Fleshing out a campaign theme

[fba827]

Brief background: Our group has a regular (and might I say good -if you're reading) DM/campaign going. But for when all the group members can't be there, we are considering an alt-campaign. I am planning to offer to be the DM for the alt-campaign (so that the regular DM gets a chance to PC for once).

I haven't DMed since AD&D and my style of DMing is VERY serialized (everything is so interconnected you don't have a real thought of one game session to another as everything is a giant single piece) and heavily drawing from PC backgrounds and motivations. I also used to make more wilderness and political type stories since they lent to more interconnected things.

But in order to work as an alt-campaign where we may not play for weeks/months at a time, then I have to shift my brain. I also need to take in to account that the PCs may rotate somewhat (since it will be any number of our pool of 4 players that will be there at any given session in which we play the alt-campaign).

Considerations:
* Want it to be episodic but some how connectable (i.e. each session could be taken on it's own, but there is still something larger going on)
* Able to handle PCs dropping in and out between sessions
* Don't want this to be dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl
* I am considering it to have some tweak (terrain, house rule, etc) to make it feel a little different than the regular campaign


Some ideas I've been considering so far (some fleshed out more than others) ...

1) PCs are just mercenaries and take assignments from the mysterious stranger (simplest, but scared it will get repetitive)

2) Magic is outlawed, but all the PCs have minor wizard powers (house rules), giving it a rather XMen feel as they try to not be known and still do their thing. (will still need to figure out what their thing is...)

3) PCs are all part of a guard/military unit and make the sessions be assignments from their commander (though this may limit some player race and class choices depending...)

4) PCs all on a boat, going from island to island exploring

5) PCs must collect the 10 parts of an artifact to save the world (though they may not know that this is what they are doing)

6) It's a highly primitive world (or post cataclysm)

7) I try and run a heavily connected campaign like I am used to and just hope it works...

8) PCs are all survivors of something, trying to cope


Any ideas? Either expanding on what I wrote above or something different? Or combing the above in a way I may not have considered (like I could combine ideas #1, 2, 5 and 6; or 4, 5, and 6 together make a very Pirates of Dark Water theme)?

Mainly I'm just nervous about coming up with a story that I will feel comfortable running (given my predisposition to serialized stories and PC background use) but will still be flexible enough for an alt-game.

Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?

 

[Gilladian]

When I ran a campaign on a weekly basis at the Public Library, I ended up going with a scenario where the PCs were members of/guarding a caravan of refugees fleeing a war-torn city. They were traveling through terrain that had been raided by the enemy (orc army of course) but not completely destroyed. Eventually they were forced into near-wilderness over the border of their kingdom. Each week I could have different players show up, and the ones that weren't there were simply "off guarding another spot" in the caravan. They had a number of fun adventures doing things such as:

1)preparing to leave the city - seeking supplies from warehouses down at the river in a district whose walls had already been breached by the enemy

2) rounding up an orphanage of children and preparing them for evacuation

3) negotiating with a group of criminals who had decided to remain behind and wanted their supplies

4) defending the caravan as it fled the city and was attacked by enemy units (a major diversion was provided by the city's cavalry - mostly paladins and knights who died in the attempt)

5) keeping the civilians from panicking during said escape

6) crossing a river ford while being sniped at by the last of the attackers

etc....

eventually, they had other adventures revolving around a haunted house, going to negotiate passage through a mountain range from a grumpy but essentially good dragon, finding the cure for a disease outbreak, and more. You could even fit in short dungeon adventures if you wanted, as the PCs scouted ahead of the caravan.

Oh, and I forgot to say; the NPCs were all long-term caravan members - the cleric of the city temple, their guard-captain, some townsfolk, the orphans who worshipped them, etc...

 

[exile]

Dungeonrunners!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I know it's the name of a free online game, but I think it captures the feel a Shadowrun style play in a more traditional D&D setting. The characters are a team of Dungeonrunners. Each session sees them hired to pursue some new goal involving recon followed by infiltration, then finally extraction/termination/etc. Each member of the group is, of course, highly specialized. Someone wronged by the group in one scenario could easily show up to complicate things for them in later scenarios. A team of rival Dungeonrunners could also compliacte their lives.

Chad

 

[exile]

Of course, I also like your idea of a highly primitive/post-apocalyptic world. Mayhaps the characters were all raised in the same village. Play begins whne they are sent out to explore the wide world beyond their home. Each session focuses on the exploration of some new region.

Chad

 

[arcanaman]

This sounds similar to my freinds LWC campaign

 

[Rechan]

1) PCs are just mercenaries and take assignments from the mysterious stranger (simplest, but scared it will get repetitive)

Don't think of them as Mercenaries. Think of them as Professional Adventurers.

The A-Team.

Everyone is specialized. They have to work with a low profile (as low as one can driving fast speeding cars and blowing stuff up) because they escaped prison. Their missions are similar, but can very greatly.

