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Author Topic: Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't  (Read 2807 times)

tenbones

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I keep folders of campaign ideas. Inside I jot down notes, to form the basis of the potential campaign setting later. As I come across stuff that inspires me, I toss it in there - images, more notes whatever. The goal is that as one campaign closes, I have something to firm up for the next one.

What are some campaign ideas you've never run yet? what are the conceits of that campaign? What system did you want run it with?

1) Oil and Sand - Road Warrior inspired Post-Apocalyptic game. I have this idea set up very loosely in a post-apocalyptic setting, like Dark Sun. Large local region with city-states each with their own "style". Independent set-piece locations that produce certain items needed by everyone - resource management/control, exploration, and survival being big key things. I also have this idea, somewhat lifted from Dark Sun (but I think it's just coincidence) - but I think it's more from Waterworld - where the world has been buried by sand. And in some places the sand is so silty you can literally dive down there to pull up stuff. There might even be post-apocalyptic tech to even facilitate this. Likewise it's a good way to introduce higher-levels of tech and do "dungeoncrawls". History is mostly irrelevant - as I can leave it wide open - I was even thinking of making it procedural with a bunch of tables that I could use as I go. And of course I'd need some vehicular combat. C'mon. It's a must. System: Savage Worlds. Outside possibilities: FASERIP

2) The Thaw - Post Ice-Age fantasy where the technology is Bronze Age. Pleistocene creatures juiced up to monstrous levels. Spring is coming and with it - magic! So the soothesayers say. Inspired by the Ice Schooner (Moorcock) set in a world thawing from the clutches of a winter so long, that Spring is a legend, yet the signs are there. Large scale area where I could have city-states further south dealing with the Thaw entirely differently than others still frozen. Ancient creatures long dormant begin to rise. Ancient races as well. System: no idea. SW is a likely bet.

3) Bug Hunters - Military Space Opera. Think, Starship Troopers lensed through Star Frontiers, where the PC's are a squad of military spec-ops used to deal with special problems the civvies, and the para-military can't/shouldn't deal with. Ideally it would be like highpowered kinetic combat, that acts as a hex-crawl revealing mysteries about the campaign setting, including new civilizations (to kill), older ancient races (to kill), and new enemies to play with. System: CP2020, Interface Zero

4) Savage Palladium Fantasy - Pretty straightforward, Savage Worlds in the Palladium Fantasy world.

I'll get around to these at some point... Anyone else got some stuff they've never done yet?

Baron Opal

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2017, 07:29:25 PM »
Under the Brazen Sun
Inspiration: Barsoom + The Time Traveller + The Night Land

Not post-apocalyptic, but millennia after when Civilization's defiant roar has faded to a death rattle in the face of entropy. The people of the Enclave scrape out a meager life in the sides of the Mohole that brings up desperately needed warmth from the cooling core. The shattered dome no longer keeps out the encroaching sand from the gardens and homes that surrounded the pit.

Ironically, when the Harvesters in Bone arrive, it provides the spark for Enclavers to search out ancient tech, forgotten lore, and lost allies to not only drive back the Harvesters, but to find a new purpose.

System: Light Sci-Fi. Traveller, maybe, although the character creation would need to be massively different. Maybe a version of Other Dust, as I envision some powers available (psi? nano dust control?) but not dominating or magical in nature.

Omega

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2017, 09:24:19 PM »
An ice-age or stone age setting.

Something super high magic like in some anime.

Still trying to wrangle a Boot Hill campaign.

Harlock

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2017, 09:50:03 PM »
A campaign based on The Black Company. I just never developed it. I didn't like the 3rd edition setting book from Green Ronin very much. I feel like low level B/X would be perfect for it. However, I'm never satisfied running someone else's setting very long. I like to create my own worlds.
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Dumarest

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2017, 02:01:40 AM »
I'd like to play Space: 1889 and draw from H. Rider Haggard, Doyle's The Lost World, Jules Verne,  Burroughs, and The Prisoner of Zenda. I think I'd go much lighter on living Martians and have them be much more rarely encountered,  and probably have lots of adventures exploring places on Earth as well (valley/island of dinosaurs and megafauna, King Solomon's Mines , lost Aztec cities, etc.).

Sadly, most gamers I have known do not share my enthusiasm. Most haven't even read any of the classics of adventure. And too many, for my taste, balk at any game without magic and elves and the familiar elements of fantasy. My personal preference would be more pseudohistorical settings or sci fi.

tenbones

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« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2017, 10:30:55 AM »
Quote from: Dumarest;976568
I'd like to play Space: 1889 and draw from H. Rider Haggard, Doyle's The Lost World, Jules Verne,  Burroughs, and The Prisoner of Zenda. I think I'd go much lighter on living Martians and have them be much more rarely encountered,  and probably have lots of adventures exploring places on Earth as well (valley/island of dinosaurs and megafauna, King Solomon's Mines , lost Aztec cities, etc.).

