Dungeons & Dragons is a land of opportunity where you can create memorable adventures shared with friends and family. Immersive and collaborative storytelling puts an adrenaline needle at the heart of your imagination. Like any well-crafted story, D&D often uses traditional plot devices to advance the party.
A villain threatening the lives of innocent people, a desperate noble's call for adventure, and a chance at gold and glory are probably the most common plot devices in all fantasy RPGs. However, some physical items can provide a way for players to engage with the story in more subtle but important ways.
key
Keys are often underused in D&D. They are usually placed on a guard's body to help the player open a cage or cell, but if not placed anywhere near a lock, they can become a source of opportunity. Keys can act as countless clues that guide players to endless possibilities, revealing that behind most locked objects lies treasure or danger.
A uniquely mysterious or complex key can also be the MacGuffin of an entire campaign, helping you learn the location of a door or chest that opens to gain something powerful or free something. Where the key was found, who last possessed it, and even what it was made of can be threads for players to follow.
Lich's Soul Jar
Obtaining the Lich's Soul Jar is like capturing the heart of Davy Jones, and clever players can use it to gain influence when they're less bloodthirsty. Perhaps by forcing the Necromancer to repair damage caused by it, or perhaps calling upon his aid in an even more lethal battle, the Soul Jar is more than just a weakness.
This kind of inherent vulnerability exists in many forms of D&D, such as the Vampire's Crown or the King's Reigning Rod. Allowing players to access these items without having to defeat the big bad first can be a unique way to overcome seemingly insurmountable threats in creative ways.
map
Mechanically, maps give players better survival rolls to find their way around, but they're also a great source of adventure that can contain all kinds of information if players look closely enough. Especially maps you previously owned that have notes in the margins or notations with hidden meaning.
A parchment marking a location and promising treasure serves as an immediate goal for most players, creating their own path and setting the pace of their travel. This preparation is all part of an effort to make discovery while anticipating danger and intrigue.
journal
The journal acts as a way for the player to uncover secrets and reveal the inner workings of whoever wrote it was foolish enough to leave it within range of the thieves' thieves. Journals are most useful when written by an NPC who is already familiar to the party. Because their familiarity provides context for their exciting secrets.
These texts must contain damning or shocking information. This will help your journal inform future roleplay and character decisions and make your discoveries more rewarding. Additionally, including fantasy scripts or written in code, making the content public may present new challenges to overcome.
A discovered wizard's spellbook is also an opportunity to include additional information beyond simply adding new spells.
sacred symbol
The gods and their minions hold enormous power in the worlds Faerûn and the Dungeon Masters have created themselves, and can be either a haven or a hindrance. Evidence of worship and devotion to a particular deity, such as in the form of a sacred symbol, allows players to access or gain their trust in much more difficult places.
This can also be an opportunity for players to roleplay deception, dress up as a pagan, and display false badges of loyalty in order to gain relatively safe access. Items such as charters, lord's signet rings, and guild tokens are all ways for players to use artifacts to quickly advance their roleplay.
poison
Typically, when players want to defeat enemies or end a group of bandits in the forest, they engage in intense battles with flying arrows and swords. Poison is used as a way to provide a delay, either to obscure the accusation or give the player a chance to escape a dangerous location before damage is done.
It could also be used against the party, who discover that the bard is near death after being offered a drink by a mysterious patron who can no longer be found. Poison as an act of subtle violence is more useful when building intrigue and deception, and should be given to the players and NPCs who can best utilize it.
Sometimes including the use of poison is also a reason to prepare spells such as Detect Poison and Detect Disease.
foodstuffs
When your players travel in harsh environments, consider finding food and managing malnutrition an important factor. Foraging in the wild or discovering uneaten food in a frozen body suddenly becomes much more valuable. Lack of edible food generally increases the risk of travel, not life or death.
Players may also find a fallen animal near a mushroom field, and despite clear hints that it may be poisonous, they have the opportunity to eat it, but at the risk of already being exhausted. Limiting rations allows players to make choices that add to the stakes while giving them the opportunity to explore using their own tools and resources.
boat
Any body of water is a vast void for player characters without a swimming speed, and it is usually safer or easier to make long journeys around it. An abandoned boat tied to a stake at the water's edge is an invitation and a way to give players the ability to reach distant places.
Sailing trips or having small ships rowed by barbarians are great opportunities for monsters and pirates to take advantage of vulnerable prey. While players gain in freedom and speed, they lose the ability to easily escape, and presenting this option provides the party with a unique choice.
Larger ships can act as mobile bases, providing storage for vulnerable NPCs or heavy loot, while also being able to take them on sea adventures.
- original release date
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1974
- number of players
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2+
- Age Recommendations
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Ages 12 and above (young children can also play and enjoy)
- length per game
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It lasts from 60 minutes to several hours.
- franchise name
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dungeons and dragons
- publisher
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Wizard of the Coast
