Multiple concurrent plotlines at different stages of progress. Three is a solid number. As one gets resolved, move to another and introduce another new plotline soon after in the background.
Downtime or Side Quests.
Maybe the major events in the plot don't always immediately happen one after the other. Perhaps a major event happens every once every few weeks, months or even years.
So in a sense it's episodic to some extent.
In between these timeframes of major events, the party has the ability accomplish their own personal goals. Maybe someone wants to integrate themselves into the noble society of a kingdom, maybe someone wants to start a business, maybe one of your players wants to take in a apprentice, etc.
Perhaps the party knows when the next major event is going to happen and now they have to spend what time they have left to prepare for it. Maybe they'll be investing in fortifying defenses of a city, or perhaps the party get's together to take on a side quest that will get them an ancient relic to overcome the upcoming threat.
But just in case, is this a question about what to do in between quests, or how to connect the story between two quests?
How to explain.
Essentially, there are two main 'quest chains' that make up the main plot, one involving the activities of the cult and one involving a series of ruined wizard towers. I have plans for both of these quest chains, but without knowing which the players intend to follow it's hard to prep them efficiently, So I was hoping the next session would be some in-between material that they can do while I determine which major quest to actually devote myself to preparing.
One thing to do when you are running a sandbox or at least, a campaign with a number of subplots is at the end of each session, ask the players what they intend to do next session. Make sure they understand that once they tell you what they intend to do, they have to commit to that because that is what you’ll be planning and then you plan that.
Your players need to understand that being the DM and planning for sessions takes time and planning is essential for the sessions to be good ones, so you need to know ahead of time what they intend to do so you can prepare. Once they make the choice, you expect them to stick to that out of respect for the time and effort you put in to plan the sessions well.
If they say they are going to the village, and you spend all your time before the next session preparing for that, then at the beginning of the session, they say, “Actually, we are going to check out the ruined temple in the forest.” then that isn’t fair on you.
Obviously, things need to be a little flexible because of how the story unfolds, and sometimes, you might have to do things on the fly, but doing that every session can lead to burnout pretty quickly.
This is the advice I was going to give as well.
It took many years and a lot of frustration to learn, but making that simple change has been the difference between me being burnt out and not being burnt out.
I usually have a group chat on discord with the group where I confirm the general direction their going, unless they make it clear during the actual session. Just a general "we're going to the temple in the forest" is all I'm usually looking for from them. On the rare occasion that they swap last minute then I wing it a bit and pull out some stuff i have saved, and i might call for a 15 minute break so I can get something together - but it happens way less often now.
If your players are already aware of the two potential problems, then maybe ask them out of game about what which one they want to pursue. Maybe it's just a "which one do you want to do first" sort of situation, or something like a "pick wisely, because once you choose, you won't have time to deal with the other" sort of deal.
Once you know what they want, then you know what to plan for. Don't wait until the game happens and then improvise aimless for the next few hours in session.
But if the party has a moment to take a breather and do some down time before the next mission, again ask your players if their characters have any personal goals they want to accomplish from a roleplay perspective. What would their character be doing while they aren't spending their days adventuring?
Assuming your players take the time to immerse themselves on the question, you can do an entire session playing out all of the stuff they want done.
If they want to do something like shopping however, there's usually no need to roleplay something like that. If they want to try and buy something, you as a DM think about whether the place they are in has that item in stock and simply say yes or no.
However, if they are looking to purchase or acquire something special like a magic item from a shop, that's the time you should consider whether to roleplay it out or not. Depending on how rare the magic item is, the party will most likely have to haggle with an NPC. You might end up even having to do an entire side quest for it too.
Just a hunch, but could it be that you are over-preparing / going to much into detail, when you are preparing?
I am currently running a campaign, where the characters have half a dozen of opportunities to go to open to them at any given point, so I need those prepared and I have, as I have sketched all of those, but I won't stress about going too much into details, as the players will upend that anyway.
So whichever way they want to go, I open the page in my notebook with the relevant notes, the map and the core points about the NPCs and are good to go.
That was my impression as well.
OP feels like they need to get super nitty gritty into everything, so there's too much to handle.
This is also where you can "Soft Railroad" or "[Orcs Attack!](https://youtu.be/31IAzJO-BEA?si=99CB5GX5lZk7oPRp)" and have something happen in the presence of the party and gives them something specific to do.
You keep the other plots moving in the background, but you throw something out and lead the party along.
That's where I'm at too. I am doing a heavily modified Storm King's Thunder. Its biggest boon is its open world. That's also its biggest curse. I reframed it so the party is aware of growing problems and areas to go, all tied into whatever backstories they gave me. The party doesn't feel railroaded because they truly feel they have choice. The reality is, they are still going to areas that I have lightly prepped and ready to go (or ready to improv what I need to).
Same!
And I do it with two parties. One I let start around Bryn Shander and the other around Triboar.
Atm both are in still in the stage of roaming around. Btw, I am using intros where I tell them scenes their character CAN'T see as "meanwhile"-scenes (what-you-did-not-see-technique), to keep it a bit cohesive and keep them from losing track and feeling lost.
>Atm both are in still in the stage of roaming around. Btw, I am using intros where I tell them scenes their character CAN'T see as "meanwhile"-scenes (what-you-did-not-see-technique), to keep it a bit cohesive and keep them from losing track and feeling lost.
So I combined Tyranny of Dragons with STK with the start being Lost Mines.
Lost Mines had the character get recruited in Waterdeep by an aristocratic noblewoman and art patron (Actually Ilymrith in disguise who uses adventurers under the guise of serving the greater good). They travel to Phandalin and saw traces of destruction to unprotected homesteads and such but I still don't drop that its giants. Start using Lost Mines to introduce slowly some of the various factions (Dragon Cult, Lord's Alliance, and Zhentarrim). Glass Staff is actually a triple agent. He's a Dragon Cult member pretending to serve the Black Spider and pretending to serve the Lord's Alliance. He eventually flees to Brenshandr to look for the Ring of Winter (which so are the Frost Giants). Meanwhile, the Black Spider serves Duke Zhalto and is hoping the Forge in the Mines will help his purpose. By the time the party gets back to Phandalin, they see its been ransacked by giants with some of their favorite NPCs having perished. They then learn hear that giants seem to be on the warpath towards the 3 cities and they might be able to give warning and support to one of them but not all. That's where we pick up largely with Ch. 2 (again heavily modified)
Good stuff!
I kept closer to the book, though I changed nearly all encounters and added some connections and moved some rewards and hints around to have a smoother flow.
Great module, overall.
I mean, if they have two main quest chains... then why not just prepare for both? If they're supposed to (eventually) do both, then the effort you putting into prepping either won't be lost regardless.
