- I've got Green Ronin's The Black Company Campaign Setting book (and don't worry, I've at least read the first trilogy), and I've always wanted to play in a campaign with it again, even if it's not Glen Cook's actual setting. I really like the gritty-yet-not-pessimistic feel of it and how magic is treated more like it is in older fiction and folklore, as a big freakin' deal and how someone who knew magic was someone you had to deal with VERY carefully.
- A campaign idea I keep coming back to is that you have your traditional "sealed evils" in the world, but instead of one apocalyptic threat appearing and being beaten at a time, they ALL broke loose at once, overwhelmed the world, and now the PCs must struggle to survive in a world where the gods have been slain, civilizations have collapsed, and the line between monster and person has been redefined (if you and a goblin run into a city infested with sentient killer kudzu, for example, or an eternal blizzard centered on a primordial rune, you're gonna have to work together to get out!)
- Another idea I've had bouncing around is that the PCs get trapped in a world that's basically one big megadungeon, with wildly variant architecture styles from floor to floor or even hallway to hallway, where some trapped souls have banded to form tiny camps or even makeshift towns around reliable sources of food and water, while some rove in gangs, killing whatever they find out of fear or madness, others desperately exploring to find a way out, or figure out how they came here.
That last idea sounds like The Cleaves.
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A game where the whole party is adventuring alongside this one NPC. The catch: She's 5-6 levels above everyone else. She's sort of a GM's pet/GMPC sort of archetype, beloved by almost all NPCs, the obvious chief hero of the story, always getting special favors. She gets away with murderhoboing, with evil acts, even with beating up/humiliating other partymembers—all things that you'd expect the GM's pets we always hear about on Advice threads to pull off. And she seems cautious enough to anticipate simple tactics like cutting her throat. Whenever you try to leave, she tracks you down, or you encounter monsters that nearly kill you before she intervenes.
Gradually, you begin to realize you're trapped in a horror-thriller movie about a deranged murderer. The campaign follows your trials and tribulations as you struggle to escape or kill the storyline's true villain.
I will run this someday.
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I'd play it.
Bonus points if it's more like a "reverse harem" at first glance, but over time the GMPC is clearly revealed as a yandere and will stop at nothing to be with all her beloveds...forever.
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Someone was suggesting a campaign where the dwarves had lost access to the surface. They had to grow food underground and fight monsters for living space.
When I find the topic I'm going to suggest they pursue the big bad to the surface. A voice goes off in their heads saying, "The template has failed" and they realize they are all mining robots with human consciousness copied into their plastic brains. They are standing on the surface of an airless rock in space. You were chasing a heavy mining droid that had gone rogue. A company ship picks you all up. You get upgraded while the bad guy gets dissected.
I've wanted to run a Ghost in the Shell (SAC) style game for a really long time.
This weekend, I get to run a binge gaming session (we're scheduled for 16 hours, 4 on Friday, 8 on Saturday, 4 on Sunday) where the players will be a covert police unit attempting to uncover a criminal mastermind's plot. We're using of my favorite systems, Dark, which is a stealth-action game, that has amazing stealth rules, plus gumshoe style clues.
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oh man I found some old High School D&D stuff I wrote and never ran yesterday
So there is an island where small earthquakes have been uncovering lots of ruins. Lots of adventurers come to investigate and loot. First few levels is about PCs racing other groups of adventurers to different dungeons (So much grid paper covered with randomly generated dungeons). In one of the dungeons the PCs will discover a mystery portal to who knows where but they don't know how to open it.
at any rate this keeps up till about 5th levels when all hell breaks loose.
The Volcano erupts at the same time as the island gets attack by a horde of Orc Vikings (Orc Vikings...had to be said twice). The PCs have to lead the villagers to safety but the only option is the Mystery Portal. They find themselves in a new world with a village of people and must build a new civilization, since they can't go home because the gate is covered in Lava.
Followed by a bunch of world building notes.
