Need ideas for an... unusual campaign.

Also, check out Buffy. Although it has serious overtones, some of it is a little tongue to cheek.

Especially the Musical episode. Although it was an AWESOME episode, there are some seriously funny situtaions. Allow me to explain:

Demon is summoned. But with him comes the life of music; basicly everyone in town are breaking into song ala a musical. However, they are also spontaniously combusting because when life is a song and dance, it speeds up your heart until it just bursts.

It'd be amusing if the party did a pure Musical like so (Especially for the Paladin and Bardic barbarian :)).
 

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Sounds like a perfect party for Murphy's World. If you can scare up a copy, you should have enough off-the-wall plot seeds to last quite a while. Stuff like (I'm going from memory, here) Bob, Lord of the Undead. Roll a random Murphy's Law every (in-game) day and punish the characters with it. Elves that are effete snobs and worried more about social climbing than making war on orcs. Giants that think the smaller races are "cute." Nodwick is another great source for gags/plot seeds.

In the main, adventures should just drop into the characters' laps with little to no warning (although with *these* characters, there should be plenty of backstory to exploit as well). Let the characters "have their head" for a little while, then dump a big, unavoidable plot hook on them.

Keep cycling between "free rein" and plot hooks, and never ever be afraid to reuse an underappreciated villain. You can always bring in clones, more-evil twins, or copycat villains if the originals die off. The more continuing plot threads, the better: it's easier to play a soap opera for laughs than standard D&D. Play it "bent," not "wacky"; prefer the pun over the pratfall and always let the characters have their comeuppance if they deserve it.

The more off-the-wall something is, the more straight-faced it should be played:

- Chauncy, in "alter ego" mode, is accosted by another "Lady of Mystery" who claims Chauncy stole his/her shtick. Who is this second "Lady of Mystery" and why does he/she seem so familiar to the other three characters?

- At some random time when buying equipment, the characters are being treated to the blacksmith's/shopkeeper's/whoever's "I remember when" story and, just when they are about to kill to relieve the sheer boredom, the storyteller's ancient foe muscles his way into the shop and starts a knock-down, drag-out fight to rival the climax of "Blade II." The characters can even participate if they wish. What level are the antagonists, and what is their beef with each other? Can the PCs solve it before the town is decimated in the crossfire?

- Shaggy and Scooby... er, I mean Tommy and Stony... get separated from the rest of the gang while looking for clues and come across a disused kitchen full of perfectly edible delicacies. Eventually, they have to regain their composure long enough to save Fred, Daphne, and Velma... er, I mean Chauncy, Uthress, and Heidi... from some trap in the monster's lair... and the monster turns out to be the groundskeeper in disguise. "And I would have gotten away with it, too... if it hadn't been for you meddling adventurers!" But what sort of treasure was the groundskeeper trying to chase everyone away from, and why must it be destroyed?

- One of Heidi's old rivals has also been beating, stomping, and headbutting, and now it's time for some payback. Who is the rival, and why is Baron Velcro paying a lot of attention to the outcome?

- In the "Hercules" vein, a god (avatar) crashes to the ground right in front of the characters, and immediately begins complaining. This god latches on to the characters and won't leave them alone until they've solved his/her problem. To get this albatross off their necks, the characters need to figure out what happened and try to mollify the god's angry rival. Luckily there's a temple nearby where the rival often sends an avatar. Will talking get the problem solved... or will the characters need to retrieve the Nectar of the Gods from the Bottom of the World, where the whiny one tossed it in a fit of pique?

- The characters are in an open-air marketplace in the Exotic East when an NPC adventuring group on flying carpets begins an assault. What is the prophecy they want to avert, and why do they think the PCs MUST DIE?

- Uthress has attracted the wrong sort of attention: important politicians, nobles, and other rich, hoity-toity folk keep asking her on dates! Why are the rich fawning over Uthress, and how does the sinister Doctor Plume factor into it?

- The tarrasque is loose! Luckily it's only killing the poor, while the rich watch the fun from afar, applauding periodically when the creature does something particularly entertaining. Who set the tarrasque loose, and will taking that thorn out of its foot help?

- A very old, very bored intelligent undead (the lich works best) is worshipped by a village full of brainwashed dimwits, but the entertainment value of it was short-lived. Lately the villain has been using the villagers to kidnap adventuring parties (after checking their resumes, of course!) so they can navigate a series of amusing deathtraps while the villain watches. Few survive. Can the characters provide enough entertainment? Can they come up with an idea for continuing entertainment that will be distracting enough to end the kidnappings and deaths?

- A group of halflings wants to go into business selling herbal products, but a consortium of druids approaches Tommy with a secret. What is this secret, and why are the halflings infinitely more dangerous than even they know?


Sounds like fun! I never had the guts to run a campaign like this, so I for one would like to know how it turns out!
 
