Hey Veeky Forums, I had a crazy idea today. Rate my D&D 5e campaign hook. Would you play it, or is it a load of shit?

Unless something else comes to me, (5/5) can be the last post for now, although feel free to add any other ideas if you like the concept.

When I first imagined this concept, I thought "Nah, it's too crazy. No way it would work". But then I slowly began to really get into the idea of a campaign that's not jocks and nerds in highschool, but 6 actual brutes in an unfamiliar land trying to get back home, while also having fun with them navigating a modern setting, and reimagining clasic story and quest hooks to retrofit a modern suburbia.

Might be cool.

Wait, let me explain why. It's a cool idea, and there's probably some fiction book like this somewhere, but doing this kind of bait-and-switch scenario with tabletop games is difficult because your players are not actually going to be playing the game they signed on for and there's no way for you to explain this concept without at least spoiling some of it.

Now, if it's a relatively short campaign and you know the people who you'll be playing with and have a good read on what they like, and you think they will all like this idea, then great! However, it's always difficult to make people come out to play a game they just don't care about because this isn't the game they thought it would be.

There's also the problem of "leveling down" your PCs into a new setting, and basically you taking narrative control over the one thing the players control over: their characters. It sucks in general to not be able to do anything while the GM just sits there and reads you their fanfiction.

So, in short, might be cool. Depends on who you play with and if they like the idea enough to keep playing it.

These are things I have considered. Actually, this week when we meet for Warhammer, I'm thinking I'll probably posit the concept to them. The idea is wild enough that I'd rather spoil the premise, as opposed to pulling a bait and switch they weren't expecting and them telling me to get the fuck out, especially if I came to find out they wouldn't be thrilled with the concept.

In all honesty, that's kind of one thing I wish our usual GM did a little more. He's keen on not giving any information on his campaigns, so as to not spoil it, but as a result that leaves us with no indication of the game themes, tone, setting, and one time he ad libed a mechanic into the game, to the detriment of my then PC.

A good example is that our DM has explicitly stated that he wants to run Curse of Strahd some day. I know Curse of Strahd is a gothic horror Vampire story, and that's all I need to know to get a feel for what I'm in for, spoilers minimum. With his personal campaign we're running, sometimes I wish he'd give a little more info. When I start DMing, I'm going to try offering info and clear communication with my players with (hopefully) minimal spoilers to my campaigns.

Good luck, I hope your campaign goes well. A good piece of advice is to have the party make the characters (not mechanically, but as actual characters) before the game even starts, and then have them give you (the GM) goals or potential character development arcs to include.

To be fair, I probably won't run this for awhile, even if I do preemptively pitch the idea. I actually haven't DMed before, so I'd like to try my hand at at least one campaign that is more traditional first. But after my first campaign I'll se how comfortable I am with the idea.

I just thought it was so out there that I wanted to ask other tabletop players if I'm on to something potentially good or not. I might pitch the idea to r/DnD on Reddit at some point too, just to get some more opinions on the concept.

And I know all about asking players to make their characters beforehand. Our DM does the same practice with us, asking us to make our characters before we start, and talking with him to set up character arcs and quests.

I've read first 2 posts and it's fucking garbage.
Out of all cool stuff you could've done you decided on "m-muh hugh schuul teenagers"
reconsider life

Then clearly you didn't get to the part where I concede that that's about the most stereotypical route I could go with my premise, and that I rather like the idea of the characters immediately regaining their memories and saying "fuck that plotline in the ass".

Not saying that is or isn't any better but you could at least actually read long enough for me to explain my thought process faglord.

I've read the rest and it's still stereotypical garbage.

The "other timeline reset" shit is also easily predictable and I called it as soon as I've read "max level". It's not as bad as the rest of it, but still.

That's fair, I'll give that the premise is easy to predict. Then again as I've said in this thread it wouldn't exactly be a secret.

I may be biased since it is my idea so take this with a pinch of salt, but I think even a stereotypical story can be good if told well. And really it'd only be a stereotypical story up to the start, after which story is relinquished to the players, as role playing games go.

