Uprisings are a great setpiece for a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons campaign. They situate the party as underdogs, give them a cause🙈 to champion, and provide access to a lot of storytelling options for how and why they're fighting. There are also a lot of things to keep track of, since an uprising is simultaneously a political and military campaign.

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As the DM you'll want to think carefully about how you approach the topic, what influences you use when writing the plot, and the opportunities for🌌 the players to express their characters. Here are a few ways you can keep the campaign interesting.

Make An Enemy Worth Opposing

Dungeons & Dragons: A Feline Demon Smoking A Pipe
Rakshasa from the Monster Manual via Wizards of the Coast

An uprising is defined just as much by what it opposes as by what it champions. You want the entrenched power that the party is resisting to have meaningful flaws that the rebellion seeks to address. 🐷At the same time, you likely want to avoid moustache-twirling villainy where the bad guys kick puppies for fun and are evil mostly out of obligation.

An important part of this is to think about the power structures. Does this emp🌃ire 🐠oppress people? What lines does it draw for who is given power and who is forced to kneel? Simultaneously, you want to look at what hierarchies and systems have prevented them from already being overthrown.

A fantasy setting allows for a lot of options that differ from real-world history. A sorcerer king might actually be individually stronger than a national military. A Lich King will be broadly immune to assassination. Both will still need bureaucratsꦑ, tax collectors, and police, but military power can be much more consolidated.

The way the empire enforces its will can change how the party approaches scenarios. The party might have to use different approaches when fighting mercenaries, peasant co𝔉nscripts, or ma﷽gical constructs.

Build Unstable Alliances

Cover art for Eberron Rising From The Last War, from Dungeons & Dragons, showing a fight on a large skyship.
Eberron: Rising From The Last War cover, via Wizards of the Coast

One of the big opportunities that a rebellion story can allow is exploring the networks of factions pursuing the same ends with different goals and reasons. Each character can have their own allegiances that allow for compelling story arcs, dramatic betrayals, and tense political drꦜama.

An important point is ಌthat each group should have something they contribute that persuades or forces the others to work together. Here are a few common factions tha💫t can serve as playmakers in almost any rebellion plotline:

Faction

Contribution

Risk

Ideologues

Believers in a cause are a classic component of every popular movement. These are also the group players are most likely to trust.

Groups motivated by morals are liable to have schisms over differing opinions. They might have conflicting iဣdeas about how to f൲ight, who to trust, and what happens afterward.


These groups🐓 are less likely to have a clear hierarchy, slowing down decision-making.

Organised Crime

Criminals can make an unsavoury but necessary ally. They'll know all the best routes for smuggling goods and people and have access to resourc🍎es that more ideological factions may struggle to muster.

They're also likely to be swayed by money. Even if their leaderships are invested in the cause, their underlings are likely to sell each other out.

Insiders

People with positions of power are well-equipped to leak vital information for the party to make use of.

They're also difficult to trust and are liable to have their own motivations. Their position of influence make𓆏s it difficu✃lt to police their conduct.

Downtrodden

The people most persecuted by the existing system have the most to gain from opposi💧ng it.

Other groups might struggle to trust them, especially if they're used to looking down at these people.

External Powers

A rebellion is able to go a lot further with the support of a foreign power, whether a 🌌rival nation or organisation that operates across borders.

Outside groups are going to be detached from local consequences and their support might be contingent on getting certain concessions.

Topics like slavery and bigotry can be powerful tools for telling stories about overcoming evil empires. They're also topics you'll want to run by your group in session zero and have safety tools for.

Use Asymmetrical Combat

Murderous servants of the Dead Three corner their prey near the statue of Minsc and Boo.
Dead End Via Wizards of the Coast

A great way of making a resistance movement feel like the underdogs is to emphasize the power of their opposition. If✅ the rebellion has enough strength to win on a level playing field, th♌ey've already won.

There are a few different ways to have enemies stronger than the players while still keeping combat balanced.

