D&D

D&D Campaign Ideas

I've been playing D&D on and off for over a decade and run a couple campaigns myself- heres some rough campaign ideas that never were able to see the light of day.

Crater Race

City built in the crater of a meteorite
Mined the resources and became a city of debauchery
Now a gambling hub
Huge lizard/horse animals forty feet tall are raced around the area
Classic heist campaign

Archaeology Defense

Hired to protect an archaeological dig site
In an area known for odd creatures and eerie circumstances
Digging at a site of a civilization unknown yet

Flesh Castle

Castle swallowed by a sinkhole
Turns out to be some huge pit of flesh
Caused by the castle wizard trying to cure the newborn heirs physical deformations
Walk through the underground ruins of the castle with flesh pressing in through the windows
Enemies are things in the castle that the flesh analyzed and created

Knights where they aren't men in suits but fakes made of flesh inside and bone outside (Knights of Porcelain)
Horse… things, again made of flesh. Have varying levels of “gear” on them, like thick flesh where the saddles were or bone where they wore armor
Have enemies of just flesh, like digestion fluids, crushing sphincters, arms and hands coming from the walls, undulating walls that push you in deeper
Boss is the son, Duke, and wizard combined into a flesh beast

Horror elements

Repeat the unease of total darkness, constant moisture, sounds of blood dripping and labored, echoed breathing
Throw some still-alive characters in there in the beginning, then later on show the enemies that the players now thought were normal humans
Show previously met people being devoured or as total enemies
Make the players draw a map, have the hallways and rooms change as they’re moved by the flesh
Never describe things enough to understand them, but enough to witness them
Remind of the darkness and claustrophobia
Trajectory of fear:

Unease

Know that there claims of experimentation at the castle
See the birds in the distance
Don’t see the spires and towers

Dread

The noticing of odd bits of flesh around the pit
The descent into the castle, from roughly the top-down
Things get worse as you go down, knowing its started from below

Terror

More flesh, more horrors, more unknown and more witnessing of powerlessness

Horror

The disgusting, otherworldly, pained amalgamation of father, son, and wizard, all fighting for dominance within one giant beast, still conscious and human but not in control