But yeah, no doubt a somewhat pretty seen before premise, and I imagine it'd probably be a less serious campaign if my group wanted to try it.

>less serious
This could work. I'm just not a fan of "lollzsorandumb"

It smelled like a steaming pile of shit when you said "high school students", but when characters stuck in that setting I bailed. I know for fact my GM wouldn't do anything remotely similar, but if he did, regardless on how much I respect him as GM and a friend, I would refuse to play. There's so many ways on making interesting game in modern setting but this aint one.

That's certainly fair. I concede it's a wild idea and nobody is wrong for thinking it dumb.

If it helps any, basically the concept is less Danny Phantom/My Life as a Teenage Robot/Jake Long/any other high school secret life shit we've all seen. Basically as soon as the game started, the basic premise would be "Hey, what if you dropped a medieval knight, a Viking, and a Samurai (Who are all best friends for some reason) in the middle of town square?". Arguably still stereotypical, but I would trust my players (in character) to go so balls to the wall with that amount of freedom that any stereotypes would go from tired clichés to completely off the rails in no time at all.

And as I said, obviously it's an experimental idea I never expected to like as much as I did, and certainly something I wouldn't want to run as my first story. And if my group just hates it I'll retire the idea.

>Hey, what if you dropped a medieval knight, a Viking, and a Samurai (Who are all best friends for some reason) in the middle of town square?
just doing that is better then somehow putting them in a body of a teenager imo
isekai is popular for a reason

I felt like the body of a teenager thing would just be so at least they look natural in the world, blend in with the setting.

Key word there is body of a teenager. Bodily, sure, 16 - 18 range, but as soon as their memories return, they're 20 - 50 y/o (approximately, accounting for long living races like Elves) warriors who have already lived many a hearty adventure, just trapped in a younger persons body. In some ways they could consider that more liberating. They're younger and more limber and spry again. The fun begins with them navigating a modern suburbia. As you said, like a reverse isekai.

But yeah, any stereotypical notes like railroading them into going to school, following curfew, etc. Fuck all that noise. They are proud warriors trying to get home. Kind of like if Samurai Jack was thrown into a universal reset (with slightly or dramatically changed details) instead of the future, goal would still be to get back home.

Your scenario is... kind of boring. The story sounds dumb, and you're attempting to mash vidya concepts such as the time management from a Persona game into a TTRPG, and that's weird and will not be as fun as you think it will be. And speaking of weird and unfitting things,

>If any players pick weird character races, that's alright I'll just add them to the world
Now you're betraying the core concept and the only thing that makes this at all interesting. A game where the players are heroes, reincarnated from another world into our world and realizing they didn't defeat the enemy they wanted to defeat back in that world, could work. I don't think D&D is the right system for it, but it could work. But when you decide to make it just "the players are reincarnated from medieval fantasy world to modern fantasy world" the concept starts falling apart in weird ways and just simply isn't as appealing as it could be.

You also don't really seem to understand now humans work. The entire setup scenario for this is going to be seen as a waste of time by your players, and at least one of them is just going to walk out when you take away the character they spent time creating and replace it with a pregen. And if that doesn't send them packing, then telling them how their character reacts to things is certainly going to. Let me put it like this-- (cont.)

(cont.)
Imagine you're a player in this scenario. You've been invited to play a game where you start out powerful and your very first battle is against a reality-warping demon lord. Your expectations have been set to assume that this is going to be a high-power game about being strong and killing things that are even stronger. And then, your DM pulls tells you that you are no longer that character, and instead are some kid in our world. Okay, weird. Maybe your DM wanted to subvert your expectations, and he certainly did, but that's a whole character and a battle down the drain, completely wasted. But, fine. You'll stick around, see where this is going. Your DM then proceeds to tell you what your character is thinking and feeling and narrates his life up until the point where he hands you some characters he made for you. How do you think you're going to feel about this scenario?

I think you understand that this is not going to be taken well, as you even indicate as much, but you haven't thought through what players are actually going to do and feel after this, and how this will color how they play through the rest of this thing. You say you intend for them to just simply return to being the heroes after that point, but then why did you put them through that whole introduction? Why weren't you just up front with them?

