D&D Campaign Starter Kit — Free Template for GMs

Folio Title:D&D Campaign Starter Kit — Free Template for GMs

Subtitle/Tagline: A living campaign knowledge base your whole table will actually use. Fork it, fill it in, share the link.

1. 🌍 World at a Glance

The Shattered Reach is a frontier continent rebuilt after a magical catastrophe called the Sundering — an event 200 years ago that collapsed the old empire and left wild, unstable magic across the land. Cities are walled and cautious. The wilderness is dangerous and strange. Explorers, mercenaries, and scholars all converge on the frontier for different reasons.

The central tension: a new power — the Covenant of Ash — is quietly buying up land and influence across the Reach, claiming they can "stabilize" the wild magic. Some see them as saviors. Others suspect they caused the Sundering in the first place.

Tone: Gritty but hopeful. Think low fantasy with pockets of wonder. Characters matter more than chosen ones.

1. 👥 Active NPCs

Maren Voss

Role: Innkeeper / Information broker
Location: The Rusted Flagon, Duskwall City
Relationship to Party: Friendly — has helped the party twice, expects favors in return
One Secret: She's a retired Covenant operative who faked her death. She's terrified they'll find her.

Commander Orin Fell

Role: City Watch Captain, Duskwall
Location: Watch HQ, East District
Relationship to Party: Neutral, slightly suspicious
One Secret: He's been accepting bribes from the Covenant to look the other way on certain shipments.

The Pale Merchant (real name unknown)

Role: Traveling dealer in magical artifacts
Location: Unknown — appears unexpectedly
Relationship to Party: Encountered once, sold them something they shouldn't have bought
One Secret: Not human. Hasn't aged in 80 years. Collects debts in unusual currencies.

1. ⚔️ Factions

The Covenant of Ash

Goal: Consolidate control over wild magic nodes across the Reach
Current Status: Growing — recently absorbed two smaller guilds
Allied With: Several city councils, merchant families
Opposed By: The Wardens of the Old Wood, scattered resistance cells

The Wardens of the Old Wood

Goal: Preserve the wild magic as sacred, not to be controlled
Current Status: Weakening — losing members to Covenant offers
Allied With: Druidic circles, some indigenous communities
Opposed By: The Covenant of Ash

The Free Blades

Goal: No ideology — mercenary collective, profit-driven
Current Status: Neutral, for hire by anyone
Allied With: Whoever's paying
Opposed By: Nobody, currently. That could change.

1. 📖 Session Recaps

Session 3 — "The Warehouse Job"

Party accepted a job from Maren to retrieve a stolen ledger from a Covenant warehouse
Discovered the warehouse also held prisoners — three Wardens being held without charge
Decided to free the prisoners, blowing their cover in the process
Orin Fell showed up at the end — let them go, but issued a formal warning
Ledger contained names of city council members on Covenant payroll
Ended with: party now holds leverage over half the city council

Session 2 — "First Night in Duskwall"

Arrived in the city, got shaken down at the gate (standard Covenant "entry tax")
Met Maren at the Rusted Flagon — she recognized one party member's sigil
Bar fight with off-duty Covenant soldiers (party started it, technically)
Heard rumors about wild magic surges near the old aqueduct district
Ended with: Maren offering the warehouse job

Session 1 — "The Road In"

Party met on the road to Duskwall after a Covenant patrol stopped them separately
Found a dead Warden on the roadside — body staged to look like a bandit attack
Decided together to bring the body to the city rather than leave it
Ended with: arrival at Duskwall gates, party unofficially formed

1. 📜 House Rules

Flanking — Flanking grants +2 to attack rolls (not Advantage) to prevent stacking with other Advantage sources.

Inspiration — Inspiration can be stored and used to reroll any die, not just attack/save/check. Max 1 stored at a time.

Death Saves — On a failed death save, a party member can use their reaction to stabilize you (no roll needed, but they must be adjacent and use their reaction).

Downtime — We track downtime days. Between major arcs, each character gets 10 downtime days to spend on crafting, training, carousing, or research.

Table Rule: Be a fan of each other's characters. Help each other's moments land. This isn't a competition.

1. 🔗 Useful Links

📍 Campaign Map — replace with your link
🎵 Session Playlist — replace with your Spotify/YouTube link
🧙 Character Sheets — replace with your D&D Beyond campaign link
📅 Session Scheduling — replace with your When2Meet or Calendly
🎲 Dice Roller — roll20.net or dice.run