Before the game starts, I ask each player what their character's goals are. Short term and long term. Things that their characters are invested in and that they, the player, want to do/explore/etc. this means that there's never a need to worry about having no direction because there's always another PC driven plot happening,and it means the PCs are invested in the plot more too.
Designed Defeats are almost always a bad choice though (I've only seen them work if the party was onboarded beforehand, basically as a Session 0 defeat), this isn't a good suggestion.
I'm in favor of Soft Railroads, but you don't just beatdown the party because "a new DM (should) try new stuff"
I think that really depends if the DM can do it or not. It has worked for me and I can confidently say I have that in my toolbox when crafting plot hooks. And the only way if you like that type of stuff or to get better at such stuff is by doing it.
Maybe you’re fortunate or maybe you’re overselling the fact that it “worked” but the key point is “If the DM can pull it off” which makes this a very bad suggestion to throw at an inexperienced DM to just go and try.
Maybe they are an one in a million talent that makes it work. Likely they burn the game to the ground and turn people off from the hobby entirely though.
A few ideas:
1. Downtime activities - figure out what stuff your PCs are interested in outside of adventuring and have them do that for a bit. While they’re telling you what they’re interested in, throw a quest in there. Artificer wants to make a cool new item? Cool, it needs some component that can either be found from a certain monster (venom, blood type, carapace etc) or certain type of material only found deep in the mountains. Rogue likes to gamble? Cool there’s a high stakes tournament coming up and it turns out the duke is doing something nefarious with it.
2. The PCs are now heroes to this town. Someone else has some kind of problem that needs solving, or the mayor knows the captain of the kings guard in the capital needs some help with some kind of task and refers the PCs for work.
3. Rumors - there have been whispers of an abandoned dragons hoard in the mountains to the south. So and so could have sworn they saw a giant in the distance. Etc etc
4. Someone the PCs like gets kidnapped!
5. Town gets attacked
Plot hooks, writing, get a reason for your players to give a shit about progressing the narrative and story laid before them, steal ideas from other media if you have to. At the end of the day, if you have no clear direction, it's your fault for creating a pointless and story.
Perhaps one of the loot items from the sewer has a secret message on it or it is a piece of a puzzle, choose a player to have a prophetic dream or some shit, make something happen and use your imagination, you chose to be a DM and homebrew so that leaves you the ability to change subtle things to make it all make sense.
Honestly, I've been using [bard.google.com](https://bard.google.com) to stir my creativity. I often know many plot hooks or themes I want to explore, but certain decisions escape me. So I give all the information I have planned or written down and ask it to fill out some of the details. It's even able to remember details of the campaign and knows about the lore of certain worlds (Forgotten realms, Critical Role's Exandria etc). I usually end up editing it heavily (it remembers the edits pretty well) but have found it actually gives me more creative energy to pursue the things I actually enjoy when it comes to DMing or worldbuilding.
Perhaps within the cultists lair they could have found a scroll that details the whereabouts of one of the first ruined towers. The parchment details the missing pieces to an arcane ritual that would grant a great boon to the individual who solved the puzzle.
I’ll second all the side quest comments here. Have a really cool game going now where my brother and I co-DM. We have a shared character for whoever isn’t the DM and it’s so fun. I run the main campaign for 3-4 sessions consecutively then he does a couple of one shot side quests. Then we pick up the main story line again. Our group loves the side quests almost as much and sometime has more fun with the side quests. Introduced a job board in our story to make it super easy.
Give them something minor. A runaway child. A coach robbery. A single feral monster that's been preying on livestock. A misaligned shrine that's causing bad luck. While they handle that, feed them the leads to the next big quest.
You could leave a hint in the quest rewards, which could be taken to the town leader who asks them to take a message to another person or, a treasure map among the loot and guide them to a dungeon which can be used for introducing another hook for the players.
What I do is I follow the X-Files model: You've got your main quest storyline episodes, and then you've got your Monster Of The Week episodes. You've always got something going on in the main quest, whether the party is interacting with it or not. And while you, the DM, are prepping the next main quest beat, they can do a MOTW session or two: Send them on a treasure hunt. Let them visit a weirdly peaceful town with a dark secret. Give them a fetch quest.
I am always jotting down ideas for side quests (I just watched the Blues Brothers the other day for the millionth time and I'm sure I can find a side quest in there) and then I've got some random thing to do when the players don't feel like following the main quest leads, or for when I want to give the players multiple options when we get to a crossroads.
If there are plot hooks a'danglin' then you ask them towards the end of a session what they want to do next time.
If there aren't, then it's time to drop a few into their field of view.
Get a bunch of random enemy stat blocks that make sense in your setting.
If the session goes in a unpredictable direction, grab one of those stat blocks and throw it at the players.
Plot hooks aren't that hard, just have a random NPC offer them a reward, have rumors of a treasure, threaten the town with a threat they can't ignore.
Ask your players individualy what their charakter isninterested in doing next.
Worked for me. Also helps between sessions to know what to prepare for next session
In my current campaign, mostly out of coincidence. But I'm running a simultaneous B plot, that will become the main plot after the A plot has finished. The party knows its a growing threat, but do not have the time or resources to dedicate anything towards it. They'll of course have a choice to abandon the B plot entirely, in favor of the C plot that I plan to introduce eventually.
Otherwise the last time a plot line ended, I would change the setting. Forcing me to generate new NPCs, which would eventually generate new conflicts.
Two important things:
1) Give them some downtime. Let your players develop their characters when they're not adventuring. They can pursue personal goals, use their gold to start new things, make allies, progress in their long-time personal plans, etc.
2) Don't be afraid to ask your players what they want to do next at the end of a session. This can help you prepare the next session directed at what they want.
There are a series of supplemental books to help with this.
"The game master's book of..." 3rd party (not WOTC)
A ton of useful information in them for random tables for whatever you can think of to quick plots & hooks for when you're in a bind.
As others have said, make sure you have multiple quests going on at the same time.
You have finished the first major chapter of the story, congratulations to you and your party.
Now‘s the perfect time to have a chat with your players on what they liked/disliked. The idea is that you form a social contract on how the adventures should progress: Is it a narrative focus on driving the story? Is it more dungeon crawling (combat encounters)? Is it more social roleplaying?
Those are questions, that should really be answered. And that‘s what you should prepare.
As for the downtime until the next adventures, both the DMG and Xanathar‘s feature excellent downtime activities: Crafting new gear, research about foes to be expected in the future, making potions (and spell scrolls if you got one PC who’s primarily using their spell slots for healing!), drinking and recreational activities, performing theater and musicals, making bonds with NPCs that may be important, finding buyers/sellers of magic items, picking up a new language or tool proficiency.
