I have this massive problem where I (the DM) struggle to believe in my villain's ideology. Because deep down I know that they are illogical and irrational. And so whenever my players argue with the villain about why what theyre doing is wrong, I struggle to side with the villain.

Right now I am running a cult that wants to destroy the current universe to form a new perfect one. Its mostly followed by people who believe that life, as we know it, is inherently unfair and a new universe is the solution. They think they are doing a good thing. As you can tell, theres a lot of problems with this logic and when the players point it out to the leader, I struggle to argue with them or side with my villain.

Party will be hit with a mass maze spell. How to make this more interesting than some int checks, but not have a mind numbing maze to map out. Ideas?

Hi there! Looking at getting into DMing, but I’m a little overwhelmed with the different options for VTT 😅 for someone who’s new to this, what would those who have tried multiple recommend? I’m not overly computer savvy so I know I don’t want to use foundry. Right now I’m considering Roll20 or DnD Beyond Maps/AboveVTT. I appreciate any input!

All in the title. The party just rescued an npc, but that is secretly a doppleganger that the bbeg tasked with luring the party away from their plans. I plan to drop the charade quickly within the session, as the doppleganger has another task : to steal their magical items and bring them back to his boss, one of the BBEG's lieutenant. If the dop makes it, that's it. But there is a world in which they would get caught, and turn into a party member to confuse the party, save their skin or gain an initial advantage in combat. To be clear this would be a scene where there are two identical party members present, the real one and the doppleganger, and the three remaining PC would have to guess which is which.

I saw somewhere on reddit someone advising to let the DM roleplay both characters, the PC and the dop, while the player would hand the DM notes and tips about what the PC does, so there would be fewer clues for the other players. I like this, but I'm not entirely sure as I'm afraid this would 1) slow the game down a lot 2) exclude the player being imitated even though they would pass me notes. But I'm also afraid that letting the PC rp their character while I do the dop or vice-versa would let the other players metagame too much and too easily guess which is which.

Any constructive advice or opinions ?

My party just arrived to a cult where there is a Fall festival in process.

They manage to talk to a few people and get into the town. The usual happened. People are uncannily welcoming and devoted to their leader etc etc..

Last session cut off as the leader came out into the group with her 4 handmaids to dance under the summer tree and burn it away after. The party wants to talk with the leader as soon as possible.

My party's connection to the cult so far.

• Our warlocks patron asks the warlock to trust the leader because shes on their side and wont hurt them, and possibly get the others to trust her aswell
• They met an NPC who hinted at a betrayal of sorts when they came across a corpse in the forest. While they dont know the cult is the traitor, their wear heavily resembles the corpses.

I need some tips to make the festival seem alive, welcoming but in a weird uncanny way where you feel like something is wrong but can't quite put your finger on it.

Hi all. I'm homebrewing a One Shot for Christmas, basically a Christmas Romance movie set at a Bridgerton ball. The players have been hired to chaperone the tomboy princess at the party and facilitate conversations between her 4 suitors. The challenge is the princess is a high level Rogue/sneaky sorcerous, and will constantly give them the slip and replace everyone's drinks with drinks from the Deck of Many Drinks.

I'm struggling to come up with good/bad qualities that will players know which suitors absolutely should NOT be options. Give me a hand?

Currently, I have the following:

Leyetan Kanda

Description: You see a lanky young man standing against the wall, his pale brown hair bobbing above the crowd. His skin is plagued by acne and he watches the Ball with soft, brown, disinterested eyes, shuffling his feet, uncomfortable in the formal clothes and setting.  uncomfortably. He smells faintly of sulphur, and his fingers flex nervously.

Family: The Kanda family is old, wealthy and respected, though doesn’t have much direct influence. Their fief is at the edge of the kingdom, on the edge of wild forest, where they prioritise education over power, studying nature and building libraries.

Behaviour: Leyetan will stand in the corner of the Ballroom, if possible, and wander around by the walls. He will not initiate conversation, and will need to be convinced to approach Sora.

