Shakespearian Scenarios for my campaign

[Tonguez]

while considering how an orc merchant guild might look I looked up Sons of Anarchy and read how they used Hamlet as an underlying theme of the show.

This got me thinking about my next campaign and the idea of running it as a Shakespearean Romance/Tragedy. So thats where I turn to the genius of EN World. What Shakespearian plays and themes could be easily adapted to great RPG scenarios where the PCs can actual play a part in?

How would you do it?

 

[Daztur]

I ran an adventure based on The Merchant of Venice.

The PCs seduced Portia, killed an outraged Antonio in a duel and then were ambushed by Shylock who wanted the stuff that the PCs had taken from Antonio.

Fun times

 

[Loonook]

This got me thinking about my next campaign and the idea of running it as a Shakespearean Romance/Tragedy. So thats where I turn to the genius of EN World. What Shakespearian plays and themes could be easily adapted to great RPG scenarios where the PCs can actual play a part in?

How would you do it?

Pretty easily, though Shakespearean ideas are kinda railroading don't you think?

Shakespeare's plays were in the classical mode in the way they presented protagonist and antagonist. It was through destiny, knowledge that the audience was aware of but the players were not, and other missteps that made it his work accepted. Don't think Campaign; think mini-series. Each game session is an Act, and players move forward based on their decisions into multiple trees of possibility. These trees and then affected by the players who will either remove options, change the path, or go along with it as they take their steps. Really episodic material pays homage to a play, and it would be difficult to separate the chance for a DM to force the player's hand to get the desired result. The beauty of Sons or Shakespeare is that their "DM" doesn't have to worry about bad rolls or PCs flubbing up the play .

I ran an adventure based on The Merchant of Venice.

The PCs seduced Portia, killed an outraged Antonio in a duel and then were ambushed by Shylock who wanted the stuff that the PCs had taken from Antonio.

Fun times

And this is why I wouldn't really allow such a thing. Instead of narrative and theatrics we get a meatgrinder with the trappings of it. . Use the Bard as an example, not the crux.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Daztur]

And this is why I wouldn't really allow such a thing. Instead of narrative and theatrics we get a meatgrinder with the trappings of it. . Use the Bard as an example, not the crux.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

Well there's two different ways to run Shakespeare-inspired:
1. Try to make your PCs' adventures follow a Shakespeare-style arc.
2. All Shakespeare plays are rife with conflict, just throw the PCs in the middle and see what happens. Have the Shakespeare play be "what will happen if the PCs do nothing." This can result in fun adventures but the story won't be Shakespearean at all, it'll be more like A Fistful of Dollars.

I prefer option 2, but that's just me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nothing wrong with using The Bard for inspiration. Take R&J, for example- two warring houses and two young lovers who aren't about to let that niggling detail keep them from falling in love.

It's not like that that kind of thing was without analog in Shakespeare's world. He just embellished it, and made it an immortal love story.

Return it to its RW roots, and you can have the party acting as intermediaries trying to end the feud. Or they could be hirelings of one family trying to keep the lovers apart, repeatedly clashing with the hirelings of the other family.

Now, just make one youngster a High Elf and the other a Drow*, and it's D&D!











* or a Pixe & a Goliath, or an Illithid and a Svirfneblin, or....

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I dimly recall one or two Shakespearian adventures in Dungeon magazine (2e era, I suppose). One along the lines of The Tempest, while the other one ...? Macbeth?

 

[Tonguez]

Pretty easily, though Shakespearean ideas are kinda railroading don't you think?

Yeah I wouldn't be looking to directly emulate the plays just use the scenarios and themes. I'm wanting to get some of the drama into things using shakespear in a simlar way in which Ravenloft used Gothic Romance. The Bard provides a readymade set of NPCs and scenarios but it still needs to be the PCs who determine outcomes.

For example Portia's 'three caskets' scenario from the Merchant of Venice might be a possible way to introduce the PCs or perhaps have them as part of Bassanios entourage (the PCs will be based in a port town dominated by a merchant guild, I suppose Shylock could be a dwarf or maybe even a goblin)

That said the Tempest did come to mind as a suitable plot since it has fey and a good few hooks for the PCs to get involved with. Perhaps the PCs are the crew of the ship (who will meet with Caliban with Stephano) or perhaps the PCs are some of the other Lords with Antonio.

Don't think Campaign; think mini-series. Each game session is an Act, and players move forward based on their decisions into multiple trees of possibility. These trees and then affected by the players who will either remove options, change the path, or go along with it as they take their steps. Really episodic material pays homage to a play, and it would be difficult to separate the chance for a DM to force the player's hand to get the desired result.

Hmm I like this idea and the trees of possibility might be a good device. A central branch that follows the play and other branches that allow for variations on the events as written.

 

[Umbran]

This got me thinking about my next campaign and the idea of running it as a Shakespearean Romance/Tragedy.
...
How would you do it?

I'd first note that one of the defining characteristics of the Shakespearean tragedy is that the protagonists generally end up dead. I mean, Hamlet's a danged TPK...

So, I think I'd lean towards the comedies.

 

[Ajar]

I dunno, I think Titus Andronicus could make an amazing scenario. A war hero returns home, and is offered stewardship of the realm, but instead chooses one of two competing candiates. Intrigue and murder follow. Just toss your PCs in the middle of that and see what happens!

 

[nedjer]

The real MacBeth out adventures the Shakespearean one