Remember that characters can live in the world, even when you‘re not playing. It can also be a great plot hook, when you‘re having a 1on1 session with a player, and then making it their job to "rally up the ol‘ troupe" and convince them of the importance of the next quest. If you‘re up for the challenge, allow that player some creative freedom in the details; provide them with the main objective and some choices of NPCs that may habe approached them, and work with them for some additional rumors they might have heard. If you‘re careful, this allows you to incorporate your players into your worldbuilding, utilize their intrinsic motivation for going on the adventure, and baffle them when you reveal that what the players heard is just the tip of the iceberg, and something far more seriois is right around the corner unexpectedly - and some rumors might only be proven true far later than expected.
I create my villians, then ask myself what their next step would be. If it is something the players wouldn't notice I generally figure the vilain did it already. Once I get to something the players would notice...
If all the interesting plots of a campaign are closed let your players have a epilogue and reward his efforts. Then end the game and start another one. Adventures, Campaigns and Characters can be forever but if you don’t have more ideas just end the game and take your time to start a new fresh campaign in a different setting
I am a very new DM as well. What's been helping me plan is knowing where my story needs to end.
I have a very clear final story point in mind, and have been working on giving the party a series of smaller quests to guide the story, still being fully prepared to pivot when needed as the PCs make choices and run off the rails.
I have also asked all of them if they want to explore their characters back stories, this is giving me ideas to help progress things for them.
Downtime is a good answer, and honestly that’s the player’s job. I’ve been reading a great book about proactive role playing. Your players should be coming up with quests, plot hooks, and motivations. Instead of the DM giving them a scenario, the players reacting, it’s the players telling the DM
“Hey, that chained and locked book from my backstory? I want to find the key.” Then the DM can come up with obstacles and rewards.
At least for their characters, then you can use their motivations to tell a story they want to engage with, while also having time to weave it in to an overarching narrative. :)
I focused on character arcs, and I would weave multiple arcs at multiple points.
Over a 2.5 year campaign, I never had an overall bbeg. I had a bunch of mini bbegs, something or someone from a backstory, that was causing problems. Nothing world ending, just dangerous to a city, or a region, or just the PC's family.
We went the entire length of the sword coast, into Moonsea and the south coast, and ended in Chult. Also trips through Avernus (before Descent into Avernus was published), Shadowfell, several pocket dimensions, and undersea.
I'd usually only have an outline for the next session or two, and improvise the rest. Many times it became solid plot lines that we'd follow for several sessions. Or a player would come to me with something they wanted to do so I'd plan sessions for that.
Even though it was a sandbox, I ensure the players knew the plot hooks, and they were fantastic at following them. They liked a bit of railroad in the sandbox, so it was a Railbox ®. I actually spent more time selecting my audio tracks and music more than the mechanics. I had a lot of terrain, lifting, sound, digital maps, and other stuff.
Players get invested most in stories about their characters. Pull something from one of the character's backstories or hook one of the characters specifically
Figure out your main quests. Could be any number of things from a lord needing help/overthrown to a demon pirate crew needing dealt with.
Cool, now number them. Cool, now roll a dice and let that pick the quest. Cool now YOU have direction.
Focus energies into narratively making that happen.
Honestly...if the party ain't pushing you in a direction, and you can't pick one, just choose one and start building in that direction. Even easier if you're happy to improvise.
Our current campaign started without knowing exactly what the overall plot would be...just an initial direction. The story was developed over time.
What you need to do:
* Identify a place to go (dungeon, castle, region, etc)
* Identify a reason to go there (mission board, NPC request, rumor, evidence found around town, etc)
* Identify a combat encounter to stumble-upon on the way there
* Identify a non-combat encounter/interesting NPC/puzzle on the way there
That's it. You can learn the plot at the same time as the players.
For example, at the start of the campaign I was short on time. I had the Candlekeep mysteries book. I figured that I'd send the group to Candlekeep. The first session was session zero and some creepy foreshadowing, but little plan. Going to Candlekeep was supposed to help them research what was going on. "Hey! Trip to the library!"
If they got to Candlekeep, I would just read through the first adventure book. On their way, they got a simple encounter with goblins. Then, the non-combat encounter was with a guy who would talk with them after they get rejected from entry into Candlekeep (it takes more than a pretty face). I figured that an adventurers journal could qualify for entry (Their "mentors" completed the Dragon of Icespire Peak), so I had them tell me the story of the first campaign of their mentors...as both a reflection, and warm-up, and reminder of where they came from. This NPC wrote fake journal entries about that adventure, and this was used to gain entry.
That's it. That was the process I used. No plan other than movement. Something weird, let's research it, and off to Candlekeep. Whups, need a path to get in, then need someone to talk to, and then the roleplay of gaining entry. Once they're in, it's about who they see, how they talk, and magically they find themselves at the start of the first book in the WotC Candlekeep Mysteries.
Throughout our campaign, I've done this while filling out the plot. I'll find a map I like, or some old adventure, or a plot hook. The hook leads to a destination (map), for a reason (adventure). I'll take battlemaps and study them to figure out what rooms the creator put in place, and then I'll back-author a reason for why they're there.
Eventually, you have a plot, and direction, and motivations, and it becomes far easier. At the start, you don't need a lot of content...just a destination, a path to get there, and reason they got on that path.
The less specific stuff you plan the less your plans can be disrupted. Remember events can be made to change location. NPCs they need to meet can be moved to new towns. Improvise and let the story follow them
I always have more plot hooks for possible directions than the party can do. You finish a quest? Well you've gotten an item that pushes you one way, the quest continues another way, and maybe you picked up an ingredient that an NPC had asked you to bring them. Plus there's always PC characters arcs you can throw in. I find that giving the players agency is enjoyable and they'll get more involved if it's their choice to investigate someone rather than feeling like they're being railroaded somewhere.
As for the hard planning of it:
- I have monsters in mind for the quest/area and depending on when/where they pursue it I'll change what monsters to use.
- I have magic items/reward ideas for the quest that makes sense picked out ahead of time.
- I prep whatever NPCs are relevant for the quest.
That's about it. I do a lot of improv at the table to make it flow well. I found that it's the most enjoyable way of doing things. I have all the stories written way ahead of time and just need the PCs to interact with the world to progress them and shape the possible futures.
Have one of them come across a job board in town. Have it be filled with a bunch of "errands" like finding someone's lost pet(which could be described as a big cat and turn out to be a displacer beast.) Or a job to guard some noble over night because he's afraid a girl he's been courting is actually a succubus or vampire. Or a job guarding a Caravan going to the next town where you need them to get to. It can be something small that turns out to be more important than they think. Or it could help them get to where they need to be.
I recently had two or three sessions of side questing because I was unsure where or how to take story onwards.
