New Campaign Ideas

[Greenfield]

As our four year old campaign wends its way towards Epic levels, and closure, it's time to consider what we'll do next.

For those unfamiliar with our play style, we use a "Round Robin" DM technique, whee the campaign is based on the pursuit of some long term goal, and where everyone has a chance to DM.

The exact mechanics of our DM handoff are immaterial to this discussion. What I'm looking for is inspiration for the setting and the long term goal.

One of the group has an idea for a Middle Earth setting. This would be in the years prior to Bilbo finding the One Ring. He wants us to face a Dragon named Fog, and try to find a Siren's Pearl that must be placed in a giant clam before the Nazgul can get it.

I see so many problems with that I don't know where to begin. Aside from a distinct lack of originality, it lacks the scope needed for the way our games play out.

Our goals tend to be somewhat nebulous. Half the adventure is usually spent identifying the details of the problem we're facing. In the past we've played in a game world that was lacking any and all 9th level spells, a great many Prestige Classes, and a lot of Feats (including all of the Craft Item feats that made permanent items). Our goal was to find these "lost secrets" because the dark times were coming and the world had to be prepared.

Another was to locate the fragments of the great World Crystal, an artifact that the gods had made as a model/parallel for our world. It had been shattered and the shards scattered across the world. Our world was slowly dying as a result. There were no fixed number of shards, so we could play that one as long as we liked. (We stopped at 30th level or so).

Our most recent one was the Grecco/Roman campaign you've heard me talk about, where we're trying to locate the cause of a cloud of smoke and ash that blocks out the sun, sending the world into slow decline, as Rome falls around us. The sheer wealth of material available in the mythology of the age made for some epic story telling, and will make this one a hard act to follow.

Now Middle Earth might not be a bad place to start (I own a 1st edition of the Silmarilion, so I have a lot to work with), but we may want a less well defined goal. Perhaps we're seeking the secret of creating the Silmarils, the legendary luminous stones that can guard a place against the True Darkness. Three were made, but only one survives.

Or we could go for something else like seeking the secrets of the Dark Emperor's apparent immortality, as a way to prevent his growing empire from covering the world. This kind of thing gets invented as we play, which actually works out well, as you don't have to live up to some other writer's story.

Any ideas/suggestions? Note, we need a long term challenge, but not necessarily a clever solution. None of us need know the solution at the start, and in fact it's better if we don't. That leaves us free to let each DM add details and complications as needed for plot development. We won't know the solution until we're ready to close the campaign down.

So throw me themes, challenges, setting ideas, please.

 

[Celebrim]

If you want to do Middle Earth, and stay actually in a setting and story suitable to the mythology, please don't do that one.

Instead, do the game I've always wanted to play, set in the first age. You're all elves sitting around Cuivienen. Orome has just come along and seduced your cousins - the clan chiefs Vanwe, Finwe, Elwe - off to far off Valinor, there to serve the strange and alien Valar. And your people have been left behind in the dark, for refusing to believe that your Creator actually meant you to be somewhere else when he had created you here. Now you must survive in the land forsaken by the light, and dominated by fallen Ainur and their spawn. You are the Moriquendi, and now you must learn to fight not just physical battles, but spiritual ones.

 

[Starfox]

The "time just before Bilbo" is a time of incredible decline in Middle Earth, and if you are sticking to canon, it should remains so for Bilbo's and Frodo's quests to work out. I think it is a very poor time for adventures in middle earth. Unless you are prepared to completely ignore canon, there is little lasting change you can do.

When Iron Crown did Middle Earth, their default setting was in the early third age, soon after the fall of Arnor and right after the plague. Gondor is still a superpower but suffering from the aftereffects of plague, the Rohirrim are still north of the Mirkwood but moving south, and it is a time where hope and revival is possible without upsetting canon - its more than a thousand years until the ring is found again. This is a decent setting for Middle Earth.

But the setting I'd suggest is the beginning of the 4th age. Sauron has been defeated, the elves have not left yet, the istari are still around along with some of the fellowship if you want to name drop, and there is a whole world out there to liberate. Its not likely that an epic problem like Sauron would crop up again, but some of his lieutenants could well have survived. Or you could do a Belgariad and just create another Sauron as a new epic enemy. If you don't (and I don't recommend it) this might not be epic enough for you.

If you want epic, the time when the Numenoreans return to Middle Earth in the second age should do. Lots of lands to explore, lands under the influence of Sauron where all kinds of nasties exist. There are hidden elven enclaves and human peoples to try and lead out of the darkness, giving a sense of wonder. The final goal is of course to defeat Sauron, and if you allow yourself to break canon, to do so in a manner that does not corrupt the future of Numenor.

The end of the second age is also a possible time, culminating in the last alliance of elves and men and the defeat of Sauron - you'd either work for or replace the legendary humans like Isildur. The one ring was the one made last of all the rings of power - before it is made, the other rings can still be used as treasures and rewards. The dark Numenorians to the south add a diplomatic angle to the story, and much of the world is still unexplored. The time form the fall of Numenor to the defeat of sauron is short - just a single generation - which can still be more than a hundred years considering how long Numenorians live.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you haven't already, check out the Campaign Ideas thread linked to in my sig.

