#dnd plothooks

[ms-scarletwings]

Now I don’t mind this established trope at all where people are basically ants in the minds of dragons, but then, just once in any fantasy media or campaign I want a dragon or other massive higher creature that responds to the existence to humans in the exact way that I do to bugs.

Dragon that stops flying because it saw someone sleeping in a field and pokes them with a branch out of sheer curiosity to check if they’re dead or not.

Dragon that watches goblins scurry into one of their little huts and just pries the roof off to stare at them and look at the inside of their little shelter before putting it back down with a satisfied grin and leaving.

Dragon that sees a person treading water in the middle of a lake or the ocean, carefully plucks them out, and sets them down on dry land. Maybe puts a goat’s leg in their lap in case they need a snack. Also calls them “Harold” for no apparent reason.

Very young dragon that screams and freaks out upon seeing a bearded man with brightly colored robes and a pointed hat until it realizes the guy isn’t casting any spells. “Ohhhh you’re a wizard mimic” and then proceeds to handle the guy for a few minutes, fascinated. It also addresses the dude as “Craig” the entire time.

Dragon grabs a wild boar and repeatedly starts placing it in front of a town because it wants to see some hunting behavior in action.

Thief gets caught sneaking into a dragon’s lair. Resident reptile roars and is seemingly about to obliterate them when its mate suddenly comes rushing in with a giant cup. They have a grumbly back and forth before the thief is scooped up and promptly brought to be dropped off at the nearest random village. Dragon’s mate refers to the thief as “Sullivan SillyMan” the whole way.

Dragon that encounters a member of a humanoid race it has never heard of or seen before, at least in this region. Stops everything it’s doing and immediately kidnaps the individual. Speeds back to its lair and keeps them imprisoned while trying to flip through some tomes. Eventually drags out a magical item that they use to open a communication with another dragon, describing the prisoner, showing them the prisoner, exchanging friendly banter. There’s a whole 30 minute to and hour convo and everything. Dragon refers to the captive as “Thaddeus” the whole time. Last thing it does is sketch out a drawing of the person before taking them back to where they found them and turning them loose again.

Dragon doing this to a gnome

#dragons #bugs tangentially #dnd plothooks #fantasy ideas #weevil #shitty writing prompts #based on true events #Especially the part where I give them random names #scarlet rambles about things #y’all will write dragons as so knowledge obsessed and smart but with no real scientific passion huh

[deityofandrogyny]

*Inspired by another creator*

The last cleric of a dead god sits alone in a long abandoned temple, their belongings spread out around them, just as they have practiced for longer than they can remember. And in this rare moment of solace, the cleric casts Commune.

“Have I done well?”

Roll for insight.

Had they not been alone, they would’ve sworn it was a whisper of mockery from one of their new friends, a subtle chance to fuck with the cleric, a not uncommon occurrence. But no one else is here. And yet, two voices, the same yet seperate, are heard. But only one rings through the temple’s chambers. And in this moment the cleric knows two things.

The first, is that their god is gone, the last remnants of an ember burnt out, a merciful death all things considered, as something that isn’t meant to die shouldn’t be forced to cling to life. This is what the cleric focuses on.

The second is that there is a vacancy in this world, that, in that mournful moment of peace, was filled. It is a simple law of equivalent exchange, that when something dies, another will take its place. This is what the cleric chooses to ignore.

Many months from now, the cleric will hear a new voice, the first of many. But on this day, they hear themselves.

#dnd inspiration #dnd stuff #dnd plothooks

[untitledworldbuildingblog]

guy who regularly has [specific monsters] attacking his farm and hires adventurers to kill them (& bring him the bodies as proof)

also found elsewhere, pretty tough for adventurers to kill & def not civilians, but if you know to harvest them their [body part]s are valuable/useful (may be the case for many such creatures)

turns out guy raises them for [body part]s, easy to harvest(/kill? or nonlethal?) while contained but hard to catch when they escape, having to pay adventurers is worth it to recoup some loss

adventurers eventually try to track down source (bc they get annoyed they keep getting the same job) & find farm

wtf

(do they condemn? do they help him build a better security system? do they report him (nuisance, can't be kept (in city limits))? do they blackmail him? (if so either new "ally" or source of goods) what else?)

