DM Starter Guide

I have run this campaign for years now so I have a lot of insight into how to run it the best way possible. It has recieved surprisingly positive response from my players, and is the crown jewel of my DMing legacy. Now I want to share it with others so history fans and weebs can come together to enjoy a very unique setting and way of playing D&D and create stories and characters that can't be replicated anywhere else.
This world is the merger of traditional Japanese history, lore, and mythology, as well as some anime tropes, stylization, and themes, set in the 1936-1945 era of Japan which saw the nation's decline into self destructive imperialism. The goal of the campaign is to put the players into the boots of the "bad guys", and set them to be the tip of the spear of the most exciting and pivotal moments of this tragic story.
You as a DM have the task of immersing the players in their roles as member's of Japan's secret police organization called the Kenpeitai. This role will allow them to play the parts of legitimate heroes in many instances, whilst placing them in numerous morally grey and sometimes even morally black circumstances that will test their resolve to their duty and to eachother. What does it meant to sacrifice and fulfill your duty when under an increasingly evil leadership structure? That is you and your player's job to explore in this campaign.
Due to the unique setting, a great deal of knowledge will be needed to carry out this role faithfully. However it is not necessarily that you "carry it out faithfully". If you want to wing it with your armchair knowledge of the asian theater of world war 2 go for it. I did however want to offer some in depth resources for the culture, myuthology, and history of Japan to determine where your story is starting from, and similarly provide you with the stepping stones to reach the end of the story. It is also up to you how closely you follow real life history, vs allowing your characters to shape the direction of things.
To access these resources I have placed expandable folders with many articles in the bottom left of the main page for the world. On the right side is the two different historical timelines from both before and after the beginning of the campaign. Campaign resources in particular will have miscehlaneous useful tools and mechanics for you like maps, a calendar, unique weapons and magic systems, unique races and feats, campaign specific monster statblocks, and more.
To help your characters through their creation process to stick within some modicum of in world lore and sensibility I have created a Character Creation Guide Under Campaign Resources -> Character Creation -> Character Creation Guide. Or simply click this: Character Creation Guide. I would reccomend reading it over yourself so you can work with your players to create characters that make sense for your campaign, and skip pitfalls I fell into.
Speaking of pitfalls, some random reccomendations to run the smoothest campaign possible, heres some misc. advice from my experiences: -Switch off between main war and politics related arcs and character specific arcs. This allows some breathing room and variety in enemies and genres. The politics and war plot contains a lot of intrigue, mystery, investigation, spy thriller, and moral conflict. However it is simply not a traditional adventure plot. Giving the players the ability to pursue some out there supernatural stuff with yokai and paranormal phenomenon can really break things up and give the players some more traditional D&D fun as well. The two will often coencide too. Fighting zany terrorists with the help of your yokai friends never ceases to be an entertaining and unique experience. -Consider limiting a few spells. Heresy I know, but with how important information and travel is in this campaign, I found certain spells simply ruined the intrigue and investigation parts, and in an expansive and technologically more modern world, instant rtransportation type spells break things pretty quick and generally cheapen things. Sure you could in theory work around all these, but it would be such a hassle, and you would invariably miss things and either be forced to make draconian decisions impulsively on the spot, or simply allow everything to be ruined. Here are a few spells I found that were better off not being in the campaign (and my players agreed): Ressurection, Revivify, Raise Dead, Hold Person, Counter Spell, Plane Shift, Long range teleportation spells of any sort, Guidance, Protection from poison, Detect Thoughts, Speak with Dead -When making combats, use a variety of units. This has been the most important factor in creating fun combats for my players. I have made many monster stat blocks for this purpose. Having different enemy types and having them spread out has been huge in creating dynamic combats. Boss character should have legendary action turns to allow them to interact with the comabt more frequently. Using 1HP minions has also made things more fun as well. -Recruit specific players to pull off interesting plans. If you want a certain interaction to go a certain way dont force it. Rather get others on board. A single player can dramatically steer things in the direction you want things to go rather than strong arming everyone. -Ensure your players are bought in first. This campaign isn't for everyone. Its dark, but also has comical elements (theres a goofy nazi vampire in my campaign) and these aspects are likely going to turn a lot of people off to it. Furthermore it isnt a traditional adventure campaign where the players can do whatever they want. Its an immersive police role playing game for people who want to sink their teeth deep into that specific role. This means that your players cant just be insubordinate at literally everything their superior officers say. Make sure the players know they are in for something a bit more constrained and with a stronger direction than usual. This may not be enough for you to quite grasp it all so if you have any questions about something confusing or missing then shoot me any questions or anything else at [email protected]