168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons campaigns tend to have a central villain to defeat, who wants nothing more than total domination or pure anarchy. Whether it is Vecna, Tiamat, 🦋or an entirely unique creation, these villains are always an active threat to the adventuring party and beyond.

Related
Du🤪ngeons &ღamp; Dragons: The Best Ideas For Running A One-Shot

F༺or beginners or a quick adventure, one-shot ♚campaigns can be the perfect way to go.

However, you don't need a central vill🧔ain in order for your players to feel like they are being challenged or for there to be a conflict that needs to be resolved. There are many ways to forgo having a maniacal big bad evil guy/gal, commonly known as a BBEG, while still maintainin🥃g a fulfilling campaign adventure full of danger and intrigue.

10 A Mystery Afoot ꧋

Dungeons & Dragons art of a Spellcaster And Companion Reading Through Tomes.
Candlekeep Mysteries By Clint Cearley And Si men Meyer

Arcane runes of an otherworldly nature, mysterious visitors who disappear into the night, and voices that speak to the townsfolk on a full moon. Every good mystery campaign has a series of seemingly unconnected events that force the players ♛to unravel clues to get to the heart of what is causing these strange disturbances.

Unless the mystery is focused on a murder, you can center an entire campaign around a mystery that is caused by random phenomena or an ancient catastrophe that is unwinding on its own after ages past. These are especia💎lly fun for note-taking players, as they can start to connect the dots and carry the party forward.

9 Tꦛhe San🥃dbox

An adventuring party on the cover of the 2024 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook.
Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook 2024 by Tyler Jacobson, Wizards of the Coast

Focused entirely on the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:whims of the party, sandbox campaigns are where players mill about in the world you ha𒀰ve created for them, choosing their own path based on what excites them. This type of campaign requires the most work, having plot hooks and character backstory moments ready for any potential si🍒tuation.

This type of campaign works best without a central villain or major threat, forcing the players to focus attention on them. Instead, you want to introduce smaller conflicts involving NPCs the players have grown attached to or in areas they seem particularly interested in so that they can prioritize that feeling of explo🧔ration and discovery.

8 Escape!

A cowardly ranger runs from an eldritch horror as a brave sorceress faces it in DND.
Art by Clint Cearley

What could be the entire focus of a campaign, sometimes an adventuring party is dropped into a realm of danger and must escape if they ever hope to🦄 see home again. This includes being teleported to a dangerous realm such as the Shadowfell or the Nine Hells🐻, or teleported into a pocket dimension full of traps and mazes.

Being strangers in a hostile world, where even basic interactions with random NPCs are potentially hazar🔯dous to the party, adds enhanced tension and stakes. The end goal might just be a hard-to-reach porta🐈l or artifact that teleports them home, with any number of obstacles blocking their path.

7 Lost And Found 🌳 𝔉

An image of a D&D adventuring party trying to solve a difficult puzzle hidden in a dungeon.
An Adventuring Party by Helder Almeida

A loving family member lost on an island that isn't on any map, a king's crown continuously traded between thieves' guilds, and a le♏gendary artifact reporܫted to have made a resurgence are all plot hooks that involve finding lost objects. The reward is usually obvious, obtaining great wealth and fame upon the object's discovery.

Related
Dungeons & Dragons: 24 Classic Side Quests ꦯ

Take a break from your campaign's main story 😼with these fun side quest ideas.

This is another style of campaign that works best without a central villain, instead it involves numerous unconnected obstacles that make the journey feel like a true adventure. Finding the object may not even be its end, as the party migꦑht have to make the long journey home without losing what they found.

6 Political Intr♌igue

Masquerade Ball Dungeons and Dragons Humans And An Elf Dancing.
Strixhaven by Carolina Gariba

Although 168澳洲幸♏运5开奖网:containing evil figures and nefarious plots, a heavily involveღd political intrigue campaign doesn't have a moustache-twirling villain. Rather, conflicting goals and deals made in the shadows between numerous parties with selfish ideals serve as the tangled web that the party must unravel.

♐Usually there is a less-than-perfect outcome the⭕ party is trying to both reveal and avoid, such as replacing the current monarch with an illegitimate one, or starting a war with false threats so that a group of nobles can obtain new lands and castles. The more interconnected plots and involved parties, the better.

