Campaigns in a nutshell. Adventures in a sentence.

The Ol' Switcheroo

The party is from a small remote town high up in the mountains. One day, a bright light fills the sky and a horrible sound floats through the air. Rumors reach the village that the outside world is changed somehow; expeditions speak of cities of ghosts and of a black sky . Trade and communication ceases with areas outside of the mountain range. The PCs thus spend most of their low-levels doing standard PC stuff in the mountains (political intrigue, dungeon crawls, kill orcs, slaying dragons, rescuing princesses, etc.) All the while avoiding the outside world.

Occassionaly, groups of ghosts wander in and ravage the towns (to be beaten back by PCs). When the PCs are high enough level, they explore the area outside of the mountain range and find that not only are all of its inhabitants ghosts, but the land itself is ghostlike as well; Everything looks slightly translucent and polarized with a strange billowing shadow. The sky and sun are black. Towns are literally ghost towns with ghost horses, ghost buildings, etc. They are attacked on sight by the ghost creatures (template can be applied to anything, giants etc.).

Eventually, the PCs begin to notice more strange things. Through spying, they may discover that when unaware of being observed, the ghosts act "normally"; cooking, cleaning, drinking. In the outside world, everything is incorporeal. Treasure is near worthless since the PCs can't grab it. When PCs return to their home town, any dead PCs are there waiting for them. Unsure of how they got there but unhurt (no level loss).

By this point, it should be obvious. The PCs, their land and all of its inhabitants are the ghosts while the outside world is alive. You'd probably have to institute some house rules in order to make it work (no ressurection/ raise dead from the begining, if PCs die in their homeland they are DEAD, Healing spells actually work as inflict spells though you don't have to tell them that.) It would take some serious constant misdirection to pull this off, but it could work well as a short minicampaign. Inspiration (heck, pretty much the whole idea) from The Third Policeman

From an as yet unpublished (heck, incomplete) short story of mine...

The Tales behind the Fables, episode 1

The door to the bar opens, revealing a dwarf with an odd-looking crossbow...and a few of his heavily armed buddies.

The one in front growls, "I'm looking for Prince Charming!" his accent thick and tutonic.

One booze-brave soul speaks up, "Why should we help you, ya short bastid?"

The lead dwarf snaps a shot at the speaker, shattering his bottle...all without looking.

"The scoundrel prince knocked up our beloved Fraulein Schnee-Weiß! He must be found to come back and be a vater vor his child!

"Prince Charming? The one who married Cinderella?"

A second dwarf speaks up- "Aye- and Rapunzel Langenhaar before her, along with the Princesses Contraria (she of the tender sensibilities) and Grace before her. The bigamist actually abandoned the woman who released him from his toadform curse"

"Said curse being placed upon him by his first wife, Arcania." a third dwarf, chiming in.

The first growls "We seek him out, over hill, over dale- through country after country...but we are not trackers and the world is vast. Will any among you join the quest to track down this philanderer for a taste of...dwarven gold? Will you help us bring justice to his children?"

Will you?

D20Modern or Spycraft + Car Wars + GTA

Simply use D20M or Spycraft to roleplay GTA type PCs in the world of Car Wars. Use the Car Wars rules for your vehicle combat.

All you need to do is change the armor & ammo to D20M/Spycraft standards.

Not so much a campaign idea, but a different way of starting up the party...

I saw the ads for Stonehenge, the new boardgame from Titanic Games that is really 5 games from 5 designers using the same physical board & pieces, and I thought you could do the same thing with the PCs.

The Game-master generates a set of stats (using the method of his choice), and lets each Player design his PC using those stats, freely re-arranging them to fit his concept.

Its similar to a point based system, but less flexible. It will force the Players to be creative.

Speaking of starting a party...

In high school I had a reputation, both loved and loathed, for beginning campaigns 'En Media Res' (excuse my spelling at 2:30 AM). In the middle of the action.

Once adventure of Star Wars began when I said to one player, "That was close". The player's response: "What was?".

Me: "That shot."

Him: "They're still shooting at me?"

Me: "Well it was the govenor's wife."

Him:"Details, details. Am I closer to the door or the window? I want to know what I'm jumping through."


Another campaign began with my describing a player just waking up in his room and asking exactly what he did. When his feet touch the floor, his feet got wet. Between that and the rocking motion he realized he was on a ship. As he went about his business, the water on the floor rose, getting deeper and deeper. The ship was sinking. Weee!

Use the British Murder Mystery model:

Start the campaign with a possible murder that might alternatively be a suicide, and the PCs are hired to figure out what happened.

