Is This a Good or Terrible Idea for a DnD Campaign?

[Combat]

For a while now, I've been considering DMing (Dungeon Mastering) and writing up a campaign. Now most of the people who I've chatted with about this seemed to think my idea for said campaign was all right, but sometime I can't tell if they're being honest or not. So I'm thinking asking the random people of the internet is the best way to do this. So here's my tentative plot for a campaign. Have no idea how DnD even works? Well, still let me know if it sounds like it's any good.

The campaign takes place in the kingdom of [Insert Name Here]. The kingdom has had peace for about sixty seven years, since the last five kings have been pretty terrible, and the current king isn't a war hungry sociopath. The issue is the king has recently taken ill due to a seemingly unknown disease, and his only child is just as bad as the last five kings. If the king were to recover, he could sire another child and hopefully raise him or her better. That's when the alchemist shows up.

The alchemist is actually a fairly well known figure in the kingdom, seemingly not aging and being instrumental in the overthrowing of the last five evil kings. Going by the name "Brad" the alchemist claims he has a cure to the disease in his winter castle, but unfortunately, an evil force has taken over and is causing him all sorts of problems.

That's when the player characters come in.

"Brad" has taken it upon himself (under the threat of death) to recruit some local adventurers to get the cure for the king. Since the military is off elsewhere fighting off large ants, disposable adventurers is the only way to go. The three to five adventurers find a message at a local tavern/temple/hardware store, and decide to help "Brad."

Getting to the castle in the middle of the night, "Brad" explains that the castle's security system is ingenious. In order to access the upper floors, where the cure is, the adventurers will need to acquire the keys hidden throughout it. Unfortunately, "Brad" also has to explain that while working on alchemy, he and his now deceased partner discovered how to create pocket dimensions. They realized that with enough work, they could create farms for specific ingredients by editing a pocket dimension so it would mimic the ingredient's native region. For example, some mushrooms found only in the Underdark could been farmed in a fake Underdark like pocket dimension.

This would be fine, but unfortunately they ended up filling the different dimensions with species native to what they mimic, so a place where one could find Flamevine will be crawling with Fire Elementals.

"Brad" admits this may have been a mistake, but hey, it was a good idea at the time.

A few features of this campaign would include:
-Varied environments. Each pocket dimension would be different, including a forest filled one, a city based one, and even a circus based one.
-A central hub. "Brad" has opened up his castle to the adventurers, so if they need a place to sleep or eat, they can always use one of his spare rooms. Just, don't go in the basement. Don't.
-Slightly large race roster. I'm not going to allow people to use everything on the homebrew website, but I'll be open.
-A sing along section. Yes, I plan on having a boss who sings to the player characters. If there's a bard in the party, I'll even allow them to fight back with songs.
-Absolutely no vampires*
-A literal Apocalypse. One of the pocket dimensions will feature a world that only has twelve hours to live. "Brad" is getting the key from this place, and the player characters can either try to comfort the doomed souls, or use the pandemonium to their advantage.
-Bravely Default-esque bosses and special abilities. Defeat certain bosses to unlock a new ability that can help the party. Defeat the cleric to heal health at any time, or the necromancer to revive a dead ally.
-Actual role playing!
-And a Batman parody?

So yeah, let if you think this is a good idea, or an awesome idea. No seriously though, be as critical as you want. I'd like to get honest feedback.

*(Statement has not been confirmed by anyone.)

 

[eightofswords]

fWell, tabletop RPGs have one extremely peculiar factor, which is that they're played by a group sitting around a table together. As long as everyone's on the same page, everything can work. Ultimately, the thing that makes a campaign concept good or terrible is, more than anything, whether or not it meshes with the group. That said, I can see a couple red flags.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that you have a mechanic that's more interesting the plot. You stat your description with a bunch of fairly cliche fantasy elements. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Some of my favorite tabletop moments came from utterly cliche campaigns, because they provide a lot of room for the characters to shine over the plot. But you do have one very distinctive element, and that's actually a problem. Your players are going to be more interested in the parallel dimensions than the succession crisis. Succession crises are a dime a dozen; characters wot spawn parallel universes, well, ain't. Unfortunately, the plot you've described is about the succession crisis, not the thing that's naturally going to pull the player's attention.

