StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Some campaign settings and styles i'd like to play at some point but haven't yet:
-A game that takes place in an entirely urban environment, where each player is a Rogue or Bard type class, working for a thieves guild, with lots of emphasis on interaction, sneaking around, calumny, and planning how to assault the "dungeon" in advance.
-A game where some if not all the characters are of the Vashar race (Book of Vile Darkness), with the main purpose being the eventual slaying of the entire pantheon, from semi early levels where the ambition must remain hidden; to middle levels where the party struggles mightily to take down aspects and champions and bring whole congragations to ruin; to the climax, systematically removing each god from power. My friend likes to say Vecna would be the ideal first target. One of the weaker gods, and the one with the fewest friends.
-An Arcana Evolved game, any kind. Preferably several, but at this point, I'd be happy to play in just one.
-A gestalt game, any kind. Preferably several, but at this point, I'd be happy to play in just one. (Actually had a FF 1 game where we "gestalted" mid-game, so this was sort of fulfilled).
-A game focused mainly on the mideval fuedalism system where the ultimate goal is land ownership and titles, controlling a vast empire, and waging war to conquer even further, including detailed assaults/seiges on castles (obviously this will change as the casters level, but I think the base concepts can remain, even if it's no longer a "castle," nor a singular location). There was a thread on here long ago about ideas for making your level based on your personal wealth that might work in such a game (land being the greatest source of wealth).
-A game based on Suikoden, where the "party" isn't constant. There's 108 different characters, and different parties are sent out for different tasks, each time the players controlling one of them. Heavily railroaded by necessity, but still potentially fun. Would include large reductions in spellcasting usage per day (only 4 levels, not as many slots), but just as powerful, with the most prevalent teleporting being between the headquarters (castle) and allied towns. There would also be a unite attacks system. Specifically, I've been considering a Suikoden 2 game played from Jowy's perspective, with the revelation that Leknaat is actually supporting both sides, as her role is to let the two sides of the Rune of Beginning fight it out for supremacy (as it has many times before, a sort of universal necessity), Jowy's side getting its own 108 stars of destiny.
-A gritty game where spelcasting just plain doesn't exist (or casters are forced to alternate with levels in commoner, and casting is wild and has chances of failure/bad stuff), and the most legendary swords in existence are of masterwork quality. Iron Heroes might work for this, before I knew of it, I had considered creating a martial arts system to offset loss of spells and items and increase the prevalence of martial arts. You could do iron body karate training to gain natural armor and DR, for example. Or learn to manipulate ki to enflame a foe with just a touch to the right location. ToB also might play a role, I'm not sure.
-A game based on Ronin Warriors / YST where each character has their own suit of mystical armor to gain special powers and attacks, but with only limited use, fighting off the powerful Dynasty who has their own Warlords with similar abilities, along with extra powers and immortality from their connection to the dark realm. For those who've never seen the anime, it's basically similar to a "magical girl" show like sailor moon, or even power rangers (they call forth their ranger powers, and also the megazords), I just personally like RW the best. Also, the way the gates and magical powers in the show works look like it'd have an easy correlation to D&D.
-A game with stereotypical good guys (like paladin/exalted level good) where both everyone's on the same page (no CN but really evil trying to screw with the party's objectives) and the premise doesn't get stale (which IME, seems to happen by levels 9-12 for a game that started at level 1).
-A game where the good vs. evil struggle is put more in the background, with everyone having at least some good and evil in them, and the struggle between order and anarchy (lawful and chaotic alignments) is the major issue. Possibly an OA setting would be best for this. Such a game would use the UA Reputation rules, and the issue of being honorable (if eastern themed), doing what is right when it conflicts with your duty, or choosing between the wishes of two lords who you serve under simultaneously (if more European themed) is one of the major philosophical debates.
These are just some basic (and occasional not so basic) concepts i'd like to see in future games, and some games could even fulfill multiple at once. Like an empire-building game that's gritty and low magic, the law-chaos battle is more prevalent, and uses gestalt rules.
How about other people?
