Group Themes

One of the most difficult challenges a group of players faces when embarking on a new campaign is deciding how their characters end up in the same party. This section provides optional rules for linking your disparate characters by utilizing a group theme.

Each of these themes poses a way a party might be linked to each other from the very beginning of their adventures together. The purpose of a group theme is to give each character a backstory commonality that provides a logical reason to join forces. When deciding to use a group theme, be sure to collectively select one before or during character creation. Each theme’s section provides a description of the commonalities each character shares, backstory questions for the players to answer together, and mechanical benefits of the theme. It is important that every player agrees to use the group theme rules and approves which theme the group uses, as each theme poses a specific situation that needs to be accepted by each character and incorporated into their individual stories and personalities.

Group Themes in a Campaign. Though this section has guidance for fitting these group themes into a campaign, as the GM, be sure to check with your players before introducing story elements that might be uncomfortable for the players, even if the element fits the theme they chose. A group theme is a great way to get characters together, but a group theme can be “completed” or abandoned at any time—imprisoned characters might drift apart from each other after escaping, a homeward bound group might feel resolved in that theme after reaching home even if they continue traveling together, or a group of wardens might fulfill the terms of their duty. You shouldn’t feel beholden to the theme for the entire length of the campaign if the story moves in a different direction.

Custom Group Themes. Though the following sections present several group themes, your group might find that none fit the characters they want to play or the stories they want to tell. You can modify the themes presented here to better fit the characters and your campaign, or you can use these themes as guidance for creating your own group theme. If you decide to create a custom theme, be sure to work with your players to incorporate a compelling thread that links the characters and that fits the characters they want to play.

Creating and Running Group Theme Adventures. Story arcs and campaigns built around a theme chosen by the players for their characters can feel more potent given the collective experiences shared by the characters. When creating and running the game, you can regularly include story threads, encounters, or plot points related to the shared group history supported by the theme. This section includes suggested overarching story or campaign themes for each group theme as well as tables filled with quest hooks to inspire the group’s next adventure.

Haunted

Characters who choose the Haunted theme are all bound to a supernatural force that they either can’t control or can only control sporadically. While all the members of a haunted group don’t have to be plagued by the same supernatural problem, they are all deeply affected by their daily struggle. A haunted character recognizes that the other people in this group are the only ones who can truly understand the horror of living under the thumb of the supernatural. The exact nature of your character’s hauntings and how they brought the characters together is up to you and your group to decide by answering the questions in the next section.

Creating a Haunted Group

Several circumstances could bring your characters together in the shared nightmare of being haunted.

When you choose this group theme, be sure to decide the answers as a group to the following questions:

• Are we all haunted by the same thing?
• What haunts us?
• What has drawn this haunting force to us?
• Do we have any idea how to stop this force?
• How does being haunted impact daily life?
• Why have we decided to band together in the face of our situation?

For inspiration for your group’s Haunted circumstances, choose a circumstance or roll a d6 and consult the Haunted Circumstances table.

Table: Haunted Circumstances

d6	Result
1	You all happened to be in the same location when a great or ancient evil was awoken. It now haunts you.
2	Each of you is afflicted with a monstrous curse, and it is no longer safe for you to remain among most people. Your condition has driven you to find the camaraderie of others like you.
3	Each of you has experienced tragedy at the hands of a supernatural creature. Your pasts have driven you to create a monster-slaying group to ensure others don’t suffer as you have.
4	You were all tricked or forced into the service of an evil being. You are bound to do its bidding if you have any chance of one day regaining your freedom.
5	A magical event pulled you all into a plane ruled by evil. You must face the darkness together or meet a brutish end.
6	An ancient prophecy names each of you as agents in the war against darkness. Fate has declared you the slayers of some ultimate evil, but the road before you is not an easy one.

Haunted Group Benefits

Your life as a haunted group is fraught with struggle and peril. You wrestle daily with the darkness that preys on you in your weakest moments, but that struggle has taught you hard-won lessons about yourself and the world around you.