(what do other people do w bodies? hard to dispose of, so send them to guy? or do most non-adventurers know & keep them? or do they just leave them? can guy recover bodies, does smth happen to them when left around?)

#might be better for #bitd #rather than #dnd #esp given the adventurers for hire since funds are more important in bitd #blades in the dark #d&d #ideas #inspo #plothooks #stories #plot

[bestiarium]

Piscis monstrosus [17th century Europe]

On November 21 of the year 1587, two strange herrings were caught. One was found in Denmark and the other in Norway. They resembled plain, normal herrings but their skin was decorated with symbols resembling writing. The strange fish were presented to king Frederik II of Denmark, though it is unknown what eventually became of them.

Later, in 1609, a somewhat similar specimen was captured in Silesia, which is a historic region in Europe that is a part of Poland and Germany today. It is depicted here in this image, and was simply labelled “Piscis monstrosus” or “monstrous fish”.

The creature’s skin was covered in strange symbols, letters and glyphs. In the accompanying drawing, the creature did not have eyes. Its skin was removed and sent to Rudolf II, who was the Holy Roman Emperor at the time, presumably as a gift. It should be noted that Rudolf II had a widespread reputation as being a huge fan and patron of occult studies, alchemy and astrology.

It seems to me that the markings were either man-made or simply natural spots that happened to somewhat resemble letters and symbols, and which were exaggerated in contemporary sources. At the time, however, the story was noted as a weird, supernatural occurrence, with Johann Zahn describing it as a ‘miracle’. With no additional specimens to be found, however, the story eventually died and was never followed up. The writing on the ‘Piscis monstrosus’ has never been translated.  

Source: Zahn, J., 1696, Specula physico-mathematico-historica notabilium ac mirabilium sciendorum: in qua mundi mirabilis oeconomia, nec non mirificè amplus, et magnificus ejusdem abditè reconditus, nunc autem ad lucem protractus, ac ad varias perfacili method acquirendas scientias in epitomen collectus thesaurus curiosis omnibus cosmosophis inspectandus proponitur. There are really well preserved copies of this work available for free online (such as on books.google) but I found that the wording and sometimes smudged writing makes it a pain to translate. (image source: Specula physico-mathematico-historica notabilium ac mirabilium sciendorum, Johann Zahn, 1696)

#miscellaneous #occult #creatures #mythical creatures #this story would make for a great plothook for a lovecraftian DnD campaign #medieval #medieval European folktales #well not actually medieval but some centuries later

[minvatabletopco]

"Absolutely amazing and makes me really excited for doing more DnD prep!" - Uma Reviews are flooding in on our Lore Keeper 5e Notion template and our customers are loving it! Learn more on our store at minvathemes.com #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dndfaction #faction #dndproducts #ttrpg #ttrpgfamily #ttrpgsolidarity #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragonsart #dungeonsanddragons5e #dungeonsanddragonscharacter #dungeonsanddragons5thedition #dndmemes #dndcharacter #dndart #dndfaction #faction #plothook #dndplothook #notion #notiontemplate #dndnotion https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj0byUIOBVG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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[belovedblabber]

I wrote so many puzzles for my game today and am unsure if my players will solved them immediately or take like 30 hours aserjfjff

#dnd #I love being a dm #I’ve also discovered I’m decent at writing puzzles despite thinking I’m not for years #now I just need to make sure they take the plothook😂

[lnane]

Dnd character setup idea (for when you think you might be going through a lot of characters):

Start with a very old character. Whatever it is you make is up to you, but the important part is 1. Theyre old 2. They have kids

Then, when they die, you just make slight changes to the character. Reroll stats or change one qspect or go entierly different fir everything except race or whatever. Important change is theyre SLIGHTLY younger

Yoyre now playing character 1s child.

And when character 2 dies, you repeat the process but now for THEIR child.

So if you go through a lot of characters you will eventually go through an entire lineage of the same family, every descendant of character 1 dying with the same party as the previous.

