I was a Dm, for a long time. I say was because I haven’t hardly run a game since before I started to play Ddo. Why? I was burnt out. But from time to time I get that old spark and I get an idea then I think well maybe but I just don’t have the fuel to get a full blown fire going. I was always a set of the pants Dm anyway. Starting will little more then a loose guild line of a hand full of fun points.

So when I read an idea for a quest/raid on the forums I get excited. I love the idea that someone’s idea might make it in to ddo. That gives me hope that some day I might motivate and get something moving.

But one of the things I never like in a quest/raid write up is level of detail. You can tell who is/was an experienced Dm by their writing.

It is almost too detailed. As if we are trying to explain what is going on to players and then adding in details as to how we think things should work. And that is fine. But isn’t that a little bit like giving the players the notes for the adventure the night before and saying “This is my plan for tomorrow’s game, what do you think?” Or making a module and saying Dm it just like this.

I would say keep your ideas broad. Giving plot points and an idea of how you think might play out. But don’t go super into detail so people get lost in the fine print.

For example an idea I have been kicking around. A few quests with a raid. I would rather do the raid in the middle of the story not at the end as we always end up doing in ddo so here we go.

Person A gets kid napped, always a classic, by a group of pirates. The nice thing here is Ebberon we have airships as well as normal ships. So lets go save Person A.

Quest 1, When we get the quest we are given the name of someone that might be able to give us some information. Perhaps this person was captured by a third party and you have to save them. Think water works.

Quest 2a and 2b, are variations of the same thing. And only one is required. Travel to the kidnappers stronghold. I picture the baddie held up in a mountain stronghold allowing us to enter via quest 2 a subterranean maze. I mean every great adventure has a castle where you wonder threw the catacombs. Or quest 3, you load up an airship (funded by who ever is important to person A) and we chart a path to this mountain stronghold. Either way we find a good staging area to assault the stronghold. Here is where we add puzzles/non combat options. After all opening doors in the catacomb avoiding mini bosses or repairing the airship while it is being attacked has to be fun, right?

Quest 3, the raid. Once we have a staging point we can form a raid group and we fight our way into and threw the stronghold. It like most raids would have a few parts.

Start with an option like storm the beaches. Maybe we do a frontal attack into the a courtyard ? Or we can try to use the tunnels to find a way into the a courtyard? Either way we have part one.

Part two, Storm the throne room or try to get to the dungeon tower. Were person A is who knows. But this is were the first big piece of meat for the raid is a big boss fight. A big scary guardian, with some support mobs. But as always your princess is always in another castle.

So we do part three. A final showdown. Where we hope to save Person A and defeat the bad man. And we return to the staging area.

Quest 4, then we have to leave. But what villain wouldn’t have a plan for retribution should he fall? Where we go back to a 6 man group to stay behind and by time for “the other group to get away.” I say a short many many mob swarm for say 10-20 mins and chain complete.

Do part 1 and 2a or 2b and be permanently flagged for the raid. Do the raid and part 4 for chain end reward of some sort. I like think I would like something along the lines of the rewards like Attack on Stormreach.

Please notice how I didn’t give any mob types, level ranges, or any real details. This could be set up at any level. Lets do kobolds, cool. Lets to demons, cool. I gave most general idea so the devs can feel in the details. Or you can take this idea and make it a few nights of pnp. Whatever.

Enjoy.
❤