Coming up with new ideas for a D&D campaign can feel overwhelming. After a while, the same plots, villains, and locations start to repeat themselves. The problem isn’t a lack of creativity—it’s that the first few ideas tend to be predictable. Pushing past those initial thoughts is where real inspiration happens.
One way to do this is by forcing yourself to generate a large number of ideas in a short time. Thirty is a solid number—enough to get past the obvious without being so many that it becomes a chore. The best part? You don’t need to come up with them all on your own. AI can speed up the process, throwing out options that might never have crossed your mind.
This post walks through a structured way to use AI to generate a list of campaign ideas, refine them into something playable, and turn rough concepts into compelling stories. Whether you’re looking for an entire campaign premise or just need fresh material for your next session, this approach will help shake things up.
1. How the “Generate 30 Ideas” Technique Works
Coming up with a single good idea is tough, but coming up with 30 ideas? That might sound excessive, but it’s exactly what makes this method so effective. The first handful of ideas will likely be things you’ve seen before—classic fantasy tropes, villains with familiar motivations, and predictable adventure hooks. But as you push forward, you’ll start to uncover more unexpected and original concepts.
Why It Works: Writers, designers, and creative thinkers have long used high-volume brainstorming to move past the obvious and into the unexpected. AI can speed up this process, offering a flood of ideas that you can sift through, refine, and reshape.
Stephen King once said, “Your job isn’t to find ideas, but to recognize them when they show up.”
Generating 30 ideas gives you more opportunities to recognize the ones worth developing. Not all of them will be winners—some will be generic, some will be bizarre—but within that mix, you’ll find a few that spark real excitement.
Why 30?: Could you stop at 10? Sure. But 10 ideas often aren’t enough to push past the obvious. At 20, you start to see more variation. By 30, you’re deep into creative territory where unusual, fresh, and sometimes brilliant ideas start emerging. You might not use all of them, but even the weaker ones could inspire something great.
Example Prompt: "You are an RPG campaign GM looking for new ideas to create a D&D campaign. I want you to ask me 3 questions, one at a time, to guide you on a general campaign direction. Then I want you to list out 30 campaign options for me to choose from."
Adding on to the prompt. "The campaigns should be in the tone of dark fantasy. Avoid common fantasy cliches and tropes."
This structured approach allows the AI to help shape the direction of your campaign before throwing out a variety of ideas, giving you control while keeping the process fresh. The next step is sorting through those ideas, picking the best ones, and refining them into something playable.
2. Applying This to D&D Campaigns
Generating 30 ideas doesn’t just help with campaign creation—it can be applied to nearly every aspect of your game. Whether you need a fresh set of adventure hooks, a compelling villain, or unique encounters, this method ensures you have plenty of material to work with.
Game Masters often fall into familiar patterns when designing content. The hero’s journey, the lost artifact, the hidden betrayal—these are staples of storytelling for a reason. But by forcing variety, you introduce unexpected twists that can breathe new life into your game.
The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules, they just need a story” - Gary Gygax
AI-assisted brainstorming helps break away from rigid structures, letting creativity take the lead.
Here are a few ways to apply this method in your campaign:
Campaign Hooks: 30 Unique Adventure Starts
A mysterious song drifts through the city at midnight, and those who hear it vanish by dawn.
An ancient dragon has fallen into a deep slumber, but its dreams are bleeding into reality.
A noble has been cursed to relive the same day over and over—only the players notice the loop.
A wandering merchant sells rare and powerful magic items but vanishes without a trace after each sale.
By generating 30 different adventure hooks, you’ll find concepts that stand out and feel fresh, rather than relying on the same old tropes.
Encounter Ideas: Combat, Social, Exploration
Not every encounter needs to be a fight. Expanding brainstorming into different encounter types keeps the game engaging.
Combat: The players face off against a cursed warrior who can only be defeated by shattering the runes binding his soul.
Social: A grand masquerade ball where every guest wears a mask enchanted to change their voice, making deception nearly impossible to detect.
Exploration: A cavern filled with bioluminescent plants that shift their glow, creating an ever-changing labyrinth.
Using AI to generate 30 encounter ideas gives you a pool to pull from when you need a quick addition to a session.
Magic Items, Locations, or NPC Quirks
The best D&D moments often come from unique details—a bizarre artifact, an eccentric NPC, or an unforgettable location.
Magic Item: The Hourglass of Forgotten Time—when flipped, it rewinds the last six seconds of reality, but only for the user.
Location: The Ruined Observatory—a shattered tower where constellations shift erratically, revealing glimpses of forgotten history.
NPC Quirk: A rogue who refuses to enter any building unless they first knock three times and hear a response—no matter what.
Follow-Up Prompt:
"Great! I like ideas 2, 4, 5, and 9. Please generate for me content for each campaign using this template.
Campaign Name: [Name of the Campaign]
Description: [100-word description of the campaign]
Story Premise: [75-word premise of the story]
Pixar's Story Spine: [Format the campaign using Pixar's Story Spine Structure using 3 possible outcomes for the campaign. Player Succes, Players Fail, Players Push]
Create 3 key NPCs and one Villain
Acts: [Break the campaign into a 3-act structure with a short overview in each.]
3. Optimizing Your AI Prompts for Maximum Variety
Generating 30 ideas is a powerful tool, but the real magic happens when you refine those ideas. AI is great at producing lists, but without guidance, the results can be hit or miss. The key is to shape prompts in a way that encourages originality and depth.
Using Different Angles
The way you phrase a prompt affects the quality of the response. If you're looking for a fresh take on familiar concepts, consider asking for ideas from different viewpoints.
Instead of: “Give me 30 villain ideas. ”Try: “Give me 30 villain motivations from a tragic perspective.”→ This focuses on depth rather than just a list of names.
Instead of: “List 30 magical artifacts. ”Try: “Describe 30 ancient magical artifacts, each with a lost origin and a hidden flaw.”→ Adding conditions makes the results more tailored and flavorful.
By adjusting the phrasing, you can lead AI toward results that feel more natural and engaging.
Tweaking Results with Follow-Ups
Not every idea AI generates will be perfect right away. That’s where follow-ups help refine the list. Instead of discarding results that don’t quite fit, ask AI to develop them further or change the focus.
AI isn’t just a brainstorming tool—it’s a creative partner that can help push ideas into new directions.
Final Campaign Prompt:
"Now that I have my campaign idea {insert campaign idea} and core NPCs, I want to create a series of key moments for my players. Generate five major story beats that challenge the players' choices and force them to make difficult decisions. Include a twist that connects back to the campaign’s central theme."
This prompt helps take a raw concept and starts shaping it into a structured adventure that unfolds over time.
Conclusion
Creative roadblocks are frustrating, but AI can help GMs move past them quickly. The Generate 30 Ideas method forces new ways of thinking, uncovering fresh campaign hooks, encounters, and NPCs that might not have surfaced otherwise.
As Ursula K. Le Guin once said, “The creative adult is the child who has survived.”
The best campaigns are built on curiosity and playfulness. Let AI help fuel that sense of discovery, while you focus on weaving the elements into something uniquely yours.
In the next post, we’ll explore Brainstorming Frameworks—structured approaches that help refine and connect campaign ideas into deeper, more interconnected stories.
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