I could go on, but the point is that you have an idea in your head for how this is supposed to go that hinges entirely upon your players being exactly as into this concept as you are, despite having no idea what's going on or why, and having their time wasted and being subjected to a heavyhanded and clunky attempt at subversion.

You know, I'm not even mad. I appreciate that interpretation, and your points are valid. The run-through from a player perspective did help put the idea into, well, perspective.

See, this is why I wanted to ask veterans (or just players) about the concept. As an aspiring DM and writer, I value insight of what works and what doesn't.

TL;DR: I value your criticism and helpful points.

All in all this thread has been pretty respectful, even when criticizing. Is this one of the more respectful boards on this site?

>6 high school students
Literally did not read any further. I would leave the table.

I like this idea a lot OP.

How many issues do they have with their families and such, or are they all orphans or what? In other words, what's there to keep them part of the place they're in instead of going back to Alaska or whatever?

The high schoolers in another world trope (even if you run it backwards) exists to make it appealing and relateable for kids. OP's player shave already shown up and shouldn't have any issues relating to the characters they themselves have created. It's just there for its own sake then, because OP has fond memories of once having been one of those kids it roped in. Unless the players are also suckers for it it'll just be a lot of dreg for them.

I love this, I think its great and I would defo play even tho will be difficult to do well as a GM

This is literally just the plot of every single shonen anime in existence.

Many people are noting that the whole high school students thing is off putting. Maybe its just a bunch of hard workers that decide to go to the same bar or maybe they all work at the same company(run by the BBEG). A cleric becomes a preacher, or a part of HR. A druid becomes a gardener, or a mailroom guy who has a way with the streets. A Warlock is an executive(sells his soul to a different devil), or maybe a secret practitioner of dark arts or something. Fighters become cops, security guards, maybe veterans. Rangers become taxi drivers, limo drivers, detectives, maybe security or a guy that knows his way around the office. Wizards are tough. I'd say put your wizard in the science department, or maybe make him a social outcast. Sorcerers are similar to wizards, but they'd be less geeky, and actually inclined to be the manager. Barbarians would definitely be mailroom, security, cops, and the like. Any single one of these classes could be a burger flipper or whatever. The important thing is that the players should have an inkling that this isn't going to be a normal swords and sorcery type game. If I was to de-level them I'd probably a dress that as well. I'd probably tell them to make the level 20 character, adress the level thing, and then make the level 1 version as you. Important thing is making sure the players get the chance to absorb the change and roll with it. Have them possibly be fuzzy with their backstory, as they may not fully remember their new life, as it mingled with the old. Or another idea, have their level 20 backstories be fleshed out so you can dig in there to translate that. Be flexible though if you do that.

Yeah, I'd say do it in university instead of high school. More freedom for the PCs, a reason for them all to be there solo without families, etc.

I'd be hesitant to set it even in a uni, as that dictates their age or backstory a bit. Plus having a family is always awesome in these games. Dont know why people always choose 'orphanism'

Well in this specific instance it's because they've all kinda materialized outta nowhere.

>at the last minute, the BBEG does something to completely alter the fabric of reality
This could mean several different things. The way I would do it is to take existing characters' families and translate them to modern. I imagine the same thing would happen with more of the other characters in the modern setting.
This could also allow for the easy translating of the whole thing back to regular fantasy if they fix the wowed warped reality thing, and a return to the other characters of the modern setting.
If everyone disappeared and the like, it would be strange to me, but idk.

This seems like an incredibly shitty campaign, not because the scenario is inherently flawed, though maybe it is, but because you already imagined a full fucking novel and expect people to come along and listen to you spout it at them. Maybe you should write that novel and ask them to read it instead of bait-and-switching them, not with your plot but the premise that they came to play a game at all.

This isn't a game, stop pretending to GM.

Jesus. Let a wanna GM wanna GM. Give em pointers.

Okay. Fair enough, here's one:

A game requires that the players have meaningful input.