If I were going to run a Middle Earth inspired game, I wouldn't run it in Middle Earth. In my group, too many people are not just familiar with it, but MORE familiar with it than I am.

Just like Harry Turtledove retold the story of WW2 in a fantasy series with everything altered to fit his storytelling, I'd pick my favorite elements of the STORIES of Middle Earth, but change everything else*, starting with and ESPECIALLY the races.

Yes, that could be a bit of work, but there are probably all kinds of alternative races you could just grab, not only in D&D products, but in 3PP products AND here on ENWorld.








* Honestly, I've used this technique more than once. The best time was when I ran a supers game set in a Verneian/Wellsian 1900, and I yoinked plots & subplots from James Bond movies, Alien Nation, Wild, Wild, West, and Michael Moorcock novels.

 

[JustinCase]

If you don't insist on running Middle Earth, you could try this: A (generic) fantasy world gets unexpected visitors 'from the skies' (extraterrestrial).

These alien beings are reclusive and people are wondering why they're here; an invasion force, or scouts, or perhaps refugees? Perhaps something else entirely?

Bonus points for creating non-scifi aliens, with technology or magic not (much) further advanced than the native tech.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

One thing I enjoyed while following along with your round robin style, was how different DMs oversaw different regions of the world. I'd like to suggest you start with how your environment is structured, than build an adventure from there.

If you wanted to continue on that trend, only larger, how about a Spelljammer-styled campaign, with a World Tree cosmology feel? Something with planets symbiotically connected, but in tension with each other. Multiple travel points, such as a hard to find river that portals across the worlds, as well as ships that travel across the stars. There can be some central starting world in turmoil of some sort, and they discover they're part of something larger. Give each player a world to run as the party zig-zags across the universe.

Another option could be a Ecumenopolis, carved into different regions, with smatterings of lakes and city parks throughout. Since everything is urban you can incorporate political intrigue, tons of different factions and agendas, arena combat, sewers, etc. Perhaps the overarching problem can be the world itself is rebelling against the over-development of society, and creatures are coming up the cracks from the Underdark, spawned by the world itself. There is an imbalance between Law (artificially imposed order) and Chaos (organic freedom) that needs to be set right, and destruction of the established society may or may not be the right thing to do, for the sake of the planet.

Whatever you guys choose, I look forward to hearing more about it!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you don't insist on running Middle Earth, you could try this: A (generic) fantasy world gets unexpected visitors 'from the skies' (extraterrestrial).

Go cross dimensional- say, another plane similar to their own, or something like one of D&D's outer planes- and you're golden.

 

[Greenfield]

Let me be clear: I'm not in favor of a Middle Earth setting, particularly that narrow and twisted parody of what's been done so many times before.

The reason I'm asking for inspiration is so I can respond with an overwhelmingly better alternative to a Middle Earth campaign. The player who suggested it says to set it in New Zealand.

His alternative was something set in Central America, where we'll deal with Quezaquatl, and drop a crown into a mountain.

To be fair to him, he hadn't played D&D in 25 years, and was introduced to 3.5 at the same time he was being introduced to our Grecco/Roman campaign. He may have mistakenly thought that it had to be in some real world analogue.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, you could always run a "sandbox" type campaign in which the PC are members of a caravan traveling the world. Or, a la Moorcock, on a ship that travels the sea that connects different realities...

A similar idea to use would be a journey of exploration/treasure hunting, a la the Chinese treasure fleets or the age of western expansions. Imagine the PCs as part of a settlement of explorers & conquistadores- outside of their settlement, there would be no sure safety.

They could be city watch or private mercenaries in a major city. See the Hawk & Fisher stories of Simon Green.

They could be fighting off an incursion by a race trying to reclaim their fallen empire. Dr Who's Silurians are a good example of this. Personally, I used the alien Seshayans as an Underdark race doing the same.

Again, adapting another work for use in a fantasy setting could work. Consider:

1) Day of the Triffids, Dr Who's "Seeds of Doom" and The Thing (original):vegetative critters running amok

2) War of the Worlds, with Mind Flayers cast in the role of would-be conquerors.

3) the struggles in Dune or Star Wars could be retold nicely in a fantasy setting.

 

[Celebrim]

Well, things I'd like to run but will probably never get the chance:

a) A stone age/survival oriented campaign with not only very low magic but very low technology.

b) A campaign set on a world which is not spherical/solid, but perhaps set in the clouds of a gas giant/elemental plane of air with gliders, balloons, flying steads, and so forth. Islands of rock, floating spherical trees, gardens of gasbag plants, etc.

c) Steampunk-magitech campaign riffing off of 19th century the way I usually riff off of earlier centuries. Similar perhaps to DA's Vernian/Wellsian campaign, though possibly as more Steampunk meets Ghostbusters meets Call of Cthulhu with the goal to prevent an invasion of the world from beings from the far realms. Probably would ban cleric for this one.

d) Underdark survival based campaign with everyone a member of a troglodyte race. No standard PC races (well, unless goblins are already standard for you).