Campaigns inspired by songs

[Eyes of Nine]

Over here, we're talking about campaigns in a nutshell https://www.enworld.org/threads/campaigns-in-a-nutshell-adventures-in-a-sentence.102706/post-9262064

But I was thinking - campaigns inspired by songs! Song lyrics or the music or whatever.
Doesn't have to be one you've already run, although maybe that gets bonus points
Doesn't have to be fantasy - any genre of any type for any game

A link to the song lyrics might be helpful too

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Oh yeah, here's the one I posted in the other thread

Stairway to Heaven is one that comes to mind - perhaps the Lady of Pain starts trying to collect as much gold as possible and it gets revealed that she's trying to build a stairway to Mount Celestia for some reason...

Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

“Stairway to Heaven” is one of Led Zeppelin’s most famous recordings, with many considering it the greatest rock song of all time. It tells the story of a greedy woman who is

genius.com

 

[Richards]

Not entire campaigns, but I've written specific adventures based on songs (or sometimes bands or singers):

• The Soundgarden: Two fallen lillends create a "soundgarden" on a cloud island - a set of wind chimes from the bones, armor, and weapons of their victims
• Black Hole Sun: The PCs must foil a lich's plan to send a sphere of annihilation into the sun, eventually destroying it from within
• Disc o' Inferno: The PCs seek out a magic item, a disc of elemental fire, on the Elemental Plane of Fire (in the lair of a pyroclastic dragon)
• Gotta Find the Queen of All My Dreams: The PCs start a new campaign by being trained as dreamwalkers, people capable of entering another's dreams and interacting with them
• Birth Day Massacre: A nobleman's pregnant wife is about to give birth, unaware that her husband is a werewasp and the unborn grub will eat its way out of her when it's ready....
• Fox on the Run: A notorious thief, "The Fox," is being chased by an assassin devil and needs the PCs to help her slay it
• Dead Man's Party: A cripplingly shy wizard has a town-wide party in his honor after his death, but it's a ruse to get enough potential victims together in one place to "charge" his transformation into an undead creature
• Wide Awake in Dreamland: The PCs learn their benefactor, the Queen of Dreams, isn't as above-board as they've been led to believe....
• Welcome to the Jungle: The PCs arrive on a tropical continent where dinosaurs still roam free

Johnathan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here’s two I posted in that other thread, oh so long ago!

One place you can find plotlines and/or good gossip & rumors for your game is in the lyrics of music artists who prefer ballads- usually 80s rock bands or baladeers from rennaisance fests who record their stuff. This is especially good if your players don't listen to the same stuff you do.

Example: (exerpt of "The Temple Of The King" by Rainbow

"One day in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell

One day in the year of the fox
When the bell began to ring
Meant the time had cometh
For one to go
To the temple of the king"

That could be the cryptic prophecy of an old holy man begging for coins...

I'm thinking bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden could be particularly rich veins to mine.

Just as a further example of what I posted last time...paraphrasing from Queensryche:

Scene: a tavern, 2 weary dockworkers wander in from the storm, shake off their sodden coats and head to the bar:

Man #1 & Man #2 (in unison): "Wot's the news, 'keep?"

Bartender: "Last night the word came down - 10 dead in Shadowtown..."

Man #2: "Yeh? Innocent?"

Bartender (shaking head): "Their only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Man #1 & Man #2 (alternating): "Too bad." "Too bad."

Man #2: "What’s wrong with the kids today?"

Bartender: "Tell you right now they’ve got nothing to lose...(looking around furtively) They’re building empires!"

Etc.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Paul McCartney & Wings’ song “Band on the Run” would seem to be good for a bard-centric campaign.

Steve Miller’s “Take the money & run” would be a good basis for an adventure where the party “posse” is doing some bounty hunting.

 

[payn]

Knights of Cydonia - Muse.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Knights of Cydonia - Muse.

Very much so!

Ditto The Sword’s “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians.” Hell, the video even lays one option out pretty well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Tangent: I have been inspired to create player characters based on certain songs:

 

[MGibster]

Blue Oyster Cult's "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." Bonus points because it was part of the Heavy Metal soundtrack. This might make a decent inspiration for a science fiction campaign with psychics who can't, or aren't permitted, to lay down arms.

 

[Clint_L]

Rush's 2112 is an entire campaign setting!