Thwarted campaign ambitions

[Jd Smith1]

Tell us what stops you from running a campaign in a setting you really like.

Here's mine: Space 1889
I've wanted to run a campaign in this setting (with minimal steampunk) since it first came out. I think the historical period is superb for a RPG setting, and setting it on Mars would be perfect, because you can fully develop the European pressures of the period, toss in an Indian Munity/Boxer Rebellion situation, apply aspects of the Old West, plus various gold rushes, land grabs (national and private), men who would be king, loads of stiff upper lips and Prussian warmongering, isolated French Foreign Legion outposts hanging on for dear life...the possibilities are endless, and the scenarios write themselves..

What has stopped me cold is a lack of decent maps. The various editions come with global maps and a few fragments of closer detail, but nothing sufficient to an extended campaign. I've given up on the producers of the game, and have been searching for a detailed map set ever since. Dark Sun would work, but their maps not not all that much better. I've gotten a map set off a Patron account which might serve, except (and it is very unusual for me to say this) but it is too detailed, with 26 map sheets. The Aran Argar atlas (which is free) might do, although parts of it are rather busier than I would like, but the detail and quality are first rate. I study its pages and ponder possibilities regularly.

What is your thwarted campaign?

 

[Yora]

Oh, this is easy:

Planescape

I always loved the Planescape boxes (even though I wasn't a huge fan of Torment which I still never finished). After I ran a 5th edition D&D campaign and that one went really quite well, I decided to get serious and finally make a Planescape campaign happen after some 20 years of first encountering the setting.
And a few weeks into the preparation process, I discovered that Planescape is a wonderful fantasy world, but a really poor campaign setting. There really isn't anything meaningful for PCs to do. Sure, you could kill cranium rats in some old lady's basement, throw out a gang of goblins squating in an abandoned building, or go find an old treasure in a ruin in the Outlands. But that's just the same stuff you can do in any other D&D world. There are of course the factions, which are made a really big deal and are all very evocative. But what do the factions actually do? They have philosophies, but they have no goals. There is a lot of great worldbuilding, no doubt about that. But there is barely anything in the way of content that D&D player characters can actually play with.
It's a setting with no meaningful conflicts that drive events. The DM guide says "this is not a setting for treasure hunting dungeons crawls and monster bashing, but a setting about ideas!", but it then doesn't have any suggestions of what PCs might actually do in a campaign.

It's a setting that is amazing to look at, but without playable content.

 

[Arilyn]

Bunnies and Burrows. I have the pdf of the original 1976 game. I love Watership Down and I think it would be fun to give this oldie a spin. Alas, I'm faced with a lack of interest.

 

[niklinna]

Bunnies and Burrows. I have the pdf of the original 1976 game. I love Watership Down and I think it would be fun to give this oldie a spin. Alas, I'm faced with a lack of interest.

Have you checked out The Warren? I haven't played it yet but it sounds interesting.

Edit: Oh that's the publisher page, here is the drivethrurpg page to buy it.

 

[Arilyn]

Have you checked out The Warren? I haven't played it yet but it sounds interesting.

Oh that's the publisher page, here is the drivethrurpg page to buy it.

Thanks for the reminder. I have heard of it but will take a closer look. It'll be an easier sell to my group for sure!

 

[Mezuka]

I always wanted to run a travelling circus D&D campaign in which all the characters are lycanthropes of some kind. I'm stopping myself because I feel I'm not good enough to write proper adventures for such a set up. I'm afraid I'll waste the idea.

 

[payn]

Battletech. I love all things mech, but the game just takes too long to play and put a ton of faction and setting material on top.

 

[niklinna]

I always wanted to run a travelling circus D&D campaign in which all the characters are lycanthropes of some kind. I'm stopping myself because I feel I'm not good enough to write proper adventures for such a set up. I'm afraid I'll waste the idea.

Seems like the premise is ideal for a series of short, episodic adventures, to hammer on your ideas a bit, before you think of bigger story arcs. Those episodes might even be seeds of something bigger. You could ask your players for what they'd like to deal with, write up something quick, build up from there.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I always wanted to run a travelling circus D&D campaign in which all the characters are lycanthropes of some kind. I'm stopping myself because I feel I'm not good enough to write proper adventures for such a set up. I'm afraid I'll waste the idea.

Midnight might be a option: the circus is a resistance cell moving about the countryside gathering intel, recruiting agents, serving as a communications point.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Bunnies and Burrows. I have the pdf of the original 1976 game. I love Watership Down and I think it would be fun to give this oldie a spin. Alas, I'm faced with a lack of interest.

Man, I haven't thought about that game in forever. Back when I started RPGs, B&B was still fairly new, and it was a standing joke to propose crossovers: B&B plus Morrow Project, etc.