Campaign settings you've always wanted to run...


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Planescape was a fun setting, and I ran a 3.x version of the game myself. That said, it was a very "social" game that sometimes resulted in some strange situations that could create headaches for more traditional gamers. At that time period, the difference of playstyle and even approach to basic roleplaying between older gamers and younger gamers was quite high, and this setting did nothing to improve the strife- in many ways I think this setting was the origin of roleplay vs. rollplay in the TSR days. Also, in some of the original writing, there was a strong encouragment of "bucking the system" that saw evil as funny/free, good as stifling/stupid, and neutrality as the sole outlet for sanity. That said, that's only me and my experience and my take.


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Dark Sun
Eberron
Legend of the Five Rings
(Along with a bunch of others here...)


I just started running an all dwarf/underdark game. One of my bucket list ideas that I've always wanted to run.

-MD


The all dwarf/underdark thing sounds fun.


More for the list.

Spelljammer.

Ravenloft, or at least Ravenloft inspired. Maybe Castlevania.

A campaign based around the Spawn of Tiamat from 3.5's Monster Manual IV. I know a lot of people hated them, but I thought they were some of the coolest monsters I had ever seen.

An evil game. This one just won't work with my group. It would devolve into PvP by the end of the first session.

I've been wanting to try 4e as a player, just to see how it plays. Unfortunately, most of the group is anti 4e and getting someone else to GM is like pulling teeth.


Ivan Rûski wrote:
Ravenloft, or at least Ravenloft inspired. Maybe Castlevania.

Add this to my list as well, wanted to do an actual Castlevania game for quite some time. And also a megadungeon similar to something like La-Mulana.

Quote:
A campaign based around the Spawn of Tiamat from 3.5's Monster Manual IV. I know a lot of people hated them, but I thought they were some of the coolest monsters I had ever seen.

+1 to both of those. I still make use of those critters from time to time. Never saw what people hated about them.


I came very close to running Dragon's Demand with a 'we just realized we are charactes in a video game, and now we're trapped in a plot that we can't escape' spin. (As opposed to 'we made our characters and now we ARE those characters and we're trapped here, help!') I thought it would be have been great. Unfortunately, 3 of my players said they'd somewhat recently completed a similarly themed campaign under another GM, and the other 2 players had grimdark loner characters and were afraid that a lighter twist would interfere with the oh-the-Drama attitude they were going for. (Of course, everyone in that campaign had a loner character. The "party face" had 10 charisma, and didn't start investing until level 2 after the group realized they had no diplomacy.)

Later on my players admitted that the setting and adventure would have been great for that kind of plot. It's a shame. I'd still like to run that plot sometime.

As far as playing:
-Mechwarrior (the RPG companion to the Battletech miniatures game). I want to be a team of mercenaries who switch between Mechs, Tanks, and spy missions to get the job done.

-Final Fantasy X - That game is pure awesome. I want to go on my own pilgrimage to defeat Sin.


Mystically Inclined wrote:

I came very close to running Dragon's Demand with a 'we just realized we are charactes in a video game, and now we're trapped in a plot that we can't escape' spin. (As opposed to 'we made our characters and now we ARE those characters and we're trapped here, help!') I thought it would be have been great. Unfortunately, 3 of my players said they'd somewhat recently completed a similarly themed campaign under another GM, and the other 2 players had grimdark loner characters and were afraid that a lighter twist would interfere with the oh-the-Drama attitude they were going for. (Of course, everyone in that campaign had a loner character. The "party face" had 10 charisma, and didn't start investing until level 2 after the group realized they had no diplomacy.)

Later on my players admitted that the setting and adventure would have been great for that kind of plot. It's a shame. I'd still like to run that plot sometime.

As far as playing:
-Mechwarrior (the RPG companion to the Battletech miniatures game). I want to be a team of mercenaries who switch between Mechs, Tanks, and spy missions to get the job done.

-Final Fantasy X - That game is pure awesome. I want to go on my own pilgrimage to defeat Sin.

I have the rules for the Mechwarrior RPG game somewhere. I don't think I can get it back from the website anymore though.

EDIT: Looks like the download link expired. That's.... really dumb. Welp, there goes money down the drain.


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2 more for the list.

Outlaw Star.

Codex Alera.

....I could probably keep adding to this list forever.


The trick with Codex Alera would be figuring out the magic system, I think. Everybody seems to have a martial-ish class (Fighter, Rogue, Cavalier, Barbarian, Ranger, maybe a Bard or two) coupled with a little bit of very limited gestalt spellcasting.