Actually, I'm going to guess that you came up with "Brad" first, and then the rest came as an excuse to use his powers in a campaign. And that brings me to my second point. "Brad" is a single point of failure, and given the above, the players are going to be curious about him. What are you going to do when someone suspects that Brad is up to no good, and starts trying to investigate him? Are you prepared for your campaign suddenly becoming spy fiction? Because that's the sort of thing that happens when you give the players a mysteriously empowered employer.

Continuing in that vein: Players, and by extension player characters, are a naturally curious lot. There's a very high probability that they're going to want to get their hands on that power, and if they ever succeed, they will rip your world in half. Someone spawning a dimension full of GP and throwing the world's economy into turmoil is at the simple end of the spectrum. What happens when someone tries to create a dimension with different time flow, or tries to nest dimensions, or creates a dimension containing a single genie lamp and a copy of that dimension itself... If there's any possibility that the PCs can ever use this ability, you'll need rules for it, and at that point you're taking on a lot of work for something they'll still probably find a way to break.

And that brings me to the third red flag, which is that the new elements you're proposing don't mesh terribly well with D&D mechanics. In D&D 3.5, genesis, the spell for creating demiplanes, is ninth level. Brad's powers are comparable to a ninth level spell, putting him at 18th level(!). Likewise, the "Bravely Default-esque" bosses you've mentioned aren't actually new; most any campaign has bosses with powerful magic items the party can get their hands on.

What I'm basically saying is that you've got the seed of an interesting idea, but the rest of the premise doesn't quite measure up. "Brad"'s powers are sufficiently exploitable that he could take over the kingdom on his own, for better or for worse, and if he doesn't, the players will happily try for him. You're going to want to make other things that are equally intriguing, both to keep their interest, and to keep the world balanced and plausible. You'll also want to become more familiar with D&D mechanics and conventions. If you flesh this out further, you'll probably end up with something quite far removed from your original idea, with the succession crisis as a plot point rather than the plot driver. If that's okay with you, then you've got something you can work with.



Of course, I don't know your players. If you get the sense that they can suspend disbelief and use the dimension-shifting mechanics as you intended them, then feel free to ignore everything I just said. If you're unsure, it can't hurt to ask.


Best of luck, whatever you decide.

 

[Combat]

Those are some pretty good observations, so thanks for not holding back. I should mention that this theoretical campaign would be my first campaign I've ever DMed, and my third campaign total. This means I wouldn't be surprised if it fell apart.

For your first point, I can see how attention would wane. My first campaign had a fairly simple plot of saving a kingdom from orcs and rescuing a king. What made our characters stay interested in saving the day, was that they were forced into slavery with the use of a magical item. I could possibly have the characters in my campaign forced into a similar situation. Of course, this is all rhetoric at this point, the reality is I haven't actually written much of this out.

Brad's purposes in the campaign is to server as a guide/exposition giver, a get out of a horribly balanced battle free card, and as comic relief. Brad is meant to be a character you're suspicious of from the start, often saying all sorts of suspicious and/or foreshadowing things. In fact, the instant someone roles a 18+ for a perception check, it becomes very obvious Brad is a vampire. Brad's main job was to show up if a battle took a grim turn, and could be saved if a NPC rescues the helpless heroes.

I never considered my players trying to take over with that power. Yeah, that's something to consider.

I wasn't actually aware that creating planes was a spell (I use 5e) but once again, the point of the planes is kind of up in the air. I've noticed that it can be difficult to add some interesting terrains or enemies, so that's where I got the idea for planes. So far, the most exotic thing I've ever thought in DnD was a giant eel with a fake sword on its head. I felt a little cheaped out that I never get to see anything cool in campaigns, so that was the original purpose of the campaign was for the interest of the players. I also know that I shouldn't get too ambitious, since that could mess me up in the long run, and I don't want the players to become numb.

To make a long story short, the reason I'm writing this campaign is that my current DM is over reaching. He had a grand masterpiece built out in his head, but in the end he's been overreaching. First off, he made us make three characters each. Three Characters Each. That should have been my first sign of trouble, but because of this, I've only put a third of the effort into each character, which kind of ruins it. Along with that, he doesn't know how to write dialog, which makes the story weak at best. For my campaign, I'd want actual role playing to come first, and combat come second. I wouldn't advertise this, but I might make every battle optional with the right charisma checks and proper role playing.

Anyways, thanks again for not holding back. I know I'll never get better at anything if I don't learn, so this is a step in the (hopefully) right direction.