Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

White Plume Mountain is an absolute classic Adventure for level 8 players; one that has been talked about for years and has been redone time and again. Heck, it was even ranked the 9th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004. This is the perfect Adventure for those of you who are looking for a bit of combat and a whole lot of puzzle!

Three magical weapons have been stolen recently. Clues in the form of a poem lead those in power to believe the weapons have been brought to a volcano which was once the hideout of a powerful wizard named Keraptis. These are no mere magical weapons, but sentient artifacts. Can your players survive the perils of White Plume Mountain and retrieve them!?

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for White Plume Mountain Part 1: DM Notes
• Link to: White Plume Mountain Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Spellsheets for all relevant encounters
• Note from Krepatis and Hiring Letter Handouts
• Custom Battle Maps

Over 5 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

I’m posting this because the DnD homebrew community is hosted on a different server than the rest of the RPG network, and some people might not know it exists.

Universal link: !dndhomebrew@lemmy.world
Alternate links:
https://lemmyverse.link/c/dndhomebrew@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/c/dndhomebrew
https://ttrpg.network/c/dndhomebrew@lemmy.world

DnDHomebrew is a community dedicated to sharing and giving feedback on homebrew material for DnD 5e. It doesn’t see regular activity, which is a nice change of pace from the UnearthedArcana subreddit (where low-quality AI-written homebrews are posted daily), but it can get a bit monotonous in the long run. I’ve tried keeping it active over the past few months, and there are other content creators sharing great pieces of homebrew, such as Consort’s playable dragons and magical items. However, I’d love to see more activity from other users as well.

Please join us if you feel like sharing your homebrew rules, classes or whatever, or if you'd like to spice your games with additional options!

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk stems from The Lost Mine of Phandelver a classic and beloved starter set that many new DMs run. Even with this being the most recent release it still has an issue, the same as with many others...it doesn't describe the best way to transform the book's contents into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even organizing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

• Read the book, I know surprising, but it can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Act 1

• Part 1 - Intro and Cragmaw Hideout
• Part 2a - Phandalin
• Part 2b - Redbrand Hideout
• Part 3a - Reign of Iron
• Part 3b - Thundertree
• Part 3c - Cragmaw Castle
• Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave
• Part 5 - Side Quests

Included in my posts are:

• A Word document for each part of Act 1 for Phandelver and Below with detailed notes for running a perfect session including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDFs for every encounter. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
• Additional PDFs for allies and commoners
• A variety of maps for each part of the campaign
• Spell lists for all relevant fights
• Handouts for various spell scrolls throughout the campaign
• A playlist for each section!

Over 5 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

Campaign Info: As of today, I've officially completed Act One of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk! I've also compiled all of my prep for it in a single easy-to-access post which is available to all my Heroes and Legends. You can find it HERE!

I've discussed this on Discord as well as answered a few questions and thought I would clarify some information here; campaigns are super time intensive, so I have to choose wisely which ones I prep. The first half PaB:TSO is an updated version of The Lost Mine of Phandelver which I had already fully prepped; so, I thought I would go through all my prep and update it to match and help all those who are starting to run the campaign! I may one day prep the second half; however, I'm trying to focus on the more popular Campaigns such as Curse of Strahd, before I work on others.

With what I've released, you'll have a great kickstart through most of the campaign and there are plenty of helpful members both on Reddit and on my Discord that can guide you along the rest of the way! I hope that with what I've prepped so far you can have a truly Amazing campaign!!!

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

-- Help the Duke's ghost find his head—and his killer—in Murders at Lorelahc Manor. Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The two intricate murder mysteries in this adjustable D&D 5e campaign are designed for characters level 7 and below.

Treat your players to a lavish underground ball and a **chronomancer's party gone wrong **with this 100-page setting and campaign. Equipped with lore about Lorelahc Manor, the Rock Sea, and the Umbral Glade, you'll be able to expand this campaign well beyond the average runtime of 5–8 3–hour sessions (15–24 hours).