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Orthos wrote:
The trick with Codex Alera would be figuring out the magic system, I think. Everybody seems to have a martial-ish class (Fighter, Rogue, Cavalier, Barbarian, Ranger, maybe a Bard or two) coupled with a little bit of very limited gestalt spellcasting.

That's pretty much how I'd run it. Though I haven't worked out specifics, the furies are quite obviously linked with stats. Strength with earth, dexterity with both air and wood, constitution with metal, wisdom with water, and charisma with fire. Intelligence is the only one that doesn't seem to link, and dexterity is linked to two, so I'd probably shift air to intelligence. So the secondary furycrafter class would allow you to learn spells from the various furycrafting schools based on your score in the relevant ability.

The thing I'm having a slight issue with is for those who can actually summon manifestations of their furies (which would likely be an alternate secondary class with more narrow spellcasting), like Amara and Cirrus, or Isana and Rill. Do I just base that on a summon spell, or would I want to base it on the summoner's eidolon?


Has anyone had good luck with online play? It occurred to me that we could all have our cake if we could find an online solution. The trouble I have had is the glacially slow pace of PbP and the impossible herding of cats (or players if you prefer) to committing to a set time in chat games. But maybe someone has had better luck and would share their secrets?

Sovereign Court

Nope. Unfortunately, online play is insanely difficult to maintain.


I haven't had things rejected but there are a bunch of settings I haven't played in yet that really interest me.

I'd like to run or play in Jakandor the AD&D 2e Island necromancers v. barbarians.

I haven't done any Iron Kingdoms but there is a lot of neat stuff in the setting.

Accursed and Hellfrost for Savage World look like a lot of fun. Monsters going against a Ravenloft dark lord style witch coven and viking magical winter lands.

7th Sea/Swashbuckling Adventures from AEG appeals to me.

Deadlands also looks like it would be loads of thematic fun.

For Modern I'd like to do Conspiracy X or Witchcraft.


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Issue I have found with online play is that people have access to a huge distraction; their computer. So things slow to a freaking crawl.


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Ronin_Knight wrote:
Eberron and Faerun but as I'm the eternal DM the conversion work I would need to do to be happy with either makes me leery

I have just started running a Serpent's Skull campaign in Eberron, and so far the conversions haven't been too difficult. The method that I am using is to convert flavor and backstory as much as possbile without changing too many mechanics.

If you are interested, I have placed some of my notes here: Serpent's Skull in Eberron.

If you do decide to work on any conversion, feel free to drop me a line if you need to bounce some ideas off of someone. I truely enjoy those types thought exercises.

As for settings that I've always wanted to run or play, Ravenloft has been at the top of my list for either for a long time. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever had the right group for it.

Liberty's Edge

Anyone here read the Grimnoire Chronicles? The name is cheesy, but the setting is just phenomenal. Think The Untouchables meets the XMen. It isn't a game yet, but I want to try to shoehorn it in to a Wild Talents sort of deal.


I'll add to the posts about wanting to get some more of my money out of all of my Planescape materials. I've been kicking around the idea for a while to do a game that incorporates an Amazing Race style competition where the party is going against other groups hopping around the planes looking to achieve certain goals, obtain particular items and/or just beat the other teams to a rally point. Thinking many of the teams would be aligned with factions. The sponsors of the race/competition would be based out of Sigil.


Aranna wrote:

Has anyone had good luck with online play? It occurred to me that we could all have our cake if we could find an online solution. The trouble I have had is the glacially slow pace of PbP and the impossible herding of cats (or players if you prefer) to committing to a set time in chat games. But maybe someone has had better luck and would share their secrets?

I did have some success. One of my fellow RL players ran an online campaign in the FR for a group of international friends. We made it through to the end (though the sequel fell apart).

The other games I tried didn't work. I guess the trick is to find players who don't think they are writing a novel. That means describing their character's thoughts in excruciating detail, so you have to wade through all that useless chaff to filter out what the characters are doing and saying.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

While I prefer virtual tabletop to pbp, I have not had much success. Of course, this has been me as a player without much say in who gets selected. I have learned a lot about how it goes (my experience).

The biggest is time commitment. I have found most people treat it like an afterthought. I see so many people looking for groups on roll20.net, wanting to play this or that. My experience is about 1/2 won't show up for the first game, or if they do, it will be their one and only. Quite a few of the DMs will cancel after a few sessions.

A large number of those that stick around go ADD and watch youtube, surf the internet, watch tv, play other games, and overall don't pay much attention. I admit my guilt in looking at other sites, but I have reduced that activity.

It is always better to get at least 5 players, as 3 out of 4 sessions it is likely at least 1 of those players (or even the DM) will be absent.

