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

[buddhafrog]

One more:

Slaves taken from their homeland, brought to the borderlands of the empire and made to work. All sorts of mixed slaves and free creatures inhabiting this expanding empire. The game would start we the PC's attempted escape. They could join the rebellion. They could Kill their former slave masters. Bring upheaval to the borderlands and the empire that enslaved them. They could choose to return to their homelands and rid it of the empire. This is also generally sandbox but with quite specific starting situation and motivation.

 

[Jack7]

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.

I had a buddy when I was a kid who created an entirely Island World. Nothing but seas and small to medium sized islands. Two large islands if I'm remembering correctly, but in any case far too many to explore. Some were inhabited, some not, some abandoned, some had never been explored. Some had advanced civilizations, some were very primitive. There was even one island we discovered that was inhabited by a group of giants who we later found out were actually stranded aliens from outer space. They were creating chimeras through genetic manipulation and using technology to appear to others as powerful giant-wizards. That was a very interesting campaign as the giants were engaged in a life or death struggle with invading Mind Flayers and we got caught up in it.

Some islands were so close to each other you could swim to them, some so far away you could spend weeks at sea. There was a rumor that to the north and west lay huge landmasses that were not islands inhabited by wondrous creatures and a totally different kind of man. But no-one alive had ever made it that far. We never found out if it was true or not.

I would say that pretty much the whole world was an "Exploration World" and because so few of the islands were in direct contact with each other many very diverse cultures and civilizations sprang up. Sort of like comparing the Han Dynasty to the Byzantine Empire to the Aztec or Toltec Empires to Cush. Only they could all exist simultaneously on separate little islands isolated from one another, and so you as an explorer never knew what to expect until you sailed into it. (Getting advanced information on most islands was very difficult or impossible.) Of all the worlds and campaigns I ever took part in as a player, that was the most fascinating and most of the time, the most outright fun. (You could also become very wealthy by helping to establish new trade and diplomacy and military contacts between different islands. Though most militaries were really Navies.)

I mention it as a very good version/possibility of what I call the Frontier's or Exploration Campaign (though frontier's and exploration campaigns can also be different from one another). You could do much worse than an exploration campaign, and an island world is pretty much perfect for that kind of thing.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Fantasy version of Torchwood -- monsters & odd magic keep falling through a planar rift into a (modern?) urban city, and the PCs are the team that must offer the best defence.

I've also been wondering how a bog-standard D&D setup would play if the Cubicle 7 Doctor Who ruleset were used. Suddenly, talking and running would be superior options to combat 75-80% of the time! (I would not use the "No killing" rule, though.)

Something I am working on: City from one fantasy brought into new fantasy world by cabal of mages. The PCs are residents of that city. Things to do: 1. City politics, 2. Explore!, 3. Deal with how the city affects the power structure of the new world, including possibilities of trade, war, etc., and 4. Dealing with what happened to whatever the city displaced.


RC

 

[weem]

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.

I really like this idea and it made me think of a campaign where the PC's are stranded on some island with minimal supplies. The theme is exploration, resource gathering, survival, and getting off the island primarily. Very "Lost" like.

Great post idea.

Thanks, and thanks for sharing

 

[buddhafrog]

I had a buddy when I was a kid who created an entirely Island World. Nothing but seas and small to medium sized islands. Two large islands if I'm remembering correctly, but in any case far too many to explore. Some were inhabited, some not, some abandoned, some had never been explored. Some had advanced civilizations, some were very primitive. There was even one island we discovered that was inhabited by a group of giants who we later found out were actually stranded aliens from outer space. They were creating chimeras through genetic manipulation and using technology to appear to others as powerful giant-wizards. That was a very interesting campaign as the giants were engaged in a life or death struggle with invading Mind Flayers and we got caught up in it.

Some islands were so close to each other you could swim to them, some so far away you could spend weeks at sea. There was a rumor that to the north and west lay huge landmasses that were not islands inhabited by wondrous creatures and a totally different kind of man. But no-one alive had ever made it that far. We never found out if it was true or not.

Sounds a little like Indonesia.... which is the map I will use for likely the next game i run -- the one I described above. You can't find better ship exploration maps than the real thing of Indonesia. Highly recommended.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have a bunch of guidelines for a post-Apocalyptic/War of the Worlds D&D campaign that I'd love to play in as much as I want to run it. It has:

1. Awakened Aspen who cover thousands of square miles...
2. Warforged as FRPG Daleks/Cybermen, housing the brains of psionic dwarves...
3. Three true Fey Elf species, one kind who are plantlike, one kind who are linked to the plane of shadow, and one kind from the same future as the Illithids who started the War that Killed the World...
4. Size S flying Thri Kreen...
5. Nephilim, a broader & deeper version of "Planetouched"...

And so much more.

 

[Piratecat]

I love to play in a game with difficult political decisions. Big consequences for your actions and decisions, moderate amounts of physical combat and exploration, and a fair amount of investigation and mystery.

That's why I created the city of Eversink in my old campaign: inbred political backstabbing in a sinking city where all the dungeons used to be rooms in peoples' houses. It fit my favorite style really well.

 

[Vanifae]

I love to play in a game with difficult political decisions. Big consequences for your actions and decisions, moderate amounts of physical combat and exploration, and a fair amount of investigation and mystery.

That's why I created the city of Eversink in my old campaign: inbred political backstabbing in a sinking city where all the dungeons used to be rooms in peoples' houses. It fit my favorite style really well.

I really enjoyed Eversink in your storyhour.

 

[Shades of Green]

I'd love to play in a well-designed megadungeon with an interesting history and a well-planned 'dungeon ecology' (something along the lines of the Ultima Underworld and Arx fatalis computer games). Make it a world all by itself, with various factions controlling different parts of the dungeon, and with legends known to the inhabitants about hidden parts of the dungeon and hidden dangers and treasures in its less civilized depth.

Make the dungeon 'live'. Add in politics. Add in wars between factions. This way I could enjoy not only exploration but also intrigue and mystery...

 

[GlassJaw]

I really like this idea and it made me think of a campaign where the PC's are stranded on some island with minimal supplies. The theme is exploration, resource gathering, survival, and getting off the island primarily. Very "Lost" like.

I like this idea a LOT, and I had grand designs of running a similar campaign a few years ago but it never got off the ground.

Right now, as a player and DM, I really like the idea of a sandbox campaign set in a very specific geographical, environmental, or cultural region: jungle/tropical islands, cold/snowy mountains/forest, desert/Arabian/Egyptian, etc.

The "Lost" campaign works great on both accounts. The players are dumped in the middle of nowhere, and that "middle of nowhere" also happens to be a challenging environment for survival.

Plus, the jungle/Isle of Dread setting lends itself to so many options: pirates, natives, dinosaurs, ancient temples/undead, lizard/snake/monkey men, evil apes, etc.

It practically writes itself.