Green Flag: Soft spoken and gentle

Green Flag: Respects Sora’s autonomy

Green Flag: Loves to share his, and others’, interests

Yellow Flag: Quiet and standoffish, never knows what to say, and says it awkwardly

Yellow Flag:

Yellow Flag:

Red Flag:

Red Flag:

Red Flag:

Paraval Carvas

Description: You see a strong, broad-shouldered man with striking green eyes and carefully coiffed, short brown hair. He seems relaxed standing at attention, and moves with the grace of a cat, even in his black, gilt trimmed armour.

Family: The Carvas family is of moderate wealth, and only middling name. His father raised him with purpose, to ensure that Paraval would be the model vassal for the king, and improve the family’s standing in the kingdom. Their fief is near the capital, in the countryside.

Behaviour: Paraval will join nearby crowds and graciously downplay his own heroics if they are mentioned, while talking up the qualities of those around him. He will not seek Sora out, but he will approach her if he sees her. He always seems to be where he should be, and saying what he should be saying. The picture of chivalry, he is kind, gracious and honourable, ready to defend the kingdom or his lady’s honour with equal fervour.

Green Flag: Openly heroic, unashamed to show kindness and grace while being quick to sacrifice for others

Green Flag: Respects women, as chivalry dictates

Green Flag: Good with kids

Yellow Flag: Stubbornly strict with rules and customs

Yellow Flag: Has no interests outside of ‘what is proper’

Yellow Flag: Dull conversationalist

Red Flag: Responds to insults with duels, rather than discussion

Red Flag:

Red Flag:

Castellan Marius

Description: You see a slim, blonde man watching you with sharp, pale blue eyes. He is sleek, with swept back hair carefully gelled, and dressed in white and gold robes. A holy symbol hangs around his neck, and he stands with a rigid adherence to decorum.

Behaviour: Castellan will passively search for Sora and approach her, if she draws near. He does not approve of her disobedient nature and will try to rein her in. He actively engages in polite conversation, but abstains from drink or dancing.

Family: The Marius family is very wealthy, and provide copius charitable donations to the Church. They live in the capital and are highly influential, due to their wealth and generosity.

Green Flag: Genuinely believes in charity, sharing wealth to help the poor

Green Flag: Believes in caring for those under his power

Green Flag: Believes discussion solves all quarrels

Yellow Flag:  

Yellow Flag:

Yellow Flag:

Red Flag: Thinks the poor are beneath him, like cattle

Red Flag: Firmly believes in the subjugation of women

Red Flag: Silences dissent with debate and references to religious law.

Bodric Dureze

Description: You see a tall, broad shouldered young man carrying himself with an easy confidence, a lazy smile lingering on his face. His short blonde hair is arranged in a casual messiness, and his dark eyes sparkle mischievously. His clothes are fashionable, formal but seem loosely draped over his muscled form.

Family: The Dureze are an old family, and control much of the Northern Border. As the March Wardens of the kingdom, they control the largest military contribution to the king’s army, prioritising ambition and achievement above all else.

Behaviour: Bodric will actively search out and pursue Sora, interfering with others’ attempts to do so. He will avidly defend his friends and deal violently with his enemies.

Green Flag: Confident and friendly

Green Flag: Handsome and quick to defend his friends

Green Flag:

Yellow Flag: Likes to be in charge, or highly respected by the one in charge

Yellow Flag: Takes what he wants, when he wants

Yellow Flag:

Red Flag: Doesn’t respect women

Red Flag: If your needs conflict with his, you are his enemy and WILL be dealt with

Red Flag: Quick to violence when his needs aren’t met

I’ve been running a homebrew Ravenloft campaign for about a year now. At first I wasn’t having any trouble coming up with stuff for the party to do on our every-other-week schedule.

However, the party got sick of the city they were in and decided to leave. Given the main villain for that arc was trapped in that city, that completely threw my long-term plans out the window. I tried to come up a new plan, but each time I came up with something, they changed their minds and went somewhere else.

