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.
Well... This could be difficult. Or easy; either way. Most of these will be Modern, as I figure it would just be easier to give highlights of my last 3 years or so and not run down all of the campaigns.
Legends of the Three-and-a-Half Samurai: A game without a group, still think this one will play well. Mid-level, Small PCs only, a setting that is to Asia what Tomorrowland is to the Future. A fun one to run... we hope.
Riders of the Plains: Horsies and Hijinx. One player dies 18 times in 15 sessions due to poor play/negligence. A lot of setting, but most people wanted to hack and slash. Campaign called on account of scattered group before 'plot' comes into play. I blame this one on alcohol and the prison cell atmosphere of our then gaming room.
Year of the Pretender: Thirteen leaders attempt to take over a large city with some large problems. Players back one of the Pretenders to the throne, and hilarity ensues. Doppelgangers, Shadows, and the occasional Celestial dominate. Big ending in a battle between two demigods. Day is won by a young housewife who happens to be carrying the true heir. A Wyrm is defeated by a paladin performing shield bashes... I still don't know how it happened.
Hit the Road to Dreamland (D20 Modern): Post-WW2 US, a bunch of plots; 1st game ended due to apathy. 2nd game currently being staged; we're wondering how it's to come out.
A Hard Rain (D20 Modern): 1964. Watch as college students get involved in affairs of the heart and fight against madness, only to prevent the coming apocalypse as brought on by three young fiends trying to make their way in this work-a-day world. Characters include a painting turned soldier, a folk-singer turned revenant, and a girl and her dog.
Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine (D20 Modern): 1976. On the eve of the Bicentennial, a group of questionable ethics stops the opening of a Gate to Heaven. Almost. A ghostly wannabe mafioso, a former gun-runner, and an itinerant magus come to the show.
Waiting for My Man (D20 Modern): 1984. Sex, Drugs, and Dwarven Punk. Death isn't just a reality; it seemed to be a PC all on its own. Three runs, 27 character deaths . . . extremely unlucky for all involved.
As Yet Untitled Game (d20 Modern): 1990s. The family of Aasimar who pray together slay together. Homeless holy warriors, a guy who is too 'in love' with electronics to be trusted, a Fisher King in the making, a young ectomancer with hormones rivaling arcana, and a strung-out fairy as possible lynch-pin to the whole deal. Yeah; even as the DM I'm just as confused as you are on how this one's coming out.
__________________ This Post and all others (c) Loonook, 2001-2009.
In a time before memory, powers unknown have created a world in which all was designed for physical recreation. Certain adventure scenarios were acted out between live beings and androids (or homonculus or fully humanoid Warforged, for a true fantasy setting).
Then the creators died. The planet's AI, however, lived on, and sought out inspiration for new scenarios, dispersing probes throughout the universe. When it found Earth through its remote drones, it scoured the planet's fantasy fiction for ideas.
Now, the planet is dotted with cities plucked from the works of a variety of writers- Haven, Tanelorn, Lankhmar, Sanctuary, Ankh-Morpork and others dot the world...all rully populated with androids (including the heroes).
Now the world just needs players, and it has reprogrammed its drones to make teleporter rings to bring them to the game...
(PCs may be either be androids, homonculi/Warforged, or sentient beings from whatever race that stepped through a T-port ring.)
***
I can't take credit for this next one- it was originally proposed by a mod (Umbran, as I recall) who posted it in a thread about games centered around animals rather than humanoids.
He proposed that you could run a campaign in which the players PCs are all animals that we would normally consider to be supporting NPCs- familiars, animal companions, special mounts, etc.
One of their number is "The Annointed One" and they have all been called to gather around these humanoids in order to achieve their goals. Essentially, the humans become the companions.
Umbran Post #29
He's still young, and doesn't know it yet, but the kitten is actually The Golden Cat, a prophesied cat hero who has his own quest, and will save the world for all catkind. There will be a string of events throughout the campaign that the party will thoroughly misunderstand, where the cat's adventures impinge upon the human world.
Just like a human hero, along the way he'll pick up his own companions that start showing up and hanging around (these may include any mounts or Animal Companions the PCs may have - they think they have Human Companions...). You get the idea. One always talks about how the PCs are not the only adventuring party in the game world, right? Well, in a magical world, why do they all have to be human?
Read Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song, or Gabriel King's The Wild Road and The Golden Cat for references.
Lifted from Simon R. Green's Haven stories (featuring Hawk & Fisher):
On the Street of Gods
The city of Haven has a street that is only a half mile long on the maps, but cannot be traversed end to end in less than a week...Its spacially warped length is devoted entirely to temples dedicated to the worship of otherworldy beings- Gods? Demons? Only the beings themselves know for sure.