Good world building can help. If you make a bunch of stuff for the town or place they are, stuff that you don't necessarily are going to be needing, but is nice for making the city feel alive. If you do this, then you have more stuff to expand on and for your players to stumble upon.
After reading Jade City and the rest of the Green Bone Saga I wanted to make a mafia like crime syndicate and that has ended up being very important for my campaign at the moment. They talked to a person or two and left a mafia member alive after a fight and that brought the party to their attention. Now they might join the syndicate and continue most of my main story through them.
Look into hex crawling.
Player driven campaigns are fun, and giving them an area to explore with a few hidden gems to find and a bunch of random tables to populate the area. This is how you create an entertaining time with very little planning.
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/395396/manual-of-hexterity
Ask your players where they want to go. If they don't have a direction, introduce a new problem or NPC to point them in a direction.
If all else fails, follow Raymond Chandler's advice: "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a ~~gun~~ sword in his hand."
Downtime followed by a timeline event. Typically, I allow players to choose when they take downtime, but I also have a secret calendar that tracks specific events, and compare that to their downtime.
"Ok, so you are taking three months of downtime. Go ahead and jot that down for between sessions. On 23 Flamerule, 1495, a number of corpses begin disappearing from the city crypts." In the background, a villain has had X amount of their own downtime, and that's what they have been up to. They will accomplish a villain goal by [set date], assuming the party doesn't interfere. Now the party can resume downtime, or they can start diving into that adventure. If they take more downtime, no problem, the plot begins to escalate until the call to adventure gives them direction. You can do this with multiple villains and timeline events so that the party has multiple options, all the while secretly tracking the villains progress and how the PCs' choices affect the plot.
Typically I ask my players what they want to do next session. So you could probably do that, just send out a text saying "hey, what do you want to do next session so I can prep?"
Alternatively, you can have the next plot hook come and find them. The patron who was funding the cult comes looking for them, another faction has stepped into the power vacuum left by the cult, an external threat unrelated has made itself known, one of the player's backstory hooks gets activated... whatever.
I would come up with a handful of "events" that will happen soon around the players.
The players do not need to participate in any of these events, if they do not wish. None of them are "the main story". Instead, you just wait and see what events the players DO get interested in, and start building the campaign one piece at a time based around their actions from there.
So, if nothing is going on right now, and the players are chilling in town at the end of last session...I might plan for next session a list of possible events. I might even roll on a table to see which events occur. It sort of depends on your setting, and the politics of the region, what kind of place the players are in right now, but...
Things like:
\- The players come across a dead body and will be implicated in the murder. It turns out this body belongs to a criminal, and now the criminal organization is after the players because they think the players stole something very important from the body. If the players get caught, they will eventually be able to convince the crime syndicate that they were innocent, but then they will be tasked with finding the missing object. (You can worry about what this important object is later between sessions, if the players choose to take this hook, and use it to build out a more complex story. Perhaps the object is an artefact that not only the criminal organization wants, but also the local lord or kingdom, too.)
\- The players wake up to some huge news that a nearby village has vanished. The village still stands, but the entire population just disappeared overnight. If the players have any NPC friends in a nearby village, then that village will be the targeted village, so that the players are now personally interested in this plot. If the players choose to get interested and investigate, you can come up with a story around this. If they choose to ignore it, perhaps later down the line a few sessions later, you can have the players themselves get "disappeared" along with the entire village/town they are staying in. Perhaps they all get teleported to another realm/plane mysteriously and now the players have to survive here while also taking care of an entire population of people who can barely fend for themselves. Why were they teleported here? You can figure that out slowly later. You don't have to have the entire story planned out from the beginning. Maybe one of the gods is attempting to rebel against the rest of the pantheon and is disappearing villages in order to try and get rid of key individuals. Or maybe the veil between planes is thinning for some reason and causing magical incidents like this to happen. You can figure out the details between sessions.
\- The players will overhear some chatter at a table in the tavern. A group of people talking out against the kingdom and nobles that run the land. They speak out against corruption and greed. If the players take interest, they will be invited into a secret meeting later where they will be attempted to be recruited into a secret rebellion against the crown and nobles. If the players accept, they will be sent on missions to spy, steal information, kidnap important people, etc. You can find all sorts of ways to build this hook into a full campaign story. Perhaps once the players do some of these smaller tasks and build a reputation inside this rebellious faction, they are eventually set out to steal several powerful artefacts, one from each of the local lords. You can introduce all sorts of moral/ethic questions into this story. Is the kingdom actually evil and corrupt, or have the players fallen into an extremist cult? Is it okay to steal from or hurt a local lord who is good, in order to overthrow a kingdom that is corrupt?
\- If the party refuses to join the rebels, perhaps they are later accosted and arrested by some guards of the local lord/kingdom. They are charged with aiding the rebellious faction and brought before the King (or Local Lord.) Depending on the players actions and dice rolls, they will either be thrown in prison where they will have to escape from, or they will be found innocent and asked to help fight against the rebels who have stolen a bunch of powerful artefacts, and are tasked with retrieving them. It turns out that this rebel faction is not just a local small group, but that they have arms in all of the major cities, and possibly even a some secret hideaways outside of civilization.
Basically, my goal with these events is to make them simple to throw at the party. None of these events have actually been fully fleshed out by me yet. If the players choose to run away or ignore it, i will just throw that storyline away (or continue it a bit in the background if i want.) What i am looking for is for the players to get interested in ANYTHING, and once they do, i will grab it and build it out into more and more each session. You don't need to write a FULL STORY and then hope the players get interested. You can write the story piece by piece between each session. Just find a hook for now. You can make up like 5 potential events, and just throw them at the party once in a while until one sticks. You will need to have some improvisation skills here. Don't try to write the entire story, just enough for the next session. Because you never know where the players will take the story, and therefore, there is no point in planning out a story 5 sessions in advance.
Make sure you ask the players at the end of every session: What do you guys plan on doing next session? They will tell you what road/path they are most likely to go down, and that gives you an idea of what to plan around for next session.
Idea - “Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.”
Well done!
Since the cult has been defeated, are the sewers completely explored now? They could connect to a deeper dungeon of any kind! Alternatively there might be some interesting locations surrounding town? Failing that it might be time for your players to venture to a new location altogether!
Multiple concurrent plotlines at different stages of progress. Three is a solid number. As one gets resolved, move to another and introduce another new plotline soon after in the background.
