A DMs Guide For Fun 20th Level DnD Campaigns

This one might be a bit obvious, but let me throw you a scenario: Your party has amassed a strong alliance with a few factions that are all powerful in their own right. Perhaps your gang was the reason some of these factions even humored being on the same side. Sounds great so far, right? Okay, well, what happens when these two factions disagree on how to engage an arising threat? A difference of not only tactics, but moral philosophies that could both be valid, given the circumstances?

As the DM, make it explicitly obvious that any sort of violence or morally questionable manipulation (whether via socially or magically) will cause irreversible damage to relationships that have been long-running. Not that they can’t use their cultivated experience and abilities, but create a new dynamic where you force your players to be more creative with their skills. The Barbarian could still use their strength, but maybe this time it’s to help a small local construction project. I know that sounds boring as far as DnD goes, but hey, maybe there’s a new connection to be made with an NPC that could unlock fun roleplay options?

The Lore Is There, Use It!

Now, we all know there is a titanic amount of lore within the DnD-verse. But have you actually taken the time to dive into the nitty-gritty of the world you’ve probably only explored 5% of? With a legacy trailing back a literal half-century, you’re bound to find old modules or creatures that could spark an interest in a plane of existence you haven’t touched yet. With expansions to the mechanics and lore like Planescape, you have so many new toys you can play with. You only need the initiative to read through the material.

In my experiences playing Guild Wars 2 (I know it’s an MMORPG, but this advice still applies!), I’ve found they excel in horizontal progression. Many are used to their characters simply getting more and more powerful, their abilities growing exponentially powerful as the scale of threats increases. You eventually will hit a level of diminishing returns where things like “Oh, I can just blink into another plane of existence without spell components. That’s pretty cool, I guess.” are said. Doesn’t seem too enthusiastic, huh?

Instead of granting them new abilities or items, force them to be more creative by plopping them into a plane of existence or location that has some radically different baseline norms. How would they react, needing to fight otherwise “easy pickings” but with the added complication of being on a spelljammer in the Astral Sea? You need someone to steer the ship. Another to work the guns (or be them!). And if this fight becomes intense enough, you might need someone solely responsible for actively repairing the ship as it’s still being bombarded. There are always new mechanics that could make otherwise boring encounters legendary. So do your homework!

Flex Your World-Building Prowess

Let’s say you’ve pretty much explored the already established worlds of DnD. Most campaigns are already riddled with homebrew rules, items, and NPCs, so why not push that idea further? This advice assumes you, as the DM, have done enough work in incorporating the lore into your campaigns to some degree. So, how about you try to challenge yourself in making up an entirely new setting that your players couldn’t possibly have anticipated? Even veteran players can be stunned by a radically different location they’ve yet to explore.

The key here is to create an environment that challenges your players in a new way. Maybe this new location is full of immortal and indestructible creatures or people. What sort of challenges could beings such as that struggle with that would incline them to ally with or target your party? Maybe dealing with threats amounts to teleporting them to a “prison realm”.

Like some one-way plane that is essentially a void where the concept of “escape” no longer applies. Why should your players be the only ones having fun? Taking the initiative as a DM means, at the very least, you enjoy crafting a setting for your players. So have your own fun in making something entirely your own!

Concluding Sentiment: Know Your Players

At the end of the day, we DnD enthusiasts just want to hang out with cool people, eat snacks, and slay powerful monsters (or romance them!). But that core idea doesn’t have to be as simplistic as it may seem. We’re all just grown-up kids playing pretend and having a blast. Yes, we have rules so that one person doesn’t pull up with “And now I shoot my kill-everything-instantly-ray!”, but the key to a successful campaign isn’t just perfect rule recall. It’s not just ensuring every possible encounter is perfectly balanced. It’s not even obsessing over an internally consistent and realistic storyline with perfectly timed narrative beats. It’s about having a good time!

As cliché as that is, it’s the foundation of why these games are so popular. It’s the modern-day equivalent of telling stories over a fire, just way more fun! So my main advice is this: Know your players; their wants and needs, their emotional limits, and preferred play-style. It may be a simple concept, especially for seasoned DMs, but I believe it’s still worth mentioning. At the end of the day, we play to have fun. What else really matters?

Happy adventuring!