#if you want it extra funny/sad make every characters plothook that theyre looking for their parent who went on a quest #dnd

[grassy-gnoll]

Haha I saw this when it was fresh news and thought: ADVENTURE AWAITS! Reposted from @4d6_drop_lowest #dndnews #dnd5e #adventure #undergroundforest #dnd #dndmemes #dndmeme #dndplothooks #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonsanddragonsmemes #ttrpg #plothook #dungeonmaster #dungeonmastertips https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf2p7Bzr1DB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#dndnews #dnd5e #adventure #undergroundforest #dnd #dndmemes #dndmeme #dndplothooks #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonsanddragonsmemes #ttrpg #plothook #dungeonmaster #dungeonmastertips

[dungeondoug]

At the end of the river sits a small cavern. The water continues to flow through it towards the sea through winding tunnels. What creatures and treasures may your party find within? Could it be a clan of coastal Sahaguin nesting? Perhaps an errant sea hag is in one of these caves...preying on the nearby village? - - - Artwork generated using MidjourneyAI More hook inspiration found on my patreon, link in the bio. - - - - #dnd #plothook #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #startplayinggames #worldanvil #worldbuilding #fantasy #roll20 #dungeons_and_dragons #dndcharacterdesign #roleplayinggames #pathfinder #magic #landscape #midjourney #patreon #cavern #5thedition #dungeonmaster #sessionprep #criticalrole #dndplayer #tabletopgaming #fantasyrpg #d20 #water #gamemaster https://www.instagram.com/p/ClYrHjHrZAJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#dnd #plothook #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #startplayinggames #worldanvil #worldbuilding #fantasy #roll20 #dungeons_and_dragons #dndcharacterdesign #roleplayinggames #pathfinder #magic #landscape #midjourney #patreon #cavern #5thedition #dungeonmaster #sessionprep #criticalrole #dndplayer #tabletopgaming #fantasyrpg #d20 #water #gamemaster

[stick2sherlock]

batfam as dnd players

Bruce: Doesn't really want to play, and when forced is absolute min/maxer. It does not even occur to him that he could play differently. He read the books, skimmed internet for best combos, and sticks to that. The backstory of his characters somehow always has something to do with masked vigilanites a'la Zorro or Grey Ghost.

Dick: Takes magical support characters like druids or bards, just to do some fun magic stuff and score very creative kills. He's the kind of a player that will make a plan to infiltrate a fortress by turning the team into elephants and flying them in (by means of conjure woodland beings) . He's not a min-maxer, but his creative use of wierd spells and abilities make his character super useful. His characters have simple but effective backstory, often connected with Babs's characters'.

Barbara: Plays basically only gnome barbarians, becuase she thinks its funny. She often makes INT the dump stat, and the rest of the players have to constantly remind her that SHE might have figured out the riddle, but her character with INT 8 would NOT. Loves combat and 3D-prints minis for her characters.

Jason: Lives to RP. His characters have deep and rich backstories, usually extremely dramatic and with many possible plothooks. He WILL try to talk to everyone in the tavern. his turn during the fight is the longest because he insists on describing in detail everything his character does. He often gets angry at the dice, becuase they spoil the 'great scene he had planned'. He often makes very supoptimal characters to fit the backstory (wizard with low INT, rogue with 10 in DEX, etc.) and gets pissed when they get killed easily. Will sometimes DM, and those scenarios are usually very, very light on combat.

Tim: Rules lawyer nr 1. He knows the rules by heart. He remembers half of the statblocks of monsters and complains if they are changed. Takes careful notes, and makes 100 theories on everything in game. His characters ALWAYS check the ceiling when coming into a room. He has a tendency to metagame. Often DMs.

Cas: Doesn't really like to play, similarily to Bruce, but when she does she usually plays support (usually clerics), so that she can heal the party. Enjoys exploration, and is more likely to play in scenarios with a lot of ruin exploration, dungeon crawling etc.

Steph: Makes joke characters like Dildo Swaggins the lustful bard, but somehow always ends up with the most dramatic story developments for her character and most heroic, tearjerking deaths. Like Jason she loves to RP more than fight, and their character often have scenes of sitting by the fireplace and talking during short rests. Has several sets of dice and tracks their 'luck'. Sometimes DMs wierd but higly creative one-shots.