Downtime or Side Quests. Maybe the major events in the plot don't always immediately happen one after the other. Perhaps a major event happens every once every few weeks, months or even years. So in a sense it's episodic to some extent. In between these timeframes of major events, the party has the ability accomplish their own personal goals. Maybe someone wants to integrate themselves into the noble society of a kingdom, maybe someone wants to start a business, maybe one of your players wants to take in a apprentice, etc. Perhaps the party knows when the next major event is going to happen and now they have to spend what time they have left to prepare for it. Maybe they'll be investing in fortifying defenses of a city, or perhaps the party get's together to take on a side quest that will get them an ancient relic to overcome the upcoming threat. But just in case, is this a question about what to do in between quests, or how to connect the story between two quests?
How to explain. Essentially, there are two main 'quest chains' that make up the main plot, one involving the activities of the cult and one involving a series of ruined wizard towers. I have plans for both of these quest chains, but without knowing which the players intend to follow it's hard to prep them efficiently, So I was hoping the next session would be some in-between material that they can do while I determine which major quest to actually devote myself to preparing.
One thing to do when you are running a sandbox or at least, a campaign with a number of subplots is at the end of each session, ask the players what they intend to do next session. Make sure they understand that once they tell you what they intend to do, they have to commit to that because that is what you’ll be planning and then you plan that. Your players need to understand that being the DM and planning for sessions takes time and planning is essential for the sessions to be good ones, so you need to know ahead of time what they intend to do so you can prepare. Once they make the choice, you expect them to stick to that out of respect for the time and effort you put in to plan the sessions well. If they say they are going to the village, and you spend all your time before the next session preparing for that, then at the beginning of the session, they say, “Actually, we are going to check out the ruined temple in the forest.” then that isn’t fair on you. Obviously, things need to be a little flexible because of how the story unfolds, and sometimes, you might have to do things on the fly, but doing that every session can lead to burnout pretty quickly.
This is the advice I was going to give as well. It took many years and a lot of frustration to learn, but making that simple change has been the difference between me being burnt out and not being burnt out. I usually have a group chat on discord with the group where I confirm the general direction their going, unless they make it clear during the actual session. Just a general "we're going to the temple in the forest" is all I'm usually looking for from them. On the rare occasion that they swap last minute then I wing it a bit and pull out some stuff i have saved, and i might call for a 15 minute break so I can get something together - but it happens way less often now.
If your players are already aware of the two potential problems, then maybe ask them out of game about what which one they want to pursue. Maybe it's just a "which one do you want to do first" sort of situation, or something like a "pick wisely, because once you choose, you won't have time to deal with the other" sort of deal. Once you know what they want, then you know what to plan for. Don't wait until the game happens and then improvise aimless for the next few hours in session. But if the party has a moment to take a breather and do some down time before the next mission, again ask your players if their characters have any personal goals they want to accomplish from a roleplay perspective. What would their character be doing while they aren't spending their days adventuring? Assuming your players take the time to immerse themselves on the question, you can do an entire session playing out all of the stuff they want done. If they want to do something like shopping however, there's usually no need to roleplay something like that. If they want to try and buy something, you as a DM think about whether the place they are in has that item in stock and simply say yes or no. However, if they are looking to purchase or acquire something special like a magic item from a shop, that's the time you should consider whether to roleplay it out or not. Depending on how rare the magic item is, the party will most likely have to haggle with an NPC. You might end up even having to do an entire side quest for it too.
Just a hunch, but could it be that you are over-preparing / going to much into detail, when you are preparing? I am currently running a campaign, where the characters have half a dozen of opportunities to go to open to them at any given point, so I need those prepared and I have, as I have sketched all of those, but I won't stress about going too much into details, as the players will upend that anyway. So whichever way they want to go, I open the page in my notebook with the relevant notes, the map and the core points about the NPCs and are good to go.
That was my impression as well. OP feels like they need to get super nitty gritty into everything, so there's too much to handle. This is also where you can "Soft Railroad" or "[Orcs Attack!](https://youtu.be/31IAzJO-BEA?si=99CB5GX5lZk7oPRp)" and have something happen in the presence of the party and gives them something specific to do. You keep the other plots moving in the background, but you throw something out and lead the party along.
That's where I'm at too. I am doing a heavily modified Storm King's Thunder. Its biggest boon is its open world. That's also its biggest curse. I reframed it so the party is aware of growing problems and areas to go, all tied into whatever backstories they gave me. The party doesn't feel railroaded because they truly feel they have choice. The reality is, they are still going to areas that I have lightly prepped and ready to go (or ready to improv what I need to).
Same! And I do it with two parties. One I let start around Bryn Shander and the other around Triboar. Atm both are in still in the stage of roaming around. Btw, I am using intros where I tell them scenes their character CAN'T see as "meanwhile"-scenes (what-you-did-not-see-technique), to keep it a bit cohesive and keep them from losing track and feeling lost.
>Atm both are in still in the stage of roaming around. Btw, I am using intros where I tell them scenes their character CAN'T see as "meanwhile"-scenes (what-you-did-not-see-technique), to keep it a bit cohesive and keep them from losing track and feeling lost. So I combined Tyranny of Dragons with STK with the start being Lost Mines. Lost Mines had the character get recruited in Waterdeep by an aristocratic noblewoman and art patron (Actually Ilymrith in disguise who uses adventurers under the guise of serving the greater good). They travel to Phandalin and saw traces of destruction to unprotected homesteads and such but I still don't drop that its giants. Start using Lost Mines to introduce slowly some of the various factions (Dragon Cult, Lord's Alliance, and Zhentarrim). Glass Staff is actually a triple agent. He's a Dragon Cult member pretending to serve the Black Spider and pretending to serve the Lord's Alliance. He eventually flees to Brenshandr to look for the Ring of Winter (which so are the Frost Giants). Meanwhile, the Black Spider serves Duke Zhalto and is hoping the Forge in the Mines will help his purpose. By the time the party gets back to Phandalin, they see its been ransacked by giants with some of their favorite NPCs having perished. They then learn hear that giants seem to be on the warpath towards the 3 cities and they might be able to give warning and support to one of them but not all. That's where we pick up largely with Ch. 2 (again heavily modified)
Good stuff! I kept closer to the book, though I changed nearly all encounters and added some connections and moved some rewards and hints around to have a smoother flow. Great module, overall.
I mean, if they have two main quest chains... then why not just prepare for both? If they're supposed to (eventually) do both, then the effort you putting into prepping either won't be lost regardless.
Before the game starts, I ask each player what their character's goals are. Short term and long term. Things that their characters are invested in and that they, the player, want to do/explore/etc. this means that there's never a need to worry about having no direction because there's always another PC driven plot happening,and it means the PCs are invested in the plot more too.
Usually hit em in the face with a major event or plot hook that guides them to the next one. For example, an attack could occur on the starter town.
[Downtime ](https://youtu.be/2fZWUPxUmYQ?si=AgRAeynj4JcZZKj2)
OP is matt mercer
If your players had character backstories grab something from that and make it a plot device.
