Curse Of The Azure Bonds would make a great setting for 5-6 evenings. The beginning places the characters against many drow who subdue the characters - They awaken with mysterious tatoo sigils on their arms. (As a game breaker I allowed all characters to choose ANY 1 magic item the wanted - when they awaken of course the items are gone...) There are 5 sigils in all that have been placed by 5 different factions, each with their own agenda. The sigils, upon certain conditions, prompt the characters to do certains acts against their will - this will certainly upset the characters, but provides great gameplay and DM control. The goal is to defeat each faction, upon which the sigil disappears. Im not a great veteran DM but really appreciated this particular setting - A few NPCs include Alias and her pet Paladin Dragonbait...
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Question for Veteran DMs
- Thread starter d12
- Start date
DungeonKeeperUK
First Post
Quickbeam said:
How could you go wrong with classics like that...
Though I never was a big fan of Descent...
I ran one compaign starting with the Slavers series (A1-4 I think) and continued the theme for a while afterwards...
Wicht
Hero
My Freshman year of college (10 years ago now - wow) I set up a game that we played in Dorm 4 or so times a week at night. There was no great plot at the beginning, I mostly just threw adventures at them. But the fact we got to play so often meant that there was a great deal of PC growth. That and the fact that we rotated DMs so there was no burn out on my part and the fact that there was good PC chemistry led to a fun game.
Black Omega
First Post
Bouncing back to Champions...
Inspired at the time by a comic called Suicide Squad, I did a game with less powerful heros, characters could have a couple of super powers, but most of what they ddi was technology and skills. Starting as mercenaries, the group was hired to track down a lost Russian suitcase nuke, an adventure loosely adapted from the ancient Champions supplement Danger International. The group ended up naming themselves RISK (Renowned International Super Kommandos).
Over the course of a few years the group went from mercs to evil mercs (during which time a couple of characters left the group), fought and worked with villains, fought merc groups and super heros and ended up the official Superhero team of Luxembourg and eventually went good again and became good guy mercs, dealt with mystical dragons in China (and being chased for months afterward by Chinese agents), got involved in a coup in the Congo..it was alot of fun. In the long term this is a game I'd like to pick up running again.
Inspired at the time by a comic called Suicide Squad, I did a game with less powerful heros, characters could have a couple of super powers, but most of what they ddi was technology and skills. Starting as mercenaries, the group was hired to track down a lost Russian suitcase nuke, an adventure loosely adapted from the ancient Champions supplement Danger International. The group ended up naming themselves RISK (Renowned International Super Kommandos).
Over the course of a few years the group went from mercs to evil mercs (during which time a couple of characters left the group), fought and worked with villains, fought merc groups and super heros and ended up the official Superhero team of Luxembourg and eventually went good again and became good guy mercs, dealt with mystical dragons in China (and being chased for months afterward by Chinese agents), got involved in a coup in the Congo..it was alot of fun. In the long term this is a game I'd like to pick up running again.
After I returned from Russia, which means the summer between my junior and senior year (summer 1994) my friends asked me to DM the Slavers' series before classes started. I waslooking forward to some serious senior year work and I didn't expect that I'd have time to effectively DM. Little did I know. . .
Wel, it turned into a 4 year campaign of great triumphs and tragedies. Awesome NPCs, huge mysteries to be solved, and fun, fun, fun for all.
Then I joined the Peace Corps, and the rest is history.
Talvisota
Wel, it turned into a 4 year campaign of great triumphs and tragedies. Awesome NPCs, huge mysteries to be solved, and fun, fun, fun for all.
Then I joined the Peace Corps, and the rest is history.
Talvisota
The Cardinal
First Post
that would be my GURPS Cthulhupunk
(2043-2050, over 3 years real-time, set in San Francisco, great PCs, great NSCs, great plots, great players)
and my GURPS WarpWorld
(2312-2319, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting from BTRC, I created a detailed European background for it, ran my very first game there, converted it to GURPS - and never looked back: over 6 years with 3 interlocking and one independent campaigns)
campaigns.