Now, I have no idea what I’m doing, and each week is a struggle to figure out what sort of adventure to throw at them. I have a session tomorrow, and I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do with it. It’s been the same for the last few months, with me struggling to come up with something to throw at them each session and only barely managing to come up with a half-baked idea. Frankly, it’s torturous.

I tried suggesting we take a break from this campaign and run a premade module until I can figure out what the heck to do, but none of them liked that idea.

I used to love prepping D&D for my players. Now, I feel completely lost and devoid of inspiration. I need to fix that.

Help?

This quest will be run later on in an already ongoing campaign. I have the emotional story beats solidified but lack the actual D&D quest of it all.

What I need is a plot this Duke has done. The plot must contain:

1. A favor from the king

2. Abusing that favor for personal gain

3. A relatable reason to enact the plot (doesn't deserve death for it)

Otherwise the investigation should have no more than three locations/encounters to go through, preferably two.

The Duke is probably human unless there's a good reason otherwise, but could be just about anything personality wise though I'd prefer something where the Duke is intentionally using the King's good nature against him but genuinely the only things that matter are the three points above.

The story beats if you're interested are as follows but I really only need help with the duke stuff. Please focus on the Duke stuff

Beat 1: Get Quest: quest giver is known hero who became a king in the previous campaign. He's a great hero, but kinda mid at politics. King wants party to look into one of his Dukes who the king has done some kind of significant favor for.

Beat 2: Investigation and Truth: Duke has taken advantage of the King's generosity in a somewhat relatable way, serious enough for scandal and court but not like an axe murderer or anything. This is the part I need help with.

Beat 3: Report: regardless of what the party decides how to deal with Duke they must report to the king about it. King has recieved a few other pieces of news regarding two more significant betrayals related to other parts of the campaign. Duke is small potatoes by comparison but his crime is just the cherry on top

Beat 4: Execution and Oathbreaker: King executes Duke (or praises the party for doing so if that happened somehow) and raises him as a zombie cuz he's far more trustworthy this way. A cleric NPC they know will denounce him for this and call on the party to beat him up with power of friendship to snap him out of this as the final battle of the arc. King tries to make them kneel before him but is instead brought to his knees and relearns humility and forgiveness. This all transfers into the next quest dealing with those bigger betrayals mentioned earlier.

A lot of this ties into a previous campaign where most of the NPCs in this were once PCs, this campaign is resolving those storylines.

I appreciate any help with this that remains on topic (rare in my experience with reddit tbh). If you don't have any ideas for the duke thats fine but please rmbr this is one quest for level 15 and I only need help with the Duke and the investigation. Everything with the King is set in stone.

To reiterate the three things I need are:

What favor, concession, or kindness did the King do for the Duke in good faith?

How did the Duke abuse that kindness for his own gain?

Why does the Duke not deserve to die for that abuse?

Hello fellow DM's, my PCs will probably run into one of my BBEG of our campaign next session. I wanted to try to create a full homebrew statblock for him. But maths ain't my thing so I wanted some feedback here. Important note : this first fight is more a way to give my players a grudge and for them to feel personally 'hooked' to this NPC. It is also a way for them to learn the patterns of a boss they will likely meet again in the future. I want to stress that this combat is avoidable, and I will put some strong signals that it is really dangerous for them to engage with him at their level. If they do so nonetheless, I have some escape routes for avoiding a TPK and to make sure their defeat still fails forward.

So I know my questions would sound a bit strange since it's 90% a lost fight for the PCs if they engage with him, but since they will meet him again I want to be sure of my statblock before a potential fight.

Party: 4 PCs, level 5, 2014 rules. Zealot Barbarian, Hexblade Warlock, Soulknife Rogue, Circle of Stars Druid.