Looks like it's all 2E stuff. I'm guessing it was just after I bought D&D world building guide book cause I really went to town with hex maps, wind and ocean currents. There is some stuff about a Romen Empire run by Dragon men and some other stuff about psychic elves with crystal embedded in their foreheads.
It's a mess but I think I could actually do something with this
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I came up with a whole campaign world based on the Indian Ocean trade routes, with the different people coming from the different corners of the land, with the centerpiece the Ruby Kingdom, a central country on an island in the middle of the ocean--essentially Sri Lanka. The number four featured heavily for various reasons.
First from the northwest were the People of Air, the kobolds, lizardmen, troglodytes, led by the dragons. They had a strong Greco-Roman feel.
Their empires decayed to be replaced by the People of Earth, from the northeast. Gnomes, dwarves, and elves, led by giants, came to the Ruby Kingdom to lead, with a strong East Asian flair.
Their influence waned, to be replaced from the southeast by the People of Water: halflings, orcs, and humans, led by celestials, with a South Asian style. The campaign opens with humans dominating the Ruby Kingdom, the People of Earth found often, and the People of Air in hidden corners.
And then, from the southwest, come the People of Fire. Fiend-led bugbears, hobgoblin, and goblin conquistadors.
I'm from New Jersey. For a long time now, I've had an idea to take a map of the state and make it into a fantasy realm, keeping certain towns and cities as locations, and using a bunch of the material from Weird NJ (there are books with various bits collected) as adventure locations.
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Kingmaker in Eberron.
'Nuff said.
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I'm from New Jersey. For a long time now, I've had an idea to take a map of the state and make it into a fantasy realm, keeping certain towns and cities as locations, and using a bunch of the material from Weird NJ (there are books with various bits collected) as adventure locations.
Was this inspired by Piers Anthony taking a map of Florida and making it into Xanth?
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I'm from New Jersey. For a long time now, I've had an idea to take a map of the state and make it into a fantasy realm, keeping certain towns and cities as locations, and using a bunch of the material from Weird NJ (there are books with various bits collected) as adventure locations.Was this inspired by Piers Anthony taking a map of Florida and making it into Xanth?
Actually, no. I didn't know about that. I think I got the basic idea from when I was a kid and my brother used a National Geographic map of the UK to design his campaign world.
Something I never knew I never wanted to run until an offhanded comment by my Fiance triggered a 5 minute long day dream of a potential play session.... Not so much a full campaign idea, more like a quirk to a campaign.
The set up: Players get captured by BBEG in a sea-side fortress on a cliff. They get dragged up a tower with another NPC or three. At the top, BBEG reveals his grand plan in true Bond Villain style, and promises to have them all executed and there's nothing they can do to stop it. Finally, he points at one of the NPCs and proclaims! "Throw them in the drink!"
So, the NPC gets thrown in the pit in the center of the room/tower. As he's falling, the churning and undulating sea water below erupts as a massive Water Worm rises out of the water, just large enough to fit in the pit. Think an aquatic version of one of them sand maws from Star Wars, only with lots of tentacles. It chomps the NPC out of thin air, to which the BBEG goes. "D'awww! Who's daddy's little boy! What a good little water worm! Did you enjoy your snack Drynk? I've got more for you!"
BBEG proceeds to leave as another NPC gets tossed in. Commence Bond-Style tables turning and the bad guys getting thrown into the "Drynk".
Alternatively, make it a pirate captain, and Drynk is a pet kraken.
Campaign idea that spawned from that little day dream? Everything that a BBEG could say "do to (character/s)" happens to be a homonym for the name of some vicious creature, or horrible contraption. "Burn them" could actually be "lock them in the arena with Burn the Balor", for instance.
... I know, I should be shot for building a campaign around puns.
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I want to run a setting that feels like the setting of a fantasy novel. That's to say, weird stuff shows up, and the campaign feels less like the exploration of an existing ruleset. Monsters and general oddities aren't known and documented—many of them might actually be unique.
