Campaigns inspired by songs

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not so much a campaign idea, but rather, an idea for a bizarre supernatural harbinger of doom: The Buddy Scott Trio! They were key in an old running gag Comedy Central used in their brief “Think Positive!” ad campaign 20 or so years ago…

 

[Lanefan]

There’s a LOT of songs that deal with someone in trouble with the law and pleading for mercy, having someone else plead for mercy, attempting to buy off the authorities, and so forth.* Such songs could be used as a background for a campaign in which the PCs are “reverse” bounty hunters- individuals using their particular skills, talents and powers to exonerate the (potentially) wrongfully convicted.

Flip side (or B-side?) of this: someone - or a party - who doesn't give a flip about the law:

Breakin' the Law - Judas Priest; Criminal Mind - Gowan*; Kill the King - Rainbow, etc., etc.

* - if you're not in Canada you may not have heard of Gowan - he was a big deal here back in the 80s but I'm not sure if he ever did well anywhere else. Criminal Mind is the BEST song to base an Assassin or old-school Thief on.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Want to kick off a campaign involving occult kids and impending damnation? Here ya go!

 

[greymist]

if you're not in Canada you may not have heard of Gowan - he was a big deal here back in the 80s but I'm not sure if he ever did well anywhere else.

OT: Lawrence Gowan has been in Styx since 1999, singing Dennis DeYoung’s songs and playing keyboards.
I just listened to his second album last night as it popped on my Apple Music recommendations.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Amboy Dukes’ sole hit is a classic bit of psychedelic rock:

This, along with others in the genre, such as the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”, and Hawkwind’s “Master of the Universe”, etc., provide a rough roadmap for a campaign that takes place in some kind of psychedelic or non-Euclidean plane (that isn’t a realm of pure horror like The Far Realms). Perhaps, “Fantastic Journey”-like, the party is adventuring inside the mind of a comatose God of Dreams in order to revive it.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin - if it hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Stan Ridgway’s “Goin’ Southbound” tells the tale of someone getting involved in shady delivery of items unknown, seemingly as a new recruit. Some of the lyrics suggest scenarios that could kick off a campaign.

There is uncertainty as to how the new guy got the job. Is it mistaken identity? Is he already a member of the group being given a bigger task unexpectedly? Is he actually conning the criminals to take the MacGuffin to someone other than the intended recipients?