How I plan to run him: in Phase 1 he plays as a controller (hook, drag, Call to Slaughter, legendary actions mostly used to move). He plays with his prey. Phase 2 is a bit of a darksoul moment, when he mutates mid combat by his own sheer will and starts to learn new techniques (see below), at this moment he goes full rampage on one character that he decided was his worthy opponent.

Who is he? A cold killer chasing a "fix" through combat. The party is his revelation: he discovers his new body by fighting them. In Phase 2 a huge maw splits open his belly and lets him learn the signature technique of the creature he bites (for example Great Weapon Master from the barbarian, or psychic blades from the rogue).

1. The hook => drag => bite loop: fun or frustrating for the grabbed player? Is DC 16 too punishing for the casters?
2. Learning techniques through the Belly Maw:will players feel "this is cool" or "the DM is stealing my stuff"?
3. Readability: can the PCs read his patterns within 3-4 rounds, or are there too many moving parts?
4. Complexity: I'm a bit afraid there is 'too much' for me during the combat, so if you see some capacities that are redundant feel free to tell.
5. Other nasty ideas for this statblock, some tweaks maybe?
6. How do you see this statblock against a lvl8 party? In all likelihood it's the level I aim for the to meet him again at the end of the act.
7. Any other feedback is very welcome!

Statblock:

The Butcher

Large monster, chaotic evil

Initiative: +1

Stats

Hit Points: 171 (18d10 + 72)
Armour Class: 16
Speed: 30 ft.

Defences

Saving Throws: Str +8, Con +7, Wis +4
Damage Resistances: necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities: frightened, poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages: Common

Traits

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Butcher fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.

Emotion Hunger. The Butcher senses the strong emotions of creatures within 60 ft. of him. He can't be surprised by them, but this sense doesn't reveal their location: hidden creatures keep advantage on their attacks against him until he has spotted them.

Regeneration. At the start of his turn, the Butcher regains 10 hit points if he has dealt damage to a conscious creature since his last turn. He can't regenerate if he has taken radiant or fire damage since his last turn.

Bloated Skin. When a creature deals damage to the Butcher with a melee attack, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn (festering ichor). Once per turn per creature.

Thrill of Carnage. The Butcher has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has less than half its hit points.

Phase 2: The Awakening

Trigger. Phase 2 starts at the beginning of round 3, or as soon as he drops below 90 HP if that happens first.

Chosen Prey. The DM picks his chosen prey based on what the PCs did during the first rounds. His attacks, Drag the Prey, and legendary moves target the chosen prey first, until he has hit it with the Belly Maw. He can then pick a new chosen prey.

Transformation. A huge lip bulges out of his obese, swollen belly and splits open vertically. Fangs sprout all along the gaping wound, which drips festering ichor.

Effects:

• He gains 30 temporary hit points
• His speed becomes 40 ft.
• He gains one additional attack (Multiattack)
• He gains one additional reaction per round
• He loses Sadistic Parry
• Attacks against him by creatures other than the chosen prey score a critical hit on a 19-20

Actions

Multiattack. The Butcher makes three attacks, each either a Hook Strike or a Cleaver Strike (four in Phase 2). If a creature he is grappling is within 5 ft. of him, he can replace one of these attacks with a Bite (Phase 1) or a Belly Maw (Phase 2) against it. He can't use Hook Strike while a creature is already grappled by the hook.

Hook Strike (a hook at the end of a long chain). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 25 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) piercing damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (its choice). On a failure, it is pulled 15 ft. toward the Butcher and grappled (escape DC 16), using a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. The grapple holds as long as the target stays within 25 ft. of the Butcher.
The chain's reach doesn't apply to opportunity attacks.

Cleaver Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage.

Bite (only against a creature he is grappling). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. The Butcher regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

Belly Maw (Phase 2 only, replaces Bite, against a creature he is grappling within 5 ft.). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, one target.
Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. The Butcher regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt and learns a technique from the target (DM's choice, its signature technique first).
Visual: tendrils sprout from the tips of the fangs and slip into the target's veins to draw out a piece of its being.
Learning: the technique is usable immediately and kept permanently. No limit to the number of techniques learned, including from the same target.

