Markdown
10 - Spiral Campaign Development
Spiral campaign development builds campaign worlds starting in the area immediately surrounding the characters, then spirals out, expanding the world as the characters experience it. This section offers suggestions and inspiration for building a spiral campaign.
Campaign Pitch
Start off by describing the central theme of your campaign in a single sentence. This campaign pitch becomes the main focus of the campaign, and might be given to the players during your session zero so they can build their characters around it. Use the following campaign pitches as a starting point for a campaign, or as inspiration for pitches of your own.
Campaign Pitches
- Prevent the summoning of the Dragon Queen
- Prevent the coming of the Black Moon
- End the dark reign of Elenda the lich queen
- Break the political power of Vroth the death knight
- Kill Veresyn the vampire lord and his horde
- Restore light to the Vale of Nightmares
- Restore the prison of Orlon the demon prince
- Shatter the draconic Alliance of Five Claws
- Save people from the blood feast of a gnoll war band
- Restore light to the fallen celestial Ixyan
- Dismantle the Empire of the White Blade
- Find the seven keys to the gates of Ilumenia
- Prevent the resurrection of the sorcerer king
- Stop the cult of the Red Ocean
- Save the heir of the sapphire throne
- Find and seal the vault of the world serpent
- Close the gateway to the Outside
- Destroy the Sword of the Black Sun
- Slay the ancient dragon Larthyx Flametongue
- End the dark pact of Karthyn the archdevil
Six Truths
Once you have your pitch, identify six truths that set your campaign apart from others, then share them with your players. Here are six example truths for a campaign built around the coming of the Black Moon from above.
- Sages and cultists describe the coming of the Black Moon — an elder evil that will swallow the world.
- Monsters have been sighted along what were once the safest roads. The populations of whole villages are disappearing without a trace.
- A floating obsidian citadel has appeared above the Cragteeth Mountains to the north.
- Folk once had to deal with the coming of the Black Moon, but their secrets for surviving it were lost.
- The evil King Trex uses the chaos created by the coming of the Black Moon to wage war across the land.
- Prophecy speaks of the return of the Knights of the White Sun, who will restore light to the land.
Starting Location
Spiral campaigns begin in a central location, often a small settlement from which the characters set out to explore neighboring lands. A village always works well as a starting location, but there are many alternatives.
1d10 Starting Locations
- Adventurers' guild
- Mining outpost
- Recent shipwreck
- Frontier outpost
- Holy temple
- Refugee camp
- Fortress under siege
- Great library
- Planar hub city
- Crumbling fortress
Campaign Fronts
Campaign fronts are the external motivators in a campaign. Like a battlefront (from which they're named), a front is a point of conflict that advances and retreats as the campaign develops. Fronts are often villains, but might also be external forces such as natural disasters or grim fate. Campaigns might have up to three fronts at any given time, including any of the following.
1d20 Campaign Fronts
- Thieves' guild
- Dark necromancer
- Armageddon cult
- Mercenary army
- Forgotten machine
- Evil construct
- Demon prince
- Archdevil
- Corrupt noble lord
- Rival adventurers
- Mages' guild
- Outlander horde
- Meteor storm
- Planar invaders
- Powerful archmage
- Ancient lich
- Blood-raging cannibals
- Unseelie fey lord
- Draconic terror
- Undead prince
Local Adventure Locations
As the campaign spirals outward, the characters will become aware of local adventuring locations. Drop three such adventure locations into the areas close by the starting location. And if you need help filling out an adventure location, look to later sections of this document.
- Ancient crypt
- Forgotten sewers
- Haunted keep
- Festering well
- Rat-infested cellar
- Unholy temple
- Dangerous caves
- Underground city
- War-torn citadel
- Fey glade
- Abandoned dungeon
- Ruined watchtower
- Huge hollow statue
- Sunken catacombs
- Obsidian ziggurat
- Haunted forest
- Otherworldly rift
- Submerged grotto
- Dead hollow tree
- Sundered shipwreck