Plot ideas, pick your favorite.

[Frostmarrow]

#1 could have a cover just like this:

Indeed a very good adventure but quite a relief when finally you get back to your own bodies. Or do you?

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Well, I voted for #1, though I imagine it's not everyone's cup of tea.
I think #3 has potential, as well.

For some reason, #2 just leaves me cold. (The fact that I'm not a huge fan of "steampunk" probably factors in to that.)

 

[KB9JMQ]

The Great Race sound fantastic. BTW I love the move of the same name with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (good inspiration for sabotage in there).

It will need short term goals or checkpoints but otherwise would be a blast.

The toy idea sounds fun. Make sure the challenges reinforce the players relatively small size.

I would play the undersea campaign but I would rate it as my least favorite.

 

[Eonthar]

I think that they are all valid options - with the right players.

Personally, I voted for #2 - The Great Race. In fact, you could even call it an "Amazing Race", and use some of the ideas from the show. Instead of just making it a race around the world, you need to make sure that there are lots of checkpoints and challenges that you are not allowed to avoid. For example, you are not allowed to cross the Huge Mountain Chain in a hot-air balloon, you must cross it on foot, and you must go to see the hermit in the caves of desperation to get your next clue.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Lots of love for these, and I like stormbron's #4 (filing that one away for later) SO how about I flesh out the top three a little more:

1: The players would be infused in toys which are appropriate for their character class. Maybe setting a goal at level 7 is artificially inflating it. Combat would be played in a much more "kid gritty" fashion (humans react a lot more to damage inflicted by the toys, almost overreacting. I.E. the "hopping up and down on one foot when stabbed by the sewing needle" thing.) Players will be "quicker" (I.e. able to outrun a human plodding down after them) and a little "tougher" (Needle and thread is enough to heal the teddy bear, and carving a fresh leg will get the toy soldier back on his feet)

2. Changing it up a little: from simply a "race" to a multiple-stage scavenger hunt. Heavy on the pulp flavor, Two-fisted heroes and heroines are theo order of the day, with more than a bit of nationalisim. There will be a definite Snidely Whiplash sort of fellow, but he won't be alone in unsportsmanlike conduct, just the biggest purveyor of it. The race will take place across land, sea, and air. (with appropriate vehicles for each.)

The other competitors will fill out the necessary "madcap hijink race" cast rolls (the flamboyant prettyboy, the professional racers, the defiant all-female team, the mad inventors, etc). Some contestants will drop out of the race before it's over (tragedy) alliances will be forged and broken. If the players wish it, that is...

On the road from point A to B, the racers will have to pick up artifacts of each civilization they pass through, through some blatant tomb robbing / pulp-era heroics. Though if they don't feel like tomb raiding, it's going to be a bit tougher, maybe some shady, criminal contacts to procure the item ahead of time? It's really just for bragging rights, and nothing makes a PC feel better than getting to the finish line with something to brag about.

3. I was actually looking at the underwater campaign as an excuse to use all the monsters in the manual that don't show up in regular play, like the merfolk and whatnot. Plus, could you imagine the party running into a party of above-ground adventurers, while underwater? It could be interesting...

 

[Mycanid]

I voted for the aquatic adventure. Always wanted to play in another one ever since U3.

 

[Stormborn]

Glad you liked the idea Agent. I would still vote for 2. However, it sounds like the PCs would have to be unethical sorts, depending on what you mean by tomb robbing. A victorian Era Western European would have no problems taking a relic from an Egyptian, Indian, or Chinese tomb/temple - but wouldn't take it from a museum unless they really were criminals. Also, a good back ground plot could be espionage, the whole race/hunt is a cover for one or more spy agencies to transmit/steal information. I am really loving this idea more an more.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

Also, a good back ground plot could be espionage, the whole race/hunt is a cover for one or more spy agencies to transmit/steal information. I am really loving this idea more an more.

Or the heroes sign up for the race and then get caught up in the espionage mission that team #2 is doing so our intrepid heroes get caught up in it.

I think #2 is the best bet overall. It has the graetest chance for variety. The first few session of 1 and 3 will likely be a blast, but the defnig factor of the setups might wearoff after a while.

I'm a toy soldier. Cool! How is this different from a fighter? What will allow the campaign to stay fresh after session 5? Session 10? If I endup having a romance with an animated windup ballarina, how is this different from the romance I would have with the local tavern girl? I see this as much better as a mini-campaign or a mini-arc than a full blown campaign in and of itself.

The same with the underwater campaign. I get to play a race that I haven't been able to really play before. But what will set the abandoned underwater temple apart from any other abandoned temple?

#2 has the story already. So does #1 but it feels more like gimmick than a campaign plot at this point. Of course there isn't anything stopping you from having one of the race stops be next to a wizard tower where the wizard's toddeler has gotten bored with his toys... Then the group needs to catch up once they get their bodies back!

 

[WmRAllen67]

The Great Race

#2 would be the choice for me, and like KB, above, I loved that movie...

"Please, it is simply Leslie, and I am at your service..."

(One of Barsoomcore's Swashbuckling Cards is "Twinkly Teeth," I think-- how appropriate!)

And don't forget the largest pie fight ever filmed! "More Brandy, throw more brandy!"

(Would that be an Exotic Weapon Proficiency?)

 

[Agent Oracle]

Heh, okay, people are really digging on #2.

By "Tomb raiding" I meant "We're claiming this artifact, for a museum, even if we have to fight our way through the elaborately designed ancient temple and deal with it's thirty-odd zealous guardians!"

Swashbuckling cards are a must, as they have been for every single game of mine for the last two months...