Campaigns inspired by songs

[DrunkonDuty]

Jackie by Sinead O'Connor. It's a ghost story. A woman refuses to accept that her man drowned at sea. She haunts the little beach of the fishing village, "washes the sands with her lonely tears." Somehow the PCs need to put her spirit to rest.

Babushka by Kate Bush. A man leaves his wife for a younger woman who reminds him of his wife when she was young. Alas his wife is a powerful warlord and the man and his young lover must flee for their lives. The wife launches a war to find him, her army burning and pillaging across the land to find him. What do the PCs do? Yes, the man is a douche, but the war is killing hundreds if not thousands of people.

 

[alegur]

Drunken harpy by the musical blades


I actually wrote and published an adventure setting that was directly inspired by the song and approved by the band when I asked for permission. Hopefully they haven't regretted that decision since

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[coralwave]

Viking Death Squad (a game about vikings waking up from cryo sleep to fight the actual minions of hell to hopefully save the world) is the only game I know that not only was inspired explicitly by a song (War Pigs) but actively encourages the GM to take lyrics and base sessions on them.

"The first session of VDS was conceived directly from Ozzy’s lyrics in the metal superclassic War Pigs. I wrote the lyrics in my journal and asked ‘what exactly couldthat mean for a session? An adventure?Heroes? Villains?’ I listened over and over, letting the words sink in.

Find a song that resonates with you, and feels like an exciting fit for Viking Death Squad. Transcribe the lyrics, and plan your session directly from each syllable. Take everything seriously, lose yourself in it. This method should kick your GM brain into new areas and new ideas.

At first, you may be a bit skeptical with this creative call to action. A bit crackpot, isn’t it? Since when do lyrics have anything to do with adventure design, or monsterhacking?
The brutal answer here is that there is no connection. That’s where your new brain pathways come into play. By ‘giving yourself’ to a non-linear, nontraditional way of creating game content, you volunteer to be a heavy metal guineapig of game design. You are daring the chaotic right brain and looking for gems. Be intuitive, be open... be all the things you hope your players will be."