I enjoy online play, and suffer through all that crap because it is the only way I get to do any RPGing. Also, a lot of players don't put much initial thought into their characters, because so often the games fall through, and they get burned and feel like they wasted all that time and effort on the character that only got to see a few sessions.

Don't make this seem like I am talking anyone from doing that. But the retention and game lifespan is only marginally better than pbp.

Grand Lodge

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I've always wanted to run a campaign set in the Midnight Campaign setting. It's too dark a setting to make it my "home campaign" setting, but I think it would be fun to run at least one campaign set there...


Along the lines of the Hollow World, as much as I protest against dinosaurs being overused in gaming settings, I'd love to run something in E.R. Burrough's world of Pellucidar. The overthrow of the psionic baddies, the Mahars, would make a great storyline.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

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DragonStar!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Samurai Jack
ATLA
Mass Effect...
Thats what comes to mind at the moment.


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Ghostwalk.


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DungeonmasterCal wrote:
Ghostwalk.

Oooooh, seconded. I'd forgtotten about Ghostwalk, but now I want to try and get a group together. I remember reading it and going "Daaaaaaaaaaaamn, this is fantastic".


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Tinkergoth wrote:
DungeonmasterCal wrote:
Ghostwalk.
Oooooh, seconded. I'd forgtotten about Ghostwalk, but now I want to try and get a group together. I remember reading it and going "Daaaaaaaaaaaamn, this is fantastic".

I've been wanting to run it for years. I got the book 10 years ago as a bday gift, but no one seemed interested in it but me. :(


I'd really like to run a game of Legends of the Wulin. Well, I'd like to PLAY it, but I'm the only one I know who has the book, and I've seen some accounts of an amazing gonzo-modern setting for the over-the-top kung-fu, and if running it is the only way to play, so be it....

Paizo Employee

Spelljammer... or just generally sailing in space.
Also Birthright... or just generally kingdom-management D&D.
I'd also be up for running Planescape or Dark Sun again, but I've actually run those a few times.

Basically all the 2nd Edition settings I remember fondly.

Oddly, I have a bunch of Ravenloft stuff, but never really thought to play it.

Cheers!
Landon


OH! I forgot Birthright!


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An offhand disparaging comment has me badly wanting to run this Pathfinder campaign...

After 10,000 years of imprisonment, a level 20 Witch with 10 mythic tiers is freed from a stasis spell. She uses divination to get a quick lay of the land and makes a base of operations on one of the moons orbiting the planet. From here she can work a number of mystical rituals to regain all the power she once had, while also sending the occassional monster down to the planet to plague humanity (and all the other races).

The breaking of the Witch's imprisonment acts as the trigger for a second spell, which brings an wizened sage out of his eternal sleep (think of the Pendragon mythos) so that he can oppose his old foe once again. Recognizing that he'd lose a straight up fight in his aged state, the sage begins seeking five fated Warriors of Light, the Chosen Ones who will defeat the great evil that has risen to plague the land. He finds them as teenagers (or the racial equivelant) already gathered together - they are monks-in-training at a local monestary. It seems the monks had been following a prophecy that prompted them to search for and collect the Warriors of Light to battle an impending era of Darkness...

A lot of details about character creation and how the players are given a 2nd gestalt character sheet to act as a powered up superhero form of their character:
The players are instructed to build two character sheets for their character. The first sheet is whatever the players want to play, with the sole restriction that the character must somehow have improved unarmed strike (to represent the martial arts training of the monks). This can be accomplished by multiclassing monk levels, or taking a fighter archetype that grants it for free, or being a Warpriest of Irori, or taking the feat directly, or whatever other way it can be done. Natural attack fighting styles count, so long as a player can somehow say that their character is trained in some form of "hand to hand" fighting. Full casters with a reasonable explanation of how their character was trained in 'mystical arts' as an alternative to martial arts will be considered. With this requirement out of the way, the players are given free reign to play whatever they want, though hopefully this will end up with the party being balanced enough to meet a variety of challenges.

The second character sheet will be a gestalt character- whatever the player built for their first sheet is gestalted with an equal number of levels in Synthesist (Summoner archetype). This form is the expression of the group's power potential as the "Warriors of Light." This second character sheet is considered an 'alternate form' for the character, and (due to the Synthesist Eidolon) looks quite different from the first state. As such, the 2nd form of the character is essentially a superhero state while the 1st form is the 'secret identity.' Indeed, there will be huge plot ramifications if the characters are seen to transform from one form to the other, and figuring out how to switch between the two states without witnesses will be a reoccuring challenge in the campaign.