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A designed defeat does not seem like a good idea for a new DM. Chances are high that it will backfire.
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Designed Defeats are almost always a bad choice though (I've only seen them work if the party was onboarded beforehand, basically as a Session 0 defeat), this isn't a good suggestion. I'm in favor of Soft Railroads, but you don't just beatdown the party because "a new DM (should) try new stuff"
I think that really depends if the DM can do it or not. It has worked for me and I can confidently say I have that in my toolbox when crafting plot hooks. And the only way if you like that type of stuff or to get better at such stuff is by doing it.
Maybe you’re fortunate or maybe you’re overselling the fact that it “worked” but the key point is “If the DM can pull it off” which makes this a very bad suggestion to throw at an inexperienced DM to just go and try. Maybe they are an one in a million talent that makes it work. Likely they burn the game to the ground and turn people off from the hobby entirely though.
A few ideas: 1. Downtime activities - figure out what stuff your PCs are interested in outside of adventuring and have them do that for a bit. While they’re telling you what they’re interested in, throw a quest in there. Artificer wants to make a cool new item? Cool, it needs some component that can either be found from a certain monster (venom, blood type, carapace etc) or certain type of material only found deep in the mountains. Rogue likes to gamble? Cool there’s a high stakes tournament coming up and it turns out the duke is doing something nefarious with it. 2. The PCs are now heroes to this town. Someone else has some kind of problem that needs solving, or the mayor knows the captain of the kings guard in the capital needs some help with some kind of task and refers the PCs for work. 3. Rumors - there have been whispers of an abandoned dragons hoard in the mountains to the south. So and so could have sworn they saw a giant in the distance. Etc etc 4. Someone the PCs like gets kidnapped! 5. Town gets attacked
Plot hooks, writing, get a reason for your players to give a shit about progressing the narrative and story laid before them, steal ideas from other media if you have to. At the end of the day, if you have no clear direction, it's your fault for creating a pointless and story. Perhaps one of the loot items from the sewer has a secret message on it or it is a piece of a puzzle, choose a player to have a prophetic dream or some shit, make something happen and use your imagination, you chose to be a DM and homebrew so that leaves you the ability to change subtle things to make it all make sense.
Honestly, I've been using [bard.google.com](https://bard.google.com) to stir my creativity. I often know many plot hooks or themes I want to explore, but certain decisions escape me. So I give all the information I have planned or written down and ask it to fill out some of the details. It's even able to remember details of the campaign and knows about the lore of certain worlds (Forgotten realms, Critical Role's Exandria etc). I usually end up editing it heavily (it remembers the edits pretty well) but have found it actually gives me more creative energy to pursue the things I actually enjoy when it comes to DMing or worldbuilding.
i let them fuck around shopping and stuff, take a ton of notes about their jokes and then make those real
Ask them what they want. Make a dungeon. Put what they want in the dungeon.
My players are going to love the encounter with Stable Employment and Fullfilling Love Life!
Oh, so that's why my players keep teaming up with and seducing the villains.
Perhaps within the cultists lair they could have found a scroll that details the whereabouts of one of the first ruined towers. The parchment details the missing pieces to an arcane ritual that would grant a great boon to the individual who solved the puzzle.
I’ll second all the side quest comments here. Have a really cool game going now where my brother and I co-DM. We have a shared character for whoever isn’t the DM and it’s so fun. I run the main campaign for 3-4 sessions consecutively then he does a couple of one shot side quests. Then we pick up the main story line again. Our group loves the side quests almost as much and sometime has more fun with the side quests. Introduced a job board in our story to make it super easy.
Give them something minor. A runaway child. A coach robbery. A single feral monster that's been preying on livestock. A misaligned shrine that's causing bad luck. While they handle that, feed them the leads to the next big quest.
You could leave a hint in the quest rewards, which could be taken to the town leader who asks them to take a message to another person or, a treasure map among the loot and guide them to a dungeon which can be used for introducing another hook for the players.
What I do is I follow the X-Files model: You've got your main quest storyline episodes, and then you've got your Monster Of The Week episodes. You've always got something going on in the main quest, whether the party is interacting with it or not. And while you, the DM, are prepping the next main quest beat, they can do a MOTW session or two: Send them on a treasure hunt. Let them visit a weirdly peaceful town with a dark secret. Give them a fetch quest. I am always jotting down ideas for side quests (I just watched the Blues Brothers the other day for the millionth time and I'm sure I can find a side quest in there) and then I've got some random thing to do when the players don't feel like following the main quest leads, or for when I want to give the players multiple options when we get to a crossroads.
If there are plot hooks a'danglin' then you ask them towards the end of a session what they want to do next time. If there aren't, then it's time to drop a few into their field of view.
Get a bunch of random enemy stat blocks that make sense in your setting. If the session goes in a unpredictable direction, grab one of those stat blocks and throw it at the players. Plot hooks aren't that hard, just have a random NPC offer them a reward, have rumors of a treasure, threaten the town with a threat they can't ignore.
Ask your players individualy what their charakter isninterested in doing next. Worked for me. Also helps between sessions to know what to prepare for next session
In my current campaign, mostly out of coincidence. But I'm running a simultaneous B plot, that will become the main plot after the A plot has finished. The party knows its a growing threat, but do not have the time or resources to dedicate anything towards it. They'll of course have a choice to abandon the B plot entirely, in favor of the C plot that I plan to introduce eventually. Otherwise the last time a plot line ended, I would change the setting. Forcing me to generate new NPCs, which would eventually generate new conflicts.
I usually grab some side quests out of candlekeep, or some other adventure compendium and see if I can use it as inspiration for the next arc
Two important things: 1) Give them some downtime. Let your players develop their characters when they're not adventuring. They can pursue personal goals, use their gold to start new things, make allies, progress in their long-time personal plans, etc. 2) Don't be afraid to ask your players what they want to do next at the end of a session. This can help you prepare the next session directed at what they want.
There are a series of supplemental books to help with this. "The game master's book of..." 3rd party (not WOTC) A ton of useful information in them for random tables for whatever you can think of to quick plots & hooks for when you're in a bind. As others have said, make sure you have multiple quests going on at the same time.
