Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
I just prematurely finished my Palace of the Silver Princess adventure, upgraded to fit for a party of fourth-level adventurers headquartered in Ptolus. This one sputtered and keeled over, so I decided not to revive it and left it for dead. My longer running and much more successful 3.5 homebrew, Last Stand of the Dorinthians, is finishing up its fourth chapter and about to go into its fifth and final chapter so that will be done in a few months. I haven't seen a game on ENWorld I want to join right now, and haven't in some time so it looks like in a few months I'll have nothing to run or play here on this site, so I am already thinking of what I should run next. Here are my ideas, so please tell me what you think so I can gauge what will stimulate the players and let me know what kind of campaign you will probably run here next if you are finding yourself in a similar situation. Maybe I'll join up. 
Ptolus in the Wilderness of High Fantasy (DnD v3.5): In this, I plan to have the players start out in Ptolus, but I plan to alter the background so that it is a competing city to the City State of the Invincible Overlord. Other than that everything will remain the same. The advantages of this is that the characters can go anywhere in the city or in the world and will easily find adventure enough. The players will have to be pro-active in deciding where to go and what to do, as this will be very much a freeform adventure with little rail-roading. The disadvantage is that there is no initial goal, so therefore no end unless the characters die or retire, and it is likely that this adventure will putter out eventually although it should prove interesting.
Goodman Games, DCC #29 (CnC): The next idea I had was to do a series of very short 1st and 2nd level adventures from the large DCC #29 book, which has more than 20 adventures that almost all comprise of 15 or less chambers to explore and can be finished relatively quickly. I like the idea of using Castles and Crusades for this, since I think they would be a great match due to the atmosphere each brings but I could easily go with ODnD, DnD v3.5, or any other rules format. The adventures would take place in the world of Aereth and each would be a one-shot taking place in different cities, as I have them detailed since I own DCC #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms. The advantage to this is that I could get a short game up and running in no time, and we would be done playing it out within weeks here in ENWorld so I wouldn't have to worry about players falling out. The disadvantage would be that players may feel that their characters wouldn't get a chance to truly develop.
My Homebrew (v3.5): I would basically be expanding on my own homebrew world from Last Stand of the Dorinthians. In this, the characters would be citizens of the Tallione Empire, a corrupt yet powerful empire designed partially on Rome. Although the empire is strong and has recently conquered its neighbor of Dorinthia, corruption is rampant, cracks are appearing in the loyalties of the differing factions, and strange cults have appeared that are beginning to take the place of the old Gods. The characters soon find themselves involved in a cloak and dagger adventure dealing with the factions and cults that wish to save the fragmenting Empire, and their counterparts who wish it destroyed.
Star Frontiers Zero (Spaceship Zero): I would start this game as if it was a TV show, and the first adventure as a 'pilot' episode. This would basically use the Spaceship Zero rules, but with a Star Frontiers backstory and a modified Star Frontiers model for building and using spaceships. The First Sathar War resulted in a close Terran victory along with the humans and other species creating the UPF, or United Planetary Federation, in order to protect themselves from future reprisals. The Sathar continued to infiltrate UPF space in a low-intensity conflict to destabilize the alliance. When that failed, they unleashed their forces a human generation after the first war, and nearly won what would be known as the Second Sather War. Although devestated, the UPF continued to grow at an amazing rate both in colonies and in technology. The UPF fleet was also increased in size and the pirate threat that had plagued the surrounding systems nearly crushed. The UPF waited for the next Sathar strike, but it never came, nor were the Sathar busy trying to destabilize the region of space as they had before. It was as if they had disappeared entirely, and the UPF entered into a golden era of peace and technology. The military is being refitted with new ships, and the old ones are becoming museums and used for scrap. One such museum ship is the Wonnim, a heavy cruiser-sized prototype that mixed the firepower of a light cruiser along with the ability to carry several fighters. The ship was designed around a large experimental weapon called the Omega 13 Cannon, which never worked. But now a brilliant and scientist named Dr. Otto von Otton has convinced the UPH to give him the Wonnim and has talked the military into sending a crew of hotshots to help him in his next military endeavor: to make a ship capable of making "jumps" through space with his experimental Infinity Device. In exchange, Dr. von Otton has agreed to try and get the Omega 13 Cannon working. The characters are a part of the crew assigned to the good doctor, or are his assistants from his lab.