Otherwise they are spectators.

the fuck are you talking about, this is only the premise and the first part with DnD heroes is only a prelude of sorts

The fact that they wake up and meet the next day is only the beginning of the story grognard

>1
Settle for a level 20 character concept, not finished characters. Do the 'final' battle free form or more of a story.
>2
Many players would be disappointed in a modern setting. That's not what they're here for.
>3
The players may be quite disappointed with their high school characters. Being a stoner is not as interesting as being the nurse assistant or the survivalist football player.
>4
How is modern technology going to affect things? 10 zombies could wreck the party if they go there with hobby knives and baseball bats, but if they grab a pistol or two it's probably going to be much easier.

no, eat shit, fuck off and die

This is now a concept art thread

To follow up user's post, here's an alternative suggestion:
Just tell your players you're playing a modern fantasy game. There's some fantasy elements that are known to the world. (or maybe it's not known at all - ala the secret world).
The characters are still teenagers or young adults who suddenly realise there's something more to them.

Nevermind the huge warningsign of expecting a 6 player party of conforming to a predefined set of wishes for party composition and characterizations.

Step two is literally corrupting their character concepts in order to again fit the OP's idea of what the party should be. Im sure its alright to go from whatever numerous concepts you might have for a rogue (provided anyone wanted to play one at all) to shitty highschool drug dealer. Or a druid concept other than movie-Rhadagast suddenly being a stoned looser. Or you know, any of the non-black mage wizard types becoming a whiny and conformist goth kid.

OP already has the most meaningful decision of the whole game thought out: the characters. And the premise, and the story. Its all spelled out up there up to and including the twist binary moral choice at the end.

So yeah, the premise might be salvageable, but if so its by someone who understands the only thing interesting for a player in a game are the choices they get to make.

>But they totally get to go dungeon crawling after the cutscenes are over.

Yeah, players get to play the game a little between all the important parts.

Commit sudoku

>Let's take high level characters and drop them at lower versions of their previous selves in a different place

I've tried similar concepts of bait when I was much younger, and it can work really well but only if you can give them extra compensations for the things that they did lost in transit; modern knowledge can be a blessing in a world with low magic but it can seriously screw casters not to mention martials will also be limited by residing in an immature body, so that cannot be everything there is. Rewrite the classes themselves so that they end up gaining something for their trouble in stages, one for short term, one for medium term and one for long term. This is not the same as 4th edition tiers, rather they acquire different extra abilities that start working roughly around the start, but those become really useful at different paces.

>They also need to see some level of continuity between their characters as the ones they premade. Have also a series of PC sheets made when the characters were level 15 or so to play a couple of scenes detailing characters relationships and motivations, and to quick fight a monster or two. Have a couple of chapters doing quick dungeon rolls with them so that each character doesn't feel the loss so sudden.
I know it makes it harder to implement, but these could be the dreams.
If you can't decide which special skills the PCs may develop, you can use these sessions as memories, which they will reclaim as they level up or simply unlock through roleplay. The idea is not to unlock the same character but rather the most important momments that define them through the chronicle, the unusual tactics, new spells and new uses for holy energy / chi are all possibilities on what to use. This rewards mechanically character investment; but you need all of your players to have a similar level of involvement for it to work.

(Cont'd)
The problem with this kind of setting is that you really need to get the players on boat, moreso if you're doing it without their knowledge, and also you're going to have to go around your way to explain why things are the way they are in current setting; for example why is there so little magic and every psychic, or sorcerer seems to be a fraud. How critters made with magic can subsist in non magical environments? These are important questions that will ultimately affect the PCs themselves (and the reason why a lot of niggas doesn't play modern and opt for shadowrun instead).

>you didn't send them back in time and let them build back up to the L20 versions of their characters

I think it's only salvageable if you put this on loop while playing.
youtube.com/watch?v=1jwRkJV4CQY

Something being predictable or stereotypical in a tabletop RPG isn't actually a bad thing though as in contrast to a passive medium the players can provide the unpredictable element and are by their role as players more engaged in the scenario.

It's why men go into cave to kill goblins is a dull idea for a film but makes for a perfectly good campaign adventure.