An example: In The Hobbit, "the PCs" stumble upon a weird hermit bear shapeshifter guy. They've never even heard of these things before, and for all they know he's a unique creature. Tolkien's stories are rife with events like these. In another story I'm reading, a desert struggles with things called "steelstorms" where shards of rock and metal get swept up into the air like really sharp sandstorms.
You really feel like the writer is making everything up, and like each creature represents a fresh creative effort. I'm not asking for all-original monsters and hazards—just different framing. Make each fantastical element feel exciting and new and, well, fantastical. Instead of, "Aah! It's a rust monster!" it could be, "Aah! It's The rust monster!"
So, in simpler terms, it's a setting where Knowledge is used less to identify monsters, where Knowledge (history) might have a better shot at working out how to kill the aberrations than Knowledge (dungeoneering). Probably focused on exploration to help sell it—a group of adventurers or aspiring heroes journeying far outside the safety of their [urban center] for the first time and finding a world of bizarre adventure waiting for them.
I got an idea for a Christmas one-shot this morning after reading a joke rant about how Santa's elves are under-appreciated. The gist was that the elves do all the hard work for no money but Santa gets all the credit.
Therefore I propose a Glorious Elven Communist Uprising to overthrow the Bourgeois Kringles and retake ownership of the means of productions for the worker!
The PCs would be called in as strikebusters by Santa but could chose to side with the elves or crush them under their heels.
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Krampus shows up in a game world without christmas. After the many deaths, the characters have one year to learn how to celebrate christmas so HE doesn't come back.
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I've always wanted to run a random campaign. I do mean random. Grab every random generator table I can find that relate in some way to PF and the game's default setting, then just start running.
Everyone rolls up characters while I randomly generate the first "hex" on the map. There's no BBEG, no overarching plot until some random combination of rolls generates it.
This seems like a "crazy" idea to me because, after the age of 15 I haven't found a single player who's willing to go along with it.
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I've always wanted to run a random campaign. I do mean random. Grab every random generator table I can find that relate in some way to PF and the game's default setting, then just start running.
Everyone rolls up characters while I randomly generate the first "hex" on the map. There's no BBEG, no overarching plot until some random combination of rolls generates it.
This seems like a "crazy" idea to me because, after the age of 15 I haven't found a single player who's willing to go along with it.
I'd play! Honestly, I've done something similar to start, and over time start making the world more coherent as the narrative emerges from the random noise.
I've always wanted to run a random campaign. I do mean random. Grab every random generator table I can find that relate in some way to PF and the game's default setting, then just start running.
Everyone rolls up characters while I randomly generate the first "hex" on the map. There's no BBEG, no overarching plot until some random combination of rolls generates it.
This seems like a "crazy" idea to me because, after the age of 15 I haven't found a single player who's willing to go along with it.
Put up an interest check and I'll stop by!
Let's roll some 3d6 straight down the line for stats!
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The one thing I've long been wanting to do is a space fantasy campaign based on Green Ronin's Freeport Trilogy, by transfiguring the city into a space station. Maybe even with a little Babylon 5 DNA spliced in. I might actually get the chance when my reign of Winter campaign finishes off next year. The Technology Guide and Ultimate Psionics might be good fits, too.
Does anyone know some good space station maps?
I've always wanted to run a game set in the Forgotten Realms where the Sword Coast is invaded by a gigantic, floating fortress-ship that uses Industrial Revolution-era science to deadly effect, raining down technological hellfire on the hapless denizens below. Clockwork dragons, mages, and leviathans, oh myyyyyyyy!!!
I don't dislike the Realms, but in the past few years I've grown bored of the Tolkein-esque high fantasy genre that settings like Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance emulate. It be real interesting to bring something to the Realms that would probably start making a good chunk of fans of the setting start sweating or swearing profusely :P
It be real interesting to bring something to the Realms that would probably start making a good chunk of fans of the setting start sweating or swearing profusely :P
Been there, done that, yelled about it. /spellplague
I've been enjoying running a homebrew adventure path I wrote set in Golarion, but linked to D&D games I ran 20 years ago. The adventure is for a group new to tabletop RPGs, with the goal of easing the players into fantasy tropes and roleplaying, only to later bonk them over the head with a twist linking Golarion and its cosmology to my old D&D games by way of Planescape.