This 100-page book is available in PDF, print (softcover or hardcover), and as a Roll20 module. The book includes:

• 2 murder mysteries that can be run separately or together with an average runtime of 5-8 sessions (15-24 hours)
• 2 unique murder weapons sure to surprise your players!
• Mysteries able to withstand spellcasting for PCs up to 7th level, but simple enough to be solved!
• Over 40 custom human-made art pieces, including 20+ fully illustrated NPC suspects, villains, and monsters!
• 6 sprawling maps totaling 50+ keyed locations

Click to download a free sample encounter!

Find the full campaign HERE!

This book includes:

• 25 new diseases
• 10 parasites
• A new surgery mechanic
• 25 medical-themed items
• New feats and backgrounds

This supplement is brought to you by a registered nurse who also happens to be an avid D&D player for 5 years. Add plagues, pathogens, and medicines to your campaigns with this book. Remember, the greatest enemy lies within!

We will be going live on Kickstarter this week! Sign up to be notified when we launch here.

For many years I've been pronouncing Sigil as Sij-ill, like the word sigil. Recently I read something in a post from WotC saying that it is pronounced sig-ill (hard G). This just sounded weird to me, so I am continuing to say it with a J sound. You know, like in GIF 😏

Anyway, are there any other names of things in D&D that made you go "huh?" when you heard the official pronunciation?

All premieres at 9am PDT:

• Monday, July 1st - Spells
• Tuesday July 2nd - Crafting Sneak Peek (this is a short video; no premiere)
• Monday, July 8th - Monk
• Tuesday, July 9th - Sorcerer
• Wednesday, July 10th - Cleric
• Thursday July 11th - Bard
• Friday July 12th - New Dragon Designs

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

We're back at it again with another Fully Prepped Mini-Campaign; Dragon of Icespire Peak, A level 1-6 Adventure that's a bit frosty! This is part of the Essentials Kit; released between Dragon of Stormwreck Isle and The Lost Mine of Phandelver all created by WoTC.

Dragon of Icespire Peak is a bit different from the other two I've prepped; not only is it more of a sandbox, but it also has the ability to be run with just one player which is a huge plus for those of you who can't get larger groups together! I'll be incorporating the recommendations from both Bob the World Builder and Sly Flourish along with my own tweaks to make this one of the best experiences you can have running this Mini-Campaign!

If you've used my previous notes you'll know that I take adventures such as these and do all the difficult and time-consuming book-to-session conversions so you don't have to! I do my best to include ambiance for every scene, custom battle maps, handouts when needed, spell sheets, encounter sheets, and more!

This may all sound familiar, but seeing as this is a Starter/Essentials Kit, I think it's important to reiterate:

• Read the Adventure: I know surprising, but it can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group: As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all: Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things are meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Part 1 Phandalin: DM Notes
• Link to: Phandalin Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Custom Map of Phandalin

Over 5 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Monks at level 12 decrease the fall damage they take by 70, which means they're almost guaranteed to take max 20 points by falling from more than 200 feet (99,67% chance according to anydice).

That means level 12+ monks can jump from airships and other flying objects at basically no risk in order to infiltrate some place (especially way of shadow) or surprise their enemies.

Do what you want with this knowledge.

Hi, my name is Khan and I am the person behind Devabhumi. I am of Indian origin, and I have always been interested in non-European rpg settings. There is such a treasure trove of untapped stories, monsters, and legends in Indian Culture, which can provide fresh and unique content for your campaigns.

Devabhumi is a high fantasy TTRPG setting inspired by the history and epics of Ancient India. This setting features:

• 100+ pages of lore
• 8 new races
• 20+ historical weapons and armor
• 25 monsters inspired by Indian folklore

And much more!

You can check out the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvercompassmaps/devabhumi-a-dandd-5e-setting-inspired-by-ancient-india

Sup, everyone? We are finally getting close to release and wanted to show off how you can convert your D&D Beyond character into Nurl with a single URL copy/paste. We deconstruct all the data and present it in a way that is much easier to understand for new players. For experienced players, it removes the cognitive complexity of the overwhelmingly large amount of data presented. This means your brain uses less energy reading the sheet so you can instead devote that to role playing!