Sadly, most gamers I have known do not share my enthusiasm. Most haven't even read any of the classics of adventure. And too many, for my taste, balk at any game without magic and elves and the familiar elements of fantasy. My personal preference would be more pseudohistorical settings or sci fi.

Yeah I'm totally on this vibe - and I'm totally in the same boat. I would love to do a classic pulp-style adventure campaign but it's a hard sell to my players who want "higher-octane stuff" - but I maintain pulp-adventures *are* "high-octane", just with a different and sometimes lighter vibe.

S'mon

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2017, 11:20:49 AM »
I wanted to do a Warriors of Mars sandbox game, but couldn't work out how to make it work. I think the setting might be a bit too alien. I've struggled with post-apocalypse also - both near future Road Warrior and far future Taarna type stuff.

I also wanted to do a space opera, but for years was stymied by various incomprehensible rules until a few weeks ago, now my White Star PBP is going very nicely though. :D Also I'd like to do a two-fisted 1930s Daredevils type game but again I need better/simpler rules than are generally available, and some procedural content generators. Another one I've wanted to run is Heavy Gear or similar military SF. Now I have White Star I could see my way to doing that as a d20/OSR type game though. Another one is Space: 1889 - and, love much of the setting, conflicted about the rules.

I have run a 1e AD&D Yggsburgh campaign with a Gothic Romance vibe, I would like to go back to that style of campaign some day, probably use an OSR game - I like A Ghastly Affair but it may be a bit too complex.

WillInNewHaven

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2017, 12:40:23 PM »
I've always wanted to run a campaign based on the DARK BORDER books by Paul Edwin Zimmer. In fact, I have done some work on one. However, my peeps and I have a lot invested in my existing campaign world and the settings are too different to put the DB adventures in it. Now that I have retired and moved to Florida and left my gaming group behind, maybe I will do it.

Just before the aforementioned move, I had set up an adventure in my campaign world that involved a lengthy caravan trip on the Silk Road and we characters rolled up. However, the opportunity to buy this house came up and I jumped at it. The campaign I am running via Skype doesn't have enough player-characters for the ambitious caravan setting. So we are playing in the Black Mountain District.

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Llew ap Hywel

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2017, 01:32:35 PM »
I had a real urge recently to run a game using Mythras. Setting wise taking a lot from the tone and feel of Violet Dawn/Dark Sun/Conan but folding in some post apocalyptic/far future elements. Never got much past the ruminating stage but it's bubbling around the back of my head.
Talk gaming or talk to someone else.

Gronan of Simmerya

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2017, 02:32:47 PM »
PENDRAGON.  Straight, with no Monty Python references.
You should go to GaryCon.  Period.

The rules can't cure stupid, and the rules can't cure asshole.

Dumarest

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2017, 02:43:48 PM »
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;976681
PENDRAGON.  Straight, with no Monty Python references.

Never gonna happen. :D

Dumarest

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« Reply #11 on: July 19, 2017, 02:47:09 PM »
I'd also like to run a Bushido game with all the PCs being bushi, no wizard types or ninja, and magic solely in the hands of the referee, kind of like how Pendragon works best. Probably set before the battle of Sekigahara so we can have lots of daimyo in conflict with each other and grasping for the shogunate.

Malleustein

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2017, 06:08:17 PM »
Quote from: Dumarest;976683
Never gonna happen. :D


I don't see why not.  I've had a couple of groups who behaved themselves when we played.  I think the trick is just to let them get it out of their system before the campaign begins.
"The Point is Good Deeds Were Done and We Were Nearby!"

gwb79

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Campaign ideas you've wanted to run but for whatever reason haven't
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2017, 06:24:14 PM »
Setting: Midnight (FFG)
System: The One Ring

The potential for desperate, dark grittiness seems perfect for this combo. I don't foresee ever having the right group to make it worthwhile though.

Setting: Sci-fi Espionage
System: an adaptation of the old 007 rules (home brew)

Harlock

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« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2017, 07:39:59 PM »
Quote from: Malleustein;976710
I don't see why not.  I've had a couple of groups who behaved themselves when we played.  I think the trick is just to let them get it out of their system before the campaign begins.

My group always spends the first 20-30 minutes goofing off, catching up, and getting the fart jokes out of the way.
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B/X, B4, X2 - You were D&D to me