Damian: Pretends not to like to play, but after first (frankly quite disasterous) session, he got sucked in. He loves making characters, and has a whole folder of character sheets of his OCs, with drawn pictures and everything. Makes tokens for the whole group, and can be (easily) convinced to draw maps for the sessions. Rules lawyer nr 2, but unlike Tim who does the lawyering to keep the game clean and running RAW, Damian will try to give himself as much advantage as possible. No one lets him DM, because he is not yet ready for such power.

Alfred: Does not play. He hates DND with passion and wishes they would play something less rule-heavy so that he could play with them and roleplay in peace without those pesky dice... and why are there so few social skills for a character! This is not his cup of tea, thank you very much. Jason sometimes convinces him to stand in for the important NPCs, and he always knocks it out of the park.

#batfamily #headcanon #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #alfred pennyworth #jason todd #stephanie brown #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #dnd

[moltengoldveins]

just had the wonderful DnD experience of our longtime wildmagic plothook-coat-wearer getting hit by not one but TWO wildmagic surges in the span of two hours game time, split across several months real-time because summer break, and getting the Hair Loss Result BOTH TIMES, which resulted in the fact that (according to our Dm,) this man, who up until now had Significant Lore Reasons to keep his hair long, is PERMANENTLY BALD ACROSS HIS ENTIRE BODY.

I love this stupid heccin game

#Also the player for the fellow is my boyfriend #Who has rather long hair #do with this information what you will #dnd #dungeons and dragons #funny

[mercy-misrule]

I loved that episode, it was a burst of new energy, it was an introduction to two amazing characters, it was Chetney and FCG plothooks, and it's the beginning of new and different magic situations

I stand by my general being tired of DND atheists/non believers stance, but that doesn't remotely mean I dislike FRIDA or Deanna. They kick ass so much.

One of the things that I love from Aabria as a PC, in every series, not just critrole that I've seen her in, is that when her character is roused/angry/hurt, she doesn't immediately soothe. She expresses those feelings, as is her right to, doesn't let a fear of tension prevent honest expression

It makes for such dynamic play, and I think adds a level of immersion. Such good roleplay.

I'm so excited for this party!!

#critical role #cr spoilers

[vivi-the-goblin]

Honestly, all the talk about building for raw power in most TTRPGs just baffles me. Don't get me wrong, I've theorycrafted some optimized builds just for the fun of a math puzzle, but power only matters in relation to what you're against. You all did the super cool thing from reddit and made level 5 characters that function like level 9? Ok? Have fun doing just as well against my encounters that're now built for a level 8 or 9 character instead of level 5. If you'd just played something you like and were all underpowered, I'd just underpower the encounters and you'd have the same exact difficulty curve. Like, I might give the power gamer a little edge at times, but that's because I understand what you're wanting from the game. I'm being a good DM and giving you what you sought. You didn't "beat me," I just didn't prep for weeks of my free time with the intention of giving you a bad time. And that's what really gets me, what I'm noticing is that as the percentage of adversarial DMs seems to have decreased, the rate of adversarial PLAYERS seem to be increasing. There was always a section fighting against the DM, and they were sometimes justified, but the movement to counteract that has grown so large and gotten so much consideration in design I honestly feel like the reverse is becoming an issue. Hiding things from the DM so they can't touch it, or to later outsmart/undermine them. Telling the DM your plan in a 10-part series of questions to back them into agreeing before you say what you want to do, often a thing I would've just let you do anyway but am tempted to say no now out of spite. Intentionally breaking the game or ignoring plothooks and calling them out for being bad. Making broken builds specifically to fight the DM. and I'm like, ok? Are you after power fantasy, because I could've just given that to you? Or something else, tell me and give me time to make it. Right now, at best I'll see what you want and give it to you, at worst I won't and just throw stronger things at you. If you're constantly planning for doom, I'll give you doom, because I assume you wouldn't put that much effort preparing for a scenario unless you wanted it to happen. Just...talk to your DM. If you want something we'll at least work with you. Might make you work for it, but we're not your enemies, we're other players at the table. And yes, I know, "write a book." Counterpoint, if you want to just smash everything with no thought to those around you, "go play skyrim." because this a team game, a cooperative game. If you aren't there to have a good time with EVERYONE at the table, go do something by yourself. We both need to give and take here. I gave you a huge custom world with an entire story about how your OC and friends are the coolest and best, you can at least treat it with some respect. Because unless you're paying me, it's not the DM's "job" to do anything. I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart and the [[Ant-sized]] [[Rapidly-shrinking]] amount of respect I have for you. Idk, I just feel like people came in like a flood, heard old horror stories about tyrannical DMs, and prepared for them...not realizing those were actually pretty rare, and the adversarial ways were just making people not want to DM. Good DnD is born of mutual respect and communication, like every other social relationship.