A Haunted group gains the following features:

Strength in Numbers. If one member of this group is within 30 feet of another member of this group, each of those characters can’t be surprised, and each of those characters has advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Forbidden Knowledge. While your life is rife with suffering and peril because of your haunting, your experiences also put you in contact with a world of dark magic. You are a cog in a great and terrible machine, riddled with forbidden power of the darkest sort. Once every 28 days, the group can call on this eldritch knowledge to perform a magic ritual. The specifics of this ritual and its thematic consequences are up to the GM, but everyone in the haunted group must be present. Performing the ritual takes 1 hour, after which time the group can achieve one of the following options (or another option at the GM’s discretion):

• One member of this group, or a dead creature touched by all members of this group as part of the ritual, returns to life as if it was the target of the resurrection spell. Casting the spell in this way doesn’t require material components.
• The ritual grants each member and up to five other creatures of this group’s choice within 30 feet of the ritual immunity to a specific spell or other magical effect for 8 hours. For example, the ritual could make each target immune to the bane spell or to a lich‘s paralyzing touch attack.
• The ritual binds a celestial, an elemental, a fey, or a fiend to this group’s service as if the creature failed the saving throw of the planar binding spell. Casting the spell in this way doesn’t require material components.
• The ritual creates a magical restraint to hold a creature within a circle formed by the members of this group as if the creature failed the saving throw of the imprisonment spell. The group decides the type of imprisonment. Casting the spell in this way doesn’t require material components.

Haunted Group Adventures

Stories involving haunted groups typically include elements related to control (both internal and external) or faith, depending on each character’s relationship with what is haunting them. The characters’ hauntings should linger in the background of each quest or story arc, a constant reminder of the forces they can’t quite shake. Keep in mind, these story elements can arise even if they aren’t directly related to the force haunting the characters. For example, characters haunted by ghosts might be eager to help grave keepers or priests who ensure the peaceful rest of the dead, knowing well what can happen when the dead don’t find eternal rest.

Here are suggested story elements and quest hooks to inspire adventures centered around haunted characters. For quest hooks, you can choose a hook or roll a d6 and consult the table.

Control. The terror inherent in the supernatural is especially powerful when its forces don’t play by measurable or understandable rules. This never-ending terror leads to struggles that never really end. They can simply be managed or minimized. Haunted characters must constantly wrestle with controlling external forces and themselves to achieve some degree of normalcy.

Faith. When building a game around a haunted party, themes of faith can be a huge cornerstone. In almost every supernatural narrative, faith exists as the only weapon truly capable of defeating the darkness. Since the supernatural is wholly unknowable, finding an equally unknowable force, such as faith, to challenge it is compelling.

Table: Haunted Quest Hooks

d6	Result
1	The characters catch word of another person suffering the same supernatural affliction as someone in their group. If the person is dealing with this alone, the characters might need to help.
2	Rumors of a priest who can banish the supernatural are circulating in a nearby town. Perhaps the priest has the key to ending the group’s troubles.
3	A powerful creature appears before the characters and offers to end their suffering in exchange for some evil deed.
4	Recent cult activity has allowed the supernatural to tighten its grip. These cults must be stopped before something truly horrible is unleashed.
5	A circle of mages has foreseen the awakening of an evil creature. This creature is not entirely of this world, and consequently, the characters are the only ones who have a chance of bringing it down.
6	All the characters share the same strange dream night after night. Something is trying to draw them to a specific place for some reason.

Homeward Bound

Characters who choose the Homeward Bound group theme have been dropped into an unknown place and are motivated by a singular desire to return home.

Both the circumstances that lead your characters so far away from a familiar world and the exact location you end up are up to you and your group to decide by answering the questions in the next section, but your characters are bonded to each other by necessity.

Creating a Homeward Bound Group

There are many ways for adventurers to suddenly be flung from home into an unfamiliar locale in a fantasy world.

When you choose this group theme, consider answering the following questions as a group:

• What left us stranded so far from home?
• Are we all from the same home?
• Where is our home?
• What is waiting for us back home?
• Do we know each other, or are we strangers?
• Do we know anything about where we are?