Combat Approach

Description

Method

Alternate Objectives

Creating different scenarios for combat means that even a stronger opponent can be defeated by outmaneuvering them or stalling for time.

Instead of reducing all enemies to 0hp, you can force them to hold a position for a specific amount of time, steal a protected item, or capture a hostage. After achieving their goals, provide a way for them to escape.

Stronger Reinforcements Over Time

Having enemies respond with escalating force i🔯s a good way to emphasize ꦕdanger while keeping the party able to fight.

You can have the initial enemies of an encounter be composed of enemies equal or lower level. If the party takes too long, gradually increase the CR to represent overwhelming numbers and elite forces being redeployed.


This pairs well with alternate objectives since the party doesn't ﷽need to defeat all the enemies to win.

Targets Of Opportunity

Forcing the players to perform reconnaissance and then giving them the choice of several targets allows them to play strategically. Some of the targets might be entirely non-viable,﷽ protected by enemies too strong for them to defeat or bypass.

Missions deemed too dangerous at lower levels become viable targets once the party becomes stronger. If you prepare an encounter the p💎layers aren't ready for, you can reuse it later.

Require Planning

Have the players create their own plans fo🐠r how to approach these situations and evade the superior numbers and strength of their enemies.

They might devise a route that evades the bulk of the enemy forces, or plan a ෴di🌊version to delay a response.

Consider Restricting Certain Character Options

Dungeons & Dragons romantic couples dance together
By Caroline Gariba, Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

Some spells and abilities that would be entirely mundane in a normal game are able to greatly change the tone of an intrigue-focused campaign. Cꦅonsider limiting player access to certain🥃 options and preparing countermeasures for others.

  • Spells like Zone of Truth trivialize the process of finding double agents. Abilities and items to negate this are either very expensive or high-level.
  • Sending removes most of the spywork involved in sending coded messages or checking dead drops. The magical telephone even allows for instantaneous replies.
  • Changelings and Disguise spells can fluster a DM not used to running intrigue. Have non-visual symbols of status and identity that prevent a level one bard from running amok.
  • The antagonists should have enough wealth to maintain a permanent non-detection spell, especially when having shady backroom meetings.
  • Some backgrounds, such as Noble, may not fit the shared backstory of the player group. Work with your players to see what character backstories are appropriate.
  • If anyone in the setting has access to unlimited flight, secure buildings should have nets and guards should remember to look up occasionally.

Make Public Opinion Matter

Dungeons & Dragons image showing two Flaming Fist members placing recruitment posters.
Recruitment Drive by Diego Gisbert

The way the party acts should have an impact on the popularity of their cause. If the members are widely recognised for previous adventures, their reputation may have people at least willing to look the other way. Similarly, if their faces are well known it may be more di𒁏fficult for them to move covertly.

Propaganda against the party can be a strong narrative point, and it🐈's up to you as the DM how that conflict plays out. The party is less liable to throw fireballs in public spaces if they know they'll be blamed for collateral damage and this adds more variety to how they fight.

Think About What Happens Afterwards

Four faction members walking through the streets of Sigil from Dungeons & Dragons
Faction Agents by Taras Susak

Most movies and books following a civil uprising end not long after the civil war ends and a vaguely described provisional government steps in. It might even end when the Good King replaces the Bad King. Most D&D campaigns follow a living setting where you'll want to continue telling stories after this conflict is resolved, needing𒉰 you to continue writing past the epilogue of other storiesไ.

A good approach is creating new threats that expand on previous events: Former allies scramble to fill a power vacuum, loyalists attempt to reinstate surviving heirs, and neighbou𒅌ring powers exploit the weakness for diplomacy or warfare.

All of these can tell interesting stories, and you can have several of these events happening at the same time to raise the stakes further ✨than during the original conflict.

For writing beyond the ending, look at Lord of the Rings. The final battle with Mordor and the confrontation at Mount Doom are followed by 🍃an entire act about the Scouring Of The Shire.

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