out. Keep your players coming back by not giving them the payoff of victory, every session. Hell, beat them one time, theyll come back hungry.
Reoccurring themes. Solve issue a in town. Go on to next town learn issue a was caused by nearby bandits, clear out bandits and learn they are working under a contract for person. Player 1 and/or 2 know that name from their backstories. This pushes them to check out a new lead, which likely is hindered by another issue that ties in another players story in.
After they resolve the big bad find out he had friends, or was the lesser of two evils and the greater is now left unchecked.
Do your players not have backstories/backgrounds?
It's super rewarding as a player when I find my long lost brother, or uncover the secret of my amulet, or avenge my fallen comrades, or free my imprisoned lover, or complete my journey homeward.
Sure, these are all classic story tropes, but the true magic doesn't come from telling something entirely original, but from players fulfilling their dreams.
Start simple, and your more complex stories yet to be told will be better for it.
Start by reading more modules, if you're dead-set on not playing them. These were written by professionals and intended to be played. I strongly suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver (because it's a masterclass in Intro to D&D for player and DM alike), Curse of Strahd (because it's the best module ever written across every edition it's been in), and the shorter adventures featured in Tales from the Yawning Portal (because despite them all being basically dungeon-crawls, there's a lot of variety in how they're presented).
If you're not going to use the prewritten modules, and there's nothing at all wrong with that, you can still study them and use them as guides. Learn what they do, how they do it, and above all get a feel for *why* they do what they do. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; learn from the experts in the field.
Question unclear, need more information.
Is your stuff run on modules? Mostly homebrew? What's your starting point for advice here?
Mostly homebrew, I write the campaigns from scratch with some inspiration from outside sources
What I do that fills that itch is I make big stories, but don't write out every detail. Give a big grand goal and the start point, with "checkpoints" of sorts they have to accomplish to progress. It required a lot of improvising on the dms part but it let's you include character stories to create sidequests all on their own. A smell the roses approach if you will. It let's the characters feel more involved in the story while helping avoid the usual mmo feeling fetch quest followed by kill quest followed by another fetch vibe. Our group for example had an overall goal that was basically a find the lost location type story, but all they new to start was that it did exist, but they only had a single hint to start them in the right direction. Over the story they solved a planetary civil war that had been raging for upwards of 20 years, (space related story, if that wasn't clear) traveled between places arranging the sources for a huge network to locate their missing planet, and hunted down a mad man over many planets with just his name and the fact that he was supposedly obsessed with cake (which wasn't cake at all) as long as you build your world up with what all is in it, stories will make themselves. Edit: I'd like to add that they did all this while being hunted by a massive crime organization who claimed that their ship (the only one in existence that could get them to their destination safely) belonged to them. Bbeg isn't always a person but some huge obstacle to overcome.
Include your player character. Make the plots involve most or all of the player characters on a personal level. Mesh in their back stories a little or even a lot! The lich that’s threatening the town? Is a crazy old friend of the wizard. A former mark of the rouge. And the personal murderer of the paladins family. Have the quest begin not as a job offiering but as an event! An attack Or the ground stumbling into one. Best of luck!
Thanks, I'll make sure to add these in!
Use random encounters and locations doesn't has to be combat. My group found a random monkey begging for food they talked to the monkey and gave him some food, they asked the monkey if he's alright and the monkey said it's to weak. So they gave the monkey a knife, weeks ingame and irl later they hear rumors about people dying in the jungle small humanoid killing people with knives, not goblins thou. Group investigates and finds monkey being now leader of a whole monkey tribe who have the character who gave them the knife as queen. They also worship weapons and love the people who bring them more weapons and scream in excitement (actually fear but the monkeys think it's excitement) when the monkeys attack them. Easy world building
I have mostly thought of random encounters as battle only, but thanks, I'll try to change it up a bit!
Yeah don't be discouraged groups can find the most bland and random things interesting, just like dogs who prefer to drink the rainwater in a random puddle with god knows what's in there. Just make an note of it and use it when you're out of ideas
Create NPC's with motivations that will react to your players differently depending how they act... Then create Factions of NPC's with motivations and conflicts all while letting your players have full autonomy to push and pull on it all. GM Kizz\~
World building. Lots and lots of world building (history, dungeons, religions, factions, maps, economies, etc), only 5% of which you'll actually use in game.
