Does your campaign have a theme and mood?

[Ormazd]

Themes are fun!! Wee!

I try to use themes in writing campaigns because it gives me something to "aim for" as a DM. This can provide a challenge, which is fun, but also helps if I'm ever stuck for an idea or plot twist. I just look back at the theme and let it tell me what should happen next.

Of course, it is never a straight-jacket, and you have to move away from it sometimes or it gets boring and stale, but it's handy to have around. It's also fun when the players start to figure out the theme and work with it.

Example: A recent campaign of mine had a "lesser of two evils" theme. It involved the heroes facing a number a situations in which they had to cooperate with some unsavory types (including a drug-smuggler, a werewolf, a ghost, a cult trying to protect an elf/demon baby, a blue dragon, etc.) to put a stop to greater evils (a necromancer trying to release the ancient god of lawful evilness). It forced the players to really make some tough choices and allowed for great role-playing.

I strongly recommend the use of some sort of theme. Afterall, it's supposed to be a story you're telling. And what kind of story doesn't have a theme or mood?

Ormazd

 

[diaglo]

my BBEGs have a posse and theme music.

just like in I'm gonna get you sucka.

 

[Greybar]

I misread the poll from the frontpage as being more game-by-game rather than campaign. While each campaign-arc does often have a title and theme for me, it's even more fun when individual plot-arcs have titles. It also really helps me as the GM keep them on-track and creatively focused.

For instance, current campaign (in hiatus) "Haraiva in Darkness".
Upcoming plot notes:

"The Tale of the Claw Lake Tribe" (Theme: action movie blend)
"Five Against the Dragon" (Theme: Kung-fu B-movie, doomed)
"That Clicking Heart" (Theme: Weird Tales, low-combat)
"The Grey Lands" (Theme: Dark Horror/Action)
and
"Apotheosis Now" (Theme: desperate action, high risk)

john

 

[Psion]

Dancing through the dichotomous poll

I chose usually have a theme, but "often" is more appropriate. My current game sort of has a theme of discovery and change.

I sometimes have a mood.

I do usually have a title. The current game is Sailors on the River of Worlds.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Unless I've just read something really powerful and want to try and share that mood and experience with my players, I just go with the old sword and sorcerry bit and it works. That isn't to say I haven't run grim and dark games of Chaos infestation or inner politics where betryal is common and expected, it's just well, it's D&D and D&D does fantasy hero RPG pretty well.

 

[The_Universe]

I think it's much harder to make a consistent mood stick in an RPG than it is to have a title that makes sense, or a theme that events seem to be based around.

IMC, I had an idea for the theme, and then the title flowed from that. The players have taken to both rather well.

The name is "A Kingdom of Ashes" and the theme has involved a lot of fire magic, destruction, etc. Some of the characters have latched on to a Phoenix motif (rebirth from the ashes...). Stuff like that.

But the mood? Some sessions are somber and dark, while others are light-hearted and silly. All of them have their place.

 

[DragonLancer]

I always name my campaigns. Even if players deviate from the intended course of the campaign, the events I have forseen will still happen in some form.

My DL campaigns are all running along the same story, but seen a few years apart and from different eyes.

Season 1: War of Souls. (3.0).
Post War of the Lance, based on the background to the WotC adventure path series, dealing with lifeless children, a hidden past, and an ancient dragon seeking immortality.
Sets up the arrival/return of the Dragon Overlords who are not alien dragons in my DL, but are instead the first dragons corrupted by the goddess Takhisis.

Season 2: Dragons of Summer Flame. (3.5 - playing at the moment).
Replaces the book of the same name, with a githyanki invasion. A war story with the fate of the world in the balance. High action and epic battles.
This was propecised in season 1, and is part of a foreseen future that leads to the return of the Overlords.

Season 3: Rise of the Dragons (3.5 - being written at the moment).
The Overlords have awoken and its 15-20 years after the githyanki incursion, and dragons across Krynn are fighting each other, and not just for power. Some dragons are seeking something...
Will continue the overall plot, giving some more info on the Overlords and perhaps some hope in their defeat. Still in design stage.

Thats how I handle themes in my games.

 

[Terwox]

My last game had a title, but you need a title to have a story hour. (Whether you abandon it or not! )
I think it really helps put everything in focus, having a title, as long as it has some meaning.
I never used to do theme and mood, and I flopped as a GM a lot. My first idea for a theme was a vampire game, where the theme was, "you will be confused and spurned by everyone until you're eventually eaten by Tzmisce himself." Oddly, that game didn't last very long, and the sad part is that I didn't understand why until after it was over.
But yeah. My last game had a mood of chaos (and sometimes whimsy,) and a theme of self-discovery and self-creation, although I think I only had that half formed when I started the game.
Current game has a mood of wonder and being with friends and family, and a theme along the lines of Exodus, except applied to elves who already left the world behind to live alone and sequestered, but have to go sequester themselves somewhere else as their valley is invaded a few thousand years later.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I try to always have a title, but sometimes I can't come up with one until the game is over.

I like to always have a theme. Usually, senseless suffering finds its way into most games a recurring theme.