For inspiration for your group’s Homeward Bound circumstances, choose a circumstance or roll a d6 and consult the Homeward Bound Circumstances table.

Table: Homeward Bound Circumstances

d6	Result
1	You were all swept up in a magical storm and landed in a faraway land.
2	You were the crew of a vessel that accidentally sailed through a planar gateway. Most of your crew is dead, and you are the remaining survivors trapped in a different plane of existence.
3	You all found a magical artifact that sent you hurtling centuries into the past (or future).
4	A mage placed a sleeping curse upon your region, and you are all trapped in a world of dreams (or nightmares).
5	You all woke up in a strange place, your memories foggy, but you remember being captured and brought here by a bizarre creature.
6	As a result of a magical accident, you were all put into stasis and left behind. Years or decades have passed, and you suddenly have control of your faculties again. You have no idea what became of those who left you behind, but you are determined to find them.

Homeward Bound Group Benefits

Your situation is difficult and rife with peril, but you have a clear goal and a home waiting for you at the end of it all. Whenever troubles start to arrive in droves, the promise of a distant comfort keeps you moving through the darkness.

A Homeward Bound group gains the following features:

Something Worth Fighting For. If one member of this group takes a short rest with at least one other member of this group, each of those characters gains 10 temporary hit points, and each character can reduce its level of exhaustion by 1. The temporary hit points last for each character until that character finishes a long rest.

Lessons Learned. Being stranded in a new environment has forced you to learn and adapt to new information at an accelerated rate. At the end of each month that your characters remain far from home, the group can elect or randomly determine one character. That character gains proficiency in a skill, language, or tool of their choice. Once a character has gained a proficiency in this way, that character can’t do so again until every other member of this group has gained a proficiency in this way.

Homeward Bound Group Adventures

Stories involving homeward bound groups typically include elements related to camaraderie or perseverance as the group fights to return home.

Unless you and your players decide otherwise, the characters were stranded in an unknown location relatively recently. The entire campaign doesn’t have to be focused on the characters making their way home (after all, the story of what happens after long-absent characters return home can also be compelling), but at least the beginning of the story should feature this shared goal.

Here are suggested story elements and quest hooks to inspire adventures centered around homeward bound characters. For quest hooks, you can choose a hook or roll a d6 and consult the table.

Table: Homeward Bound Quest Hooks

d6	Result
1	The characters hear tales of a legendary creature that can travel across vast distances in the blink of an eye. If they can track it down, it might be their way home.
2	A creature of questionable motives offers the characters a deal: the creature will give the characters access to a power that can help their group, but first they must do something dangerous for the creature.
3	The force that originally transported the characters has appeared again, close to where they are. If they confront it again, perhaps they can discover how they were transported in the first place.
4	The characters find an object that might be able to get them home, but it works only once and for only one character. They must decide if it’s worth the risk and if any are willing to leave the rest of the group behind.
5	The characters have almost run out of a resource that is critical to their survival. They must find a new supply or replacement in this strange new world. And they have to do it fast.
6	The characters are contacted by a creature who claims to have come from their world many years ago in the exact same way as the characters. Perhaps comparing notes with can help the characters, but the creature’s story seems a little off…

Camaraderie. There are few things more terrifying than being stranded in a completely unfamiliar place, but being stranded alone is one of them. Stories exploring the relationship of a group of people flung into an unknown land emphasize the importance of teamwork, trust, and reliance on one another.

Perseverance. From time to time, long journeys might seem impossible and shake the faith of even the most stalwart of travelers. Campaigns featuring Homeward Bound groups can tell stories of hope and what it means to persevere through the worst of circumstances.

Imprisoned

Characters who choose the imprisoned group theme share one commonality: for whatever reason, you all were imprisoned together for a substantial period of time. The exact causes and circumstances of your character’s imprisonment are up to you and your group to decide by answering the questions in the next section. Whatever the circumstances, each character is intimately familiar with the tolls of incarceration and can relate to one another because of that shared experience.