This is the "out of battle" sheet preview which is just a teaser on other things the app does with the character sheet data for you.

Check out this 20 second video preview

If you like where we are going you can sign up for early access on our website

Hasbro lost a billion dollars this year, but D&D made a tonne of profit. And they laid off 1100 people. What I can't understand is how they're business model works. And how laying off 1100 people will allegedly save $400 million dollar (someone check my math, but does each employee cost 350k+ each?)

Anyway

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

Last we left off, our group of adventurers had begun their journey and found themselves in Cragmaw Cave. After the successful defeat of Klarg, we begin Part 2, where the party will finally arrive in the town of Phandalin. If you've been using my notes for this, along with previous adventures, you'll notice that this is a slight change of pace. Since your players will be going to the town itself, it's far less linear, which means the notes must reflect that. I highly recommend either printing the town map for your players, sending it to them online, or even getting the map that comes with the essentials kit. (You can have one of the shopkeepers give the players the map)

Each location has a description along with what's happening when the players arrive. They'll be able to gather clues for what they should do next. The options currently available would be:

• Taking out the Redbrand hideout (Best option) 
• Helping someone with a small side quest(Short Sidequest)
• Heading to Thundertree to find Reidoth (could lead to a TPK)

I removed a couple of options because they had nothing to do with the story and were drawn-out side quests. Instead, in future sessions, I'll be including a full adventure that will integrate with the story at large and give proper motivations for Venomfang and The Black Spider! I've tested it myself, and my players loved it!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes Part 2a Phandalin: DM Notes
• Link to: Phandalin Playlist
• Link to: The Complete Collection

Included in The Complete Collection are:

• A word document with all my notes, including a link to music tracks for ambience and fights
• Unique PDF for the Redbrand encounter. This includes the enemies stat block organized neatly, an initiative tracker, and a spot to mark HP.
• A map of Phandalin. If you purchase the Essentials Kit, you can get a nice map to hand out to your players too!

Index: The Lost Mine of Phandelver Index

• Part 1 - Intro and Cragmaw Hideout
• Part 2a - Phandalin
• Part 2b - Redbrand Hideout (Coming Soon)
• Part 3a - Reign of Iron (Coming Soon)
• Part 3b - Ruins of Thundertree (Coming Soon)
• Part 3c - Cragmaw Castle (Coming Soon)
• Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave (Coming Soon)
• Part 5 - Side Quests (Coming Soon)

Other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and More:

• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Death House - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• The Lost Mine of Phandelver - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here

If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

I'm less interested in the contents of the linked free adventure, and the below design notes on the adventure.

Design Note

If you have Glory of the Giants, you can follow along with the process we used to create this adventure. The basic adventure seed—“a fire giant captures a renowned Humanoid smith”—comes from the Fire Giant Skill table (chapter 2), with additional inspiration from the “Magnum Opus” adventure idea connected to the Star Forge (chapter 4). The name of the giant villain comes from the Giant Names table (chapter 2), and the encounters within the Star Forge are inspired by the Fire Giant Encounters table (chapter 3) and the Elemental Fire Encounters table (chapter 3). The map of the Star Forge is in chapter 4. The giant wrestlers of Fireside Monastery are firbolgs (chapter 6), and several other monsters in the adventure come from the bestiary in chapter 6 (cinder hulk; fire giant forgecaller; fire giant of Evil Fire). Information about fire giant bags (chapter 5) fills out the treasure characters might acquire along the way.

WotC is demonstrating how to use this book to make your own adventures.

They should have done the same for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, then maybe people would have understood that it was tip-to-stern the best DM toolkit they released yet.

As always, I have posted this link to /r/dndnext, please feel free to upvote it there to raise visibility.

MCDM, Matt Coleville’s company, just released Flee Mortals! This 400 page book includes new takes on existing 5e monsters and a few brand new ones – all in MCDMs style of cool tactics and action-oriented designs. I had the great pleasure of designing the vampires in this book including the monstrous Count Rhodar Von Glaur!

Check it out!

