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Survival games endure in popularity throughout theDungeons & Dragonscommunity, challenging their dungeon masters and players in equal parts, placing fantastic elements in realistic scenarios. Limitations are imposed upon characters, allowing them to think their way out of situations rather than blast through everything standing in their path.
They emphasize struggle and starvation, relying on strategy to guarantee that every character makes their way through the campaign. It’s no wonder such a theme resonates with people. The story almost generates itself! However, when building a survival campaign, complications can arise immediately. But you don’t have to go it alone! Here’s how to start.
Start The Party With Scarcity
When you start building a character, you may notice that among the equipment provided for them arefood and light sources.Something you may want to consider doing iseliminating these two things from your player’s equipment entirely.
Weapons are fine to keep, but removing some of their survival-oriented equipment will light a metaphorical fire under your players toget these things quickly.Better, the emphasis on survival will come in session one.
You want to acquaint your players with how the campaign is going to go as soon as possible, and having them seek out food and shelter will set the tone for you. It will also, as an added benefit, help youfigure out whether a survival campaign is good for your party.
Be prepared to change gears. The Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is not meant to be played as a pure survival game and this could be difficult to maintain. This is why removing some equipment or altering abilities is so important!
Use Encumbrance, Money, And Rations
Have your players track their resources, or make little notes yourself. Ideally, they should take this burden off of you, but it’s always good to know what your party is operating on.Design storylines with the intention of putting a drain on these factors,and make surethey’re unable to rest without using food and drink.
The weight your players carry is now extremely important.Slow them if they’re encumbered, and make them decide what weapons they forsake to carry whatever Final Fantasyesque blade they pick up in a forgotten cave.
XPinstead ofmilestoneleveling may be better suited for your survival campaign, especially if youreward XP for being creative about survival.
Have your players purchase gear and thendamage it over time.This also means they should track ammunition and inventory so that when they come across pockets of civilization, they can use bartering or money to replenish.
Not having money means no new things, so they’ll bemore inclined to adventure and put themselves in dangerous situations.They might get desperate enough to finally engage with that questline you want them to pick up for some meager coins.
You may also want to look into alchemy mechanics and allow your players to craft their potions and poisons, especially when those pockets of civilization are nowhere near them!
Short Rest Frequently
Travel is now half your game.Getting from one place to another is a challenge, and your players are going to be fighting offhunger, thirst, fear, and possible eviscerationas they stake out places to stay and go.
You may want to take inspiration from Rime of the Frostmaiden or Out of the Abyss, from the canon modules. Both books deal with survival aspects and talk about resting and travel in detail.
With all this travel, your players are going toneed to be short resting more than everto regain health and stave off exhaustion. So, naturally, this means that you’re now gearing up most of your encounters and questlines toencourage your players to move around and exhaust themselves.If there was ever a time to play a road trip campaign, your survival campaign is it!
If the short rests are easier to take,then make long resting an ordeal.
Make peopletake watch, light fires, find shelter, and track prey or watch for predators.Set uprequirementsforlong restsandcreate encounter tables for when they do.
Long rests can also serve as built-in roleplay time, if your party becomes too exhausted with fighting for their lives.
Diversify What Survival Means
Survival is what you make it. Sometimes it’sfighting a demonas it picks off your party one by one. But that isn’t all it is. Survival is alsoweather patternsand making moving through the cave system more treacherous, just as survival ismaking sure the party can cross the stream.
It’stopography, and in some cases,diplomacy. After all, the party may need to make good with the local lord to ensure they aren’t caught in the land dispute between the feuding houses.
Take theUnderdarkas an example ofa setting that diversifies survival.Not only is it rife with monsters that want you dead in a big way, but it’s also full of humanoids who also want you dead in a big way. Making nice (as nice as it gets in the Underdark) with locals is essential to traversing the areas you encounter, andidentifying flora and fauna is now more important than ever.
Your setting shouldn’t be hostile in every way to your players, but it should be apathetic.Your setting does not care if your player characters are tired or content. A river does not stop chipping away at the rock, no matter how small the rock gets. It’s impersonal.
That being said,take note of your player’s responses to your storylines and decisions.Sometimes, survival campaigns can get tedious and repetitive. This apathy in the setting will also mean that sometimes there are easier days.
Incorporate Disease, Infection, And Injury
The players may be fighting animals or topography, but their bodies are fighting them.Consider including disease and infection.After all,healing spells can only do so much.They cannot reattach hands via Cure Wounds, and Lesser Restoration may not zap a bacterial infection out of their systems.
This will make leveling important, so they can startachieving those spells.You may even want to let certain rewards for quests be ways to cure people. Use this sparingly, though, so it doesn’t lose its fear factor!
Some DMs limit spells like Goodberry or Create and Destroy Water.Decide what impact magic has on your campaignand how you want to handle it.
Have A Storyline
Like any campaign, your storyline is going to be themost important part of the campaign.This is especially true in a survival campaign.
Unlike other campaigns,survival stories in RPGs are at their worst in an open, sandbox of a world.Just waiting for things to come along or for your players to bad-decision themselves into a situation doesn’t work as well as it does in a regular fantasy campaign,and you might break your mind trying to build a massive, explorable world.
You need to haveparametersandreasonsfor the players to be doing what they’re doing, otherwise the campaign may lapse into boredom. Bored players are evil players, and your campaign might fall apart.Focus on one area at a time to make it easier on yourself.
Ask yourself questions about the plot.Why are they surviving? Are they in a gritty war setting, acting as a special unit? Are they running from captors or evading a big bad? Consider setting up conflicts throughout the campaign for your players to potentially conquer or fall to, or have them seek items for an ultimate special purpose.
