Sandbox Monster Campaign Actions

Halloween Campaign

Halloween sneaks up on me every year. Not this year though. I’m getting started on preparations NOW. I’m thinking of costumes, parties, and most importantly, what kind of spooky D&D session I am going to run! This year, instead of a horrific one-shot, I’m going all out and starting a Curse of Strahd campaign so that by the time my players settle into the Dread realm of Barovia, they can storm Castle Ravenloft on the eve of Halloween and die a dreadful death at the hand of the devil Strahd!

5th edition D&D isn’t my top choices for a game system lately, but Curse of Strahd is written for 5e, and most importantly, the players in this game are more excited to play 5e. They are all Critical Role fans and have a familiarity with the system and tropes through watching Mercer & Co’s adventures in Exandria. So 5th edition it is!

Legendary Monsters & Removing DM Agency

I love the morale rules from Old School Essentials. I love that, as a DM, I don’t decide when the monsters flee for their lives, the dice and the players tactics do. I extend this design principal to almost everything I do in Dungeons and Dragons. I want the world to stand on its own, the players to have full agency to do what they want, and the dice to decide what happens. I do not want to make decisions during play. I want to play along with the players and find out what happens.

Curse of Strahd presents a very specific problem to a DM who likes to remove themself from the decision tree of the game. Strahd has goals in the game, but how he goes about them are entirely up to the DM. The book gives you ideas about what he might do, but its up to you as the DM to decide when and where Strahd strikes. When I am playing the game, I am supposed to just pick when Strahd will accost the characters in the middle of the adventure. I don’t like this. It feels cheap, and railroad-y. Again, I want the dice and players actions to decide.

So what should we do? How can I remove my own agency from the agency of legendary monsters? Let’s look to some existing 5th edition design for inspiration.

Legendary & Lair Actions

One my favorite parts of 5e are Legendary and Lair actions for some of the bigger, badder monsters in the monster manual. With legendary actions, ‘Boss monsters’ can break the initiative system, and take actions at the end of a player’s turn. A well timed move or attack, out of the normal flow of initiative, can really challenge the players and signal to players that they are dealing with a real badass.

Lair actions are even more interesting, and rare in the 5e Monster Manual. The idea is that at the top of the initiative order, if a monster is in its lair, it can use its surroundings in interesting ways. A white dragon drop glacial ice from the ceiling onto the players. A vampire can summon its vampire spawn. A sphinx can alter the flow of time.

These tools are useful when players are crawling through dungeons or in an encounter with these legendary beings, but to run a horror campaign based on THE DRACULA, I need a little bit more. Strahd has complete dominion over the lands of Barovia. Practically the whole campaign map is his ‘lair’. How can I remove my own DM agency from the game and let the monsters have their reign of terror over the land?

Campaign Actions

To let monsters have their reign of terror, and take my own decision making out of the loop, I am going to give more important monsters in Curse of Strahd something I’m calling ‘Campaign Actions’. Campaign actions are actions the monsters take on the order of days or weeks.

Once a week (or whatever time-scale makes sense for your monster), the monster will automatically gain some amount of ‘threat’ and can take one ‘campaign action’. Some campaign actions generate threat, and some cost threat. The monster will always act according to its agenda.

I have an example of a werewolf here so I don’t spoil the Vampire for my players in case they happen to read this article.

The Werewolf

Campaign Actions

Gain Threat - 1 per week.

1. Rampage - 0 Threat - Up to 3 times in one night, on any full moon - Make an attack roll vs community defense†. For each success, one person is attacked and the werewolf gains 1 threat.
   • Determine location randomly. People in the area will hear the baying of wolves and the attack will happen 1d4 x 10 minutes after the last attack or the first sound of wolves.
   • If players are actively searching in the right location, they can make a Perception check against the Werewolf's Stealth to be at the scene before the victim is attacked.
   • Players finding the scene of one attack can track the werewolf to subsequent attacks or its lair.
   • Roll on the minions table when the players encounter the werewolf.
2. Grow the pack - 3 Threat - Add +2 to all minions rolls for the rest of the campaign, you may confront the party with minions (if in the area) in 1d4 x 10 minutes.
3. Make it Personal - 2 Threat - An NPC the party knows is attacked and cursed with lycanthropy. They may become a werewolf, allied with The Werewolf.
4. Attack! - 1 Threat - Summon Minions and confront the party (if in the area) in 1d4 turns.
5. Scheme - X Threat - Reduce the community defense by the amount of threat spent.

† Just have the monster roll a regular attack roll against an AC that makes sense based on the communities defenses. A heavily defended keep would be 18+ AC, and a village without any defenses would be 10 AC for example.

Minions

1. 1d2 Werewolves
2. 1d6 Dire Wolves
3. 2d6 Wolves
4. 1d4 NPC allies (ignore if the werewolf has made no allies)

Agenda

• The Werewolf will always rampage on the week of the full moon.
• If a rampage is unsuccessful (no threat gained) it’s next action will be to Scheme with all its threat before the next full moon.
• If the rampage is successful, it will try to grow the pack.
• If the werewolf or its allies have been attacked by the players, it will alternate between ‘Make it Personal’ and ‘Grow the Pack’
• If the werewolf has grown the pack to +10, and has been attacked by the party, it will use the Attack! action once per month on the party.