[RPG] Looking for a published long term campaign to run. Suggestions please.

[douglasamcintosh]

Hi all,

Think this may be my first post here so apologies if I am repeating an oft asked question.

I'm currently running two campaigns a D&D 5E one of my own devising set in Mystara and a Traveller game set in the Gaean Reach (Jack Vance). Both of which I enjoy thoroughly but the burden of writing to entirely separate story lines and running a game of Real Life (tm) is a bit much. The Traveller game will be ending a a few months probably as the characters reach the end of their vengeance seeker story. Following this we have agreed we will hapiily play a new game and I have said I would like to run something that has largely been written for me.

I've run many systems and the players are a mixed group of very experienced with multiple systems to have only played my traveller game

I am looking for advice on current game systems that have good campaigns. System is not that important but something modern and fairly easy to run and play would be an advantage.

My current ideas are:

Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep

Warhammer FRP: Wait for Cubicle 7 to bring out Enemy within campaign.

What else is out there that I could run?

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Savage Worlds has a ton of Plot Point campaigns for its various settings. 50 Fathoms is a personal favorite.

 

[douglasamcintosh]

I do like Savage Worlds but thought that a plot point would just give me a sketchy outline that I would have to do a fair amount of work to fill in the blanks. Is this not the case?

(edit) Just googled that for myself. It does look like the plot points do a lot of the work for me. May have a quick graze some of them to see how detailed they are.

 

[pogre]

Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep

Warhammer FRP: Wait for Cubicle 7 to bring out Enemy within campaign.

You hit my two suggestions right on the head! I also really enjoyed the Pathfinder Adventure Path of Rise of the Runelords. Not crazy about the system, but it is an excellent set of adventures.

 

[billd91]

Oooooo, Masks of Nyarlathotep! There's a d20 CoC version out there for it too, if that floats your boat more than the regular Chaosium rule set.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I do like Savage Worlds but thought that a plot point would just give me a sketchy outline that I would have to do a fair amount of work to fill in the blanks. Is this not the case?

(edit) Just googled that for myself. It does look like the plot points do a lot of the work for me. May have a quick graze some of them to see how detailed they are.

They are not as detailed as something like a Pathfinder AP, but they take care of the things that I find the most time consuming, like statting out monsters and NPCs.

 

[Imaculata]

Savage Worlds has a ton of Plot Point campaigns for its various settings. 50 Fathoms is a personal favorite.

What is 50 Fathoms about? It's an underwater adventure of some sort?

 

[amerigoV]

What is 50 Fathoms about? It's an underwater adventure of some sort?

Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets D&D. Some earther's get sucked into a flooded fantasy world. Pirates and mayhem ensue.

As for plot points (PP) - if you love Pathfinder APs you might not like PPs - there is nowhere near the level of detail. On the other hand, there enough to keep things moving and the GM can expand or contract as the players are interested(ie, if you find some of the modern D&D/Pathfinder modules too detailed, then we are in business). A particular plot point might have a couple of pages on it - say there is a haunted house - here is why its haunted, here is a scene or two, and here are the bad guys. Might have a map, but its not going to have 30 detailed rooms with read aloud, etc. The Savage Tales (the little adventures that you use to fill in between) have enough info for a session or two.

The 50 Fathom's book has enough material for 3 campaigns (the main campaign, a campaign that is basically a big treasure hunt, and a trade war).

The other cool thing is the PP campaign + Savage Tales + the natural progression curve of PCs under Savage Worlds = a very good Sandbox (or Ocean of Opportunities). Everywhere you go there are a couple of Savage Tales so you always have something even if the PCs take a left turn somewhere.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets D&D. Some earthers get sucked into a flooded fantasy world. Pirates and mayhem ensue.

To add a little to that, the world has flooded do to magical disaster (sea levels rose by 50 fathoms). It's a fantasy world, but not typical D&D one. It has lots of interesting races like crab-people and squid-headed magic users. The magic system is keyed to the four classical elements. Tech level includes gun powder weapons. If you ever say the 90s cartoon Pirates of Dark Water, I'd say its very similar to that in feel.

EDIT: Even if 50 Fathoms in particular is not your cup of tea, there is probably a Savage Worlds setting out there that you would enjoy, and most of them have plot point campaigns.

 

[Zadmar]

The adventures in a Plot Point Campaign are designed very much like the Savage Worlds One Sheets - they provide the GM with something that can be quickly read and understood, and then run with very little preparation. You obviously don't get the same amount of detail you'd get from a scripted campaign, but then, you're not supposed to. Plot Point Campaigns are ideal for GMs who are good at (and enjoy) improvisation, but lack the time and/or interest in doing lots of reading and preparation work beforehand.

If you're interested in the subject, I've written a few blog posts about Plot Point Campaigns here, here and here, and discussed the design of individual adventures here and here. I also released a free setting book here, which contains a complete Plot Point Campaign (although I left out the Savage Tales).

As far as scripted campaigns go, my favorite is War of the Burning Sky, and I've run that very successfully with Savage Worlds (or at least the first half, before my group disintegrated). There are also a few scripted campaigns that were written specifically for Savage Worlds, my favorite of those is probably War of the Dead.