Campaigns inspired by songs

[Fifinjir]

Probably not a whole campaign, but one could make an awesome quest pitting players against this lake:

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It (almost) goes without saying that musicals and opera could be mined for ideas.

 

[teitan]

My DCC campaign is inspired by The Sword, Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind.

 

[aramis erak]

You could probably get a supernatural thriller adventure out of The Eagles’ “Hotel California”.

Queensrÿche’s concept album, Operation Mindcrime, could serve as a nifty backbone for a campaign.

My players accused a particular location of being the setting's Hotel California ... End of the Road Inn. They opted not to go in...

 

[aramis erak]

Technically, since BÖC’s “Black Blade”, “Veteran of 1000 Psychic Wars” (mentioned upthread) and Hawkwind’s “Needle Gun”, “Kings of Speed” The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing at the Edge" and "Warriors" are based on various aspects of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion saga*, you can jump right into that.

There's even an RPG for the setting (one edition is named Storbringer, the other Elric!) - Chaosium BRP powered. There also is a Mongoose version...

Which reminds me: Weird Lord Slough Feg's Traveller is a whole album tribute to Traveller. While it's not my cuppa, it's inspired a number of friends' Traveller games.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It was just a few sessions rather than a campaign, but Elvis Costello's Veronica inspired an old Daredevils story in my college days. I should probably recycle that for a modern system sometime - Savage Worlds, maybe. What does the nearly-forgotten retired adventuress know about MacGuffin X, and...holy cats how did we get stuck in her memories and how do we get out?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

There’s definitely an adventure in Wrapped Around Your Finger by the Police.

Sting's Fortress Around Your Heart worked well for one of our old Mage adventures where we had to go delving into a very unhappy mindscape.

 

[Wolfram stout]

Campaign Arc: Union of the Snake by Duran Duran
Single Adventure: Wrapped Around Your Finger The Police
V&V Superhero Name: Aftermath from a line in Battle of Evermore by Led Zepplin (The pain of war can not exceed the woe of Aftermath).
My V&V GM used the cover art from 80s Iron Maindin albums for our reoccuring villain:

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

V&V Superhero Name: Aftermath from a line in Battle of Evermore by Led Zepplin (The pain of war can not exceed the woe of Aftermath).

It is a good supranym, agreed.

There are several actual songs called Aftermath, but the lyrics don't appear to be good fits for an RPG - which is a shame because they really ought to be the theme song for playing the actual Aftermath RPG from FGU, shouldn't they? Maybe I missed one, nuclear war has lots of songs written about it...

 

[Meech17]

When trying to come up with potential ideas for my current campaign I found myself wanting to use Gnolls. I was thinking about making a big dungeon based on BlackBurrow from Everquest.

So then I had the goofy idea of the big final boss fight being against the Gnoll Chief and having him shout some DMX lyrics at the party. X had the whole barking/dog thing going on in his music.. and he had some pretty hard lines.

"I don't know who you think you talkin' to, but I'm not him, so watch what you do..
Or you're gonna find yourself buried next to someone else, and we all thought you loved yourself.
Maybe they just saying that now cause they miss you.
....
That's why you're laying on your back,
Looking at the roof of the church,
Preacher telling the truth and it hurts"

"I bring down rain so heavy it hurts your head,
No more talking, put him in the dirt instead.
If I end up fed, y'all end up dead"

"Dog is a dog, blood is thicker than water,
We done been through the mud and we quicker to slaughter"

"Listen, you're about to be missin'
Who know who's gonna find you?
Some old man fishin'
Grandma wishin' your soul's at rest
but it's hard to digest with the size of the hole in your chest."

There's some good stuff all from one song that could probably be wrapped up into some sick boss lines..

Once I had this idea though I went back and listened to some more of his stuff.. and Damn.. X was really... I mean REALLY homophobic. So It had me second guessing my decision.