While in the second form, each character will be told apart in a few ways: the Eidolon symbol glowing on their chest will be unique to each character, and each Eidolon will have a unique primary color (different from the other Eidolons) so that the warriors can easily be told apart from a distance. Eidolons will be able to take any of the three base forms, but aside from base form, color, symbols, and possible limb differences, will otherwise appear identical. In a future part of the campaign, the party will quest for a cache of magic weapons, and these weapons will also be unique to each character. (IE: One sword, one axe, one bow, etc.)

The second form will come into being with the Eidolon already active, and they will be forced back into their first form when the Eidolon reaches 0 HP or is otherwise forced back to its home plane. They will be able to transform to their 2nd form through the use of a magic item granted to each character from the Sage who acts as their advisor. This is a wonrous item (and therefor slotless), though it is usually carried on the belt. Characters can use it to 'transform' as a standard action that requires a verbal and somatic component (and likely a move action to retrieve). Essentially it's a glorified belt buckle that you flourish and say the magic phrase to transform.

(End of Spoilered section)

The heroes will have to journey on a series of adventures in an attempt to undo the havoc wrecked by the monsters that the Witch will unleash. As the party finds and kills these monsters, the Witch (scrying from her base on the moon) will cast a spell that revives the monster to full health, adding the advanced template and mythic tiers. This is the intended moment for the heroes to switch over to their alternate identities and engange in an even more epic battle. Eventually the Witch will start sending monsters to directly eliminate the party, some of which will be revived as Gargantuan titans.

All of which leads to this mental image:
As the evil monster is revived by the Witch Rita Repulsa's spell, five martial artist teenagers with attitude grimly reach for their belts, flourish their wondrous items, and chant the required verbal component: It's Morphin Time!

...yes, I totally went there. Bonus points to anyone who caught on before the end. ^_^

It Will Be AWESOME!!!!

A future conversation from this campaign:

Five heroes... each wearing similar but differently colored Eidolon 'suits'... walk into town.
NPC: So what kind of adventurers are you guys?
Character: We're Rangers!
NPC: What, like Aragorn?
Character: ...not that type of Ranger.
NPC: Huh. Doesn't look like you're carrying any swords or bows.
Character: We prefer to use martial arts, actually.
NPC: But aren't Rangers supposed to either use two swords, or a bow?
Character: Well, we do have weapons. Kimberly uses a bow sometimes...


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I feel kind of embarrassed to say I got it within the first sentence.


This thread is awesome, I have played or run many of the things listed so thanks for all the good memories everyone.

I would love to run a game where modern day people get transported to pathfinder. I tried to do it back in 3.5 but it lasted all of two sessions before unacceptable levels of PVP killed the game. Two characters framed a third character for murder, because... they had no excuse and it was just stupid and it happened before I could even spring the plot twist.

I would love to play in Birthright or even Kingmaker, I really wouldn't like running this, just playing.


Orthos wrote:
I feel kind of embarrassed to say I got it within the first sentence.

Wow! Maximum bonus points. O.O

And here I thought I'd set it up pretty well...


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"Ten thousand years" and "Witch freed from imprisonment" were a dead giveaway, especially in that close proximity. >_>


getting back on topic, I would love to play in any of the following games: a "don't rest your head", "Scion", or "Underground". Don't rest your head has one of the most interesting mechanics I've read in a while, scion cause playing godlings is cool, and underground cause I wish I had gotten super powers when I was in the army.


Don't Rest Your Head?


Odraude wrote:
Don't Rest Your Head?

Horror game from Evil Hat Productions where the characters are 'Awakened'. As in they've stopped sleeping entirely, somethings caused them to snap, and they've started seeing the doorways to the nightmare city, a twisted reflection of our world where memories and sensations can be bartered and sold, and horrific Nightmares like the Tacks-Man hunt people who are awake. After all, if you can se them, they can see you. You have Madness powers, but pushing yourself exhausts you further, and you really don't want to fall asleep...

As the blurb puts it, the click you hear when you snap isn't the secret world snapping into focus, it's the Nightmares flicking off the safety and pointing a gun at your head.

Last I checked there was the core book, a supplement called Don't Lose Your Mind with 26 example madness powers (one for each letter of the alphabet) and a book of stories in the setting called Don't Read This Book.


Very interesting. I may have to look into it...


Odraude wrote:
Very interesting. I may have to look into it...

I've yet to run it, but I love the idea. Unfortunately I've been having trouble getting groups together at the moment apart from my Pathfinder groups... I had a Shadowrun game finally ready to run, and then one of the other guys swept in with a weird World of Darkness game. While I was a bit annoyed, because everyone knew I had this game planned and was only a week or two off starting, at least it gives me another chance to play. Makes a nice change from being the ForeverGM.