Hi guys,

I'll start by saying that I'm not posting this to ask for basic balancing tips, as I've that down already. I can create encounters that are mathematically aimed towards a specific difficulty level, as long as they are creative but not insanely complex. Big action oriented guy, minions, multiple medium guys, spicy terrain, simple lair actions, sure.

Now, I love actual plays (D20 veteran), but how dahell do DMs like Brennan and Matt balance their insanely creative final bosses? This fights have VERY swingy terrain features that can straight up murder you, powerful lair actions, powerful spellcasters (a personal bane to balance i have no idea) AND change something basically every turn.

I really wouldn't know where to start to put down the actual numbers for anything here, there are so many variables opposed to a couple damage variables you can average to make a very educated guess on the actual difficulty it will pose. These fights come up very swingy thanks to all these impediments, without really giving you the chance to average down any expected DPS by the party, and that's just to decide the enemies' HP...

How do you put the numbers down on sheets here?

I couldn't find a dedicated c/unearthedarcana so I'm posting here. I've been creating a handful of homebrew spells to fit characters I'm playing. For this one I wanted to make a spell for my lighting storm-themed gish character that would also be a nice capstone spell for an Eldritch Knight in general. While there are some similar-ish spells I'm basing it off of, I wanted some feedback if it's balanced based on the damage numbers and amount of benefits for its spell level.

Personal Lightning
4th-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You channel the energy of a fierce lightning storm within your body. You gain the following benefits until the spell ends:

• Attacks you make deal an extra 1d6 lightning damage on a hit.
• Your speed increases by 20 feet.
• Your movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.
• Your jump distance is tripled.

As an action on your turn, you can dismiss this spell and cause a blast of electricity to erupt from you. Each creature within 20 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 3d6 lighting damage and 2d6 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the thunder damage dealt by the blast increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 5th. Using a spell slot of 6th level or higher also causes you to gain a fly speed of 50 feet until the spell ends.

Edit based on feedback: I'm getting a variety of responses, so I'm figuring out what exactly needs to be targeted for adjustment here. The blast option seems to be considered a bit strong since it's an additional mode to the other benefits. I can shrink the range and drop the damage a little. I don't want to nerf it too much though because it's still costing an action. Maybe drop it down to 15 foot radius and, what, 3 or 4 damage dice?

In terms of the main mode of the spell, I want the spell to compare fairly overall with guardian of nature which is the same level. Guardian has two different modes that both give advantage on (pretty much) all of your attacks; with that in mind I'm considering if it's fair to up the damage dice from my spell to 1d8 per hit. Would that be fair, or am I underrating the other benefits of my spell here?

Wizards of the Coast has released the 5.1 System Reference Document (basically the core rules of D&D 5e) in four new languages alongside English including Spanish, Italian, German, and French.

https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1_FR.pdf

https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1_IT.pdf

https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1_DE.pdf

https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1_ES.pdf

All of these have been released under a Creative Commons Attribution License which means creators are free to copy, modify, and use these works – including commercially – by referencing the document and it’s license in their work.

In my opinion, this is an amazing effort and one that helps Wizards of the Coast improve its reputation as a good steward of D&D and good partner of the hobby.

With spells trivialising many challenges, what non-combat encounters work well in tier 3-4?

This is a modular encounter that you can plug and play into any D&D game! Or just run it as a one-shot! We also decided to add adventure hook posters that you can put on top of a notice board image file! You can put as many posters on the notice board as you want - see sample above - the extra posters you see here are adventure hooks for other encounters we have available. You can download both the free PDF, the notice board files, and the map for this one here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/skull-temple-d-d-85392568

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

The Genius Creator Richard Jansen-Parkes of A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wolves of Welton, and To The End of Time is back at it again with another amazing One-Shot! A Most Potent Brew brings together a group of rookie adventurers on a classic adventure; clearing out a cellar from some rats. Things take an unexpected turn though and lead them to their first dungeon! This level-one adventure will take your players into the depths of a brewery, that turns out to be connected to an abandoned mage towers basement. Will your players survive their first adventure slaying giant rats, centipedes, and more?