After a thrilling boss fight with the adventure's primary villain near a wardstone on the border of the Worldwound and Ustalav, the PCs arrived at the bottom of the ocean in the Outlands, safely encapsulated in a force sphere. I plan to use this campaign as a prequel to a modified Wrath of the Righteous campaign that will eventually lead to a "Cosmology War" between Golarion's cosmology and the D&D multiverse, with the PCs deciding the outcome.
I've always been fond of running campaigns spanning different settings, and finding ways to incorporate opposing settings into one adventure. Additionally, I enjoy taking published adventures and reworking them into my custom-verse. Anytime an AP says, "beyond the scope of this adventure..." I get excited and fill in the blanks myself.
The one thing I've long been wanting to do is a space fantasy campaign based on Green Ronin's Freeport Trilogy, by transfiguring the city into a space station. Maybe even with a little Babylon 5 DNA spliced in. I might actually get the chance when my reign of Winter campaign finishes off next year. The Technology Guide and Ultimate Psionics might be good fits, too.
Does anyone know some good space station maps?
Cost money..
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112361/SciFi-Floor-TilesOn Steam..
http://store.steampowered.com/app/332292/
Here's all the downloadable images bing returned..
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Sci+Fi+tiles&FORM=HDRSC2
Thanks, I'll check thouse out.
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A Megadungeon with no monsters/enemies, just traps, traversal puzzles, discovering history and beautiful/bizarre scenery.
So, Journey?
A world without game balance. Basically, any personal spell can be made into a potion, then used by a fighter. There are no level limits for potions or oils so spiritual weapon can be used on any weapon. The wizard's transformation spell can be used by fighters in a potion. The potion companies have built empires like the fairy godmother in Shrek 2. Evil dragons gain their treasure by selling blood for potions of dragon breath.
Y'know what sounds "ridiculous" to me these days? The idea that a campaign will make it to it's intended end. Technically, right now with the players I still have available I have THREE different campaigns running:
1. a sandboxy megadungeon where a decadent merchant city is working with sentient monster groups in the dungeon to exploit the resources buried deep in the dungeons or underground areas. The city offers up slaves and other necessities for the monsters, the creatures in return offer iron, treasure and cruel magic
2. a "non-linear" game as described in the Gamemaster's Guide: a central event with many different paths. The catalyst event was when a group of zealous, dragon-worshipping kobolds nearly flooded a city. The heroes are now dealing with the dungeons and adventure sites "awakened" by the near-cataclysm. All of these paths however seem to be leading back toward the kobolds once more...
3. a run at Frog God Games' Lost City of Barakus. The campaign is heavily homebrewed with some of the wilderness areas either eliminated or modified to reflect the ancient history of the area.
So I guess my "weird" idea I secretly want to do is get one of these three back on track and get it to like, 10th level at least where the PCs are beating the BBEG, founding their own strongholds and really claiming one whole section of the gameworld as their own.
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A game reaching it's intended end? I think that's blasphemy these days!
(still hoping for a glimpse at such a thing myself though)
I know one simple solution to making a campaign more likely to reach its intended end: make it less ambitious.
The last campaign I ran was the one clear-cut time I managed to reach the intended end. It only reached level 6, but we made it. I actually started to feel sick of RPGs by the time we finished it. (In fact, I haven't gotten un-sick of RPGs yet.) During those last few months, the only thing that kept me going was the thought that this may be my only chance to finish a campaign.
I described my experiences in this thread.
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A game reaching it's intended end? I think that's blasphemy these days!
(still hoping for a glimpse at such a thing myself though)
But you still better plan out your character progression to Level 20, because anything less is just poor optimization.
