DM: What kind of (D&D) campaign do you feel like PLAYING?

[Vanifae]

That's every campaign I run, and I find it absurdly simple to prepare. Basically... I don't.

I don't have to actually know what the implications of all the threads are until they contact the PCs, and they start speculating on them.

There's no reason to commit yourself to all this ahead of time. That would be a lot of work. And, in my experience, the result isn't as good anyway. Half the time, the player's wild speculation is way cooler than what I would have thougth with, so I take it, twist it a bit, and run with it.

If you've got average presentation skills, the players will never know that you were making it all up as you go, either. You'll come out looking like a conspiracy genius when in reality, all you did was connect some dots after the fact.

This is how I ran a long running Supers game with a high focus on mystery and conspiracy. I tended to steal plots from the players constantly. Great advice.

Edit: I would want to play in a social/conspiracy game with deadly but cinematic combat and interesting characters. The setting is not really important just the feel.

 

[The Ghost]

3) A politically heavy game where social skills take the forefront over combat skills. One that may not see combat for sessions at a time, and when it does occur, it is very dangerous (thus better off avoided entirely)

This, coupled with stronghold building and a diabolical influence on the world at large. Possibly set in a D&Dized version of historic England (circa William the Conqueror).

The game would focus pretty heavily on gathering (exploiting?) resources; building strongholds, armies, & alliances; uncovering treachery at court; and when battles do take place they are generally massive in scope. Now THAT is the game I am interested in playing in.

 

[innerdude]

Having played in an "alternative Earth fantasy reality" campaign in the past, this is actually a lot of fun, and I highly, highly recommend every GM trying it at least once.

Our GM took some elements of the d20 "Engels" supplement and applied them to the campaign, but it wasn't those elements that made the difference.

There's just something about knowing beforehand, even in an abstract way, what the "Alps" mountains look like, what an "Italian" villa looks like, how grimy, dirty, and ash-covered the streets of "London" are (however you choose to name these places). The inherent familiarity with geography and culture of the "nations" in the world made the game incredibly immersive for our group, and as a result, we had some of the best roleplaying I've ever witnessed.

 

[Shoe]

Sea-faring game - Similar to your Fort on the edge of the wilderness, but now the fort can move. Tropical islands, lost fortunes, sea monsters, ship to ship combat in foggy seas... Swiming skills, sailing skills, navigation, and balance all start meaning more in this game.

Was going to say the same thing..i have always wanted to either play in or DM a game on a boat, but I have never braved the task for lack of ideas to keep things interresting on the open seas.

 

[Jack7]

Weem, rather than giving specific game or adventure details I thought I'd just list or categorize a bunch of Theme Types and let you work out the specific game, adventure, and campaign details. Most of these campaign types it seems to me are self-explanatory. If not I included a little note.

Historical Campaign
Alternative History Game
War or Wargame Campaign (Offensive Warfare)
Invasion Campaign (Defensive War)
Ethnic Cleansing Campaign (Genocide)
Quest Campaign
Personal or Character Driven Campaign
Psychological Campaign
Thriller Campaign
Criminal Campaign
Law and Order Campaign
Hunt Campaign
Monster Campaign
Geographic Campaign
Political Campaign
Mystery/Detection/Investigative Campaign
Academic or Scholarly or Research Campaign
Transferable Skills Campaign - relate game to real world interest of players
Achievement Campaign - first one ever to do it, or one of few to ever do it
Mythological Campaign
Status (Kingmaker) Campaign - where one of more players seek power, status, wealth, or influence
Legacy Campaign - fulfilling a personal or family legacy
Heirloom Campaign
Religious Campaign
Ritual Campaign
Occultic Campaign - hidden or secret knowledge
Horror Campaign
Diplomatic Campaign
Agency Campaign
Clash of Forces Campaign - clash between opposing groups, powers, interests, or parties
Nemesis Campaign - campaign against your nemeses
Illusion Campaign
Magic or Change in the Nature of Magic Campaign, also called an Arcane Campaign
Nature or Environmental Change Campaign
Fate Campaign - one or more party members has a particular Fate to fulfill
Scientific or Technological or Invention Campaign, also called a Progress Campaign - where some scientific, technological, magical (a new spell or device or artifact is created), or invented machine, device, artifact, or discovery threatens to fundamentally transform or alter the world
Geographic Campaign
Relical Campaign - involving some ancient and powerful relic, artifact, or ancient device
Disaster or Catastrophe Campaign
Discovery or Exploration Campaign - discovery of some new area of the world, or of some ancient yet unknown/little known section of the world
Heroism and/or Self-Sacrifice Campaign
Disintegration Campaign - slow disintegration of a structure or system or government or a nation
Rebirth or Renaissance Campaign
New Race or Species - discovery of a new race or species
Weird Campaign

 

[Steel_Wind]

It's not D&D, but I'd like to play in a D20 Modern cum D20Future hybrid of an alien invasion campaign.

