Saturday Morning Cartoon Campaign...

[Dragonhelm]

So I'm in the planning stages of a new campaign. I'm thinking I don't want it to be super serious/realistic. I'd rather it take inspiration from things like:

Thundar the Barbarian
Goltar and The Golden Lance
The D&D Cartoon
He Man
Thundercats

Can I play? That sounds like a load of fun.


I'll second the idea of shifters for Thundercats. It's spot-on. I once based an early character of mine off of the idea of a Thundercat riding Battle Cat. In 4e, I'd make him a shifter.

Shardminds - Consider the Crystar comic books and action figures.

You might also look at the Visionaries. Also, maybe look back at Sectaurs.

Locales - Try to think of places with names like Snake Mountain, Castle Grayskull, the Crystal Castle (in Crystar). There might be some space travel, but you might consider doing the portal thing ala He-Man. Planets should have names like Eternia, Etheria, Thundera, Plundarr. Consider that sort of naming convention.

Magic Items - Consider magic items that have names, special powers, and a central purpose to the story. Think of things like the Sword of Omens, the Sword of Power, the Sword of Protection, the Havoc Staff, and so on.

Animal companions - Battle Cat and Panthor, baby! Over-the-top animal companions are always fun.

Hope that helps. That seriously sounds like a fun game.

 

[Scribble]

Magic Items - Consider magic items that have names, special powers, and a central purpose to the story. Think of things like the Sword of Omens, the Sword of Power, the Sword of Protection, the Havoc Staff, and so on.

I think I'm going to not use magic items as standard... The "Magic Items" would mainly be artifacts. I'll use like the secondary rewards thing from the DMG2... And maybe a "few" magic items here and there...

I haven't really kept up with the adventures in Dungeon... I think I will scour the issues and look for stuff that is easily adaptable... (The Tyrant's Oath in this issue seems like it would fit right in... Snake Cultists!)

 

[Diamond Cross]

Conan The Adventurer.

Plus I'd like to second the D&D Cartoon campaign. I have always wanted to be in that kind of a campaign in which I play myself ytapped in a fantasy world.

 

[Stoat]

Enemies come in two flavors, unique villains and hordes of identical mooks. And by unique, I mean one-of-a-kind. If the PC's encounter an Ogre, its probably the only Ogre they'll ever see.

Groups of villains are outrageously diverse. PC's won't fight five Orcs. They'll fight an Orc, a Troglodyte, a Warforged, a Grizzly Bear and a Skeleton all in the same encounter.

Villains travel in small, one-person vehicles. No two vehicles are the same. In the above encounter the Orc is driving a hovertank, the Troglodyte has a hangglider, the Warforged is driving a motorcycle with the Grizzly Bear in a sidecar/cage, and the Skeleton keeps a personal submarine back at his secret lair.

Also: There are lots and lots of secret lairs. Every secret lair has two rooms -- a dungeon with manacles on the wall and a command center with a bigass view screen in it.

 

[Fifth Element]

Oh man, if there's one thing I love more than D&D it's 80s cartoons and toys.

For inspiration I second the suggestions of Sectaurs, Visionaries and Crystar. They're not as well-known as some others, but hit a great tone for D&D.

 

[pawsplay]

Besides cartoons, I would recommend any version of Tekumel you can get your hands. Rather than using it is an encylopedia of Barker's imaginary world, which it basically is, use it to naively lift things that are weird, like Ahogga, or artifactst that are eye-shaped rayguns. Then there's Talislanta, most of which is now available FREE at Talislanta.com. Green-skinned wizards and four-armed tribesmen ftw! Pick up a used copy of any version of Exalted. I find the system a little appalling, but the concepts and visuals are pure swords-and-sorcery, and very, very bizaree. GURPS offers Fantasy II (possibly the weirdest FRPG ever in print) and Planet of Adventure.

There are also runs of the New Mutants and Excablibur comics set largely in magical worlds. Those can be interesting.

If you've never read Vance's Dying Earth or Lyonesse, now is the time. They aren't serious, by any stretch, but they are smart. Fun, weird stuff.

Oh, and how could I forget? The Wizardry computer games, particularly Crusaders of the Dark Savant.

 

[Scribble]

I'm looking forward to this campaign... Not sure when I'll run it but still.

 

[ppaladin123]

Enemies come in two flavors, unique villains and hordes of identical mooks. And by unique, I mean one-of-a-kind. If the PC's encounter an Ogre, its probably the only Ogre they'll ever see.

Groups of villains are outrageously diverse. PC's won't fight five Orcs. They'll fight an Orc, a Troglodyte, a Warforged, a Grizzly Bear and a Skeleton all in the same encounter.

Villains travel in small, one-person vehicles. No two vehicles are the same. In the above encounter the Orc is driving a hovertank, the Troglodyte has a hangglider, the Warforged is driving a motorcycle with the Grizzly Bear in a sidecar/cage, and the Skeleton keeps a personal submarine back at his secret lair.

Also: There are lots and lots of secret lairs. Every secret lair has two rooms -- a dungeon with manacles on the wall and a command center with a bigass view screen in it.

And of course those villains come up with the most outrageously convoluted and nonsensical plans. Expensive too...very expensive. Your standard Saturday morning cartoon villain has unlimited money but always seems interested in tiny ransoms. Why one would spend 3 billion dollars on a giant death laser in order to force the countries of the world to pay 10 million dollars is beyond me.

Consider the villains from Captain Planet for further inspiration. They have great names (e.g. Loot N. Plunder), convoluted plans, and over-the-top personalities.

Oh, and have you seen Inhumanoids? If you want to add some Cthulu-light "horror," to your campaign, this series has great monsters, fun races (tree people and rock people), and some cool underground settings.

[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=I9Y3CG3vj1o"]YouTube- Inhumanoids part 1/1[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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.

I posted in haste earlier, and forgot to mention that I like most of what is said here, esp. the thing about Dragonborn and the setting being post-Apocalyptic.

So in addition and expansion, I suggest:

1) Some of the magic should be reskinned as tech or magitech.

2) PC gear shouldn't change much. Find a way to incorporate changes into the PCs themselves. Perhaps they unlock new powers of the gear they already have...

3) Dwarves, being the "techies" means their gear would be among the most valuable in the world; their workmanship legendary...and pricey.

4) Magic & Tech in these settings is both powerful and rare, and those who possess either tend to have their special abilities fairly concentrated...which may be hard to simulate in 4Ed. Thundarr, He-Man and Lion-o don't have a wide variety of powers, they have a few powers that they "spam", occasionally finding a new way to use them. You may find it easier to do if you pare down the default power structure, perhaps by having Encounter powers becoming Dailies, for instance, or halving the advancement rate.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

You should include a Skeletor Fart Trap, somehow:


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3XVnKcl2Y]YouTube - Skeletors Fart Trap[/ame]