Bonus Actions

Drag the Prey. The Butcher pulls a creature grappled by his hook 15 ft. toward him. It takes 7 (2d6) piercing damage.

Call to Slaughter. Each creature of his choice within 30 ft. that can see him must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it immediately moves 5 ft. toward him without provoking opportunity attacks, and can't move away from him until the end of its next turn.

Reactions

Seize the Prey (only if the hook is free). When a creature the Butcher can see leaves his 10 ft. reach, he can use his reaction to try to grapple it. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be grappled and lifted off the ground (disadvantage on its attack rolls).

Sadistic Parry (Phase 1 only). When the Butcher is hit by an attack, he can reduce the damage by 1d10 + 5.

Legendary Actions

The Butcher can take 3 legendary actions, only at the end of another creature's turn. He regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.

Move. The Butcher moves up to half his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Attack (Costs 1 Action). The Butcher makes a Hook Strike or a Cleaver Strike.

Gluttonous Bite (Costs 2 Actions). The Butcher makes a Bite attack with advantage against a creature he is grappling. On a hit, he regains twice the necrotic damage dealt. This is his mouth, not the Belly Maw: it doesn't let him learn a technique.

I attended a DnD night recently where the DM had drawn out pictures of the dungeon mobs that we were fighting. I was in shock at how much it improved gameplay (stuff just made more sense when I could see it i guess). But it got me thinking: I have been obsessed with art/drawing/painting for years and I would really like to try my hand at drawing some of the DnD communities characters/mob ideas. It would be cheap and I really want to see how well I can match the creative brains of the DM's out there. If you are interested please reach out to me with a prompt of some king and I would love to put your vision on paper.

Looking for advice on how to best translate a Druid with its Wild Shape to one of Tasha's Sidekick classes?

My initial thought is using a Healer Spellcaster for the main class and a Warrior sidekick for the wild shape version? Maybe shape X PB times with 1 refresh per SR?

Thoughts on that? Or alternatives?

​

I was thinking about dungeons.

• There are some that have only 1 point of interaction every 3 or so rooms, with inconsequential rooms like dining halls, storage closets, and lavitories easily bypassed after reading the description.

• others where each room has a monster, trap, puzzle, treasure, or something Interactable. Sometimes multiple per room.

Using premade maps is great, but sometimes they are just too large for what you want to run. Populating every room may be too time consuming.

I am running into this issue for tonight's game. I am going to use the "Cloning Facility map by Tom Cartos" as a long abandoned research facility for monstrosities by a now extinct guild of mages. There is not a whole lot that i want to fill the dungeon with. Maybe 1 or 2 quick fights, some lore or loot drops, information from a researcher's notes, and bones from failed hybrids and the like.

The problem is that this map is 2 floors plus the entrance level.

How do I run this without it feeling as barren as the ending of KotOR 2?

I don't mind it feeling empty, i just dont want it to feel unfinished.

So I was thinking about running a west march's style campaign at my highschools dnd club, and Im just wondering. Is it difficult. The only thing that might make things hard is how the club meets once a week for an hour and a half. That and I was thinking about running a points of light style world.

Halloween is around the corner and I'm super excited to put together a one shot for players based on the fears they provide me. If there is a genuine fear, I do not include without permission because respect. My players have given me some fun fears to work with this year, so I'd love the hivemind to start stirring the cauldron of ideas. If this list of fears looks familiar to you, you may be a player, so disregard. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Fears provided:

- Claustrophobia (a classic)

- Spiders (creepy crawlies, nice)

- Clowns

- Porcelain Dolls

- Bloody Mary (or just mirrors in the dark in general)

- Thaslassophobia

- Inability to control ones own body and/or thoughts

- Sharks

I'm not going to incorporate them all, since most of these are two per PC. So, I've got some pretty solid ideas already, but I'd LOVE to hear what everyone else can throw my way to see if I'm on the right track.