The more political power and knowledge of the world the players are allowed for their chara𝔉cters, the better involved they can be in the campaign.

5 ꧟ Monster Hunters 🐻

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a dwarf fighting a hydra.
Lair of The Hydra D&D By Wayne Reynolds

While villains usually have henchmen carrying out th🌞eir evil ﷽plot to dominate the world, other times it is mindless beasts that are causing havoc in search of food or territory. While these monsters don't tend to have an Intelligence score above four, they can still pose a threat to the average village or even city.

The party might even be 𒆙inducted into a monster hunting guild, taking bounties on increasingly dangerous beasties, such as hydras and manticores. These types of campaigns also benefit from homebrewed system🉐s involving harvesting monster parts to be used in crafting, alchemy, and enchanting.

4 🌃 𝕴 A Villainous Party

Dragon Cultist in a torchlit temple completing a ritual.
Dragon Cultist by Cristi Balanescu

Sometimes, being the good guys can get old for some adven𒈔turing parties, and turning into the bad guys can be an interesting break from the norm of rescuing innocents and putting out fires. If the table agrees to create evil characters, you can create a campaign where they are the ones trying to rule the world.

After terrorizing the townspeople and salting and burning their fields, the party's antagonists become paladins and soldiers who are sent to arrest or dispose of them. Th🐭e longer this goes on, the party can discover what methods and means a typical villain employs to throw off the scent and potentially create their own trapped dungeon.

3 The Heist

A rogue steals treasure while her accomplices attack guards in DND.
Concept Art from Keys from the Golden Vault by Evyn Fong

While perhaps acting somewhat villainously themselves, a goal for an especially greedy adventuring party could be pulling off 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:an elaborate heist. Perhaps t♛he crown jewels of a nearby lord could feed the townspeople for years, or a crystal shard in a wealthy merchant's manor belonging to another plane is causing disturbances.

Related
Dungeons & Dragons: 15 Stಌory Ideas For Long Campaig🤡ns

These story ideas will help you🥀 run longer DnD campaigns.

1

For a heist to be worthy of a campaign, it needs to be both elaborate and dange📖rous, with a high chance of failure if the party doesn't spend weeks or even months planning for the brea🅰k-in. As always, it isn't a heist unless something unexpected happens that forces some improvisation from the players.

2 𓄧 𝔍 Dungeon Delving

Dungeons and Dragons art of Three Adventurers In A cave Opening A Stone Door.
Artwork from Volo's Guide To Monsters, via Wizards of the Coast

One of the reasons many players get into D&D to begin with, dungeon delving involves going through winding interconnected tunnels and dodging traps while acquirin💞g rare loot. Dungeon delving can be the entire basis for a campaign, as players hunt for legendary relics in lost ruins and haunted tombs.

This is another campaign where a guild is especially useful, gearing adventuring🗹 parties for trips into various dungeons. In the lore of Faerûn, the Yawning Portal tavern in Waterdeep sits atop anﷺ entrance to the Undermountain, which is perhaps the largest dungeon ever delved into.

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage i❀s an adventure in the Undermoun🅰tain using 2014 rules.

1 ꧟ Realm Travel 🅺

Dungeons & Dragons art of  four adventurers looking out into the Outlands from Planescape.
The Outlands Splash Art by One Pixel Brush

An underutilized campaign focus is one that revolves around traveling to the dozens of planes beyond the material where most adventures take place. This has the party portal hopping to unrecognizable locations such as the Feywild, Mechanus, or any of the elemental planes, which are fꩲar more than just endless fire or water.

Perhaps as part of a ritual initiation or gathering the lost parts of a magical artifact, players aren't 🅺expected to spend an entire campaign in one world, rather hop from one to the next. With eac🍰h realm containing so much intricate lore and unique creatures that inhabit it, you can make one campaign easily feel like many.

dungeons-and-dragons-series-game-tabletop-franchise

Your Rating

Original Release Date
1974
Player Count
2+
Age Recommendation
12+ (though younger can play ♛and enjoy)
Length per Game
🌸 🍒From 60 minutes to hours on end.
Franchise Name
Dungeons & Dragon🍃s 🌱
Publishing Co
Wizards of the C🎃oast

Brand
Dungeons & Dragons ꩵ