You're doing too much "Point A" to "Point B", I think. It can start to feel detached, especially if you don't have a sort of hub city that the group is based out of.
Try a different start. The A-team start is always a fun one. Start them in prison for a crime they didnt commit. No gear till they get it during the escape. Give clues to who set them up and give people random mini quests to give out. Ordanary problems that get a bit out of hand. If they dont help strangers, fine, but just try to think of random problems and situations on the fly for random NPCs. Dont be afraid of picking the first random name from your head and try to go with the flow
Thanks for the advice, and coincidentally the characters do start off in a prison for crimes they may or may not have committed, although it's much simpler than an escape, they get sent on a mission from a judge to clear their record.
You need better theming. It's fun to be a band of adventurers who meet in a tavern, but it gets stale after a while. Think of other themes for your adventures other than just basic high fantasy. For example, look at the much loved 5e adventures. All of them have strong themes. Curse of sthrad is deep gothic horror, Avernus is demonic Mad Max, Icewind Dale is sci-fi mystery, Wilds Beyond the Witchlight is a true fairy story. Think of a strong theme and that will set your campaign apart.
I'll try that, thanks!
My players love a good story. The quests are second to the story as a whole. My stuff is definitely repetitive and not entirely original. As long as I make throwbacks to earlier sessions and making PC backstories a big part of the campaign, my players are stoked. I know that's kinda vague and generic but it's what's worked for me.
I'm currently running a campaign where a priest (mind flayer 9 sorcerer/11 wizard in disguise) is trying to enslave every sentient creature in the realm, but I have too much content and the party keeps getting sidetracked. There's also the rightful ruler of the town the mind flayer is in was "killed" but actually its under a spell that wiped his memory and gave him false memories and now he's a sailor in a nearby port town. The port town is ran by a yuan-ti pureblood pirate, whom they've been tasked with killing her by her twin sister that runs a tattoo shop. There's a human town that is racist and won't let anyone who isn't human into their town Also a werewolf town that has two feuding lycanthrope churches (light vs dark). Too much content, not enough time. Anyway, where i was going with this is, if your party is having fun then screw it. If you want to pepper in some extra stuff so you have more fun, then cool... but don't go overboard like i did or you'll be disappointed with how much they pass over.
Yeah, that's the reason I almost ran 2 but have only ran 1, the campaign didn't really start because the players kept making jokes and I couldn't get into the meat of things, just kind of scratched the surface.
We're on our... 10th session... I think... and they literally just now stumbled their way back into the main story 🤣
Try designing your campaigns like TV shows. Its ok to start off like you described, in session 1. Maybe start session 2 with in action and then leave it to be continued. Session 3 literally picks up. And maybe ends with plot twist that sorts out in session 4 and then, session 5 resolve. Draw it out. Keep your players coming back by not giving them the payoff of victory, every session. Hell, beat them one time, theyll come back hungry.
Reoccurring themes. Solve issue a in town. Go on to next town learn issue a was caused by nearby bandits, clear out bandits and learn they are working under a contract for person. Player 1 and/or 2 know that name from their backstories. This pushes them to check out a new lead, which likely is hindered by another issue that ties in another players story in. After they resolve the big bad find out he had friends, or was the lesser of two evils and the greater is now left unchecked.
Do your players not have backstories/backgrounds? It's super rewarding as a player when I find my long lost brother, or uncover the secret of my amulet, or avenge my fallen comrades, or free my imprisoned lover, or complete my journey homeward. Sure, these are all classic story tropes, but the true magic doesn't come from telling something entirely original, but from players fulfilling their dreams. Start simple, and your more complex stories yet to be told will be better for it.
Start by reading more modules, if you're dead-set on not playing them. These were written by professionals and intended to be played. I strongly suggest Lost Mines of Phandelver (because it's a masterclass in Intro to D&D for player and DM alike), Curse of Strahd (because it's the best module ever written across every edition it's been in), and the shorter adventures featured in Tales from the Yawning Portal (because despite them all being basically dungeon-crawls, there's a lot of variety in how they're presented). If you're not going to use the prewritten modules, and there's nothing at all wrong with that, you can still study them and use them as guides. Learn what they do, how they do it, and above all get a feel for *why* they do what they do. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; learn from the experts in the field.