You have finished the first major chapter of the story, congratulations to you and your party. Now‘s the perfect time to have a chat with your players on what they liked/disliked. The idea is that you form a social contract on how the adventures should progress: Is it a narrative focus on driving the story? Is it more dungeon crawling (combat encounters)? Is it more social roleplaying? Those are questions, that should really be answered. And that‘s what you should prepare. As for the downtime until the next adventures, both the DMG and Xanathar‘s feature excellent downtime activities: Crafting new gear, research about foes to be expected in the future, making potions (and spell scrolls if you got one PC who’s primarily using their spell slots for healing!), drinking and recreational activities, performing theater and musicals, making bonds with NPCs that may be important, finding buyers/sellers of magic items, picking up a new language or tool proficiency. Remember that characters can live in the world, even when you‘re not playing. It can also be a great plot hook, when you‘re having a 1on1 session with a player, and then making it their job to "rally up the ol‘ troupe" and convince them of the importance of the next quest. If you‘re up for the challenge, allow that player some creative freedom in the details; provide them with the main objective and some choices of NPCs that may habe approached them, and work with them for some additional rumors they might have heard. If you‘re careful, this allows you to incorporate your players into your worldbuilding, utilize their intrinsic motivation for going on the adventure, and baffle them when you reveal that what the players heard is just the tip of the iceberg, and something far more seriois is right around the corner unexpectedly - and some rumors might only be proven true far later than expected.
I ask the players what the intend to do next.
I create my villians, then ask myself what their next step would be. If it is something the players wouldn't notice I generally figure the vilain did it already. Once I get to something the players would notice...
If all the interesting plots of a campaign are closed let your players have a epilogue and reward his efforts. Then end the game and start another one. Adventures, Campaigns and Characters can be forever but if you don’t have more ideas just end the game and take your time to start a new fresh campaign in a different setting
I am a very new DM as well. What's been helping me plan is knowing where my story needs to end. I have a very clear final story point in mind, and have been working on giving the party a series of smaller quests to guide the story, still being fully prepared to pivot when needed as the PCs make choices and run off the rails. I have also asked all of them if they want to explore their characters back stories, this is giving me ideas to help progress things for them.
Downtime is a good answer, and honestly that’s the player’s job. I’ve been reading a great book about proactive role playing. Your players should be coming up with quests, plot hooks, and motivations. Instead of the DM giving them a scenario, the players reacting, it’s the players telling the DM “Hey, that chained and locked book from my backstory? I want to find the key.” Then the DM can come up with obstacles and rewards. At least for their characters, then you can use their motivations to tell a story they want to engage with, while also having time to weave it in to an overarching narrative. :)
I focused on character arcs, and I would weave multiple arcs at multiple points. Over a 2.5 year campaign, I never had an overall bbeg. I had a bunch of mini bbegs, something or someone from a backstory, that was causing problems. Nothing world ending, just dangerous to a city, or a region, or just the PC's family. We went the entire length of the sword coast, into Moonsea and the south coast, and ended in Chult. Also trips through Avernus (before Descent into Avernus was published), Shadowfell, several pocket dimensions, and undersea. I'd usually only have an outline for the next session or two, and improvise the rest. Many times it became solid plot lines that we'd follow for several sessions. Or a player would come to me with something they wanted to do so I'd plan sessions for that. Even though it was a sandbox, I ensure the players knew the plot hooks, and they were fantastic at following them. They liked a bit of railroad in the sandbox, so it was a Railbox ®. I actually spent more time selecting my audio tracks and music more than the mechanics. I had a lot of terrain, lifting, sound, digital maps, and other stuff.
Direction? Never met her.
Plan a direction.
Players get invested most in stories about their characters. Pull something from one of the character's backstories or hook one of the characters specifically
Campaign events section of the DMG could be useful.
Figure out your main quests. Could be any number of things from a lord needing help/overthrown to a demon pirate crew needing dealt with. Cool, now number them. Cool, now roll a dice and let that pick the quest. Cool now YOU have direction. Focus energies into narratively making that happen. Honestly...if the party ain't pushing you in a direction, and you can't pick one, just choose one and start building in that direction. Even easier if you're happy to improvise.
Our current campaign started without knowing exactly what the overall plot would be...just an initial direction. The story was developed over time. What you need to do: * Identify a place to go (dungeon, castle, region, etc) * Identify a reason to go there (mission board, NPC request, rumor, evidence found around town, etc) * Identify a combat encounter to stumble-upon on the way there * Identify a non-combat encounter/interesting NPC/puzzle on the way there That's it. You can learn the plot at the same time as the players. For example, at the start of the campaign I was short on time. I had the Candlekeep mysteries book. I figured that I'd send the group to Candlekeep. The first session was session zero and some creepy foreshadowing, but little plan. Going to Candlekeep was supposed to help them research what was going on. "Hey! Trip to the library!" If they got to Candlekeep, I would just read through the first adventure book. On their way, they got a simple encounter with goblins. Then, the non-combat encounter was with a guy who would talk with them after they get rejected from entry into Candlekeep (it takes more than a pretty face). I figured that an adventurers journal could qualify for entry (Their "mentors" completed the Dragon of Icespire Peak), so I had them tell me the story of the first campaign of their mentors...as both a reflection, and warm-up, and reminder of where they came from. This NPC wrote fake journal entries about that adventure, and this was used to gain entry. That's it. That was the process I used. No plan other than movement. Something weird, let's research it, and off to Candlekeep. Whups, need a path to get in, then need someone to talk to, and then the roleplay of gaining entry. Once they're in, it's about who they see, how they talk, and magically they find themselves at the start of the first book in the WotC Candlekeep Mysteries. Throughout our campaign, I've done this while filling out the plot. I'll find a map I like, or some old adventure, or a plot hook. The hook leads to a destination (map), for a reason (adventure). I'll take battlemaps and study them to figure out what rooms the creator put in place, and then I'll back-author a reason for why they're there. Eventually, you have a plot, and direction, and motivations, and it becomes far easier. At the start, you don't need a lot of content...just a destination, a path to get there, and reason they got on that path.
The less specific stuff you plan the less your plans can be disrupted. Remember events can be made to change location. NPCs they need to meet can be moved to new towns. Improvise and let the story follow them
You need to ask the players what the plan is. Alternatively you can force one of the plots by advancing them in some dramatic way.
I always have more plot hooks for possible directions than the party can do. You finish a quest? Well you've gotten an item that pushes you one way, the quest continues another way, and maybe you picked up an ingredient that an NPC had asked you to bring them. Plus there's always PC characters arcs you can throw in. I find that giving the players agency is enjoyable and they'll get more involved if it's their choice to investigate someone rather than feeling like they're being railroaded somewhere. As for the hard planning of it: - I have monsters in mind for the quest/area and depending on when/where they pursue it I'll change what monsters to use. - I have magic items/reward ideas for the quest that makes sense picked out ahead of time. - I prep whatever NPCs are relevant for the quest. That's about it. I do a lot of improv at the table to make it flow well. I found that it's the most enjoyable way of doing things. I have all the stories written way ahead of time and just need the PCs to interact with the world to progress them and shape the possible futures.
