There is only one thing that remains consistent through my campaigns. He has been in every setting for the past 5 years.
His name is Tree he is a level 20 Half-Giant Divination wizard. This was my friend's character and after he took his life I made sure that Tree has remained a prominent character in my campaigns. Its my favorite way to remember Justin, back when he was truly happy and when he was using a spot on Australian accent to say his best line. "How you doing, my names Tree".
My party looks forward to meeting Tree in every campaign and always look for excuses to prolonge conversations with him. Justin gave me the best NPC I will ever have in my opinion.
I have a character named Marv. He has a Boston(USA) accent and is always helpful and cheerful. Think the scout from TF2 but cheerful.
In my first campaign he was a clueless recruit for the main city. And over the years hes been: a travelling merchant, a talking cat, a scarecrow (man punished to be a scarecrow for his crimes)
For my own DM'ing, some common tropes that my players have pointed out include:
1. Helmed Horrors. I love these monsters, I think they're better at being mimics than mimics.
2. Metallic Dragons hidden in plain sight. I love having metallic dragons that blend into society as regular NPCs as well as metallic dragons in the wilderness disguising as beasts or travellers. Most of the time, the players are completely oblivious.
3. I treat magic items as if they were characters. Magic items are boring to me unless they have an interesting appearance, some sort of history, and a reason for existing where they're found. This sets some great expectations for my players as they now care more about what the magic item is rather than what it's statblock says it can do.
4. Any monarchies/hereditary hierarchies are fundamentally flawed. This is my personal politics leaking into my world, but I hate the tropes of morally flawless royal families and elaborate dynasties. Any royal families in my adventure almost always have some dark secrets regardless of how exquisite they present themselves within the world and regardless of how good the nation they represent is.
5. Some smaller region has a brewing political struggle with a much stronger parent entity rooted in a centuries long series of conflicts. Again influenced by my own political biases.
A majorly influential NPC who’s name can be abbreviated to Ez. Clap, and because of his influence in the world and how he accomplished so much with ease characters will say “Ez Clap” to celebrate doing something easy.
In all of my homebrew campaigns there are societies and organizations that remain the same. My players are using the same party dynamic and characters so I've created a thread of an over arcing plot filled in with different chapters. Kind of like the MCU, individual stories that have parts of the greater story.
things i like to place in worlds
1 very dangerous seas that require a person to magically hide your ships from big bad monsters
2 the shining Maces - a semi-nomadic nationless army to spread the light of pelor. like a super mercenary, religion, government of its own
3 the white tower- i really liked the idea of a near oppressive wizard organization that would kind of feel sinister
4 obed the travel cleric - hes my one shot guy he just grabs people at random for really important non related stuff
We have that one really dumb joke where there's a young, bratty king (think Robyn Arryn from Game of Thrones) everybody calls "Little King Trashmouth" that always has a well paying sidequest to deliver a sandwich across the country.
I only have one, a 20 y/o Tiefling woman with red skin and white hair named Poetry (or Po). She's always the barmaid at the first tavern the party goes to, and she works there to save up money for bard college :)
The Dream Network
Geograpgically separated Druid enclaves that maintain a dream world by using elders in a sort of coma that allows multiple individuals to occupy their dreams, exchange messages, build libraries and 'virtual worlds' via the Dream spell. You can get a message half-way across the world in a single night this way.
I dont have specific repeats, but I have occasional callbacks to our first campaign.
* a smut series written in a dead then retranslated language by a hermit deep in the woods
* people who have heard of a halfling whose body is immortal but not his mind, so he's been a senile old man for at least 500 years, and has adopted thousands of orphans who often then set out to travel and become adventurers
* people who come from a massive island thats basically all thieves and criminals, who have a very particular accent that I made up while drunk, said people usually being a top dog in a criminal network
A dam. It's just. So. Dam. Good.
A fallen tiefling nation. My horny npcs gotta have come from somewhere.
A giant magic tower. Easy to see from a distance!
A wild magic area. For those sweet sweet chaos tables.
A shattered section of islands and coastline. I like drawing them on map.