Coming in at approximately 2 hours of play, this is the perfect one shot to show new players what D&D is all about, without overwhelming them with a 6hr+ sessions!

Thanks to this One-Shot's popularity, countless maps have been made. I took the time to collect the best ones that I could find. My notes currently work best for the original map and Alternate Maps 2 and 4; however if you would like me to adjust the notes to be able to run smoother with the other maps, please let me know in the comments below! If enough people are interested, I'll begin work on those immediately!

*Average Session Length: 1.5 - 2hrs

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for A Most Potent Brew: DM Notes
• Link to: A Most Potent Brew PDF + Original Map and Mosaic Puzzle Handout(Credits: Winghorn Press/Richard Jansen-Parkes)
• Link to: A Most Potent Brew Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection (Art: KarmaKamikaze)

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for the encounter. This includes the enemy stat block organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Multiple Custom Maps!

Index:

Other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and More:

• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• Death House - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• The Lost Mine of Phandelver - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

New video about the upcoming book talking about the new barbarian subclass.

I have been DMing for a while, but I have recently come across a method of worldbuilding that has transformed how I create campaigns. This method also allows me to make shorter campaigns that have a end-point trajectory, rather than one that is open ended, and helps me to create satisfying stories. Additionally, this helps to reduce the amount of effort that needs to be performed from session-to-session, by frontloading the most important parts of the campaign preparation before the start of the game.

In short, the process has 3 phases

Phase 1

You get the idea for the kind of world the adventure will take place in. The general story themes and concepts you would like to play around with as well. Write a 1 page treatment for what the world is like and what the broad locations in the world appear to be, and send it to your players. 1 page is important, because it forces you to distill down what is unique and interesting about this world.

For example, in my most recent campaign prep I made a treatment of what the factions in the world are, the virtues of the different areas of the world, and a statement of what is common historical knowledge versus what are secrets that are not commonly known. I ended with a statement of what the themes are going to be for this world as well. NOTE: You should not know what the plot of the actual game is at this stage.

Phase 2

After the players have read your brief 1 page treatment of the world, ask them what kinds of characters they want to play. Work with them on their backstories to make sure they bookend with eachother for a matter of convenience, and ask them to provide information about their families and what aspirations and goals their characters have, or what kinds of stories they want for their characters.

This allows players to either lean into, or purposefully away from the elements of your world. As long as they do one or the other, this process has worked, as they can be part of the established culture of the world, or part of the counter-culture. Either way, you have material and character motivation to work with. The only way this does not work, is if they clearly did not actually engage with the world in some fashion during their character creation. If you notice that, try to gently encourage it with additional requests for information from them.

Phase 3

Use all the information your players gave you to worldbuild and plot out your campaign. Did you have a player who wrote a lot? GREAT! The NPCs will become major plot NPCs, the events depicted will become common knowledge, with some hidden truths that player didn’t know. But before you know what your players want to do, you can't know what kind of plot will engage them. This is where the actual plot for your campaign is written.

This makes your players into collaborators for your story, which will make them invested in the goings on. Additionally, if you know exactly who their characters are and what they want, then you simply need to place obstacles within the plot between them and their desires. Or better yet, present them with interesting decisions or bespoke antagonists that challenge their sense of self. This allows you to be INCREDIBLY detailed and plan out plot beats ahead of time because you are essentially building a railroad to exactly where the players want to go.

Railroading is bad because it usually doesn’t honor the choices of the players. This is railroading, but it honors the players’ decisions.

Finally, I should credit where this idea came from, as this is the method that Brennan Lee Mulligan of Dimension 20 fame has described in multiple instances. My latest games have actually been the easiest to prep from session to session, because I have done a lot of the hardest work prior to the start of the campaign.

And as for the game-to-game prep, I have to credit Slyfourish. His 'Lazy DM Guide' series also keeps my 'procrastinating' work down to a minimum as I focus on what is the most important for the game sessions.

As with many of my other posts, I have crossposted this to the /r/dndnext subreddit. Feel free to upvote it there for higher visibility.