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Marius, those are some great ideas! I would love to play a session or two in a game like this -- it'd be a great break from the horror-filled uberangst that our group always descends into.

Daniel
 

Thanks!

I think at least an occasional change of tone is essential to any long-running campaign. Of special note in this thread: even a "silly" campaign can get wearisome if every adventure is "round the corner and off the wall" all the time.

Even a one-shot using different characters can break things up. After about four or five "bent" adventures, perhaps run a short, wahoo, "kill 'em all" scenario if the players (or the DM!) need a thematic break. Or whip out any of the Polyhedron mini-games for a complete change of pace.

Back on the original thread topic, don't be afraid to enthusiastically loot non-D&D sources for "off the wall" plot hooks. Maybe a group of Secret Warriors from Feng Shui could put in an appearance. Introduce Mulder and Scully, only to kill them off in an appropriately tongue-in-cheek way just as the plot gets going. Drop in the crew of the Starship Enterprise -- a group of clueless explorers who pilot a spelljamming vessel. Perhaps the Terminator and Boba Fett are both hunting the White Rabbit, and the characters get caught in the middle. Conan might show up as a depressed, over-the-hill monarch who gets a vicarious thrill from having the PCs recount their adventures to him... and might even stage a mock combat with papier-mache or wicker beasts, which could be a very surreal encounter if played right.

The best thing about a campaign like this is how many different ways it can go. :)
 
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Don't forget that, just as a serious campaign needs humour, a humourous campaign needs the odd moment of down-to-earth seriousness. Look at all the big webcomics (or at least some of my favourites); while most of the time they're so tongue in cheek that they look like an elephant with a lip disorder, when things get serious everyone pays attention, simply because they've grown to love the characters and, because of this emotional attachment, really care about what happens to them.

That said, I hope there are (incompetent) authorities with anti-drug use laws (or 'concerned citizens', ie. vigilantes) where you're adventuring, so they can chase your stoner around and never actually catch him, but set off humourous escapades in the process. These guys work well as Wile E. Coyote types, with elaborate plans that always backfire or are just plain stupid.

For an interesting madcap adventure, check out the second Beatles film, 'Help!'. It's in colour, you know. And it's also much fun to watch. The plot (such as it is) has Ringo discovering that his ring is Kaili's Ring Of Sacrifice, and now the cult of Kaili wants him dead... but first they must paint him red (it's a ritual sacrifice). The ring won't come off, which is the real problem, and its unusual (read: unbreakable even by industrial lasers) properties bring it to the attention of a pair of mad scientists who also chase the Beatles with all manner of unlikely gadgets. Things get very unusual from there on in. Really, you should watch it; it sounds just right for this campaign. Heck, it's a good film period.
 

-A local self-defense teacher has recently contracted vampirism. He's loud. Very loud. However, instead of being affected by Pointed Sticks (wooden stakes) the best way to kill him is a banana through the heart.

-Have the characters caught up in an epic struggle between the crusading Terrifica, and her arch nemesis Fantistico

-SPAM golems. nuff said.

-Drag Queen Bard/Necromancers who kill the local townspeople, then animate their corpses, and then dress them up in colorful costumes and perform the hokiest musicals they can find with them.

-Illithid Carnivals!

-if anyone in your group has the perform skill, replay the devil went down to georgia.

-Annorexic Fatlings of DOOM! (from the Scarred Lands) or Fatlings that have lost all their excess with the Subway diet!

-Evil Bards that force you to listen to their terrible stand up routine, lest they feed you into a giant blender.

-Have villains perform the macerana!

-Have the giants that think all littler creatures are "cute" as mentioned earlier, but have them keep the little creatures in magical orbs and pit them against one another...
 


Just some of the party's possible enemies:

The Spice Ghouls

Dwarven Death Metal Bands - lots of metal, lots of death

The Paladins of the Gender Neutral, Racially Tolerant, Differently Abled Aware, Culturally Sensitive, Non-denomonational Order of Political Correctness.

The Belching Mages of the Steinlager Brotherhood

The insidious Sentient Flatulence.
 

We had a campaign once where the continent was split in half by two powerful empires. One was ruled by lawful evil halflings; the other was controlled by lawful evil gnomes. Kobolds and goblins served as mercenaries for both sides while dwarves were second class citizens. Humans were mainly a slave race and elves were being exterminated.

The party was centered in the woodlands of the halfling empire where they waged guerrilla warfare and liberated slaves. One night the party (a half-elf ranger/foe hunter, human fighter, dwarf fighter, half-orc cleric, and elven wizard) made a surprise raid on a slave camp. They obliterated the kobold wardens with ease but ended up tangling with a party of seven halfling rogues, each a level under them. TPK. The half-elf fought until the bitter end (halfings were her hated enemy).
 

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