(2043-2050, over 3 years real-time, set in San Francisco, great PCs, great NSCs, great plots, great players)
and my GURPS WarpWorld
(2312-2319, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting from BTRC, I created a detailed European background for it, ran my very first game there, converted it to GURPS - and never looked back: over 6 years with 3 interlocking and one independent campaigns)
campaigns.
From 92 to 96, I ran a homebrew campaign on a world named Trakken. The premise of the setting was that the first race to evolve on the world was Insectoid (Thri-Kreen like) who reached the stage where they created technology and moved into space (not Spelljammer), so the characters found odd tech stuff in ancient ruins that they could never figure out or use.
The land was also at war with a southern nation, and the characters ended up being drawn into the intrigues behind this conflict.
After the war ended, they decided to explore beyond the boundries of the known land, so I expanded beyond what I had created and the characters located an isolated nation dominated by Psionic Warriors who lorded over those without psionic powers. They characters decided they didn't like this regime and spent many months (IC and OOC) preparing a resistence movement until they led a rebellion against the nation's evil rulers.
The NPC's are the most important, and they was one who the players hated named General Taggus. They always enjoyed the stories where he returned.
That was a great campaign. Once they decided to start the spark of rebellion, the game more or less free-form but worked well in that environment.
The land was also at war with a southern nation, and the characters ended up being drawn into the intrigues behind this conflict.
After the war ended, they decided to explore beyond the boundries of the known land, so I expanded beyond what I had created and the characters located an isolated nation dominated by Psionic Warriors who lorded over those without psionic powers. They characters decided they didn't like this regime and spent many months (IC and OOC) preparing a resistence movement until they led a rebellion against the nation's evil rulers.
The NPC's are the most important, and they was one who the players hated named General Taggus. They always enjoyed the stories where he returned.
That was a great campaign. Once they decided to start the spark of rebellion, the game more or less free-form but worked well in that environment.
WizarDru
Adventurer
Probably my GURPS Fantasy campaign, which lasted over ten years, and will probably be revived soon for d20. The players were all serving the king of the land, and acting directly as servants of the gods. In the meantime, the ancient forces of Evil, known as the Eight, had risen again to attempt to free their dark master, who was forced to walk the paths for 1000 years (and was coming due to leave).
During the course of the game, they killed two of the Eight, converted one of the Eight to their side, thwarted a royal assasaination plot, raised an ancient castle from the earth, led whole armies in the liberation of two cities, reunited the elves and the 'dark' elves, encountered the God of Revenge (and discovered his true nature, not what they'd been told), discovered an ancient city of eldritch magic, went head-to-head with a rolling fortress, captured a dwarven 'stone-ship' and engaged in an under-earth battle with another, liberated the dwarven crown and recovered an ancient dwarven artifact, and got the queen of the Elves pregnant. For a start.
My GURPS Supers game also ran about eight years or so, too.
During the course of the game, they killed two of the Eight, converted one of the Eight to their side, thwarted a royal assasaination plot, raised an ancient castle from the earth, led whole armies in the liberation of two cities, reunited the elves and the 'dark' elves, encountered the God of Revenge (and discovered his true nature, not what they'd been told), discovered an ancient city of eldritch magic, went head-to-head with a rolling fortress, captured a dwarven 'stone-ship' and engaged in an under-earth battle with another, liberated the dwarven crown and recovered an ancient dwarven artifact, and got the queen of the Elves pregnant. For a start.
My GURPS Supers game also ran about eight years or so, too.
Sammael99
First Post
Memorable campaigns
I have several memorable campaigns in mind. None of them are D&D although the current one is and I hope it will be memorable (we're closing our second year soon...)
Star Wars
The campaign lasted one year. It involved the characters finding the old ambandoned Earth (called, surprisingly, Terra Solaris III) on which a mythical artefact (in fact, the black stone from Mecca) could help enhance the Force and thus help Luke in training new Jedi to defeat the Empire. They did it, and when they came back, the Empire had been defeated anyway.
The campaign was memorable mainly because PC interaction was great (to be honest, the plot and NPCs weren't that great) and especially so after one session that went absolutely great, all the players ended at five in the morning hyper tense, so intense it had been... Sadly, the campaign is also memorable because one of the players died in a car accident that year, and we finished without him...
