The Ties That Bind – Tying Together Characters, Backstories, And Adventures To Create The Most Immersive D&D Game Ever

3 Wise DMs

Immersion in your D&D game. It’s one of the most sought after and asked about topics in the whole DMing Multiverse. The real trick always lies in how well you can tie together all the seemingly disparate pieces of your group – characters, backstories, motivations, and adventures – into one cohesive, epic story.

In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave answer a listener question about how to best tie their characters into their newest campaign, Tomb of Annihilation, following the finale of their Curse of Strahd campaign. Along the way, we brainstorm how to tie these two adventures together into one large epic story.

4:02 We delve into what we thought the question really was… how do you tie Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation together?

7:15 What to do with Curse of Strahd’s Megaliths?

8:00 Published material, like Curse of Strahd, is great fodder for ideas of how and where to tie characters into the story.

9:10 The heavy lift of some published material, like Tomb of Annihilation, in hooking the characters into the story.

11:05 Detailed backstories vs the blank slate as well as DM Tony’s idea of “Reactive” backstories.

15:20 Tying in the characters, backstories, motivations, and adventures in the same way as you plan your sessions… one session at a time.

24:40 Providing the characters with stakes that really matter.

26:15 Weak hooks with adventures that were meant to be from tournament modules and how we’ve tied characters in.

29:25 Remembering the perspective of the characters, not the audience.

32:00 Creating a one-sheet Campaign Guide (like Mike Shea’s) to help players tie the characters in at creation.

38:35 Final Thoughts.