You don't care. You're here because you have a job to do.
You are a member of the city's Watch, but in a division especially formed to patrol this most dangerous of wards, namely the God Squad or S.W.A.T. (Special Wizardry And Tactics).
The GS is composed of at least one arcane spellcaster, a divine spellcaster and "muscle"- a warrior of some type. S.W.A.T. members may be arcane or divine casters, but their emphasis is on magic meant to be used in the tight spaces of buildings or in crowded city streets- "crowd control" you might say.
Unfortunately, things have been getting rowdier on the Street of Gods, and the City's council has decided that the ranks of the GS need beefing up, at least for now.
The PCs are part of a group of intrepid adventurers and explorers who have set out to find and settle a new continent to the west. Each has his o her own reason for joining in this dangerous undertaking.
When landfall finally occurs (after many adventures at sea*), the survivors of the arduous journey set up camp and begin to build a permanent settlement.
And then the discovery comes that the new world is inhabited by beings just as intelligent as any they left behind.
Some in the expedition seek to conquer these new cultures, others seek to befriend them.
Tannhauser Gate was a glittering jewel adrift in space. Cheb, an inhuman man with dreams of glory and power, wanted it for himself.
But he fell in love.
And so he died.
__________________ "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
-- Ernest Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" Burning Empires:Boldaq Keep on the Shadowfell
(D20 Modern/Urban Arcana/Forgotten Realms, PC lvl 3-5)
The PCs are all newly hired investigators at Nancy Drow Investigations, a mid-sized but highly reputable agency. While all relatively new to "the game" they all have excellent recommendations.
On their first day on the job- just after orientation, actually- one of the agency's executive partners' kids is kidnapped. A ransom demand is made, a timeline is set, a dire penalty is threatened. The PCs are tapped for the investigation since- as newbies- they're unlikely to be recognized as NDI agents, and even if they are, their sheer newness may lead the kidnappers to underestimate them.
Can they bring the villains to justice? Can they rescue the little girl?
I had an idea for a campaign based on a series of twisted fairy tales. Basically take a fairy tale and switch something up, swap gender roles so brave princesses are saving handsome princes, evil orphans are terrorizing good hearted witches, that sort of thing. I started the thread here and was told I ought to post a link in this thread. So here it is.
I'm still working on it, have some new ideas for it. I'll probably beef it up and post it in my blog eventually.
Michael Moorcock's Melnibonean environment, with a 4Ed twist.
Substitute Dragonborn for the Melniboneans (I know, I know- what about the Eladrin? See below.). After eons of global domination and many wars with the Tieflings, the Draconibonean Empire is in decline, so they've sealed their borders nearly completely. Their True Draconic ancestors slumber in an extradimensional space, waiting for release. Modern Dragonborn adventurers are extremely lassaiz faire, and make their way through the world as if they still ruled it. (If you have the linguistic chops, use Latin as their language.)
Use Tieflings as Pan Tangians. To challenge the Draconibonean Empire, Pan Tiefians made infernal pacts to improve their sorcery. However, their repeated clashes ruined both empires. Both nations are still powerful, but neither is as ascendant and dominant as once they were. Play up their infernal nature.
Now, merchant kingdoms rule the world, run by humans. Most powerful is a confederation of allied island city/states.
Elves? Forget 'em for the most part- especially the half-elves- but choose one kind of Fey to represent the Winged Folk. Eladrin with wings might work.
For additional fun, represent the barbaric races of the savage lands with Dark Sun style feral Halflings. You could also use Hobgoblins.
Warforged, if you want to use them, could be the remnants of arcane forces from both the Draconibonean and Pan Tiefian empires. They would also make excellent Agents of Law.
Similarly, any shapechanging race- Shifters, Changelings, Doppelgangers and Lycanthropes- would make fine Agents of Chaos.
Minotaurs could be the failed experiments in Pan Tiefian infernal pacts, exemplars of what could go wrong...or they could be a brutish but desired effect of an infernal pact, making them the martial equivalent of the more sorcerous Tieflings. IOW, Tieflings and Minotaurs are magical "close cousins," and could arise in the same family.
Oni could be the "secret masters" behind the Pan Tiefian empire.
The PCs wash up on the shores of an island, remembering very little. Can they survive the dangers of the Isle of Dread and remember their forgotten mission in time to complete it or will they fall prey to the machinations of the isle's Yuan-ti masters?
Note: It is ironic that a horrible movie like 10,000 B.C. can inspire ideas for a cool campaign
In the vein (*ahem*) of Elisabeth Bathory and Delphine LaLaurie...