Hi everyone,
I’m a relatively experienced DM who has a started new group with a mix of experienced and new players. While creating characters, some of my players expressed their interest in having inter-party conflicts. That got me wondering: how would you all handle this?

To be precise, two of my players have backstories that could lead them on a potentially confrontational trajectory based on the factions that they support and their own flawed belief system. While I really like this idea since it adds drama, I’m still very wary of it. None of them sound like they are looking for an excuse to be the asshole and both of them have come to me asking if this might be potentially dangerous for the group. I think they genuinely have an interest in the central conflict of my setting and want to explore that with their characters. We will still have a session 0 obviously and will talk about it there. But my general hunch is that it’s a new group and inter party conflict should be for groups that know each other very well. Also, I think it shouldn’t be anything that crosses a line from which there is no coming back. That means no betrayals, no killing another PC or doing something unquestionably evil.

What do you think? Should I give them a green light if everyone is on board with it?

EDIT: First of all, I mixed up my intras and inters. 😭 Secondly, I wanted to add a bit of context to the nature of the dispute. Both characters come from different backgrounds (shunned nobility vs commoner) and have different views on how the world functions. The gap in ideology does not seem unbridgeable and both players are willing to work it out in game and see how things develop.
Thanks for all the helpful advice already!

Hello fellow dms, I have ran a few games over the years and am currently looking into running an online game or two for friends. I have a few questions;

1) for those of you that have run online games, what is the best, free, virtual table top in your opinion? Why do you prefer it over others?

All I require of the VTT is a map with grid system my players can move through although dice rolling would also be nice. Doesn't have to be fancy, for in person games I typically just use a battle map and markers.

2) do you know where my players could access FREE 5e books (such as a pdf download)? I have physical books with which I will run the campaign, but I want to ensure they can look up anything they want.

So I’m gonna be running a low story campaign that takes inspiration from the drop in drop out nature of adventurers league and the gameplay of monster hunter. I want the players to accept hunting contracts from an adventuring guild before going on an investigation to learn about the monster before going out to slay it. Does anyone have any really cool monster ideas that fit into that monster hunter style? I’m letting players start at around lvl 5 so that gives the gist of the difficulty they can handle. I’m also using a lot of game systems from Ryokos Guide to the Yokai Realms to make harvesting and crafting feel seamless.

TLDR: I need cool monster reccs that fit a monster hunting campaign. Cool hunting quest ideas are also welcome!

Thinking of running a One Shot on Halloween, for a few friends that never played any ttrpg. Any suggestions?

For context, I have a party of 5 level 13 characters. A lycan blood hunter, a gloomstalker ranger, a shadow monk, a Telepath Psion, and a clockwork sorcerer. I'm running this campaign in the 2024 ruleset.

The players are about to fight a character who has been important to the lore of my world for multiple campaigns and I want it to feel like an appropriately hard/epic battle while not immediately leading to a TPK.

The character is called Alethia. She is the daughter of the god of fire and almost represents the archetypal Achilles-like Greek hero with a shield and spear. Add crazy fire powers and high mobility on top of course. I want my players to feel like they are fighting a demigod who is better than they are when it comes to martial skill but allows the players to have those cool moments of breaking through that can surprise or catch Alethia off guard. The goal of the fight is to essentially wear her down to help her as she is currently losing her mind to outside influence.

The best I have come up with so far is a reskin of a 2024 pit fiend, changing the damage types of things like the poison to fit a more radiant/fire damage aesthetic. The issue, of course, is that the fight feels a little too glass cannon-y in terms of damage output and action economy. I don't want a fight that is fully over in 3 rounds after a few super explosive turns. A mechanic to reach out to her and try and convince her to stop fighting (maybe making her lose legendary resists/actions on a success could be cool too.)

I'd adore any random advice, ideas, or tips based on big fights you all have run. Thanks a ton in advance.