Then, as they investigate, each NPC they encounter has some kind of quirk, habit or some such that is, in reality, an adventure hook. Perhaps the Butler is a high-ranking member of a Secret Society, or the Scullery Maid is the Lord's sister (unbeknownst to both), or the senior Huntsman is a spy.

If the PCs solve the murder/suicide, great...but if they get sidetracked by one of the NPCs, also great!

Inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, the Poltergeist & Hellblazer stories and movies, and the beautiful, beautiful setting from 13 Ghosts:

The PCs are asked to investigate a haunted house, and shortly after entering it, they realize this is going to be a problem. Not only is it haunted, its bigger inside than out. Worse, its internal geometry is constantly shifting- rooms that you just exited dissapear. The room you're in keeps getting bigger. Or smaller.

Even the passage of time between rooms may differ...

Along the way, the party should encounter not only the beings that haunt the place, but also those who chose to investigate the house before them. Some are still competent but others are quite mad.

Run correctly, this could be an adventure that starts off at lvl 1 and goes to level 20.

(It will also be loved by players who hate to map, and hated by those who love to map.)

Refining something I posted in another thread:

Air-Pirates of the Serpent-Spine Archipelago

A group of brigands living in the Serpent-Spine Archipelago have trained large predatory birds which they use to ride & raid passing sea vessels.

Using giant sized eagles or osprey (any giant-sized waterfowl will do equally well, including Albatross or Pellicans), they start by attacking from the air, dropping large stones from altitude as an opening gambit... following with arrows and fire if surrender is not swift.

Once just a hazard of doing business in the southern reaches of the Starfall Sea, they have added new tricks to their repetoir, including huge floating wooden platforms made from the hulls of ships they've taken, from which to launch attacks away from their bases...extending their power inexorably outward from the Archipelago towards the mainland...

(The concept works just as well if the pirates are riding giant penguins, Orcas or other marine life and attacking from below.)

The 3 Ages of Nova Luna

Age 1: Age of Exploration

The XLIHTRE, a technologically advanced race decided to satisfy their curiosity about the universe around them by exploring remotely via completely automated interstellar starships the size of small moons. Each was sent out in a different direction on a mission to collect data and bring back samples of flora and fauna from many worlds. To that end, they also developed a (reversible) technology that compresses matter to 1/10000th of its normal size- a technology applied not only to the ships' supply of fuel and spare parts, but also to the specimens they were to collect.

One ship found a region full of worlds unlike any others- worlds where magic still worked- and began collecting specimens. The New Moon was a source of wonder and fear as the lights of its specimen collecting ray lanced down from the heavens, leaving behind naught but hemispherical gouges in the earth where they struck.

Inside, specimens were nested in habitats that resembled that of their native world, and eventually, . Unfortunately, the specimen containment technology had been constructed by a company that was controlled by organized crime, and the resultant machines had so many corners cut that the containmemt fields began to collapse shortly after having to deal with magic...and the specimens got free.

They began to explore their environment, expand into it, and inevitably, have conflicts.

(Note: at their new scale, PCs would find the nanomachines responsible for the upkeep of the starship would be as great a threat as the Replicators of Stargate SG-1.)


Age 2: Age of Empires


The ship has been overrun by microscopic empires that now cover 95% of the available space. Aerial races claimed the shelving. Races used to subterranean life have invaded the wiring. Some of them even mine the refined metals from the wires...

And then one scholar discovers the secret of the collection ray and its ability to shrink what it targets...and asks whether it can be reversed. (Whether it can or not should be answered by the DM before even running this game- either has consequences.)

This is the kind of knowledge that shakes the foundations of nations! Wars will be fought & assassination attempts will surely follow those who seek to possess that knowledge. Lives hang in the balance!


Age 3: Age of Arrival


After thousands and thousands of years, the ship has finally returned to the XLIHTRE homeworld.

How will the ship's creators deal with their rampant specimens?

Will they welcome them? Will they send in the fumigators?

Are they even still alive? Perhaps the intervening eons have erased the XLIHTRE from the realm of the living, leaving the populace of Nova Luna on their own on a completely alien world.

***

Players can play in any era- each has its own charm.

Are they among the first to be scooped up by the ship, participating in the exploration of the new world?

Or are they caught up in the struggle to control the technology of the collection rays 1000 years later?

Or are they among the first to be released on alien soil?

This campaign also allows the DM to mix and match critters & classes from various sources- just open up your D20 sourcebooks and go nuts- DarkMatter, Star Wars, DragonStar, etc. are all fair game.

Wookie Warmages? Check! Kender Jedi? Check! Sheshayan Ninja/Ghost Face Killers? Check!

*applause* Another fine specimen, Danny!