The Wonnim is supposed to make a small jump that will allow it to instantly travel a distance that would take most ships three hours. When the experimental jump happens, the ship disappears and after awhile it is presumed that it was lost because of hitting space debris or had its particles scattered. In reality, the jump worked but the eccentric Dr. von Otton accidently missed one decimal place in his 1,274 pages of formulas (he rarely checks his own work, and no one else understands it). Now the crew of the Wonnim find themselves lost on the other side of the galaxy with no easy way to get home, and in the midst of an intergalactic war between several savage races. A war that the evil Sathar are involved in that dwarfs the small "frontier skirmish" that they had previously been involved with against the UPH. And what's worse is that the Sathar may be the lesser evil, and that they are losing...
An advantage to the above is that it would be a lot different than other PbP games here on ENWorld. A disadvantage is that I would have to post the various characters that are available and that the players would have to pick them with slight modifications. This might frustrate some players, since the rules will for the most part be foreign to them and that they won't be able to have multiple hot shot pilots as characters. In DnD you can have a party with three fighters and it won't be that big of a deal, but in Spaceship Zero you can't have three Captain Kirks without negatively affecting the game.
The Forgotten Kingdom (Lejendary Adventures): Long ago the kingdom of Sallaria was the jewel of the Northern Kingdoms, ruled by a line of wise kings and protected by virtuous knights. But that was long ago... now it is a tiny backwater province perpetually surrounded by mist, covered in soil that grows little for the people to survive, and ruled by a bleary-eyed Baron Sallari. The change that corrupted the kingdom was gradual, but an estranged relative of the baron is convinced that the kingdom was put under a course, one that can be undone. Several adventurers of small renown are asked to investigate and discover the truth of what happened to the once great kingdom. The advantages to this would be that it would be mostly story driven with small bits of combat to make things interesting. I find Lejendary Adventures to be a solid engine for this sort of play, since combat under this system is pretty deadly and is to be avoided. The disadvantage would be similar to Spaceship Zero, in which I would have to do some of the character building although not as much as in Spaceship Zero since a player can easily give me a concept that I can put to paper, and the rules are easier to figure out.
So what do you folks think of my ideas? Which one should I run with next?
Ptolus in the Wilderness of High Fantasy (DnD v3.5): In this, I plan to have the players start out in Ptolus, but I plan to alter the background so that it is a competing city to the City State of the Invincible Overlord. Other than that everything will remain the same. The advantages of this is that the characters can go anywhere in the city or in the world and will easily find adventure enough. The players will have to be pro-active in deciding where to go and what to do, as this will be very much a freeform adventure with little rail-roading. The disadvantage is that there is no initial goal, so therefore no end unless the characters die or retire, and it is likely that this adventure will putter out eventually although it should prove interesting.
Goodman Games, DCC #29 (CnC): The next idea I had was to do a series of very short 1st and 2nd level adventures from the large DCC #29 book, which has more than 20 adventures that almost all comprise of 15 or less chambers to explore and can be finished relatively quickly. I like the idea of using Castles and Crusades for this, since I think they would be a great match due to the atmosphere each brings but I could easily go with ODnD, DnD v3.5, or any other rules format. The adventures would take place in the world of Aereth and each would be a one-shot taking place in different cities, as I have them detailed since I own DCC #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms. The advantage to this is that I could get a short game up and running in no time, and we would be done playing it out within weeks here in ENWorld so I wouldn't have to worry about players falling out. The disadvantage would be that players may feel that their characters wouldn't get a chance to truly develop.
My Homebrew (v3.5): I would basically be expanding on my own homebrew world from Last Stand of the Dorinthians. In this, the characters would be citizens of the Tallione Empire, a corrupt yet powerful empire designed partially on Rome. Although the empire is strong and has recently conquered its neighbor of Dorinthia, corruption is rampant, cracks are appearing in the loyalties of the differing factions, and strange cults have appeared that are beginning to take the place of the old Gods. The characters soon find themselves involved in a cloak and dagger adventure dealing with the factions and cults that wish to save the fragmenting Empire, and their counterparts who wish it destroyed.
