Does your campaign have a theme and mood?

[Incenjucar]

I agree that the list is way too limited.

I avoid forcing themes on the game as a whole. It's too limiting and too artificial, unless you have an extreme situation (war-torn world, etc), and even then, I don't like having to struggle with the players.

Now, I might have a themed -adventure- or something, but even then, I let the players choose their reactions and how it feels to them.

Heck, my own big 3e adventure was different themes to different players; to the evil ones, it was a fun-filled romp with a lot of underscored anger (the evil wizard and the evil barbarian both wanted to kill each other the entire time -- the latter was distracted by a love interest for the creepiest romance with a hobgoblin 'princess'). For the non-evil characters, it was a battle to control the powerful evil beings around them, trying to stay relatively pure despite being between two evils (the NPCs included a sweet but purely evil Imp wizardess, a very very young medusa who loved to be given cute animals to make statues out of, and the imp's harem and servants of various races -- all of whom were very kind and generous, but quite open about being aligned with evil). So, basically, it ended up being angst-filled IC, but with lots of laughs (I modeled the imp a few shades towards Shemeshka, but with the control that her lawful nature implied, and the humility that her weaker power enforced).

Some adventures I try to outright creep my players out (like the "Lamia Nursery" -- anyone who remembers 2e lamias knows how nasty that is), others I try to make them laugh (like when I introduced the sumo goblin...), others I try to warp their senses (like when everyone was a weak variant of lycanthrope). If a theme shows up, it's because of what happens, not because I'm trying to force any one thing in to play. Hence why I don't bother with Cthulhu and such.

 

[Mercule]

There's not enough range in the potential answers. How about 'sometimes' have a theme?

That's kinda what I mean by "rarely". Read: inconsistent.

 

[Necrohazard]

My campaign is an old one so it has had many a theme, and the theme really depends what part of the world you are in vs. something that has taken the world at its heart.
But to bring it to a point, I would say change. War between deities and nations, a greater push for tech in the lands as magic has become more unstable in parts of the world.
A return of the old deities less well known in this age, taking upon themselves there old roles as the more well known deities of the age are thrown down by one another or are no longer found by those who worship them.
So in many ways there is a return to the past age from the days of now, but at the same time a great push to usher in the days of the future and new ideas.
Good vs. Evil, chaos vs. order and a struggle of power between the days of now, an age that had passed and the forging of the future.

Well this is at least one part of the world, if one was to pass through a "Sea Portal" they may feel that they have walked into another world vs. just another part of the world, if it was not for all the trade ships, from there home lands.

 

[Lord Pruitt]

A title for the campaign is kind of like a title for a novel, the theme is like an overall goal of said novel. But the theme has to be flexible (adaptive to the PCs actions/reactions). And the mood - thats just flavor for the setting, ie - Ravenloft is gothic horror.

 

[The Grackle]

You wrote Eberron?!

...

 

[kolikeos]

all three...
starting from the bottom of your list...

 

[MonsterMash]

My campaign is a 'classic' Sword and Sorcery style - though using D&D, probably OD&D feel is what I'm striving for using the Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I came up with this really brilliant theme for my campaign: Bad guys are trying to take over the world and good guys are trying to stop them! (The bad guys being the PCs, in this case.)

Seriously though, I've never planned on a specific mood or theme for a campaign. What "mood" it ends up having, it gets from the gaming style of my players. I mean, why shouldn't THEY contribute a little too??? (Homer voice: "Stupid, lazy players!")

 

[hong]

My campaign has the standard blue Luna theme, but I've been playing around with TweakXP and WindowBlinds (thank you Stardock!) lately, so that may change.

 

[Li Shenron]

Mostly they have a theme and a mood, not always planned from the start but rather coming up itself from the sequence of adventures and the PC deeds... The first campaign I ever DMed however was instead pretty discontinued because (even if I DID had a theme in mind) I had to used published adventures and I was still too inexperienced to change much of them.

They also have a title, but that usually comes up AFTER the campaign