Vampire
The vampire campaign lasted one year also. It involved the characters siding with the Camarilla during the French Revolution when the Sabbat stirred trouble and disposed of the Prince of Paris. They were given a top priority mission of fleeing Paris with an invaluable artefact, protect it from anyone and give it over to the Prince of a city in Southern Europe. They had to battle hordes of revolutionary peasants, assamites and their own urges. One of the characters ended the campaign mute after a terrible rage when he killed many innocents. The player decided that his character could not speak after that. It was "that" intense.
The next part of the campaign involved the same characters in Saint Petersburg just before the Russian Revolution. There they had to understand who was pulling the strings behind a web of intrigue. It turned out to be an ancient Baali who fled accross Europe with the characters on his toes. The campaign went through Turky during the kurd massacres and thought the vampire was responsible when in fact it was only human folly. Finally they ended in Egypt and chased the vampire to his ancient tomb. He died there at their hands, but it was clear to them that he had used them as the instruments of his death rather than been killed fair and square.
That campaign worked because of interesting NPCs, and a great collaborative spirit between characters who had all reasons to NOT work together. It also worked because Vampire was a very different game from all that had been done before...
Fading Suns
The FS campaign lasted a year. The characters were involved in a space wide trek concerning an old forgotten space station from the second republic. They finally found the station, and unwittingly released an ancient demon who had been trapped there in a mystico-technological artefact.
It was great because of character interaction, cunning enemies, character mysteries (one character started as an amnesiac...) and experimental roleplaying that actually worked.
The current campaign is a potentially long lasting one. It's full of more classical elements that I won't divulge in case my players are lurking.
I believe though, that one vital element to a memorable campaign is for it to have a beginning and an ending. Same as a great TV series, really...
I have several memorable campaigns in mind. None of them are D&D although the current one is and I hope it will be memorable (we're closing our second year soon...)
Star Wars
The campaign lasted one year. It involved the characters finding the old ambandoned Earth (called, surprisingly, Terra Solaris III) on which a mythical artefact (in fact, the black stone from Mecca) could help enhance the Force and thus help Luke in training new Jedi to defeat the Empire. They did it, and when they came back, the Empire had been defeated anyway.
The campaign was memorable mainly because PC interaction was great (to be honest, the plot and NPCs weren't that great) and especially so after one session that went absolutely great, all the players ended at five in the morning hyper tense, so intense it had been... Sadly, the campaign is also memorable because one of the players died in a car accident that year, and we finished without him...
Vampire
The vampire campaign lasted one year also. It involved the characters siding with the Camarilla during the French Revolution when the Sabbat stirred trouble and disposed of the Prince of Paris. They were given a top priority mission of fleeing Paris with an invaluable artefact, protect it from anyone and give it over to the Prince of a city in Southern Europe. They had to battle hordes of revolutionary peasants, assamites and their own urges. One of the characters ended the campaign mute after a terrible rage when he killed many innocents. The player decided that his character could not speak after that. It was "that" intense.
The next part of the campaign involved the same characters in Saint Petersburg just before the Russian Revolution. There they had to understand who was pulling the strings behind a web of intrigue. It turned out to be an ancient Baali who fled accross Europe with the characters on his toes. The campaign went through Turky during the kurd massacres and thought the vampire was responsible when in fact it was only human folly. Finally they ended in Egypt and chased the vampire to his ancient tomb. He died there at their hands, but it was clear to them that he had used them as the instruments of his death rather than been killed fair and square.
That campaign worked because of interesting NPCs, and a great collaborative spirit between characters who had all reasons to NOT work together. It also worked because Vampire was a very different game from all that had been done before...
Fading Suns
The FS campaign lasted a year. The characters were involved in a space wide trek concerning an old forgotten space station from the second republic. They finally found the station, and unwittingly released an ancient demon who had been trapped there in a mystico-technological artefact.
It was great because of character interaction, cunning enemies, character mysteries (one character started as an amnesiac...) and experimental roleplaying that actually worked.
The current campaign is a potentially long lasting one. It's full of more classical elements that I won't divulge in case my players are lurking.
I believe though, that one vital element to a memorable campaign is for it to have a beginning and an ending. Same as a great TV series, really...
