Campaign Concepts You've Got On Deck

[Ulfgeir]

Planning for a campaign in The Troubleshooters. I have ideas for more adventures, but haven't gotten them own on paper yet, and they are so loose that I would not be able to run them at the moment..

I would like to run some Call of Cthulhu Sverige. Some of the releases adventures are quite nice. Though one the big ones was a planned convention-scenario with 5 premade characters that cannot be swapped out or expanded due to their ties to the scenario, and thus will not work in a campaign. Same goes for one of the smaller scenarios that so far is only in pdf-form, and was planned on taking place on the school where the annual convention Gothcon is held every Easter (sadly cancelled this year). Another small pdf-scenario had 4 premade characters that could be swapped out IF they met certain criteria (they had to have experienced a near-death experience)

 

[Fenris-77]

There are a fair number of concepts I would love to use for a campaign, but I also would not mind turning some of my past one-shots into campaigns:

Paranormal 1840s Vienna: A supernatural investigation society set in Vienna during the 1840s, or at least before the 1848 Revolutions. It's crazy how many peoples and present day countries/territories were part of the Austrian Empire during that time: Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Lombardy, and Venice. So you are basically throwing the supernatural and paranormal in the mix of a multi-ethnic empire that was ready to tear apart with nationalist movements. So throw paranormal monsters and investigators from all around Central Europe into the capital city of Vienna - using real city maps of Vienna from 1840s (and players familiar with present day Vienna) - and have at it. My major issue has been with deciding a system: Dresden Files Accelerated (as per the original one-shot), Vaesen (YZO Engine), Monster of the Week, or Urban Modern Fantasy (essentially a modern, urban fantasy version of Dungeon World).

Fantasy Renaissance Not-Venice: I ran a one-shot of Fate for an ex's friend that I set in a fantastical version of an off-brand Venice in an off-brand Europe with magical elements. The original one-shot involved a young, black sheep scion of a noble family (player 1), his duelist surgeon retainer (player 2), and his associate banker/treasurer (player 3) trying to gather the ingredients in the city for a spell for his older sister (a priest/exorcist) so she can seal a portal to the Spirit World in a monastery on an abandoned island that his family had acquired for their shipping business. Demonic spirits of rage and terror were bleeding into the world and feeding on the spiritual energy of the deceased monks who had died in a siege from a rival city-state about half a century earlier and the spirits were possessing island monkeys and raising undead. It was a load of fun, but I would love to go back to this setting for a proper campaign.

It was inspired by The Lies of Locke Lamora, Borgias/Borgia, Medici: Masters of Florence, and Assassin's Creed 2, but also with magical elements, such as the city never flooding due to a pact made with the merfolk who live in the lagoon, a Spirit World, and alchemy. As you can't understand Medieval or Renaissance without a Church, I needed a RCC analogue, but I also wanted to avoid tip-toing around Real World Religion, so I created the Church of Angelic Virtue. It was a Church centered around venerating the ethics of seven angels/spirits who are believed to embody the seven virtues that most reflect the Divine Will of the Creator. If I would re-run this, I would naturally consider Fate, but I also lean towards running it using Cortex Prime, especially as I could make the 7 Virtues into a trait set.

For Fantasy Not-Venice I'd recommend Swords of the Serpentine. Fits like a glove.

 

[Bohandas]

The Juggernauts High level characters, (perhaps travelers from one city to another who are in no hurry and thus taking the long way through intervening towns instead of teleporting) go through several low to mid level adventures without resting

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really want to play in a weird west game using 5e, and a colonial Spain inspired game. Sephardic Jewish and Muslim refugees of the Reconquista, escaped slaves, the remnants of the Aztec peoples, and Samurai mercenaries, just for a start, in what would eventually become Mexico and the American Southwest.

Add in magic, and the supernatural beings of all those cultures.

Jinn watching over Andalusian Muslim refugees, Jewish Golem, Japanese Oni and yokai, coatl and their agents, angels, and Voodoo spirits, all vying for influence over a chaotic populace at odds with itself.

 

[Dillon]

After working through the long list of 20 campaign pitches, and then the short list of four campaign outlines, my players picked "Western" for a general theme and "BRP" for a system. I am currently describing it as "Wild West meets Flash Gordon". So one large world and then a number of single environment moons, with Airships rather than Rocket Ships (no vacuum in space here). That way I can change the environment from jungle with pyramid ruins to arctic dome base, with any kind of humanoid heritage as fits the story. Rather than a single monolithic empire with an evil emperor, it has an expansionist republic trying to settle the frontiers opened up by Airships.

As my last two campaigns I gave the players a set premise for how they fitted into the setting, I am going to let them choose what they want the campaign to be about, whether its bounty hunting, missionary work, or resistance to the republic. I plan to rework "passions" to reflect common tropes in western movies (e.g. Justice vs Vengeance, Law vs Morality, Settler vs Wanderer, etc).

 

[Aldarc]

For Fantasy Not-Venice I'd recommend Swords of the Serpentine. Fits like a glove.

I'm aware of it, but I think that I would prefer my own Fantasy Not-Venice using either Cortex or Fate.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Peacekeepers: The characters have been given the gift of immortality, but only if they never kill anyone. Still set in a world of fantasy monsters, corrupt royalty, etc.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm aware of it, but I think that I would prefer my own Fantasy Not-Venice using either Cortex or Fate.

I prefer the version of GUMSHOE in SotS to either of those systems for Swords and Sorcery type stuff, but to each his own. I wasn't suggesting that you use the SotS setting either, only that it's already very close in many ways to what you want, so almost all the detail is easy to steal or hack.

 

[Aldarc]

I prefer the version of GUMSHOE in SotS to either of those systems for Swords and Sorcery type stuff, but to each his own. I wasn't suggesting that you use the SotS setting either, only that it's already very close in many ways to what you want, so almost all the detail is easy to steal or hack.

Except I don't want to do "Sword and Sorcery type stuff" with my not-Venice campaign. As I said before, one of the nice things about Cortex is that I can turn the 7 Virtues into one set of character traits such that PCs must think about how their actions relate to the prevailing spiritual ethos and worldview of their society.

 

[Fenris-77]

Except I don't want to do "Sword and Sorcery type stuff" with my not-Venice campaign. As I said before, one of the nice things about Cortex is that I can turn the 7 Virtues into one set of character traits such that PCs must think about how their actions relate to the prevailing spiritual ethos and worldview of their society.

Sure. SotS would do that too, but this isn't a sales job. If Cortex is your baby then use it. It's not my baby so I suggested an alternative. Your game will rock either way, I'm sure.