Campaigns inspired by songs

[aramis erak]

I've used The Body Electric, often known for its refrain's leitmotif 1001001 by Rush, to inspire a few Traveller sessions and a Paranoia session.

I've long considered a Dwarven party escaping a zombie plague in the tunnels... inspired by Men At Work's Land Down Under.

And M Gibster is dead on about BÖC's Veteran of the Psychic Wars. That coupled with NBC Nightly News During Desert Storm inspired an Active Duty Marines Traveller campaign - take and hold a Tavrchedle Treatment Center (in Imperial, "A Zhodani Thought Police Reeducation Center")...

 

[jdrakeh]

I've run a "star vikings" Traveller campaign inspired largely by this song:

 

[nyvinter]

I did a 7th Sea/Genesys campaign based on a William Elliott Whitmore song.

» And sometimes our dreams they float like anchors
In hopeless waters oh way down deep
Sometimes it seems that all that matters
Most are all the things that you can't keep «

 

[Bedrockgames]

I get a lot of adventure and campaigns from songs. Often though it is the mood and a throw away line or two more than making the whole campaign. This sandbox campaign was inspired by Dio's Don't Talk to Strangers, from the line "Don't write in starlight cause the words may come out real": Starlit Inkstone

 

[billd91]

Not a full campaign, but I was using song titles as inspiration for villain names in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign. Lightning Hopkins, Stormy Monday, Orange Crush, Locomotive Breath, One Angry Dwarf, ..

 

[humble minion]

I co-GMed a Serenity/Firefly game many years ago, where a lot of the session/episode titles were Elton John inspired. We stole most of them from a very old rpg.net thread - Crocodile Rock, Benny and the Jets, Rocket Man, The Bitch is Back, etc etc etc

 

[Wolfpack48]

Blue Oyster Cult's "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." Bonus points because it was part of the Heavy Metal soundtrack. This might make a decent inspiration for a science fiction campaign with psychics who can't, or aren't permitted, to lay down arms.

I was gonna say Vengeance (The Pact) or The Vigil…. BOC songs in general are great for this…

 

[Reynard]

Not a campaign, but I am currently working on a prose fiction thing in which the plot is inspired by Brown Bird's "Blood of Angels."

 

[Atomoctba]

There are some Brazilian songs that could span an entire campaign or at least a good one shot. But once they are in Portuguese, there is no much sense in sharing them here

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I've always liked the vibe of Dylan's "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" for a game about medieval politics, though I admit that there's a real danger of veering into a Wes Anderson does Game of Thrones space. Though I can't help but think that that's kind of appealing to me, too.