Creating an Imprisoned Group

There are many reasons why characters might be imprisoned and consequently meet each other through the experience. When you choose this theme, be sure to decide the answers as a group to the following questions:

• Why were we imprisoned?
• Who imprisoned us?
• Where were we imprisoned?
• How long were we imprisoned?
• How did we communicate with each other while imprisoned?
• How did our imprisonment end?

For inspiration for your group’s imprisonment circumstances, choose a circumstance or roll a d6 and consult the Imprisoned Circumstances table.

Table: Imprisoned Circumstances

d6	Result
1	You were all (justly or unjustly) convicted of crimes and met while serving time in prison.
2	You were all members of the same criminal organization until your headquarters was raided, and you all ended up in prison together.
3	You were captured as prisoners of war and met while imprisoned behind enemy lines.
4	You were all abducted by some type of creature and met while imprisoned in its lair. You managed to escape together.
5	You were all imprisoned by a hostile magical effect and suddenly freed from its grasp at the same moment.
6	You were all lab experiments, captured and kept by an evil mage. You met in these circumstances and escaped upon the wizard’s death.

Imprisoned Group Benefits

Your past experiences as prisoners have forced your life perspectives to change. You have survived something that most creatures fear more than anything, and while that haunts you, it has also made you stronger.

An Imprisoned group gains the following features:

We’ve Been Through Worse. As an action, one member of this group can touch another member of this group and end one condition currently affecting that character. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned. When at least half the members of this group reach 9th level, the condition can also be charmed, petrified, or stunned. Once a character has been cured in this way, that character can’t be cured with this feature again until it finishes a long rest.

Tale of Woe. Your story deeply moves those who have not experienced what you have. People you encounter react differently to your history of incarceration, but you can use their feelings to your advantage, whether they react with sympathy, fear, or something in between. Once every 28 days, the group can acquire one nonmagical item or service up to a value of 1,000 gp free of charge. To use this feature, the entire group must spend at least 24 hours in a locale with the resources that could reasonably accommodate the request.

Imprisoned Group Adventures

Stories involving imprisoned groups typically include elements related to oppression, redemption, or revenge, depending on how and why the characters were imprisoned. The characters’ imprisonment has shaped their past and could shape their future: were the characters wrongfully incarcerated, were they rightfully incarcerated and seek atonement, or are they seeking revenge on those who imprisoned them, even if the imprisonment was justified? Keep in mind, these story elements can arise even if they aren’t directly related to the character’s imprisonment. For example, characters who were wrongfully incarcerated by a corrupt lord might want to help others they encounter who are being oppressed by corrupt leaders.

Here are suggested story elements and quest hooks to inspire adventures centered around imprisoned characters. For quest hooks, you can choose a hook or roll a d6 and consult the table.

Oppression. Adventures involving incarceration, particularly wrongful incarceration, inherently deal with the exchange of power and its abuse. A group of characters with the Imprisoned theme might be interested in stopping the force that imprisoned them, freeing others that remain trapped, or helping other victims of the oppressive force.

Redemption. Adventures featuring a group with the Imprisoned theme can easily be about the characters trying to make amends for whatever they did to be imprisoned in the first place. These stories are incredibly relatable, and pop culture is rife with examples of stories where villains become heroes in the end.

Revenge. Adventures centered on a group of characters with the Imprisoned theme lend themselves well to revenge stories, particularly if the imprisonment was unjustified. Stories built on the need to get even are compelling, but they can easily cross into darker themes.

Table: Imprisoned Quest Hooks

d6	Result
1	The characters hear rumors that the creature or force that imprisoned them has started incarcerating others in large numbers.
2	Someone else has been freed from the prison that once held the characters, and that person reaches out to them for aid.
3	A dangerous creature has escaped the prison that once held the characters, and their knowledge makes them the only suitable candidates for hunting down the creature.
4	One of the characters’ jailors has come to regret what they did and reaches out to the characters with a gesture of goodwill. The characters must decide how to deal with their former jailor.
5	The force that once held the characters is now determined to imprison them once again.
6	Someone the characters care for has been imprisoned by the same force that held them. They are the only ones with the knowledge to break out the captive.

