D&D 5E Homebrew campaign tips

[Glomb175]

So I've got the premise for my campaign but I just need some ideas or tips for actually writing it and structuring it.

when I became DM, I had my character teleported to another land in a magical portal, now my players are going to Albeir-Tori, where they will bump into my old character who is pursuing his back story of avenging his dragon born clan and reclaiming his throne. Now he will be able to gain assistance from his former comrades.

that's the plot and I've got a sound introduction and fluid transition between the current campaign and this one, I'm just after structuring advice, maybe some cool ideas people have written, played, or heard of before.

 

[aco175]

One strong piece of advice is to not have a DM controlled character be the focus of anything. Some will say to not have a character at all. I do not have a problem unless the DM character or DMNPC takes anything away from the other players being the main focus of things. Have a character tag along if you need to add something, but make sure he does not overshadow any of the other characters in things like power, game time, skills, combat, etc...

If your character somehow became old in the teleport and hires the other PCs to figure out why and sends them on adventures like a patron, then that would be a cool plot tactic. It could even by 50 years later when the PCs come along and he is old, but sends along his young son to go with the others if you need the DMNPC to go with them.

Structuring starts with something small and local according to most people. Several good threads have been written here before on this. Start with a small town where the group begins. Develop only a few places and people you think you will need. Come up with a few plot ideas like goblin threats or skeletons in the graveyard that the group can go on. Remember that levels 1-3 go by fast and only take a few adventures. Expand you kingdom as you need it and only keep a few ideas for long range plans and to keep your ideas focused.

If you are playing in Forgotten Realms (FR) then you have a lot of the towns and maps made and you can find many descriptions online from older editions that you can feel free to steal to use. This allows you to only create the adventures themselves and not as much background and worldly things. Things like religion and coinage are done and you can move on.

Another note to think about is dealing with the players and having their characters teleported to another world. Anything they may have wanted to do with their backstory is not not going to happen and they may be a bit hurt. You can just tell them to change backgrounds to match this new world and say you changed because you wanted to make it yours as the DM. I have found that most will not care that much on the backstory and you should be fine. Changing worlds with a new DM is fine and happens.

 

[Glomb175]

I immediately addressed the concern of overshadowing the players, I don't approve of dmpc, but we all have to dmnpc at some point, and it would be more of that, he'd give a back story to the plot, but let them lead, he wouldn't contribute in ideas or planning, and only do basic combat.

That being said, I think your idea of ageing him is better, and either having them do his bidding, or work with his heir. So I may write that in.

The characters are already level 5 and may be higher by the end of the current campaign so I don't want to waste their time with fighting skeletons in a meaningless graveyard.

As for teleporting the players; it's no concern, only one of my group actually wrote a back story, the rest have close to no attachment to their characters, which is sad, my favourite bit was spending a week making my character, researching dragon born lore, making an intricate back story that could one day be turned into a quest, custom making a miniature and painting it, only to have myself elected as DM after three sessions.

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[MonkeezOnFire]

It looks like you want your campaign to focus on exploring a specific narrative thread rather than a sandbox style game. In that case you might want to start out thinking about your campaign from a very high level. First, who are the major characters and forces involved and what are their goals? When you identify what each of the key pieces want, think about the resources they have available to help them achieve their goal. Try to plot out how things will play out if the PCs don't intervene in the story. When and how will opposing forces clash? Where will turning point moments take place? These are the areas that you should start building and creating.

Naturally, it is much easier to figure this stuff out for what's to come in the short term and that's a good thing. Don't worry about the end game until you get there. You shouldn't be planning on how your final climax will look right now since you never know how your players will interfere with your plans. If you really like a setpiece encounter that you have an idea for I recommend trying to implement it sooner rather than later.