(I went nearly ten years with never having a character above Level 5. It's astounding how many strategies simply fall flat on their face when that's the only space you're playing in.)
Yeah, that's an experience I've never had the chance to enjoy myself.
A game reaching it's intended end? I think that's blasphemy these days!
(still hoping for a glimpse at such a thing myself though)
My group is going to start the final chapter of Kingmaker when I get back from my yearly January Overtime hiatus. We're hoping to finish by summer. If/when we do, it'll be the first campaign any of my group has actually completed.
Finishing Skull and Shackles was more of a chore after book three than an accomplishment.
That could be because the last two books were awful, though.
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My crew has just finished book three, so we will see what the rest holds for us. Of course, we're horribly overpowered for our level and so my wife has had to modify encounters and add plenty of extra content, so we're not likely to stick close to the books.
My group is going to start the final chapter of Kingmaker when I get back from my yearly January Overtime hiatus. We're hoping to finish by summer. If/when we do, it'll be the first campaign any of my group has actually completed.
Excellent! Reign of Winter has just entered the fifth book and I expect we'll be over and done with it by the end of the year, if not by summer. We move at a much better clip thanks to the more linear plot compared to Skull and Shackles.
I did manage to almost complete my first Shackled City game. It didn't go to the full 20 levels, but we found a good stopping point at 15th that was a suitable end if not the intended end.
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I'd like to run a game where the players really guide the action. I mean really. Like, I just set up the setting but really get into that setting y'know? Like multi-paragraphs of history, locations, etc. Then I just turn to my players and go "what do you want to do?" From there, they just go and I just tell the players what they see when they get there.
This is how we used to play when I was a kid. I guess most of my games nowadays are an effort to re-create my childhood. Sad, I admit.
Anyway I used to just show up with my homemade (read: terrible) map, lots of info if people asked for it, and then the players had their own motivations and goals. Like when my buddy waned from level 1 to have an elemental-powered sword and through the whole campaign he just guided the party to different locales until he assembled everything he needed for the Artifact Sword of Water.
FYI; that sword is how my homebrew's "Second Age" ended. It was used to open a gate to the elemental plane of water thereby drowning an entire empire. Unfortunately my buddy's PC was killed in the process so... Atlantis.
I'd like to run a game where the players really guide the action. I mean really. Like, I just set up the setting but really get into that setting y'know? Like multi-paragraphs of history, locations, etc. Then I just turn to my players and go "what do you want to do?" From there, they just go and I just tell the players what they see when they get there.
You mean a sandbox?
I'm running three Fallout sandboxes using Savage Worlds right now, two online, one in person, all set in Florida. They're going, for the most part, pretty well. The first PbP grouo seems to want rails, the second is still in the first "dungeon" they were dropped off at so there's no telling, and the live group seems to be loving the freedom.
Yes, this is the game conversion I mentioned several pages back wanting to get finished and up and running. It has been a blast! The players all have been leaving very positive comments about the conversion, and more positive than negative about my GMing, so yay! Dreams come true!
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While I've never played it intentionally (as opposed to having games peter out around that level anyway), but E6, or E8 sounds interesting. Although I'd want to shorten it up in the other direction and start out around 3rd or 4th level, and just lengthen the amount of play between, say, 4th and 8th levels...
Too much M&M and GURPS, I guess, in my background, games where you start out competent and 'heroic,' and don't really change much over time. It also fits the feel of various fantasy novels and movies, where the character doesn't necessarily have a '1st level speed bump' to '20th level demigod' progression, but starts out and ends the storyline pretty much at the same tier of power.
The XP wouldn't be the prime motivator to keep playing, which would be a paradigm shift for some. (Including me! I've quit playing characters who've hit level caps in online games, because I felt like time spent playing them was just robbing XP from other characters I could be playing! Utter foolishness, but such is my opportunity-cost-obsessed brain. 'If I eat these Lindt chocolates, I'll have had too much sugar to eat the ice cream I could have later...')
