D&D General The campaign you will never get to run

[Dannyalcatraz]

Red Hand of Doom from 3E. I bought it when it came out, started running it, got to mid chapter 1, group fell apart.

Started it again, group got through chapter 1, fell apart.

Started rewriting it for 4E. Was really excited because it was easy to rebuild the encounters. Got 2 sessions in. Group fell apart.

Started rewriting it for 5E. Got halfway through chapter 1, it fell apart.

Trying to run it one last time. If it doesn't work, I'm throwing in the towel on Red Hand of Doom.

I dunno...sounds kinda...doomed.

 

[nomotog]

I've found good success treating military units as 'high-challenge rating' single monsters. I could share a statblock or two, if you want some inspiration. The intent was to let mid-level PCs go up against, like, a troop of two dozen soldiers, and have the party kick butt quickly, since the troop counts as one Challenge 3 creature. They're pretty easy to design, and much faster to play than, like, rolling fifty dice for attack and damage.

That was my idea as well. The mechanics aren't too complex. It's mostly an issue with will.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

What I'd like to do is similar - run repeated campaigns at normal pace, but in a world that evolves due to the actions of previous campaigns, with PCs and their descendants becoming key NPCs and historical figures. As I might be pretty settled for the next decade and a half, perhaps my current campaign is the beginning of this...

That sounds like my campaigns. I've been playing in my own homebrew since 1990, through various editions, dozens of characters, and 1000 years of in game time.

The current youngest player was born after the first campaign was played.

 

[Stormonu]

I was working on an adventure path I wanted to do for Pathfinder, but never finished.

Behold - Geheimne, the Secret City.

Set on a foggy isle a day or three from the local coastline, this decaying city holds a vast secret beneath its depths. It is a very cthululu/deep ones affair, and I had sketched out rough maps, the major plot, bare-bone encounters areas and the like.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

• Everyone is from one of a handful of races curated for an archipelago setting in a world with no continents bigger than RL Australia. No core 4 races, except for the “optional” subraces (Drow, duergar) or new options (Coral Halflings). Game starts with a big festival where the islands of the archipelago all send traders, and their best athletes, musicians, riddlers, etc to compete in the Games. All PCs are native to the islands, and about the same age. And then Chrono Cross stuff happens.
• “All rogues and other skulkers and disreputable types” game. Everyone is a criminal, someone puts together a team.
• All Knights of a realm game. Very David Eddings’ Elenium series vibe, without the more...problematic elements. Choose from different orders, who specialize in different weapons and armors and fighting styles, some more magical than others, etc.
• Fantasy Star Wars. Okay this one might happen someday. But not Spelljammer or Planescape, or even Starfinder. Elves in space, with magitech ships, in actual space. Or maybe in Jules Vern style space, with Aether ships and a Treasure Planet vibe.
• Legacy campaigns. I want to set a series of short campaigns after the events of previous campaigns, with PCs and events that are informed by the adventures and trials of the past PCs.
• Game set in Al Andalus, where the PCs are all classes and subclasses that speak to the Islamic Golden Age in that region. Alchemist-Philosophers, Holy Dervishes, Kabala-Sorcerers, etc
  

Some of those might happen someday, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I had an idea for a Stargate like campaign where the PCs could portal around to cool places each week. I thought that the players could have a few PCs that they could choose from and have a couple PCs going at once but play only one each week.

I have this same idea. Especially now that we will get Wildemount and Theros, my options of portals back and forth around the multiverse will increase. Would really like to get Spelljammer or Planescape to enhance this even more. (I may turn Ravnica into a pseudo-Sigil).

Also want to run the War for the Crown PF1 Adventure Path for my players, who don't really like dungeon crawls unless they can try to persuade/decieve/intimidate the goblins to join them and overthrow their bugbear opressors. In other words, they love social conflicts waaay more than physical combat.

 

[Blue]

I dunno...sounds kinda...doomed.

Caught you Red Handed making a pun.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

• Everyone is from one of a handful of races curated for an archipelago setting in a world with no continents bigger than RL Australia. No core 4 races, except for the “optional” subraces (Drow, duergar) or new options (Coral Halflings). Game starts with a big festival where the islands of the archipelago all send traders, and their best athletes, musicians, riddlers, etc to compete in the Games. All PCs are native to the islands, and about the same age. And then Chrono Cross stuff happens.
• “All rogues and other skulkers and disreputable types” game. Everyone is a criminal, someone puts together a team.
• All Knights of a realm game. Very David Eddings’ Elenium series vibe, without the more...problematic elements. Choose from different orders, who specialize in different weapons and armors and fighting styles, some more magical than others, etc.
• Fantasy Star Wars. Okay this one might happen someday. But not Spelljammer or Planescape, or even Starfinder. Elves in space, with magitech ships, in actual space. Or maybe in Jules Vern style space, with Aether ships and a Treasure Planet vibe.

Wow, all those sound amazing. After I read through this thread, I came up with a couple of others.

• All rogues is also one I wanted to do too. Mine would be an Oceans 11 type game.
• I also was thinking of an all soldier types (Paladins, Rangers, Fighters, Barbarians, Monks) as a 7 Samurai or Dirty Dozen type of game.
• Some sort of Megadungeon - