Campaign Concepts You've Got On Deck

[Aldarc]

Sure. SotS would do that too, but this isn't a sales job. If Cortex is your baby then use it. It's not my baby so I suggested an alternative. Your game will rock either way, I'm sure.

There are also things about SotS that I don't particularly like - i.e., magical corruption - so my preference is picking a system where I am having to fight against either the system or the setting. This is why I am far more likely to pick Cortex or Fate for my needs. Plus, I have already run a one-shot with Fate, so I know that it works well for my purposes.

 

[Fenris-77]

Cool. I have a lot of love for FATE too. SotS actually runs just as well with Madness in place of corruption, and that would probably be my pick for a campaign like the one you describe. I do like magic with consequences. Good luck with a great campaign idea.

 

[ccs]

1) Tomb of Anillation - i was just beginning to prep this one, complete with changes/improvements based on the 1st time i ran it, for my Sunday group.
And then the group imploded.
And since I ran it for most of the thur group....
It'll be a long time before I get to run this again.

2) a bounty hunter campaign.
One of the characters in our current game has a 35k gp bounty on them. They are wanted alive. "No disintegrations."
The party has already encountered several bounty hunters & knows of the price on the tiefling.
This is the story of several of the lesser bounty hunters who've decided to pool their talents in hopes of a big payday.
I know where it starts.
I know the trail (assuming investigation checks are passed).
I have several ideas for each step of the trail.
And I know where the quest can end....

 

[Lackofname]

For a short campaign...

You Can't Replace the Chosen One
The Chosen One, who is the silver bullet that will stop the Evil Army Coming This Way and who is the last hope of the Kingdom, has been assassinated. His soul has been stolen and taken into the land of the dead, so he can't be resurrected.

The only course of action left is for the PCs, his trusted generals, to delve into the Land of the Dead, find his soul, and bring it back.

For an intermediate...

Back Alleys and Burglars
The PCs are all the newest recruits of a thieves guild. The game is in general for them to do jobs, work their way up the ladder, to rule the underworld.

A more fun idea I had...

Through the Pixelated Looking Glass
The PCs are players in a Virtual Reality RPG MMO. The NPCs are sophisticated computer programs! There are other players! Tropes and conventions and all the typical things that happen in a video game.

...except something is amiss in the game itself. A plot is afoot. Can the players save the game itself, if not their own lives?

 

[Lackofname]

Various ideas:


*All the PCs are intelligent items

This makes me think of the RPG "Everyone is John".

 

[Zappo]

Toying around in my mind with three concepts, all Planescape variants. In bold the one-line summary.

• The PCs are all members of a sect, founded by a fallen celestial, whose self-appointed job is, in their view, to do the celestials' "dirty work", to use the means that the upper planes do not believe can be justified by ends. Because of this, the sect is hunted by both celestials and fiends, and is extremely secretive. Unfortunately, due to reasons, the PCs will eventually find themselves in charge. The PCs will be able to recruit NPCs to the cause, which turns them into alternate PCs. For each mission, the players will assemble a team from all available characters, depending on the mission profile. That will be the PC party for that mission. Higher-level characters draw more attention from the opposition, which may make it harder than it would have been with low-level characters; plus, the big guns may be needed elsewhere. So the choice is not obvious. Also, due to secrecy reasons and certain supernatural divination abilities on the main opponents' side, interaction between the main org and any given mission party will be severely limited, i.e. no hotswapping PCs, gear, or intelligence. Custom rules will support these features.
• Planescape/cyberpunk crossover. Sigil is a futuristic megacity, the Lady of Pain is the city AI, factions do political battle with megacorps which can command the economic might of entire Prime worlds. Mechanus is made of electronic circuits instead of gears, the Nine Hells are an infinite office building and headquarters of Baator Inc's nine departments, Cyberspace is an entirely new plane to which modrons have emigrated in digital form. You can play a cyber-barbarian, a heavy metal bard, a net wizard, or anything you can imagine, and get a war-priest to bless your monokatana or sniper rifle, for a fee to be paid in bitcoins to Ares Inc. The characters are the only survivors of a nanobot terrorist attack on a Market Ward shopping mall, and we'll see where we go from there.
• Modern Earth setting. A EU-funded Antartica expedition has revealed what looks like an alien artefact, buried deep under the world's thickest ice shelf. The expedition researchers discover that it's a portal to what initially looks like an alien planet, but hastily shut it down after an alien creature passes through and kills several of them with unexplainable abilities, before being put down. A hastily-convened commission meeting of the Defense ministries of all participating countries decides to clamp down on the discovery and send a shared military force to enforce secrecy and determine what risks and opportunities the artefact can provide, before it can be made public. Unfortunately, and unknown to everyone, the Earth portal leads straight in the middle of Azzagrat. On the Earth side, the narrative is driven by friction between the scientific and military expeditions, tension between participating countries, and difficulties in maintaining secrecy. On the planar side, the narrative is exploration-driven, but made more complicated by the fact that Graz'zt is actively lying to the expedition about the nature of the planes, in order to further his own agenda. The PCs are members of the expedition (either researchers or military), and initially do not have access to any supernatural ability, but they can learn magic eventually. Thinking D20 modern as a system.

 

[Bohandas]

[*]Planescape/cyberpunk crossover. Sigil is a futuristic megacity, the Lady of Pain is the city AI, factions do political battle with megacorps which can command the economic might of entire Prime worlds. Mechanus is made of electronic circuits instead of gears, the Nine Hells are an infinite office building and headquarters of Baator Inc's nine departments, Cyberspace is an entirely new plane to which modrons have emigrated in digital form. You can play a cyber-barbarian, a heavy metal bard, a net wizard, or anything you can imagine, and get a war-priest to bless your monokatana or sniper rifle, for a fee to be paid in bitcoins to Ares Inc. The characters are the only survivors of a nanobot terrorist attack on a Market Ward shopping mall, and we'll see where we go from there.

Is the Abyss /b/?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Moons of Alhamarca: A D&D setting with multiple worlds in the same “sphere” of space, specifically a planet and 3+ moons, each habitable with a distinct primary biome and cultures and an Aether-space they all move within that can be traversed via airships. Small satellites could exist as well that might be home to a single dragon or a small enclave of genasi, etc.

 

[Committed Hero]

A game in the Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu universe where the PCs are in South America in 1940. Beginning with the fallout of the Battle of the River Plate in Buenos Aires, which was the sixth largest city in the world at the time (and whose university happens to hold a copy of the Necronomicon).

 

[Tonguez]

I’m looking at a Fighting Fantasy campaign incorporating the City of Thieves and pitting the players against the immortal Night Prince Zanbar Bone.

I’ve also been looking at a Napoleanic era roleplaying lately too, and have the Duty & Honour Rules but have never played them before (anyone got advice?) nor in fact have I played a ‘real world’ game (ie one with no magic, powers or weird tech) so thats going to be an interesting experience.


I really want to do a Princess World Frontier Kingdoms game using She-Ra for inspiration.

looking to a new Ravenloft inspired game as well