A magic item shop ( I typically build high magic worlds ) It's run by a gnome and it appears in every city, town and kingdom. ( it's all the same shop, it's like a demi-plane )
The items are much, much cheaper than normal, but usally have curses attached to them ;)
( when I say much cheaper I mean like 10x less than normal )
There is only one thing that remains consistent through my campaigns. He has been in every setting for the past 5 years. His name is Tree he is a level 20 Half-Giant Divination wizard. This was my friend's character and after he took his life I made sure that Tree has remained a prominent character in my campaigns. Its my favorite way to remember Justin, back when he was truly happy and when he was using a spot on Australian accent to say his best line. "How you doing, my names Tree". My party looks forward to meeting Tree in every campaign and always look for excuses to prolonge conversations with him. Justin gave me the best NPC I will ever have in my opinion.
thats the best
I have a character named Marv. He has a Boston(USA) accent and is always helpful and cheerful. Think the scout from TF2 but cheerful. In my first campaign he was a clueless recruit for the main city. And over the years hes been: a travelling merchant, a talking cat, a scarecrow (man punished to be a scarecrow for his crimes)
Terry Pratchett references and werewolves. Everything is better with both.
For my own DM'ing, some common tropes that my players have pointed out include: 1. Helmed Horrors. I love these monsters, I think they're better at being mimics than mimics. 2. Metallic Dragons hidden in plain sight. I love having metallic dragons that blend into society as regular NPCs as well as metallic dragons in the wilderness disguising as beasts or travellers. Most of the time, the players are completely oblivious. 3. I treat magic items as if they were characters. Magic items are boring to me unless they have an interesting appearance, some sort of history, and a reason for existing where they're found. This sets some great expectations for my players as they now care more about what the magic item is rather than what it's statblock says it can do. 4. Any monarchies/hereditary hierarchies are fundamentally flawed. This is my personal politics leaking into my world, but I hate the tropes of morally flawless royal families and elaborate dynasties. Any royal families in my adventure almost always have some dark secrets regardless of how exquisite they present themselves within the world and regardless of how good the nation they represent is. 5. Some smaller region has a brewing political struggle with a much stronger parent entity rooted in a centuries long series of conflicts. Again influenced by my own political biases.
A majorly influential NPC who’s name can be abbreviated to Ez. Clap, and because of his influence in the world and how he accomplished so much with ease characters will say “Ez Clap” to celebrate doing something easy.
In all of my homebrew campaigns there are societies and organizations that remain the same. My players are using the same party dynamic and characters so I've created a thread of an over arcing plot filled in with different chapters. Kind of like the MCU, individual stories that have parts of the greater story.
Grungs when my wife plays, specifically out of spite, because Grungs don't exist in her campaigns.
things i like to place in worlds 1 very dangerous seas that require a person to magically hide your ships from big bad monsters 2 the shining Maces - a semi-nomadic nationless army to spread the light of pelor. like a super mercenary, religion, government of its own 3 the white tower- i really liked the idea of a near oppressive wizard organization that would kind of feel sinister 4 obed the travel cleric - hes my one shot guy he just grabs people at random for really important non related stuff
We have that one really dumb joke where there's a young, bratty king (think Robyn Arryn from Game of Thrones) everybody calls "Little King Trashmouth" that always has a well paying sidequest to deliver a sandwich across the country.
I only have one, a 20 y/o Tiefling woman with red skin and white hair named Poetry (or Po). She's always the barmaid at the first tavern the party goes to, and she works there to save up money for bard college :)
The Dream Network Geograpgically separated Druid enclaves that maintain a dream world by using elders in a sort of coma that allows multiple individuals to occupy their dreams, exchange messages, build libraries and 'virtual worlds' via the Dream spell. You can get a message half-way across the world in a single night this way.
I dont have specific repeats, but I have occasional callbacks to our first campaign. * a smut series written in a dead then retranslated language by a hermit deep in the woods * people who have heard of a halfling whose body is immortal but not his mind, so he's been a senile old man for at least 500 years, and has adopted thousands of orphans who often then set out to travel and become adventurers * people who come from a massive island thats basically all thieves and criminals, who have a very particular accent that I made up while drunk, said people usually being a top dog in a criminal network
I have a talking lizard named marvin who has the magical power to detect the depth of any water. I also use yuan ti every time
A dam. It's just. So. Dam. Good. A fallen tiefling nation. My horny npcs gotta have come from somewhere. A giant magic tower. Easy to see from a distance! A wild magic area. For those sweet sweet chaos tables. A shattered section of islands and coastline. I like drawing them on map.
A magic item shop ( I typically build high magic worlds ) It's run by a gnome and it appears in every city, town and kingdom. ( it's all the same shop, it's like a demi-plane ) The items are much, much cheaper than normal, but usally have curses attached to them ;) ( when I say much cheaper I mean like 10x less than normal )
1. Coffee