Sort of "V" meets X-Com - with potentially an apocalyptic Fallout, but more like Niven/Pournelle's Footfall style disaster. No Battlefield Earth please. Red Dawn with Aliens? Ok. I'm in for that.

Independence Day where the Aliens didn't get their asses kicked (yet). That would do too.

I don't want the Aliens to be known. I want something unexpected that I haven't a frkkin CLUE as to who they are, what they want, what they look like or how to stop them. When something alien is described, I don't want to say "oh that's "xx" from the Monster Manual II. I want to be CLUELESS, MYSTIFIED, TENSE and AFRAID.

Not too Cthulhuish please. I don't want to despair. This isn't Delta Green by other means.

No magic please or tech that is so over the top, it might as well be magic. No "I win" Alien psionic red button either.

"If it bleeds - we can kill it" sort of thing. If we nuke them (successfully) - they are going to be D-E-A-D -- No save.

Totally home brewed. I don't want to know what's going to happen -- and I want to figure it out as we go along.

That's pretty much the game I wanted to run. Turns out one of the players didn't want to play it - so we ended up with Star Wars: The Old Republic instead. That's turned out extremely well - so I'm good with how that went.

But given a choice between Vanilla Pathfinder and Alienesque Apocalypse? Yeah - gimme the aliens and IEDs that go *boom*.

 

[Hand of Evil]

After listening to the Penny Arcade podcasts, and seeing this from others as well (such as you), I am really liking the idea of the PC's creating some kind of company of sorts for that purpose. It used to seem like just an easy way out for a DM to get people together - but really there is a lot of good stuff that can be worked into a campaign when centered around something like this... it's about time I give it a try!



Very cool idea. I would give XP, but it looks like I have recently and can't atm

I have a few more ideas myself now, but need to run - will be back to share later!

Anyone else?

think you saw this thread on it:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/275371-roll.html

 

[weem]

Thanks again for the responses all - good stuff.

I have already been tossing some ideas around with the players.

I also wanted to mention this thread that started as a rules question but has become a thread about familiars living after their masters have died (thanks for sparking that Thornir) - their attempts to find new masters, or pursue goals of their own in other ways. Some cool ideas can be found in there that you could even feature prominently in a new campaign as a key theme etc.

I was going to mention another idea I had earlier but didn't have time and now, of course, I don't remember it

Anyone else have more ideas for campaign themes?

 

[Celebrim]

No one ever really offers to run a game for me, but, as examples of the sort of games I consider cool ideas but will probably never run but which would like to play:

a) A game were the players are each incarnated ideas/spirits in a Planescape-like world of abstract things turned real. Think planescape stripped of everything mortal or familiar.
b) A Barsoom inspired swashbuckler game played in a 'Smoke Ring' where everything floats in orbit around a sun. A world of flying whales, bouyant trees the size of small continents, where jellyfish are an inclimate weather hazard, soaring airships filled with pirates raid floating melon farmers, and where the big perspective map is the size of a solar system.
c) A survival/stone ages game where craft is one of the most important skills you can have because you have to make just about everything you own.
d) A game set in the universe of Gene Wolfe's 'Wizard Knight' duology, or on the Earth of Book of the New Sun.
e) A game set in Nitro Ferguson's Kraag Wurld where the gods are deceased 20th century celebrities.

 

[buddhafrog]

Great post idea.

I've been listening to Nerdbound Podcast (live play 4e), and would love to play in that sort of campaign - which many have touched on here.

An adventuring party, seeking new lands and yet-to-be-determined wealth. We control maybe two large ships - one being for trade purposes and the other for exploration. Resources for survival and trade, local tribes, nature, etc are all potential obstacles. It is roughly sandbox, but the adventuring party has clear motivations. If they don't like the land they've discovered, they jump aboard their ship and find a new land. Shares in this adventuring party provide motivation to build the wealth from natural resources and potentially set up small bases of operation working in cooperation with locals. If upon returning to one of their small bases of operations they find their little colony destroyed, well, they have revenge motivations as well. I could see other adventuring parties coming in and fighting for the same trading goods as well. Lots of possibilities, new unexplored lands, and time spent on ships. Fun.

Or, a urban-based murder/mystery where everyone is doubted and no one your friend.