Five Themes

[exile]

Despite being between games at the moment, I am actively thinking about gaming more than I have in a long time. I've got a ton of ideas and multiple places to try to put them: up to three new games in which I could be playing, a homebrew campaign world that I'd like to write, the need to feed a rekindled interest in gaming in one of my younger brothers, a pet project of rewriting the old AD&D1E Slavers modules for both Star Wars and Iron Heroes. I digress.

As an intellectual exercise, I'd like to see a list of five themes/subjects/etc. that you would like to see explored in a game.

As an example, here's the list that kicked off a PbP game that I've been running on MySpace for over a year now.

1) Wizarding School
2) Transformation
3) Loss
4) Islands
5) Romance (I'm DMing for a bunch of girls...J/K Jackye, Catlin, Kyari, you're all awesome)

Chad

 

[FnordBear]

Well, I like complex plots with twists and turns galore. To that end here is a sampling of themes from the campaign I have been in for going on 2 years.

1) Revolution Against Established Order
2) Redemption for Past Misdeeds
3) Discovery of Hidden Pasts
4) Exploration of Ancient Sites
5) Defying Prophecy


Somethings I would like to see in a diffrent campaign/setting.

1) War. Not the typical "War is going on while PCs help the effort" but acctual PC leading and directing a military campaign.
2) Psion School (neat twist on wizard school)
3) Exploring a new/unexplored land (Xendrick!)
4) Building on #3, being the first Spelljammers from a world approaching high magic status.
5) Strangers in a Strange Land. To diffrentiate from #3 and #4 the PCs are normal PHB PCs thrust in to a very non-typical D&D world. Think John Carter of Mars and things of a similar vien.

 

[Particle_Man]

1. The Gods died Today.
2. Nightmares.
3. Blood Magic.
4. Pseudo-Natural is the new Natural.
5. Stormy Weather.

 

[DarkKestral]

1. The Gods died Today.
2. Nightmares.
3. Blood Magic.
4. Pseudo-Natural is the new Natural.
5. Stormy Weather.

d20 Call of Cthulhu mixed with D&D? Cuz I see a definite Lovecraft influence there..

 

[Li Shenron]

As an intellectual exercise, I'd like to see a list of five themes/subjects/etc. that you would like to see explored in a game.

1) Ancient texts recovery and investigation (see "The Ninth Gate" movie)
2) Divination, fortune-telling, oracles
3) Herbalism
4) Alchemy
5) Material components for spellcasting (e.g. UA variant expanded 20 times)

 

[DarkKestral]

As an intellectual exercise, I'd like to see a list of five themes/subjects/etc. that you would like to see explored in a game.

1) Faerie tales, done classical medieval style
2) Alchemy (w/ full material components natch)
3) The roaring 20s.
4) Consensus History
5) How magic and technology would develop in a magical world

 

[Gilladian]

This is making me think about my current campaign. I'd say that I'm trying to expand on these themes/elements:

1. personal relationship to family/society
2. personal relationship to power
3. effect of wealth on said relationships
4. ends and means - what justifies what
5. old sins returning to haunt future generations


So far, that's the themes I seem to be repeating. Wow, that's really some deep stuff. It doesn't come off that way in the game, though...

I can see I need to introduce something a bit less focused... the next campaign I run is going to be Savage Tide, so maybe that will loosen things up a bit.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

1. Dungeons and the monsters that live in them
2. Random Encounters
3. Elf Chicks
4. Big Swords
5. Epic Wizard Battles

 

[GreatLemur]

As an example, here's the list that kicked off a PbP game that I've been running on MySpace for over a year now.

Holy Jesus, MySpace? Man, is that as excruciating as it sounds? I'd tell you what I think about that community, but on this board it'd just come out as all s. Seriously, though, how's that working out for you? I assume you're doing it in a forum or something, right?

1. The Gods died Today.
2. Nightmares.
3. Blood Magic.
4. Pseudo-Natural is the new Natural.
5. Stormy Weather.

Aw, hell, I want in on that. That really sounds like my kind of thing.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

1. Go to far places
2. Meet exciting new creatures
3. Kill them
4. take their stuff
5. Blow it on booze and whores