Campaign Elevator Pitch

Older Beholder · Dec 11, 2018

Campaign Elevator Pitch.

An elevator pitch is a term for a short summary of an idea, usually a movie, that you could pitch to a producer if you ever found yourself next to one in a lift.

So, sell me on your campaign idea as briefly as possible...

Here's my homebrew:
Labyrinthia is an island nation that slides into the Abyss every 666 years, as a result the cities are vast labyrinthine mazes, holding pockets of civilisation as well as monsters.
Think Dark Souls (video game) meets Labyrinth (Bowie film)

A couple of other ideas I've had from these forums over the past couple of days:

Spelljammer meets Darksun
A Spelljammer ship crashes on Athas, damaged beyond repair (or sunk into the sea of silt). The adventurers are stranded on the harsh desert planet.

The wobbling dead
Basically, The walking dead but with gelatinous cubes instead of zombies.

Blue · Dec 11, 2018

Oooh, this sounds like fun!

1.
Primus is a brand new world, mostly still elemental chaos. Currently the civilized areas are an archipelago of islands floating in the sky. As sentients travel to new places they take on characteristics believed by those, but still dynamic and changing until a Master of an area puts their Mark, freezing it's configuration. Do you have what it takes to clear our the twisted races and claim the lands under your own authority?

2.
The Tower is full of refugees of worlds lost. Undead plagues, demonic invastions, suns extinguished. Portals open briefly and randomly on world in the process of falling - allowing resources to be gained but also more refugees to crowd in. Factions and intrigue abound, while short "world crawls" get resources, news, and clues to what is really happening and what The Tower really is.

3.
The world is a dome, the fuzzy border between life and unlife. Great Heroes and Great Villains of the past shine above, stars and constellations. Ancestors are worshiped. The sun is a golden chariot that passes above every day, guided by one of the Greats still alive.

Last night, the constellations all changed. This morning the sun did not rise.

Leatherhead · Dec 11, 2018

Sure, why not?

The god of men is dead and forgotten.

Their death is the reason the world still lives on: A divine self sacrificed to prevent an Other-Realms Doomsday Weapon from unleashing Armageddon.

Now humanity is broken, enslaved, and mutated in order to survive in this uncertain time. Even the animals, drinking the fallen gods divine blood, have changed. And while this chaos rages across the land, the old races, from across the sea, send their ships and conquerors to lay claim to the lands and plunder the remaining Other-Realm metals for their own wars.

Older Beholder · Dec 11, 2018

The Mage Wars

Wizards and Sorcerers have been at war for over a decade, the Arcane Academy that teaches all schools of wizardry* has declared sorcery as illegal and dangerous and have taken to wiping them.
Warlocks act as mercenaries for both sides to a degree, but they know they'll be next once the sorcerers have been eliminated.
*The school of illusion has broken away from the Academy and remains neutral so far

delericho · Dec 11, 2018

1. For a long time I've wanted to run the old "Age of Worms" adventure path in "Dark Sun". But I'd need to convert everything to 5e, and adapt the path to the setting, so it's probably not happening.

2. The Spelljammer version of "Star Trek: Voyager"

3. An intrigue-based game set in Sarlona (on Eberron). Think "The Demolished Man" meets the novels of John Le Carré.

Tormyr · Dec 11, 2018

delericho said:
1. For a long time I've wanted to run the old "Age of Worms" adventure path in "Dark Sun". But I'd need to convert everything to 5e, and adapt the path to the setting, so it's probably not happening.

Well, you only need to adapt it to the setting, which, outside of a few major NPCs (Kyuss = ancient/original sorcerer king) I bet you could do on the fly. I converted the entire adventure path (aside from some skill checks in adventure 5---need to get back to that) to 5e, so most of the work is done at least.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1254

delericho · Dec 11, 2018

Tormyr said:
I converted the entire adventure path (aside from some skill checks in adventure 5---need to get back to that) to 5e

Very cool.

(Kyuss = ancient/original sorcerer king)

Actually, I was going to leave Kyuss as a full-blown god, who survived their extinction by virtue of being imprisoned. Of course, that leaves the PCs with a dilemma - is it better to leave the world a godless wasteland, or hand it over to a god who is himself awful.

However, where I was running into more trouble was the giant/dragon conflict in "Kings of the Rift", and also what to do with Dragotha.

CrimsonCarcharodon · Dec 11, 2018

1. D&D Firefly. A group of misfits has a Spelljammer they need to keep flying, so they take on jobs of dubious legality and morality, all while dodging their respective foes, rivals, and outright villains.

2. Morgrave University research team. Hunting for artifacts, the team always finds that rival organizations - Arcanix, Emerald Claw, House Cannith, etc. - also want those same artifacts. If they don't get their hands on them, they face getting fired, losing their reputations, and worse, academic embarrassment. Set in Eberron, naturally.

3. Rise of the Undead. As representatives of the Raven Queen, it's your job to hunt down the walking dead and put them to the sword, as well as those that raised them. As undead hordes become more common and dangerous, the world desperately needs such a divine dream team. A Nentir Vale game.

Bitbrain · Dec 11, 2018

CrimsonCarcharodon said:
1. D&D Firefly. A group of misfits has a Spelljammer they need to keep flying, so they take on jobs of dubious legality and morality, all while dodging their respective foes, rivals, and outright villains.

Switch out Spelljammer for something like an AT-TE from Star Wars episode II: Attack of the Clones (those six-legged walkers on the clone army's side), set the game on Athas, and this is almost exactly the situation my players have suddenly found themselves in at my D&D game.

aco175 · Dec 11, 2018

Post Phandalin; The old campaign was the box set that continued to the new campaign where things take plae the following year around the town. A new threat of snakefolk having designs on taking over the Spellforge.