Hell House
A group of travelers (including the PCs), storm-tossed and weary from the road, happens upon the house of someone of means. They knock on the door, and are granted not just admittance, but lodgings for the night.
By sunrise, however, two of the group have gone missing. Despite the continuing storm, the house's owner asserts they must have left.
By dinner, yet another person has gone missing.
Then another vanishes in the depths of the night.
Finally, someone realizes that the missing are not on the road, but are indeed dead, killed by their host who is seeking an alchemical path to immortality- a living lichdom, if you will.
In an ancient wasteland ruled by a necromancer-king:
An honourable man sought revenge for his wife's murder. He walked between the world of the living and the damned to get it, trading his humanity for bloody revenge.
A nomad who turned her back on her kin in order to save them sought to free her sister from a slaver's cruel hands and did, losing her forever.
__________________ "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
-- Ernest Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" Burning Empires:Boldaq Keep on the Shadowfell
Bard adventure: Prevent your play from going all "Noises Off!"
Backstage murder mystery (see wiki 3e adventures)
__________________ 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.
In the tradition of Moorcock's Corum books... Fantasy adventure for demihuman characters - no humans!
Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, and the like have inhabited the world for millenium (may need to extend some racial age limits). Ages ago they exiled the foul, violent Orcs to the western continent, a land harsh and unforgiving, too brutal for the civilized races to inhabit. The Orcs were eventually largely forgotten except as boogeymen in children's tales. Only the Orcs thrived in their exile-home and evolved... into humans. Humans aren't distinctly evil, but they are violent and chaotic, and also uncouth and uncivilized. They are also smart enough to craft boats and cross the ocean. The elder races, the Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings, learn about the humans the hard way as their peaceful lives are shattered by human raids.
The PCs consist of some of the first of their respective races to rediscover the ancient arts of combat and take up ancestral weapons in defense of their lands. A gathering of elders of the various races chooses the PCs to investigate, as a party, the source and motivations of these new savages and to, wherever possible, thwart their advance across relatively unspoiled lands.
Inspired by Don Quixote and the earlier "PCs as ghosts" scenario, I present an idea for group hallucination/dream adventuring.
PCs are ordinary characters with ordinary stats and abilities. They have dreamlike alter-egos which are themselves as adventurers or heroes. The party either suffers from a curse, or a disease, or drug, or other paranormal circumstance which causes them to be ripped from their normal lives into a fantastical dream world which is really just a gloss over the real world. PCs might end up destroying property, killing innocents, or otherwise causing havoc and getting in trouble with the law or other figures or authority or power. At first dream states would be sporadic and short, but as they become hunted their dream states extend far longer, leaving them on the run from, on one hand, the law, and on the other, demonic or horrific monsters. Good opportunity to raise questions about which world is actually real and which is the dream. Probably not compatible with highly alignment-governed play.
Let your players design a PC from a (limited) selection of D20 FRPGs, with the equivalent power of a 5th level or better 3.X PC. (After the campaign starts, however, they'll only be able to improve by whatever it the core ruleset for your campaign.)
They all awaken on a dais, each on a marble slab, in a darkened circular room lit only by guttering torches. There is a crowd of people in the darkness surrounding them, chanting their names with reverence.
They have been summoned...summoned out of time and space by the beleaguered subterranean peoples on the verge of extinction...
They have been summoned to be heroes- the saviors of an entire race.
Here's an interesting fact: Aspen Trees are a clonal species- they can spread by runners. One of the largest organisms on Earth is an Aspen grove in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains that has 41,000+ trunks.
That inspired this:
No Man's Land:
5000 years ago, a druid (whose name is lost to humanity...) of great power picked a large and remote island devoid of human life as his home, choosing a grove of aspen trees his most sacred space. At some point, he chose to cast Awaken upon one of the aspen...and the entire grove came to life! He had forgotten that Aspen spread by runners...the entire grove was actually one plant- and now it had a mind equal to his own. He trained it in the ways of the druids.
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It reminded me of my previous post (above) and made me think- depending on how you think of corals mechanically (IOW, if they can be targeted by "Awaken"), you could potentially have some truly alien and powerful intellects in the deep waters of the world. Possibly even a challenge to Aboleths and the like.
Coral colonies, as I recall, grow by cloning themselves. Imagine, if you will, a coral polyp being awakened, then cloning itself over and over again, for thousands of years...a colony of intelligent clone-siblings.
A coral colony could be a truly formidable opponent, especially if the sedentary lifestyle of coral is unsatisfactory to the awakened polyps...and they go insane.
OTOH, they could also have quite a sophisticated culture.
Linear Mode
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