Saturday Morning Cartoon Campaign...

[Scribble]

I guess I didn't really make clear what I'm going for...

I'm not really looking to make it a cartoon, or make it a humorous campaign...

When I said not as serious, I didn't mean humor wise... I meant along the lines of the action being somewhat over the top, the villains being kind of larger then life exaggerations, etc...

Just going for the feel of those cartoons I mentioned- So I guess more like a D&D game.

I'm just trying to stay away from like the medieval Europe with elves thing.

More warlords, less kinds and dukes and stuff... More cults, and less established churches. More bizarre, and less "normal..."


I'm probably still not making a ton of sense.

 

[Stoat]

Thundar, He-Man and the Thundercats all work a weird mix of super technology and magic. You'll need to replicate that. For monsters, reskinning is your friend. Things look cybernetic and they shoot lasers. Goblin sharpshooters don't use shortbows, they use crude ray-guns.

For PC's, I'd start by making at least some magic weapons technological. The fighter doesn't have a flaming longsword; he has a laser-blade. For ranged attacks, I would go the easy route and just reskin bows and crossbows as blasters/laser pistols/whatever.

The classic Tolkien PC races have to go. No elves, dwarves, halfings, etc. Dragonborn/Lizardpeople, Warforged, and Goliaths are more genre appropriate.

For worldbuilding:

Thundercats and Thundar are explicitly post-apocalyptic, and He-Man has always felt that way to me. Ruins abound. Technology is a lost resource wielded by a few. The overall mindset is vaguely feudal. There is little to no organized government. Even medium-sized towns are very rare.

Gameplay is episodic. The PC's wander into an area, deal with the adventure of the week and move on. Typical adventures involve rescuing innocent civilians, recovering valuable resources (Thundrylium!) and responding to acts of petty sabotage commited by mooky villains.

 

[Scribble]

Thundar, He-Man and the Thundercats all work a weird mix of super technology and magic. You'll need to replicate that. For monsters, reskinning is your friend. Things look cybernetic and they shoot lasers. Goblin sharpshooters don't use shortbows, they use crude ray-guns.

For PC's, I'd start by making at least some magic weapons technological. The fighter doesn't have a flaming longsword; he has a laser-blade. For ranged attacks, I would go the easy route and just reskin bows and crossbows as blasters/laser pistols/whatever.

The classic Tolkien PC races have to go. No elves, dwarves, halfings, etc. Dragonborn/Lizardpeople, Warforged, and Goliaths are more genre appropriate.

For worldbuilding:

Thundercats and Thundar are explicitly post-apocalyptic, and He-Man has always felt that way to me. Ruins abound. Technology is a lost resource wielded by a few. The overall mindset is vaguely feudal. There is little to no organized government. Even medium-sized towns are very rare.

Gameplay is episodic. The PC's wander into an area, deal with the adventure of the week and move on. Typical adventures involve rescuing innocent civilians, recovering valuable resources (Thundrylium!) and responding to acts of petty sabotage commited by mooky villains.

Yeah this is the right direction... Although not sure yet just how much tech will be involved... Definitely spot on as far as civilization goes.

Not sure if I'll remove any races... Maybe Eladrin... but definitely down play some of them. (Or at least change their flavor a bit...)

Also not quite as episodic as the cartoons... (IE each session isn't going to start with me announcing where they've wandered... They'll be free to go wherever they want.)

Guess really I'm looking for ideas others might have about cool locations, or groups and stuff...

 

[renau1g]

On re-skinning, you could maybe have cat-people (thundercats?) instead of elves, etc for the other races... that way you keep the breadth of 4e, but make it more appropriate for what you're looking for

 

[Styracosaurus]

Blackstar is a good cartoon from that era as well.
Much like Flash Gordon, it never reaches a conclusion.


Consider the James Bond movies also for that type of feel. The old movies (Dr. No, for example) introduce bad guys and organizations that are great for D&D villains.

 

[Scribble]

Huh... never heard of Blackstar before... doing some research. Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For a 4Ed campaign using these sources, I'd use the following races for the following reasons:

1) Humans. Even if nobody plays them, IME, most players want them in a setting.

2) Goliaths or Minotaurs = Mok

3) Shardmind = mecha of the Voltron type, since they're composed of a multiplicity of smaller structures that can coalesce.

4) Warforged = robotic/android race. I've used them in my own homebrew as quasi-Daleks/Cybermen...IOW, organic brains in mechanical bodies.

5) Halflings or Gnomes = every setting needs a small race for a variety of reasons.

6) Pick 2 of: Drow, Elves, Eladrin, Kalashtar = you don't need all of them. FWIW, Kalashtar remind me of Storm Constantine's Wraethu.

7) Shifters = Thundercats

8) Dwarves = Techies.

Its not exhaustive, but I think that would be a cool grouping.

 

[Filcher]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz-yLWGaIxM&feature=related]YouTube - Fire and Ice Movie Trailer[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Damn...I gotta watch that movie someday.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Damn...I gotta watch that movie someday.

Fire & Ice gave my old DM some great ideas for our Dragonlance game. Good times.

I'll respond here in a bit. Got some ideas.