General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Played (all in my home-made world of Arva, see the sig).
The War of Naming
The blackscaled soldiers of the Targolid Imperium swarm over the borders. The Unnamed Horror has risen again to lead armies of living siege engines. And in the small town of Westmarch in the Northern Marches, quiet country folk step out of the Sobbing Ghost Tavern and into legend. Played from levels 1-19.
The Messene Crusades
Following the defeat of the Targolid Imperium in the War of Naming, the Tetrarch of Selene declares a crusade to recapture Messian, the Holy City. Knights, pilgrims, and madmen mix with the citizens of Holy Messian, and the result is something no-one could have foreseen.
Played from levels 1-15.
HeimskringlaSaga
Hung from the ash-tree / gently swaying
Carved on the chest-bone / was the corpse-knot
Bound to One-Eye / Father, far-seer
We his Einherjar / He our Betrayer
Set sail the Naglfar / nail-boat of horror
Then sing the sword-song / hail the world's ending
Played from level 1-8, ongoing.
The Graveyard Shift
"Excellence, Integrity, Courage, Community, Service"
- Official Motto, Kingsbridge City Watch
"Why does this crap ALWAYS happen on the graveyard shift?"
- Unofficial Motto, Third Watch (aka The Graveyard Shift)
Played from level 1-10.
The Divine Comedy
"Nobody speaks more of nationhood and unity, and has less, than the cities of the Iostian League of Selene."
The players must survive the murky and shifting factions of Iostian politics -- no easy feat when they themselves are heretics, and the supporters of Emperor and Tetrarch are at each other's throats.
(Modeled on medieval Italy. Serious aside: It turns out there really have been D&D adventurers in real life -- look up "condottieri" in Wikipedia).
Played from level 1-5 (ongoing).
Thirty Pieces of Silver
Judas Iscariot. Brutus. Magneto. Sometimes the fates decree that a soul must be damned so that the world may be saved. Anti-heroes go where angels -- and paladins -- could never tread.
In planning.
best,
Carpe
__________________ The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. Visit Arva, where moral compasses go to die. www.arva.wetpaint.com
Last edited by Carpe DM; 31st August 2007 at 12:50 AM..
Frozen Age: A magical experiment gone awry has hurled the world into an ice age. As glaciers cover the old cities and blizzards terrorize the surviving populance, terrible creatures of old - mammoths, saber-tooth cats and cave-bears - roam the land. Can the heroes brave the dangers of the frozen wasteland, dig deep into the ice-choked ruins of the old cities, and recover old artifacts to bring Spring back once more, and all of this before the (now strengthened) Gods of Ice bring the world entirely within their grip?
Evolutionary Crossroads: In a primeval stone-age, the heroes - warriors, hunters and shamans of their primitive culture - must fight off the dreaded alien Illithids and their infernal plans to interfere with Mankind's evolution (aiming to turn men into domesticated animals fit for Illithid consumption, ceremorphosis and menial tasks). Could the brawn and brains of brave cavemen defeat the otherworldly technology of the Illithid masterminds?
Decline and Fall: The Empire has collapse under the pressure of Goblinoid invasions from without and a bloody struggle for the Mithril Throne from within. Now, Goblinoids and ruffians run rampart through the once peaceful land; cities lie in semi-ruin; the economy has collapsed due to the massive disruption of communications and trade; and minor warlords crave out their own pocket-empires out of the ruins of the Empire. Chaos reigns; opportunity abounds.
Into the Stars: The year is 2063 and Humanity is under attack by the Grays and their assorted alien mercenaries. The PCs, Human-Gray hybrids liberated from a crashed alien craft 20 years ago, posses a unique advantage: their brain structure allows them to establish the mind-machine link necessary to pilot an alien ship both in normal space and in Jumpspace. Now, piloting a captured alien craft, the PCs are sent to explore the universe, gathering information about the Gray empire, looking for technology which could be reverse-engineered, and seeking allies against the Grays. But could they unearth and defeat the Illithid masterminds who hold the real power behind the thrones of the Grays?
Thawed Horrors (one-off): PCs are Star Marines sent to investigate the loss of contact with a colony on a frozen world in the Outer Rim. They are armed with the pinnacles of Humanity's martial technology and posses the best combat training in Known Space, but could they survive the machinations of an Aboleth Savant, older than time itself, who was awoken from eons of frozen slumber by the colony's cursory terraformation attempts? Opposition would include various abberations frozen (and thawed!) along with the Aboleth, colonists possesed by the creature's mental powers, and Skum bred in haste by the monstrosity, not to mention the Aboleth Savant himself...
__________________ In space, everyone can hear you pump the 12-gauge.
- Korgoth about Classic Traveller
Last edited by Shades of Green; 29th August 2007 at 08:03 PM..
