CHALLENGE: Campaigns that NOBODY would want to play in

[Henry]

Boardgame: the PbP LARP

Better yet: Meta the Meta RPG, where you design an RPG about designing RPGs. I left about 30 minutes into character generation... or actually, I never left and have been generating a character for 40 years now. I'm not sure...

 

[Tonguez]

You are one of the peasantry, one of the filthy oppressed, in an age of magic heroes that ride through the land gathering glory and riches. Can you stay out of their way and avoid having anything worthy of notice by the murder-hobo^H^H^H^heroes long enough to bring in this season's crops?

I played this as a campaign wherein the PCs were all NPC classes who lived in the village. Intial adventures included saving the sheep from a flood, dealing with an infestation of giant mosquitos and negotiating wood cutting rights from the local Dryad. There was also a a sentient scarecrow lurking in the hedgerows, a witch in the swamp, pixie theives in the abandoned cottage and wolves in the forest

The village was eventually attacked by goblins (backed by magic) in which the players had to gather the fleeing villagers and get them through thre forest to the old Castle - they were able to gain PC levels after that adventure

GURPS: Rocks, Plants, and Trees.

I also once ran a campaign where the Ranger/Druid character was turned into a sentient tree - and continued playing until we ran out of ideas for a player who couldnt move and decided the dryads would make him a wood leshy

 

[Imaculata]

How about a pirate campaign in which you fight nothing but skeletons, and sometimes a kraken?

Oh, wait that already exists...

 

[MarkB]

How about a pirate campaign in which you fight nothing but skeletons, and sometimes a kraken?

Oh, wait that already exists...

I'm pretty sure most people in that campaign fight each other.

 

[Maxperson]

Campaigns I would pass on:
An all Kender party based around the idea of Lord of the Rings meets Dragonlance, but with Kender instead of Hobbits.

Imagine finally getting to Mt. Doom and....................nobody has any idea who has the ring. I mean, someone has to have it in some pouch somewhere, but where!?

 

[Zhaleskra]

You are one of the peasantry, one of the filthy oppressed, in an age of magic heroes that ride through the land gathering glory and riches. Can you stay out of their way and avoid having anything worthy of notice by the murder-hobo^H^H^H^heroes long enough to bring in this season's crops?

Yes, yes, but if we aren't being burninated every night, what's the point?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Imagine finally getting to Mt. Doom and....................nobody has any idea who has the ring. I mean, someone has to have it in some pouch somewhere, but where!?

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a raccoon finds a bright & shiny...

 

[Eltab]

Anything where the gameworld's uber-NPC (Drizzt, Heroes of the Lance, Mordenkainen, &c) will save the day while you get swamped trying to attend to some details.

Make it awesome: the uber-NPC will not arrive for a few years, so you have time and room to work. You might even solve the problem BBEG before he gets here.

 

[Eltab]

Imagine finally getting to Mt. Doom and....................nobody has any idea who has the ring. I mean, someone has to have it in some pouch somewhere, but where!?

Gollum found his Precious back, because one of you carelessly dropped it along the way.

 

[MNblockhead]

Anything where the gameworld's uber-NPC (Drizzt, Heroes of the Lance, Mordenkainen, &c) will save the day while you get swamped trying to attend to some details.

Make it awesome: the uber-NPC will not arrive for a few years, so you have time and room to work. You might even solve the problem BBEG before he gets here.

This is why I avoid campaigns in the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, but especially the Realms. The party are the heroes who, if they survive will be among the most powerful beings on planet and are the protagonists who matter.

I can understand wanting to play in the worlds of your favorite fiction, whether that is Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Middle Earth, the world of the Kingkiller Chronicles, Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who, etc. But I've never enjoyed DMing them. I've always felt constrained by the canon. I will, however, rip apart and salvage parts of them to borg into my homebrew.