You can do recon missions. "Seek and destroy". Infiltration (get in, get X, get out with as little collateral damage as possible). Make sure that each "isn't" 'Go in and kill/fight everything that walks.'

3) PCs are all part of a guard/military unit and make the sessions be assignments from their commander (though this may limit some player race and class choices depending...)

Two thoughts about this one.

1) Crack special forces. This might be for a government during peace time, so they're doing espionage or seek and destroy/retrieval. They could be the equivalent of the CIA/FBI/Secret Service; sometimes they go abroad, othertimes they have to protect specific royal members when they go on diplomatic missions. Imagine being at a meeting with a foreign power, and the PCs playing "Patrol for assassins".

2) In war time. The main army does their thing, but that's not what the PCs do. They go on missions like 'Go find out what the enemy is DOING over there; don't get caught' 'Disrupt enemy supply lines.' 'Dismantle magical rituals.' 'Sabotage siege engines.' 'enemy has made deal with (big monster things); appease or destroy them.' I can see the PCs rerouting a river to flood trenches being built.

5) PCs must collect the 10 parts of an artifact to save the world (though they may not know that this is what they are doing)

Honestly, this might suit the best. Except, instead of it being just a core group of adventures, think of it more like an Adventuring Company. "We take who is available and send them when we have a lead." Similar to the Justice League.

This way, players might even be able to swap out characters at the start of different adventures if they want.

With that said and done, here is my suggestion for a possible one:

Nation builders. Seriously. They might be freedom fighters in the middle of a region with petty dictators and militia gangs. So they might sweep the countryside, killing leaders and taking over, establishing their own territory, negotiating with neighboring areas, doing rebuilding efforts, improving the life quality, etc. (Though granted, this would be really slow if you're only doing it on occasion).

Frontiersmen. They're in charge of a colony or a town on the Edge of Civilization. Not just exploration! There's natives to deal with, enforcing laws in a lawless place, help clear areas (drive all the predators out, make sure its secure) for inhabitants/farming, drive off bandits who might try to steal supplies, go out looking for medicine in the wilderness when they run out, and otherwise be the Cowboy/Sheriff of the area.

Thieves Guild. They are some young punks working for a Thieves Guild, and the goal is to Move Up in the organization. This would be similar to the Military commando team, but more subtle, more a "Mafia" bent. And it can involve a lot more than brutality and stealing; they can do extortion ("This is a nice place here, I'd hate to break your store"), kidnapping, blackmail (both getting the material, and making the "deal"), burglary (Think bank robbery/jewel heist), hiding someone who is being hunted, etc.

Check out the book "Powers of Faerun". It's all about running campaigns structured around organizations; The Thief's Guild, Military, the King's Court, the Thief's Guild, the Merchant. It's an FR book yes, but it just uses FR examples to illustrate how to run these types of campaigns.

Finally, My suggestion? WATCH TV. Watch Dr Who/Torchwood. The X-Files. Serenity. Do your research.

 

[Phlebas]

one of our games stuttered a bit due to the DM having medical issues, so one of the players created a government agency group where we take on missions at short notice

couple of tweaks - 1st level was rogue, all characters, which meant we could all sneak

some free feats (athletics etc)

and then we just play whenever we can. if players aren't available we take on smaller missions or even training events. .

there is an overarching plot (ie we're all orphans brought up by a govenrment agency and persuaded that what we do is in the best interest of the state - and we get to find out the real reason for the agency's existence sometime)

so far we've raided a drug dealer, rescued a kidnapped trial. got lost in the woods on our wilderness training exercise and found a BBEG trying to unite the goblins to attack human settlements. next mission is to take out the BBEG before the goblin horde built up momentum

we get a brief, a budget and about 30 minutes to come up with a plan and we have to finish in an evening.

we each have ranks which we get by succeeding / failing training rolls and being successful on missions, and we also lose ranks due to incompetence. highest ranking PC gets to lead the group, second highest is 2ic etc

works quite well so far...

 

[fba827]

Thanks for the good feedback so far everyone.

I'm thinking I'll try and flesh 2-3 ideas (based on feedback from this thread) in to a good couple-line summary and see what the group wants.

I'll mentally process it over for a couple days.

in the meantime, if anyone else has other feedback/ideas/opinions, feel free to post, it may lead to another potential idea not yet covered (or an interesting spin on something already said)

 

[Rechan]

I'm thinking I'll try and flesh 2-3 ideas (based on feedback from this thread) in to a good couple-line summary and see what the group wants.

This is what I did. Hell, you can see my summaries here.

Let us know which ideas you go with, and if you need further assistance fleshing them out.

 

[fba827]

This is what I did. Hell, you can see my summaries here.

Let us know which ideas you go with, and if you need further assistance fleshing them out.

Ha. I already know about yours (I commented in your thread last week) -- in fact, it was your thread that gave me the idea to present 2-3 options to the group rather than just trying to decide on one on my own (which would have the advantage of giving me more time to prepare, but I ultimately decided I'll sacrifice that extra prep time).