Star Frontiers Zero (Spaceship Zero): I would start this game as if it was a TV show, and the first adventure as a 'pilot' episode. This would basically use the Spaceship Zero rules, but with a Star Frontiers backstory and a modified Star Frontiers model for building and using spaceships. The First Sathar War resulted in a close Terran victory along with the humans and other species creating the UPF, or United Planetary Federation, in order to protect themselves from future reprisals. The Sathar continued to infiltrate UPF space in a low-intensity conflict to destabilize the alliance. When that failed, they unleashed their forces a human generation after the first war, and nearly won what would be known as the Second Sather War. Although devestated, the UPF continued to grow at an amazing rate both in colonies and in technology. The UPF fleet was also increased in size and the pirate threat that had plagued the surrounding systems nearly crushed. The UPF waited for the next Sathar strike, but it never came, nor were the Sathar busy trying to destabilize the region of space as they had before. It was as if they had disappeared entirely, and the UPF entered into a golden era of peace and technology. The military is being refitted with new ships, and the old ones are becoming museums and used for scrap. One such museum ship is the Wonnim, a heavy cruiser-sized prototype that mixed the firepower of a light cruiser along with the ability to carry several fighters. The ship was designed around a large experimental weapon called the Omega 13 Cannon, which never worked. But now a brilliant and scientist named Dr. Otto von Otton has convinced the UPH to give him the Wonnim and has talked the military into sending a crew of hotshots to help him in his next military endeavor: to make a ship capable of making "jumps" through space with his experimental Infinity Device. In exchange, Dr. von Otton has agreed to try and get the Omega 13 Cannon working. The characters are a part of the crew assigned to the good doctor, or are his assistants from his lab.
The Wonnim is supposed to make a small jump that will allow it to instantly travel a distance that would take most ships three hours. When the experimental jump happens, the ship disappears and after awhile it is presumed that it was lost because of hitting space debris or had its particles scattered. In reality, the jump worked but the eccentric Dr. von Otton accidently missed one decimal place in his 1,274 pages of formulas (he rarely checks his own work, and no one else understands it). Now the crew of the Wonnim find themselves lost on the other side of the galaxy with no easy way to get home, and in the midst of an intergalactic war between several savage races. A war that the evil Sathar are involved in that dwarfs the small "frontier skirmish" that they had previously been involved with against the UPH. And what's worse is that the Sathar may be the lesser evil, and that they are losing...
An advantage to the above is that it would be a lot different than other PbP games here on ENWorld. A disadvantage is that I would have to post the various characters that are available and that the players would have to pick them with slight modifications. This might frustrate some players, since the rules will for the most part be foreign to them and that they won't be able to have multiple hot shot pilots as characters. In DnD you can have a party with three fighters and it won't be that big of a deal, but in Spaceship Zero you can't have three Captain Kirks without negatively affecting the game.
The Forgotten Kingdom (Lejendary Adventures): Long ago the kingdom of Sallaria was the jewel of the Northern Kingdoms, ruled by a line of wise kings and protected by virtuous knights. But that was long ago... now it is a tiny backwater province perpetually surrounded by mist, covered in soil that grows little for the people to survive, and ruled by a bleary-eyed Baron Sallari. The change that corrupted the kingdom was gradual, but an estranged relative of the baron is convinced that the kingdom was put under a course, one that can be undone. Several adventurers of small renown are asked to investigate and discover the truth of what happened to the once great kingdom. The advantages to this would be that it would be mostly story driven with small bits of combat to make things interesting. I find Lejendary Adventures to be a solid engine for this sort of play, since combat under this system is pretty deadly and is to be avoided. The disadvantage would be similar to Spaceship Zero, in which I would have to do some of the character building although not as much as in Spaceship Zero since a player can easily give me a concept that I can put to paper, and the rules are easier to figure out.
So what do you folks think of my ideas? Which one should I run with next?
