D&D 5E Your favorite campaign you've never run

[Rabbitbait]

I had once designed a whole pirate islands campaign, linked to the backgrounds of two of the characters who were by that stage at level 5. But on the way out from the mainland the characters twigged something was off about the captain of the passenger ship they were on. They jumped ship, swam to shore and then decided to head inland. They never went back to the coast so all my planning came to nothing.

That would have been the most awesome campaign ever run. I'm sure of it.

 

[Imaculata]

I've always wanted to run a Jurassic Park role playing game. I thought about using D20 Call of Cthulhu rules, and sticking to the plot of the first or second book. The players would replace the characters from the book, and other characters from the book would be turned into npc's.

The reason I never ran a campaign like this, is that I wouldn't want it to be linear. Every npc should be able to die, and the plot would need to be adapted accordingly. Plus there's the problem that most of my players have seen the movies, and know the general story of the first book. I guess I could stick to the second book (since the movie mostly ignored the book entirely), but then the players would be stuck on Isla Sorna, which isn't half as interesting as running around in Jurassic Park itself, with all its attractions.

I've also considered coming up with a whole new plot of my own. Something like Jurassic World could work, where you have an all new park, and an all new story line. But the plot would need to be actually good. Weaponized dinosaurs is one of the most stupid and childish ideas anyone could come up with for a JP plot.... no, it would need to be realistic and believable. But it would also need to be something entirely original. And how could a park like that fail, assuming that it has learned from the errors in the past?

There's just a ton of problems with adapting JP to a role playing game. And heck, there's not even a decent map of the first park that everyone agrees on. The first book never provided a map of the park, and the map seen in the movie contradicts what is described in the books. There's been fan attempts to draw a map, but nothing official.

So yeah, now you see why this campaign never got beyond the concept phase.

 

[Spookykid]

the matrix, instead of the original idea of demons putting your brain in a jar, they throw your whole body into magic stasis and your mind into a magically created world to live so they can harvest your soul. You have to wake from your magical sleep like they exit the matrix. You would also go back into this magically created world to wake others and fight the demons guarding them. Then you would have to fight in the real world to recover the body.

 

[Mercule]

When the nWoD Hunter (forget the subtitle) came out, it really got me wanting to run a Supernatural styled game. Unfortunately, that was right as everyone was adjusting to being full adults (married, kids, mortgage, jobs, etc.) so time just didn't work in our favor.

The other one I wanted to run was a fantasy game set on a world where there is no "world", so to speak. Instead, everything is made up of land masses floating in the air. Rivers would still exist, with inexhaustible sources that connect to elemental water or some such, and tremendous waterfalls at the edge. Some "continents" would be large enough to have large lakes or small seas. The floating islands would move generally independent of one another, so that new ruins, races, or other adventure fodder could come to the PCs, even if they never left their immediate area. Some groups of islands would stay in general "orbit" with one another, allowing for regular trade but providing for some "otherness". I'd borrow air ships from Eberron, but things like pegasi and wyverns wouldn't be uncommon. Falling would have special significance as the "hell below" concept takes on very literal meaning. The dwarven penchant for mining becomes a tendency for them to use all available space, with terraces and balconies jutting out from the uneven bottoms of masses. Overall, I just think it'd be a very cool and mythic setting.

 

[CapnZapp]

Just for fun--and to get back to discussing cool ideas, as a break from some of the rules arguments...

Describe your favorite idea for a D&D (or related/similar game) campaign that you'd really like to run, but have never had the chance.

Birthright.

Assuming a new set of domain rules that actually make sense, and aren't just a random set of fiddles for the DM to make work using handwavium.

 

[delericho]

I've always (well, since it came out) fancied doing "Age of Worms" in Dark Sun. Alas, it has a few issues that mean I've never got around to it - partly the conversion to the setting, and in particular The Dragon at the end; partly that I didn't have a game group when it first came out, and then the moment was gone; and partly that these days I'd want to do it in 5e, and that's way more effort than I'm ready to do - especially in the absence of Psionics.

The other main campaign I've mused on buy never got around to is "Star Wars: Mob War", dealing with the criminal underworld in the wake of the deaths of Jabba and Xixor at the hands of the Rebels.

Oh yes, one more: I'd really like to run a short 1st Ed campaign at some point, solely because it's the only major edition I've never run. Though at the same time, I'm not sure I want to do lots of work just for what it basically a gimmick. A one-shot, perhaps?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same here. Missed out on it back in the day, and wish I hadn't.

Right now my big “one day” campaign wish is to do a Sword and Planet campaign. It’d be so easy to do with 5e…

I had an idea for a post-apocalyptic D&D campaign where everyone had been driven underground. I might do that one day, but right now I’m mulling turning it into a concept album for a possible musical project of mine.

I never got to run a planescape campaign.

 

[jayoungr]

I've had an idea for years and years about a search for a painter who has vanished. The PCs would learn that he had made a portal through one of his own paintings leading to the Realm of the Senses. They would need to traverse all five of the realms (planes in D&D terms, I suppose) before they could return to the material plane. In each realm, they'd have to collect a gem and give it to a mysterious lady who would collect them all. (This is all inspired by the Cluny tapestries.)

The thing that always holds me back is how to deal with the realms/planes. What sort of challenges would they face in the Realm of Smell, for example?

 

[SkidAce]

Another was The Seven Cities, inspired by 3e, but would have been perfect for the 4e 'points of light' theme, the idea was that there was huge continent of deadly (really, insanely, high-level characters routinely die deadly) wilderness (The Wilds) with seven walled-off cities (long ago part of a single civilization, now connected only by underground tunnels) scattered across it. The underdark was actually the less dangerous adventuring area, with the cities the safest, and the wildernesses separating them the 'high level' adventuring areas with the deadliest threats and greatest treasures (in ruins of other cities and settlements that didn't survive). The Wilds weren't just deadly dangerous, but actively hostile to sentient life, with some sort of force behind them. Druids were particularly creepy, since they had some understanding/influence of The Wilds - they also tended to be driven mad by that connection - while Necromancers were valued, contributing members of society (skeletons and zombies did a lot of the menial work).

*Yoink*

 

[feartheminotaur]

If I run another 4e game it will probably be Dark Sun.

I personally thought the 4E Dark Sun was the best version of it so far. The setting and rule-set really meshed. If I ever play/DM a 4e game again, that'll probably be my choice too.