Warden

Characters who choose the Warden group theme are all tasked with protecting something. The exact nature of what your characters are bound to protect and why each of your characters was chosen as its guardian is up to you and your group to decide by answering the questions in the next section, but your characters are duty-bound to this task and can rely on each other to put the best interests of your mutual charge first. Though the following sections refer to the subject the characters are bound to protect as the characters’ “ward,” the characters can protect a person, location, magic item, piece of knowledge, or anything else that others might want to harm or find.

Creating a Warden Group

There are a great number of reasons your group could be duty-bound to guard something as a unit.

When you choose this group theme, be sure to decide the answers as a group to the following questions:

• What is it that we are bound to protect?
• Why is our ward so important?
• What threats does our ward face?
• Why were we chosen to be its protectors?
• How long have we had this responsibility?
• Were there wardens who protected this ward before us? If so, what happened to them?

For inspiration for your group’s Warden circumstances, choose a circumstance or roll a d6 and consult the Warden Circumstances table.

Warden Circumstances

d6	Result
1	You were all trained from birth to protect a holy site.
2	You all grew up in a magical community hidden from the rest of the world. When this community came under threat, you swore to defend it.
3	You each belong to ancient bloodlines sworn to guard a dangerous artifact sealed away long ago.
4	A magical gateway was opened long before any of you were born, allowing dangerous creatures to pour into the world. You are all sworn to seek out these creatures wherever they may be and stop them.
5	As a group, you accidentally found an infant creature that is the last of its kind. You now feel compelled to guard it against those who would harm or imprison it.
6	A military force trained each of you to serve as personal guards for an important noble, diplomat, or other political figure. It is your job to accompany and protect them as they carry out their purpose.

Warden Group Benefits

Your dedication to protecting something important has defined much of your lives and forged your characters into something remarkable.

A Warden group gains the following features:

• Sworn Defender. If one member of this group is reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright while within 30 feet of another member of this group, it is reduced to 10 + its proficiency bonus hit points instead. Once a character has used this feature, it can’t do so again until it finishes a long rest.
• Token of Favor. Being a warden means defending something vulnerable, and your efforts don’t go unnoticed. At the end of each month that your characters remain wardens, the group’s ward—or the creature who bestowed your characters’ duties—grants the group a magical gift. As a group, you must decide on one uncommon magic item to receive as a gift for your characters’ continued service. At the GM’s discretion, your characters might receive a different magic item or a magic item of a higher rarity, if it is thematically appropriate.

Wardens Group Adventures

Stories involving warden groups typically include elements related to preservation or duty, depending on the characters’ ward and the circumstances of their appointment as its wardens. These story elements emphasize the constant tightrope of duty and personal desire that a group of wardens is bound to feel. Keep in mind, the characters’ ward doesn’t need to be in direct danger to challenge the characters or for them to be invested in a quest or story arc.

For example, characters whose ward is a diplomat might be challenged with adapting to the different cultures the diplomat visits or with overcoming environmental hazards as they escort the diplomat across the land or sea. Similarly, characters whose ward is a location might have to deal with those who want to besmirch the storied location’s history or defame the wardens themselves.

Here are suggested story elements and quest hooks to inspire adventures centered around warden characters. For quest hooks, you can choose a hook or roll a d6 and consult the table.

Preservation. Wardens are tasked with guarding something, often defying interference or any change affecting their ward. However, the entropic nature of the world demands that all things must change, fade, or fall apart eventually. Wardens tasked with protecting something ancient or aging might struggle with the effort to preserve it (or even question if it is worth the effort) against astronomical odds.

Duty. Unlike many adventuring groups who meet under random circumstances, wardens begin their adventures with an enormous responsibility already guiding their actions. Having to put the needs of something else before your own can chafe in the bad moments and can feel impossible on the darkest days. Such stories can explore what it means to be trusted with something so important and how each character handles the weight of that responsibility.