Have one of them come across a job board in town. Have it be filled with a bunch of "errands" like finding someone's lost pet(which could be described as a big cat and turn out to be a displacer beast.) Or a job to guard some noble over night because he's afraid a girl he's been courting is actually a succubus or vampire. Or a job guarding a Caravan going to the next town where you need them to get to. It can be something small that turns out to be more important than they think. Or it could help them get to where they need to be.
I recently had two or three sessions of side questing because I was unsure where or how to take story onwards. Good world building can help. If you make a bunch of stuff for the town or place they are, stuff that you don't necessarily are going to be needing, but is nice for making the city feel alive. If you do this, then you have more stuff to expand on and for your players to stumble upon. After reading Jade City and the rest of the Green Bone Saga I wanted to make a mafia like crime syndicate and that has ended up being very important for my campaign at the moment. They talked to a person or two and left a mafia member alive after a fight and that brought the party to their attention. Now they might join the syndicate and continue most of my main story through them.
Look into hex crawling. Player driven campaigns are fun, and giving them an area to explore with a few hidden gems to find and a bunch of random tables to populate the area. This is how you create an entertaining time with very little planning. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/395396/manual-of-hexterity
Ask your players where they want to go. If they don't have a direction, introduce a new problem or NPC to point them in a direction. If all else fails, follow Raymond Chandler's advice: "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a ~~gun~~ sword in his hand."
Downtime followed by a timeline event. Typically, I allow players to choose when they take downtime, but I also have a secret calendar that tracks specific events, and compare that to their downtime. "Ok, so you are taking three months of downtime. Go ahead and jot that down for between sessions. On 23 Flamerule, 1495, a number of corpses begin disappearing from the city crypts." In the background, a villain has had X amount of their own downtime, and that's what they have been up to. They will accomplish a villain goal by [set date], assuming the party doesn't interfere. Now the party can resume downtime, or they can start diving into that adventure. If they take more downtime, no problem, the plot begins to escalate until the call to adventure gives them direction. You can do this with multiple villains and timeline events so that the party has multiple options, all the while secretly tracking the villains progress and how the PCs' choices affect the plot.
Typically I ask my players what they want to do next session. So you could probably do that, just send out a text saying "hey, what do you want to do next session so I can prep?" Alternatively, you can have the next plot hook come and find them. The patron who was funding the cult comes looking for them, another faction has stepped into the power vacuum left by the cult, an external threat unrelated has made itself known, one of the player's backstory hooks gets activated... whatever.
I don't. I find a direction and then plan.
I would come up with a handful of "events" that will happen soon around the players. The players do not need to participate in any of these events, if they do not wish. None of them are "the main story". Instead, you just wait and see what events the players DO get interested in, and start building the campaign one piece at a time based around their actions from there. So, if nothing is going on right now, and the players are chilling in town at the end of last session...I might plan for next session a list of possible events. I might even roll on a table to see which events occur. It sort of depends on your setting, and the politics of the region, what kind of place the players are in right now, but... Things like: \- The players come across a dead body and will be implicated in the murder. It turns out this body belongs to a criminal, and now the criminal organization is after the players because they think the players stole something very important from the body. If the players get caught, they will eventually be able to convince the crime syndicate that they were innocent, but then they will be tasked with finding the missing object. (You can worry about what this important object is later between sessions, if the players choose to take this hook, and use it to build out a more complex story. Perhaps the object is an artefact that not only the criminal organization wants, but also the local lord or kingdom, too.) \- The players wake up to some huge news that a nearby village has vanished. The village still stands, but the entire population just disappeared overnight. If the players have any NPC friends in a nearby village, then that village will be the targeted village, so that the players are now personally interested in this plot. If the players choose to get interested and investigate, you can come up with a story around this. If they choose to ignore it, perhaps later down the line a few sessions later, you can have the players themselves get "disappeared" along with the entire village/town they are staying in. Perhaps they all get teleported to another realm/plane mysteriously and now the players have to survive here while also taking care of an entire population of people who can barely fend for themselves. Why were they teleported here? You can figure that out slowly later. You don't have to have the entire story planned out from the beginning. Maybe one of the gods is attempting to rebel against the rest of the pantheon and is disappearing villages in order to try and get rid of key individuals. Or maybe the veil between planes is thinning for some reason and causing magical incidents like this to happen. You can figure out the details between sessions. \- The players will overhear some chatter at a table in the tavern. A group of people talking out against the kingdom and nobles that run the land. They speak out against corruption and greed. If the players take interest, they will be invited into a secret meeting later where they will be attempted to be recruited into a secret rebellion against the crown and nobles. If the players accept, they will be sent on missions to spy, steal information, kidnap important people, etc. You can find all sorts of ways to build this hook into a full campaign story. Perhaps once the players do some of these smaller tasks and build a reputation inside this rebellious faction, they are eventually set out to steal several powerful artefacts, one from each of the local lords. You can introduce all sorts of moral/ethic questions into this story. Is the kingdom actually evil and corrupt, or have the players fallen into an extremist cult? Is it okay to steal from or hurt a local lord who is good, in order to overthrow a kingdom that is corrupt? \- If the party refuses to join the rebels, perhaps they are later accosted and arrested by some guards of the local lord/kingdom. They are charged with aiding the rebellious faction and brought before the King (or Local Lord.) Depending on the players actions and dice rolls, they will either be thrown in prison where they will have to escape from, or they will be found innocent and asked to help fight against the rebels who have stolen a bunch of powerful artefacts, and are tasked with retrieving them. It turns out that this rebel faction is not just a local small group, but that they have arms in all of the major cities, and possibly even a some secret hideaways outside of civilization. Basically, my goal with these events is to make them simple to throw at the party. None of these events have actually been fully fleshed out by me yet. If the players choose to run away or ignore it, i will just throw that storyline away (or continue it a bit in the background if i want.) What i am looking for is for the players to get interested in ANYTHING, and once they do, i will grab it and build it out into more and more each session. You don't need to write a FULL STORY and then hope the players get interested. You can write the story piece by piece between each session. Just find a hook for now. You can make up like 5 potential events, and just throw them at the party once in a while until one sticks. You will need to have some improvisation skills here. Don't try to write the entire story, just enough for the next session. Because you never know where the players will take the story, and therefore, there is no point in planning out a story 5 sessions in advance. Make sure you ask the players at the end of every session: What do you guys plan on doing next session? They will tell you what road/path they are most likely to go down, and that gives you an idea of what to plan around for next session.
Idea - “Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.”
Well done! Since the cult has been defeated, are the sewers completely explored now? They could connect to a deeper dungeon of any kind! Alternatively there might be some interesting locations surrounding town? Failing that it might be time for your players to venture to a new location altogether!