Anyway, only group I could really run this for at the moment is my 14 year old cousin and his friends, and playing a straight up horror game with them is a can of worms I'm simply not willing to open. The Laundry RPG was enough.


Planescape
Ravenloft
Dark Sun
Blackmoor

Ones I want to run more of.
Mystara (in due time I'll be running "Master of the Desert Nomads" evolving into "Red Arrow, Black Shield" and "Saga of the Shadowlord"
Dragonstar: I just like the setting
L5R: I have one very occasional game I'd like to finish.


While in my many years of gaming I've been blessed enough to play some kick ass games based on video games like the various Final Fantasys (6,10,12,tactics) Castlevania, Diablo and Wow, the one no one ever wanted to play was the Everquest Rpg which kinda sucks because I bought most of the old 3rd edition d20 version of the rules and never got to use them.

I'm the only fan in the group, everyone else gives a resounding F%+$ No!

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

One of the great tragedies of this hobby is that we’ll never have the opportunity to run even close to everything we want to, even if every gamer lived a 1,000 years. Here’s a brief list of my many ‘dream’ campaigns.
• Planescape: just the endless, infinite scope blows me away.
• Dark Sun: played a fun mini-campaign with my brother as a teenager, would love to go back as an adult. Obviously there’d be none of that 4th edition reboot crap.
• Star*Drive: chances may have come and gone on that front, but I thought it was a very interesting setting, with a massive sense of variety and scale.
• Star Wars: did a brief ‘Rogue squadron’ campaign many years ago, but struggled making deep-space dogfighting mechanically swift and interesting with pen and paper. Would love to run a campaign focused on smugglers or Jedi padawans on the run after Order 66.
• Dark Heresy: briefly played in an ill-fated PbP but would love to DM.
• Council of Wyrms: played the single-player ‘taster’ adventure from Dungeon magazine, but would love to run a full-blooded campaign. One focused on human dragonslayers would also be interesting.
• Night Below set in the Forgotten Realms.
• Drow House campaign set in the Forgotten Realms with the PCs as scions of a drow house seeking ascendency in Menzoberranzan or another dark elf city.
• Razor Coast, Slumbering Tsar or Rappan Athuk
• A campaign where the PCs are all one race or all one class.


What exactly is Blackmoor like? I have seen it pop up a couple times but Wiki seems more interested in relaying it's history not what sort of setting it is or how it plays. As a bit of a collector of settings I find the ones printed before I was born elude me... Blackmoor and Tekumel in particular.


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Would love to play or run in either of these settings:

* Appleseed: because cyborgs, bioroids, net-guns and investigation is too much fun with Masamune Shirow

* Nausicaa: because post-apocalyptic seas of corruption, windships, worm handlers and mystic powers are too much fun with Hayao Miyazaki.

Playing in an Eberron game and a Dark Sun game by PbP. Both are a blast.

Silver Crusade

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

Would love to play or run in either of these settings:

* Appleseed: because cyborgs, bioroids, net-guns and investigation is too much fun with Masamune Shirow

* Nausicaa: because post-apocalyptic seas of corruption, windships, worm handlers and mystic powers are too much fun with Hayao Miyazaki.

Playing in an Eberron game and a Dark Sun game by PbP. Both are a blast.

I would play in a Hayao Miyazaki campaign in a heartbeat.


Aranna wrote:
What exactly is Blackmoor like? I have seen it pop up a couple times but Wiki seems more interested in relaying it's history not what sort of setting it is or how it plays. As a bit of a collector of settings I find the ones printed before I was born elude me... Blackmoor and Tekumel in particular.

Medieval--Moreso than regular settings and focused on warfare and expansion (at least story-wise). Very standard, very old-school. Generic good vs. evil armies. I always liked the simplicity it offered and could wrap my head around it better than Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. I found a First Fantasy paperback copy in horrible condition at an antique mall ages ago (paid a dollar, I think) and I've wanted to give it a try ever since.

The new d20 version looks all right, but I never bothered to pick up the physical book (another regret for the pile). The Zeitgeist Games reboot link (there's a few sample pdfs under the description).


Is Drive Thru RPG still being updated? The links to samples all lead to "claim this" domain errors.

Liberty's Edge

I'd love to use my collection of Freeport material sometime - I'm thinking of replacing "New Port" with Freeport in my upcoming 13th Age game.


Aranna wrote:
Is Drive Thru RPG still being updated? The links to samples all lead to "claim this" domain errors.

Well the IP (74.200.205.40) isn't responding to pings so... it's down right now anyway.

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