The Long Road: The modern world that we know has a hidden partner, Gaia, the realm of the fey and the magical, hidden from us for over a thousand years.
This prompted a memory that I may or may not have had.
I recall there being some kind of made-for-tv movie that was supposed to be about three fantasy words existing simultaneously in the same space, so that anything that happened on one affected the other two. I don't think it made it to air or, if it did, I clearly missed it. Does this ring a bell for anyone?
__________________ Cocoa and chocolate should not be considered a substitute for medications or your doctor’s advice.
Broken Times: A millennium ago, the Ancients have fought a terrible war among themselves using magic and steamtech so powerful that, once they were done, reality itself was twisted fractured: hordes of abberations now live where wildlife used to be; magic works in unexpected ways near spell-blasted ruins; ancient machines roam the countryside, fulfilling orders which are now a thousand years out of date; and the dead sleep uneasily in their tombs, stirred by residual magical energies left over from bygone spells. It is now time for the PCs to rebuild civilization, to seek out the treasures of the old world, and to right ancient wrongs.
__________________ In space, everyone can hear you pump the 12-gauge.
- Korgoth about Classic Traveller
"Nobody speaks more of nationhood and unity, and has less, than the cities of the Iostian League of Selene."
The players must survive the murky and shifting factions of Iostian politics -- no easy feat when they themselves are heretics, and the supporters of Emperor and Tetrarch are at each other's throats.
(Modeled on medieval Italy. Serious aside: It turns out there really have been D&D adventurers in real life -- look up "consiglieri" in Wikipedia).
Aw, damn, that sounds awesome. I've been thinking for a while that medieval Italy would make a great source for a campaign: Take the religious corruption of Rome, the cutthroat mercenary families and artistic revolution of Florence, and the canals of Venice, and you've got a hell of a cool D&D setting. Really annoyed me when I found out that Scott Lynch beat me to it (and, good Christ, it's a cool book).
But anyway, I don't think I'm seeing what you saw in the "consiglieri" article. Were you thinking of something else?
And, if any of you are Arthur Conan Doyle fans, and want to see the source material, check out Sir John Hawkwood and The White Company.
__________________ The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. Visit Arva, where moral compasses go to die. www.arva.wetpaint.com
Based on a short story I was writing but will probably never complete...
Not So Charmed (an "all-ages" mini-campaign)
The party is hunting Prince Charming, a man they now know to be a gifted Illusionist (or Enchanter) grifter, con-man, philanderer and bigamist (for the record, his title is real, but he gambled his birthright away to his brothers). Hired by a group of seven angry dwarven miners who seek to avenge the defilement of their beloved Schneweiß, the party soon finds that Charming has left a trail of broken hearts and empty royal treasuries all across Grimmlandia.
The party's mission: bring him back alive! The dwarves want him to do the honorable thing by their mistress.
Unfortunately, others left in this fallen prince's wake are not so concerned with Prince Charming's health. Princess Anne Phibia (his first wife), Princess Longhair, and Princess Narco-Lepsis (and several other jilted royals) have all hired their own bounty hunters, and a group of his non-royal victims (organized by a poor, bamboozled scullery maid who thought she had been rescued from her wicked stepmother & step-sisters) pooled their resources to do likewise as well...
None, however, will stoop to making a widow of another of his victims.
The sands are trickling through the hourglass as the various bounty hunters pursue the landless lothario...who will get to him first?
A small force of Nazis seeking the Spear of Destiny accidentally rip a hole in time & space, winding up in a fantasy world.
Initially, their superior firepower gives them a huge advantage, but since they have no supply lines nor any engineers/inventors, they can't replenish their ammo and fuel. One of the smarter commanders, the dour Oberst Sigfried "Sauer" Ramm of the "Brennendes Augen" Armor Division, decides to consolidate his gains with his remaining power, taking over a mid-sized city-state before they completely run out of supplies.
Once the takeover is complete, the remaining firepower is on display as a potential threat- kept up as best they can, but rarely used.
In the meantime, they use their newfound authority to muster world-specific military forces in order to bring the 3.5 Reich to this new world...
The greatest of all treasures: Millenia ago, seemingly at the order of a god, the nearly immortal Elves left our world, never to return. Today, an ancient template, a murdered brother's journal, and the prophecies of a long dead wizard are all that guide the PCs on a world-spanning treasure hunt for a secret that could shake the foundations of faith in (the campaign world). The Church wants them silenced, a powerful vampire-like enemy seeks the prize for himself, other treasure hunters want a piece of the action, and gangsters seek the power that such a secret would give them.