#vivi rambles

[alpaca-clouds]

Some Thoughts on DnD Winter Campaigns

Like two months ago I wrote a little something about how people underestimate how harsh medieval winters were. And I know that we today easily can forget this, because climate change has happened or rather is still happening, making winters in many parts very mild if not outright snowless. And that is even without us talking about how modern infrastructure is a lot better when it comes to dealing with winter weather - and we have always fresh food imported from the global south.

But in the medieval times winters were often very, very harsh. And travelling during them was hard, if not outright impossible, because often the roads between cities were snowed in and impassible. Which was often even harder when it came to mountain paths.

Now, I think this would make for some interesting plothooks for DnD Campaigns or One Shots.

Even with all the worldbuilding that we have for DnD - or at least for Faerûn - we actually have little information about the climate zones within the world. We know that Faerûn's Sword Coast has about the same length as the US East Coast, but given that we know little about the ocean currents and weather patterns... We know little.

What we do know however is, that Neverwinter is in the subarctic climate zone (this is said in some of the older source books) and is only so warm because of the fire elementals. which tells us, that everything north of Neverwinter is within the subarctic and arctic climate zone. And everything at least down towards Waterdeep, but probably even down to Baldur's Gate should be temperate climate with Baldur's Gate maybe going into the subtropical climate. (I do have the theory that Toril is currently in a smaller Ice Age.)

Soooooo... Why am I writing about this?

Because I think that we could use that for interesting plots for campaigns or one shots. Because consider this: Your adventuring party has been adventuring somewhere in the North of Neverwinter - but it turns out, winter this year comes very suddenly. And rather than fighting monsters, you got to fight the cold and try to keep alive. Maybe your party has to flee into a cave - and gets confronted by the monsters living there. Or maybe your party - being unable to pass through the mountain paths and get supplies - will be unable to resupply and suddenly that dwarf adventuring with you looks surprisingly tasty.

Or alternatively: Your party has been helping out in this little village somewhere up north. But when the winters comes, you cannot leave further south to the big cities. And as your party is camping out in some stables, when you start hearing those murmurs about what happens in the village in winter.

It is basically a great set up for a nice and darker story. Just... a thought that some might enjoy.

Tagging @udaberriwrites, because I think you might enjoy my rambling about climate zones xD

#dungeons & dragons #dnd #dnd campaign #climate #winter #ttrpg #rpg campaign #rpg #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #faerûn #neverwinter #waterdeep

[olismithart-blog]

Uploading my Pokemon Kanto Mega-Starters as reimagined as DnD Monsters! We’re around 2/3s through Kantos Pokedex on this long running project, complete with rules and plothooks https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/S1wY9kOGN

#pokemon #dnd homebrew #dnd art #dungeons and dragons #kanto #charizard #venusaur #blastoise #mega evolution

[minvatabletopco]

"I really like how straight forward this character sheet is. It's helpful for keeping everything organized while not overwhelming my brain when trying to find specific stats" - Jenna 5-star review for our Minimal D&D Character Sheet We love our wonderful feedback from all our customers! Learn more via link in bio or at minvathemes.com. Subscribe to our newsletter at minvarpg.com/subscribe for weekly hooks, coupons, deals, and much more! #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dndfaction #faction #dndproducts #ttrpg #ttrpgfamily #ttrpgsolidarity #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragonsart #dungeonsanddragons5e #dungeonsanddragonscharacter #dungeonsanddragons5thedition #dndmemes #dndcharacter #dndart #dndfaction #faction #plothook #dndplothook https://www.instagram.com/p/CjNdQe3rNBx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dndfaction #faction #dndproducts #ttrpg #ttrpgfamily #ttrpgsolidarity #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragonsart #dungeonsanddragons5e #dungeonsanddragonscharacter #dungeonsanddragons5thedition #dndmemes #dndcharacter #dndart #plothook #dndplothook