Ideas are easy, everything else not so much

[trappedslider]

Just a thread to share those ideas you have for campaigns that for whatever reason never got beyond the idea stage.

The Narnia Front

A portal fantasy, set during World War II, except the portal is discovered by the military. They begin to reconnoiter the new world, both to determine the attitudes of the locals and to see if any other portals into the real world could be used as logistics or invasion routes.

Also, a hunting party bags a really big lion.

A jump into hell
Far future, due to something making life on the surface unsuitable humanity is stuck in the skies on enormous sky ships for the past 1000 years, but every once in a while, a team has to make their way down to the surface, while avoiding dangerous lightening storms via parachuting to gather supplies, and on the surface there's many more dangers.

 

[Celebrim]

Your title is very wise. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but actually implementing thing well is hard.

The Ice Witch of the North
One of the oldest ideas I have for a D&D campaign involves an apparently vanquished sorceress being resurrected in a quasi-Norse kingdom currently led by a Beowulf like figure who was part of a group responsible for the death of the sorceress decades before and is now entering into his dotage. I have a massive amount of this story plotted over the last 30 years and yet have never had an opportunity to run it.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

There and Back Again
I have this idea of players making PCs of themselves (or some other "normal" modern 21st century person), and then being transported to a fantasy world and they need to try to find their way back.

I think the new Die RPG may actually be that premise - if so, I may end up running that after all

the Found Coast
A West Marches campaign where a flotilla of ships sails down the coast of a newly found continent (to the flotilla's culture - to the people who already live there it's called "home"), and every session, the party becomes the "away team" and goes and sees what they see and meets who they meet and then reports back... It might be interesting if they have a "Prime Directive" where they can't harm nor "impact" any indigenous cultures they meet...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the new Die RPG may actually be that premise - if so, I may end up running that after all

It is, but the journey is very rough on everyone. I would read an issue or two of the comic before telling people to start statting up their characters, just in case the tone is not what you're hoping for.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

It is, but the journey is very rough on everyone. I would an issue or two of the comic before telling people to start statting up their characters, just in case the tone is not what you're hoping for.

Funny enough, I didn't really like issue 1 of the comic, to the extent that I did not buy issues 2+

I'm more interested in the sense of wonder/terror at being in a completely unfamiliar place as well as the puzzle/mystery aspect of how do we return. Open to suggestions to anyone who thinks there's a better system?

 

[Umbran]

There and Back Again
I have this idea of players making PCs of themselves (or some other "normal" modern 21st century person), and then being transported to a fantasy world and they need to try to find their way back.

I think the new Die RPG may actually be that premise - if so, I may end up running that after all

Well, the Die comic is sort of about that, by way of deeply traumatized people.

 

[1of3]

Faith of the Heart
An ether ship has crashed a couple years ago on your world. No survivors, and the mangled bodies show they were certainly not of your kind. Your scholars have just managed to reverse-engineer a prototype. What's out there?

 

[MGibster]

A portal fantasy, set during World War II, except the portal is discovered by the military. They begin to reconnoiter the new world, both to determine the attitudes of the locals and to see if any other portals into the real world could be used as logistics or invasion routes.

This is a fantasy version of the Stargate movie!

 

[MGibster]

Around 1990, I really wanted a friend of mine to run a game of Delta Force but mash it up with Dawn of the Dead for some zombie killing action. He thought it was a stupid idea and refused. I was just ahead of the curve.

I have an idea of the PCs being blank slates, servants to some celestial army, and as the first adventure progresses they make their characters by finding pieces of their soul. I'm not quite sure how to implement it.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Years ago, I had a fairly standard idea for an adventure: You're on your way to another adventure when you experience an earthquake... As you pass by the nearby swamp, a very panicky and deeply concerned lizardman tries to gain your attention, and explains in broken common that the water in the swamp has drained away, lowering the water level severely and exposing the entrance(s) to some long lost Dwarven ruins...

I was dumb enough to decide that I would resurrect that idea for my Dungeon23 project in an attempt to motivate me to finally get it all written down and drawn up.
Five months in, I've yet to draw any of the actual dungeon, but I've created a new campaign world, six continents, written up at least two thousand years of history, created close to a hundred named npcs so far, and drawn detailed maps for over a thousand square miles of campaign area around the dungeon...
I have political intrigue going on, pirates, an ancient magical cataclysm that turned a nearby Elven Forest into the "Stonelands" and dropped 200 square miles of coastline into the ocean, sea elves who may or may not be the remnants of the forest elves, a hundred square miles of swamp covering the small Dwarven mountain that sank into the ground, aquatic carrion crawlers, fifty square miles of ancient forest that's actually just one single sentient tree and its offspring, a vanished wizard who may or may not be currently un-vanished, battles over logging rights, culture clashes, a town where everyone has secrets and the local pastime is minding your own damn business...
It's really, really ballooning out of control, lol.

I really hope someday I get to run it.