Wayfarer's League

We’ve all been there. You’ve got the itch to start a new campaign, but you have no

ideas to get you started. Well, I’ve compiled a list of prompts to get your creative juices flowing. You can roll randomly on a d100, or just read through the list until it sparks something. There’s not much more to say, so here are 100 Prompts To Start Your Next

Campaign…

1. Explore campaign ideas in a system you’ve never run before. i.e- Allow the system to inspire you.

2. Create a campaign where every player plays as the same race.

3. Pick two books/films/shows/games/boardgames/songs that are completely different

from each other. Combine the two to make a setting, and create a campaign for that

setting. (See “A Crown of Candy” by Dimension 20).

4. What would your game look like if there was no villain?

5. Create a campaign that can only end in tragedy.

6. Create a campaign where the PCs never step foot on the material plane.

7. What if all the enemies are all of exactly the same type?

8. Create a campaign where every player has to play as the same class.

9. Create a campaign where every PC is either very young or very old.

10. Use a random game title generator (https://letsmakeagame.net/game-title-generator/) and create a campaign centred around the title.

11. Create a campaign that takes place in a single day.

12. Create a campaign where healing magic is less effective.

13. What if your campaign takes place in a single building? (A school, a castle, a

prison…)

14. Create a campaign based around surviving a catastrophic event.

15. Create a campaign centred around prophecy.

16. Have your campaign start with the PCs in the middle of combat.

17. Create a campaign where the BBEG appears in the first session.

18. Create a campaign where the BBEG travels with the party.

19. What if all the characters are all animated versions of inanimate objects (toys, food, statues…)?

20. Create a high-technology fantasy campaign.

21. Create a campaign where the PCs rarely/never meet.

22. Create a heist campaign.

23. What if the whole campaign took place on a mode of transport (airship, train, ship…)?

24. What if your BBEG had a good alignment?

25. Create a campaign where alignment is really important.

26. Create a campaign set during a massive war.

27. Judge a book by its cover. Find a book/film/show/game/boardgame/album that you

have never read/watched/played/listened to, and look at the cover art and title. Create a campaign based around the cover art and title.

28. Create a BBEG with no redeeming qualities and build a campaign based around them.

29. Create a campaign where an ally becomes the BBEG.

30. Create a campaign where a PC becomes the BBEG. (You will have to coordinate

this with the player).

31. Set your campaign in a prehistoric setting.

32. If you usually run theatre of the mind, run a campaign using battlemaps. If you

usually run battlemaps, run a campaign using theatre of the mind.

33. Create a campaign that takes place in one massive dungeon crawl.

34. Create a campaign where the PCs are lost and have to find their way home.

35. Create a campaign where the PCs all die in the first session.

36. Create a campaign in a setting where magic is illegal.

37. Create a BBEG that can only be killed in a very specific way. Build your campaign

around finding out how to kill them.

38. Plan the first session of a campaign, and nothing else. Let the players guide the

direction of the campaign and react to what they do.

39. Create a campaign about ordinary people being given extraordinary powers.

40. Acquire a 3rd party resource (Grim Hollow, Stibbles Codex, Strongholds and

Followers…). Create a campaign based around the mechanics in that resource.

41. Create a campaign where each PC has a homebrewed special power.

42. Create a campaign where the PCs discover a new world/realm/continent.

43. Create a campaign of intrigue and conspiracy. (Game of Thrones, Minority Report,

Chinatown…)

44. Create a campaign with a countdown timer to a major event.

45. Create a campaign where the players play two different characters from two different points in history.

46. Create a campaign where the PCs have a deadly curse placed upon them in the first

session that is too powerful to be removed by typical means.

47. Create a campaign where the PCs are framed for a crime.

48. Create a campaign where you feed information to the PCs through dreams and

nightmares.

49. Create a campaign centred around a mystery.

50. What if the PCs are all vigilante heroes?

51. Create a campaign where the PCs are a part of a secret society.

52. Create a campaign with multiple BBEGs who all team up to fight the PCs.

53. Create a campaign centred around organised criminal syndicates.

54. Create a campaign centred around raiding ancient tombs.

55. Set your campaign on a mysterious island.

56. Create a campaign where the PCs start and run a new settlement.

57. Set your campaign in a world run by a vicious dictator.

58. Have your campaign take place in a chaotic wasteland.

59. Create a campaign where everything goes wrong during the climax, sparking a new

story arc.

60. Include portals to other realms and worlds in your campaign.

61. Create a campaign where the PCs must defend against invading hordes.

62. What if your PCs are part of a group of untrusted heroes?

63. Create a campaign centred around a powerful macguffin.

64. Set your campaign in an overly hostile environment.

65. Create a campaign where the PCs are prisoners sent on deadly missions.

66. Create a campaign set in a microworld.

67. Create a campaign centred around finding an epic and legendary creature.

68. Create a campaign set during a massive plague.

69. Create a campaign that requires a lot of ocean travel between small islands.

70. Create a campaign where the PCs become the most wanted criminals.

71. Create a campaign where the PCs have their own secret base.

72. Create a campaign with warring factions.

73. Create a campaign where the PCs turn out to be the real villains all along.

74. Create a campaign in an usual genre. (Medical drama, comedy horror, legal

drama…)

75. Set your campaign in a fantasy version of the real world.

76. Create a campaign set in an ancient world.

77. Create a BBEG who is the leader of a cult, and build a campaign based around the

cult.

78. What if your PCs are world famous?

79. Create a mini monster manual of homebrew monsters, and build a campaign centred around these new monsters.

80. Create a campaign that takes place in a single climate.

81. Create a campaign around a popular historical culture. (Vikings, Samurai, Roman

Legion…)

82. Create a campaign with no spellcasters, and have the PCs discover individual spells

as the story progresses.

83. Create a fantasy religion. Make it very strict with lots of rules. Build a campaign in a

world dominated by that religion.

84. Give your party a mysterious benefactor.

85. Create a campaign that starts as a friendly competition that goes horribly wrong.

86. Create a campaign where social status is the most important thing. (Dimension 20’s “A Court of Fey and Flowers”).

87. Create a campaign where the character races are re-skinned to be completely

different things. (Rodents, bugs, and plants for example).

88. Create a campaign where the PCs are all local city guards.

89. Create a campaign with time jumps that takes place over many years.

90. Center your campaign around gang warfare.

91. What if the PCs are all professional bounty hunters?

92. What if the PCs are all from different points in history?

93. Create a campaign where the PCS are all royalty/nobility.

94. Create a campaign in a tribal setting.

95. Create a world that is whimsical and silly (Like Dr. Suess), and then create a dark

and gritty campaign set in that universe.

96. Create an 80’s style adventure comedy, where ordinary people get caught up in a

crazy and extraordinary adventure. (Adventures in Babysitting, Thelma and Louise,

Honey I Shrunk The Kids!…)

97. Create a campaign centred around needing to deliver a package to a far away

destination.

98. Create a campaign where all the drama is High School drama.

99. Center your campaign around a kidnapping.

100. Create a BBEG with a strange compulsion (everything needs to be clean, they

line up their weapons from longest to shortest, they’ll never cast spells from the same

school of magic twice in a row…). Create a campaign centred around that BBEG.

Hope you found this useful and/or interesting. Now go and run a new campaign.