More of a 'game playstyle change' than a 'campaign idea,' I guess. Ignore me. Rambling man is rambling on.
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@ Mr Green Jeans: yes, a sandbox, but one where the players REALLY take charge. Right now I have three "sandbox" games, all of which I spoon-fed my players plot lines until they took the bait. Not so much sandbox as they are "non-linear."
I want players to sit down to MY table and for THEM to tell ME: here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna go here so we can try to find this or accomplish this goal.
My players just seem so... passive. I get it at level 1, adventure 1, you want a little direction. But by level 5 after we've played this homebrew setting for a year, you STILL need me to give you a set of "potential plot points?"
Seriously. I want my players to take crafting skills and feats; I've even offered them as bonus feats in one game. All three of these games is using the Ultimate Campaign rules for Downtime. I want my players to go, get invested in the gameworld and be engaged as players in what their characters want. Form alliances, build items and businesses, make enemies.
My players want none of this.
My players want to sit down, week after week, and find out who the monster/villain of the week is. They want plots handed to them, then they want those plots to be "you start here... fight these foes... go to here... figure out X and finally... beat the BBEG." Too much American TV if you ask me.
So I guess it's not a different campaign I want. It's different players. Anyone in this thread interested in a sandbox and living in MN, USA?
It's different players. Anyone in this thread interested in a sandbox and living in MN, USA?
Way on the other side of the country, but let me know if you start a play by post ;-)
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So I guess it's not a different campaign I want. It's different players. Anyone in this thread interested in a sandbox and living in MN, USA?
Ah, you remind me of every game of Vampire: the Masquerade I played, ever, in which I was told 'This is going to be a political game, lots of influence-trading and power-base-building, not as much combat.' and giddily prepared some Venture young turk executive powerbroker or Toreador art maven, only for the game to degenerate within two sessions to 'Sabbat attacks! Your compound's on fire and all those Retainers you paid for with character points are dead!' or 'Garou invasion! Soak 10 Agg, miss art teacher with no combat skills or gear!'
Still, the trapped look of desperation in an ST/GM's eyes when he hands you a blue book to chronicle what plans your character is working on between sessions, and you say 'I'll need more than one of those...' is fun.
Kingmaker seems like it would be the perfect chassis to run such a game, going off the rails and building something really unique, such as a new Varisian 'homeland' or a place for Halflings to settle without the crap they have to put up with in Cheliax, or a 'sanctuary nation' for races that aren't as loved anywhere, like Tengu or Tieflings or Half-Orcs, or a nation being founded by members of one of the Factions in the Faction Guide, such as the Kalistocracy of Druma, or the Ninth Battalion, or the Hellknights, or the Aspis Consortium!
Best of all, the Stolen Lands are big enough that different players in a single group could each be establishing their own city-state, loosely allied, and focusing on their own cause celebre. Bob's player is running a Kalistocrat, and making his own little free-market paradise. Jane's player is a Lizardfolk Druid Gozreh-worshipper, and wants to make a nation for her own scaly people, and be taken seriously and not relegated to 'those savages in the swamps.' Billy's playing a 'slip' that escaped slavery in Cheliax through the auspices of the Bellflower network, and wants to establish a sleepy little rural agrarian 'city state' dominated by Halflings as the end destination of the Bellflowers 'underground railroad' out of Cheliax. As long as they are willing to not go out of their way to antagonize each other (Sorry Billy, selling Halflings back into slavery in Cheliax is just to profitable!), it could work out pretty cool.
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Well I once had this idea for a mega-campaign in the Forgotten Realms where Paizo's Runelords would basically be replaced by the Realms' Rune Masters of the Twisted Rune.
The crazy thing about this is that I actually wanted to run the first nine APs for nine different groups of players just to let them combine their forces in a big finale against the Runemasters themselves (who would have been the secret driving force behind all the events in those APs.
Well, I guess there are worse motivations to aspire true lichdom.