Can the PCs survive these challenges and best their enemies to lay claim to an ancient treasure beyond all imagining and expose the secrets of the Noble Ones?
__________________ Campaigns I currently participate in:As a player - A D&D 3.5 game in a homebrew world, I'm playing an Aristocrat/Bard/TrueSinger (home brew PrC that meshes Bard with Truenamer); Running - A D&D 3.5 game set in Magnamund (from the Lone Wolf gamebooks/RPG) with some UA alternate rules. The PCs: Shianti-blooded (half elf) fighter//ranger, Shianti-blooded (half elf) cleric//wizard, and a human Fighter//Scout.
Dragon and Dungeon: struck down. Never forget, never forgive. Ever.
4e: so bad, you'll wish you were playing 2e.
"I never want to be part of any story that involves paramedics and hacksaws."
barsoomcore
Last edited by Kheti sa-Menik; 8th December 2007 at 03:28 PM..
It is said that "the First King was a lucky soldier." Seth Trollslayer was that lucky soldier. He took advantage of the fog of a war 'twixt Man & Trolls to place himself on the throne of a small kingdom in the northern mountains and take a beautiful shapeshifting sorceress as his queen.
Now, King Seth has had time to raise a family. All three of his sons are strong, quick, and charismatic young men- perfect leadership material. If only the youngest had the wit and wisdom required to be truly great...
Nevertheless, the youngest son took up the reins of a small company of his father's men- his long time personal arms trainer among them as his Sergeant- and regularly went out to patrol the kingdom's borders.
It was on one such patrol that a messenger arrived from his mother, the Queen, bringing word of the death of his father and 2 older brothers...and ordering his assassination. The word was given while he was away from the camp for...recreation. Alone among the company, the Sergeant was loyal to the young prince, and he died killing off the would-be assassins.
It seems that the family his father "displaced" had one member he didn't know about- the former King's youngest brother- whose lifelong love was the Queen whom Trollslayer married. She ordered her entire family killed to be reunited with the long-lost flame she once thought dead, restoring him to his rightful throne.
The good but dim young Trollslayer knows none of the reasons behind the attempted assassination. He also doesn't really know the way home. Now he seeks his way in the world, his long-term goal to restore himself to the throne his father once held. He is quick to show anyone who is curious the birthmark that graces his left (nether) cheek that marks him as King Trollslayer's Scion, in order to get them to help him regain what he lost, never realizing that his birthmark also marks him for death.
Can the party restore him to the throne? Should they? And is a Shapeshifting Sorceress Queen who kills her family the kind of person who needs to be on or near the throne of a small mountain kingdom in the North?
An old AD&D game I ran started off with the 1st level PCs, each with either a cursed item or a curse upon them, meeting for an appointment with a powerful mage who could remove the curse.
In return for this, the mage sent them on tasks, the completion of each one removing a curse.
The Chronicles of Dior: Enjoy the wackiness that ensues when a shepherd's daughter tries to convince the world to worship the goddess of luck.
__________________ All role playing advice is given without knowledge of you and your group. Only you and your group knows what is fun for you. What you are doing is not badwrongfun. My advice is offered based on what I think might be fun for you to try.
"Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary." - Amedee Ozenfant, Foundations of Modern Art
"I already have a place where I can get little recognition for my accomplishments, advance at a very slow pace, and have to work hard to eke out minimum rewards for my efforts. It's called work." - toberane.
Inspired again by nature to post in my favorite thread: All parts of the brugmansia "tree" (technically, its a shrub, but since it often exceeds 20' in height, who cares?), aka Angel's Trumpet, are highly toxic.
The Brugmansia Strain
A druid outraged by the incursions so-called intelligent races were making into the wilds began to use his Awaken spell to make sentient guardians of certain animals and plants, especially plants- no one would see them coming until it was too late.
Among his favorites- his force of walking brugmansia. Tough and hardy, they survive many climates some other green guardians couldn't...and because of their toxicity, almost nothing feeds on them.
Thus relatively impervious to most predators, they fear little but those who come with fire and axe.
And those they poison by dropping their leaves and blossoms into water supplies...with none the wiser.
A beautiful city full of awakened (but currently dormant) brugmansia and devoid of human life- as well as any carrion eaters- is the setting within which the party of PCs find themselves, trying to unravel the mystery of how the town died.
The Seneschal of Thronehold has sent out a call for agents from the various nations and factions of Eberron to re-unite under the empty Throne of Galifar. The first task: Find the hidden heir(s?) to the throne and bring them to Thronehold. The PCs will not only be fighting monsters and other nasties, but other agents who wish to prevent them from fulfilling their goal. Their first stop: An old church in Karnnath that holds the tomb of a knight with the first clue tattooed on his corpse.
Linear Mode
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