I've been running this campaign (the second campaign I've ever run) and I ran into this problem with character backstory.

You see, I set my campaign into different Arcs, a set of scenarios and issues that happen in the world which would give some material to develop their characters, some focusing on one of my five players. So I've been asking around for their backstories and most have been good but one of the players didn't give me one. And when I asked them again, they just gave me a one line simple story.

Now usually I would think this is fine but for this campaign, it kinda makes it hard to incorporate them into the narrative. In my first campaign, we had 2 players and I based the campaign's main objectives and main goal around those 2. But when new players joined, lots of them didn't have any narrative justification to keep adventuring so they felt unmotivated.

In my new campaign, I wanted to incorporate each person's story to give them that motivation and to make their characters feel more meaningful. But if they don't give me anything I can't do much. I don't want my players to feel left out bc that brings down the entire team.

So now I have to decide. Do I:

A. Make up a backstory for them

B. Try to politely force them to make a backstory

C. Ignore their backstory

(note: the player is much younger than the rest of my players so they get bored more easily. I didn't want to ignore their thing bc I know it would lead to them being very passive like our last campaign)

Last session my players were fighting in a tournament. the tournament had rules that I told them a few sessions back like "no outside help, no potions". During a fight, one PC role played a taunt to hype up the crowd and rolled well on a performance check. In the middle of it, i was like that was pretty cool, let's reward this somehow. I had a lapse in memory and improv-ed an audience member of the battle throwing a vial into the arena which turned out to be a healing potion. The players won the battle round to move on in the tourney.

For the next round (finals), each team had to sit one member out and watch from the stands. In an out-of-game discussion, one player asked if the person that sat out could discretely/inconspicuously help (ie cheat) the team in the battle. I said that they could try to deceive or hide that fact that they are helping the team but if they are caught, it's against the rules and results in automatic disqualification. Then, they said well what about the potion that was used in this last round. That was also against the rules.

That's when i knew I fucked up. I was thinking of ways to reconcile it but couldn't. After a bit and fighting my nature urge to defend my hypocrisy, my response was "I fucked up. You're right. Let's just retcon it and say that 'no help' rule only applies to the last round." They agreed and we moved on immediately. No harm no foul.

I guess what I'm saying here is sometimes the best thing you can do as a DM is just admit you made a mistake. You don't always need an elaborate in-game explanation to fix an inconsistency. Just own it, agree on a reasonable solution, and move on.

I'm making my own campaign and i have 2 ideas for the start, branching from the same event.

Both start with the party in a tavern (basic i know) but i plan on a dragon attacking and destroying the entire city, including the tavern the part is in.

The difference is this

Campaign idea #1- The party survives the attack, awakens in another town and their first big attack is finding this dragon that destroyed their homes and getting revenge for whatever reasons they come up with, probably tie the dragon to something bigger to make it more interesting

Campaign idea #2- The party DOESNT survive and has to fight to regain their bodies. And I had the idea that they'll each slowly find their bodies, but they're possessed by something and now the party has to fight themselves throughout the campaign in boss fights to regain physical forms and then continue with something later on. Probably fighting whatever entities took their bodies

So I use Lego for most of my NPCs and monsters. For an upcoming adventure, I've put together a shadow dragon primarily from the parts from a set with mostly black pieces, but also a lot of purple and pink accents. Not a problem, shadow dragons are all about corruption, I'll flavor it as having been an amethyst dragon before being shadowed up.

But it occurs to me that (mundane) shadows can be dispelled by shining a light upon them. What if my players want to uncorrupt the dragon? That sounds like an excellent plot hook (and a wonderful excuse to put off properly fighting a dragon for yet a later date (they've encountered two others, one as a carefully planned deus ex machina, the other as a carefully earned ally).

So my question is this: what sort of magic ritual do you think would feel appropriate to purify a dragon that is 90% corrupted by the magic of the shadowfell, wielded by a malevolent shadow hag?