-A game that takes place in an entirely urban environment, where each player is a Rogue or Bard type class, working for a thieves guild, with lots of emphasis on interaction, sneaking around, calumny, and planning how to assault the "dungeon" in advance.
-A game where some if not all the characters are of the Vashar race (Book of Vile Darkness), with the main purpose being the eventual slaying of the entire pantheon, from semi early levels where the ambition must remain hidden; to middle levels where the party struggles mightily to take down aspects and champions and bring whole congragations to ruin; to the climax, systematically removing each god from power. My friend likes to say Vecna would be the ideal first target. One of the weaker gods, and the one with the fewest friends.
-An Arcana Evolved game, any kind. Preferably several, but at this point, I'd be happy to play in just one.
-A gestalt game, any kind. Preferably several, but at this point, I'd be happy to play in just one. (Actually had a FF 1 game where we "gestalted" mid-game, so this was sort of fulfilled).
-A game focused mainly on the mideval fuedalism system where the ultimate goal is land ownership and titles, controlling a vast empire, and waging war to conquer even further, including detailed assaults/seiges on castles (obviously this will change as the casters level, but I think the base concepts can remain, even if it's no longer a "castle," nor a singular location). There was a thread on here long ago about ideas for making your level based on your personal wealth that might work in such a game (land being the greatest source of wealth).
-A game based on Suikoden, where the "party" isn't constant. There's 108 different characters, and different parties are sent out for different tasks, each time the players controlling one of them. Heavily railroaded by necessity, but still potentially fun. Would include large reductions in spellcasting usage per day (only 4 levels, not as many slots), but just as powerful, with the most prevalent teleporting being between the headquarters (castle) and allied towns. There would also be a unite attacks system. Specifically, I've been considering a Suikoden 2 game played from Jowy's perspective, with the revelation that Leknaat is actually supporting both sides, as her role is to let the two sides of the Rune of Beginning fight it out for supremacy (as it has many times before, a sort of universal necessity), Jowy's side getting its own 108 stars of destiny.
-A gritty game where spelcasting just plain doesn't exist (or casters are forced to alternate with levels in commoner, and casting is wild and has chances of failure/bad stuff), and the most legendary swords in existence are of masterwork quality. Iron Heroes might work for this, before I knew of it, I had considered creating a martial arts system to offset loss of spells and items and increase the prevalence of martial arts. You could do iron body karate training to gain natural armor and DR, for example. Or learn to manipulate ki to enflame a foe with just a touch to the right location. ToB also might play a role, I'm not sure.
-A game based on Ronin Warriors / YST where each character has their own suit of mystical armor to gain special powers and attacks, but with only limited use, fighting off the powerful Dynasty who has their own Warlords with similar abilities, along with extra powers and immortality from their connection to the dark realm. For those who've never seen the anime, it's basically similar to a "magical girl" show like sailor moon, or even power rangers (they call forth their ranger powers, and also the megazords), I just personally like RW the best. Also, the way the gates and magical powers in the show works look like it'd have an easy correlation to D&D.
-A game with stereotypical good guys (like paladin/exalted level good) where both everyone's on the same page (no CN but really evil trying to screw with the party's objectives) and the premise doesn't get stale (which IME, seems to happen by levels 9-12 for a game that started at level 1).
-A game where the good vs. evil struggle is put more in the background, with everyone having at least some good and evil in them, and the struggle between order and anarchy (lawful and chaotic alignments) is the major issue. Possibly an OA setting would be best for this. Such a game would use the UA Reputation rules, and the issue of being honorable (if eastern themed), doing what is right when it conflicts with your duty, or choosing between the wishes of two lords who you serve under simultaneously (if more European themed) is one of the major philosophical debates.
These are just some basic (and occasional not so basic) concepts i'd like to see in future games, and some games could even fulfill multiple at once. Like an empire-building game that's gritty and low magic, the law-chaos battle is more prevalent, and uses gestalt rules.
How about other people?
The setting is amazing, the races & classes work well together, and the magic system is very complex but very cool.
