Tell me about you 4th ed campaigns..

[Mallus]

Our new 4e campaign takes place in a port city after the end of the world. Details of the setting --pretty much as we came up w/them-- can be found here: the Port.

Our company is known, behind their backs, as Artichoke's Ar*eholes, a rag-tag group of dilettantes, brash youth, occultist retirees, cold-eyed killers, and armed poets who follow/work for the former soldier-turned-motivational-speaker Captain Artichoke.

We are in the employ of a group of goblin-rights activists called the Driftglass Society, hired to protect one of their own from assassination by a members of a Fae mafia called the Fair Folk. The reason for the Fair Folk's attacks on the Driftglass Society aren't clear yet... but nevertheless we're currently preparing to fight off a lethal Faerie home-invasion (to be played out tomorrow night).

In other news, Artichoke's Ar*eholes have recently come into possession of a god. A very small god contained in a plain wooden box brought to them one evening by a walking dead man, who until recently was alive and working in a quarry breaking apart pieces of Hell-forged obsidian with an adamantine hammer.

Word's gotten out that we are in possession of the god and we've faced attacks from minor cults looking to obtain it through force. We have one live prisoner (and several dead ones) from a heretical sect of the Eroded God imprisoned at our headquarters (well, the wine cellar of the inn we live at), with the plan to sell them back to the orthodoxy, depending on how the heretic market is fairing.

 

[davethegame]

My campaign is a Dark Ages/Lovecraftian campaign, where a corrupt religious organization rules over magic, and the PCs are outcasts hired by this organization to try to prevent prophecies that would bring the downfall of the big empire. It's an almost literal "points of light" setting as each major town is protected by magic from monsters... but as the PCs are discovering, the magic is starting to fail.

I ran a few adventures of my own, then Treasure of Talon Pass, then a few adventures in-between, and now they're about halfway through Thunderspire Labyrinth which fit almost seamlessly into my game.

I should also add: I'm also playing in another campaign, run by a friend, but set in the future of my campaign.

Nothing so far that has required 4e, we just enjoy it a lot more (especially the less annoying combats.)

 

[RefinedBean]

1. Running a group through Scales of War. It's an all-dwarf party with all the PCs related somehow to a remote and dying dwarf clan, seeking to restore the glory of their name (well, a few them at least) by...well, you'd have to read the adventures yourself.

2. Playing in a converted Midnight campaign with some house rules to make things a bit dirtier, a bit deadlier, and definitely a lot more fun (if masochism is your thing). Since I love Midnight, I'm crazy happy it works well in 4E!

3. Playing in a converted Forgotten Realms campaign, a recent conversion from 3.5 precipitated by a near TPK (our fourth of the goddamn campaign).

4. Playing in a converted Age of Worms game, with a heavy focus on decision-making and RP, as well as very elaborate combats (which apparently is a staple of AoW?)

And I love them all to death. I'm an admitted 4E diehard fan, though!

 

[Thasmodious]

My campaign is a homebrew sandbox game. Basically, I gave my old homebrew world the new edition treatment. I moved the timeline ahead a 1000 years and threw in a near world ending cataclysm that reshaped the world a bit and the cosmos entirely, overthrowing the established kingdoms and powers of the old campaign world and making it a much more POL setting. Lots of familiar environments for the players to explore, those that were in my game the last time that world was used. Thus far, they've survived their coming together adventure (they began on opposite sides of a battle), found a patron and are considering setting up shop in a town as the first adventuring company the land has seen in centuries. Sandbox wise, I've got a few hooks leading to a few adventures, including Shadowfell, which I'd have to ramp up to 3rd level and Thunderspire as well as several homemade. Just have to see what'll pique their interest. I haven't run a sandbox game in years, mostly because 3e really doesn't lend itself well to that unless you have hours and hours of free time for prep work. I love slinging freeform like the old days, fleshing out things as called for, copious notes with adventure kernals, ideas for cool scenes, villain sketches and the like.

I have a few Big Plot ideas, too, but I'm not fleshing them out too much so I can build them around the PCs when they decide to tackle them. For example, a great forest was once the empire of the elves and Eladrin in my world, but the place is tainted and the Feywild is cut off from the world. When Eladrin fey step they are actually stepping through a shadow version of the Feywild and return weakened temporarily. I hope the elf and eladrin in the game decide to do something about this, and I've got the seeds of how to handle it at any tier of play. It would be most awesome at epic levels with a Gibbering Orb as the heart of the tainted forest/feywild, but if they tried to tackle it at heroic, I'd handle it differently. Maybe they have to free the shackled and bound Eladrain archmages whose arcane mistake resulted in the destruction of their kingdom or something like that.

 

[malraux]

BTW, if you are looking an unusual campaign idea, one I had would be an interesting mashup. After listening to the Horror on the Orient Express podcast, the idea I was "Horror on the Orien Express" a mashup between the CoC scenario and Eberron.

 

[Subumloc]

I'm running a campaign set in the world of early Magic:the Gathering series - I needed something my players were familiar with, and I didn't want to force them to read setting books.
The campaign started in 3.5, and since then I've had a lot of player turnover, but the conversion to 4e went smoothly. I haven't changed neither the premises of the campaign nor its development.
I usually alternate between modules (right now I'm running Red Hand of Doom) and my own adventures.

 

[Rel]

My homebrew setting is discussed here.

My house rules for the setting are discussed here.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

My 4E Eberron campaign began with the Eberron conversion of H1, but I had difficulty running it as more than hack-and-slash. We've gone off in a new direction, ostensibly inspired by Firefly: the PCs have gotten their hands on an airship. Unbeknownst to them, I'm find somewhat more inspiration from Farscape: the PCs already know their elemental-powered airship is sentient (but I don't think they realize yet that in 4E, the set of elemental creatures includes demons...), and they may find themselves on the run even as war threatens to break out across Khorvaire.

Anyway, none of what I've done to make my campaign succeed has really been particular to 4E. It's all about figuring out what kind of game you all want to play, and then running it. In our case, it's something that's less about scouring dungeons (as in Kobold Hall) and more about the Eberron mentality of pulp adventure, shades of gray, and bursts of action.

 

[JohnBiles]

Greyhawk Campaign, set around the City of Greyhawk. Two campaigns, in fact, with two different groups, one on-line, one face-to-face.

Both parties are currently kneedeep in Thunderspire Labryinth.

Online Group:
Human (Oerdian) Fighter (Lukas from the Pomarj)
Human (Rhenee) Warlord (Irana from the Nyr Dyv)
Elf Rogue (Samno from Celene, apparently modeled on 'Sam Fisher', whoever that is)
Eladrin Swordsmage (Huriel from Celene, speaks Common poorly so she sounds like badly translated Manga.)
Tiefling Warlock (Dr. Orpheus from the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, Infernal Pact)
Dragonborn Paladin of Erathis (Eckhart from Veluna)
Dragonborn Warlock (Surlina of the Bright Desert, Fae-Pact)


Tabletop Group:
Half-Elven Cleric of Bahumat (Maeglin from Celene)
Dwarven Fighter (Turkas from the Abbor-Alz)
Elven Rogue (Keili from Celene)
Human Wizard (Tercinius from Greyhawk City)
Tiefling Warlord (Lt. Burrowblast from the Great Kingdom of Aerdy)
Dragonborn Paladin of Bahumat (Sislac of Furondy)

The Dwarven Fighter is now riding around on a trained War Boar they rescued.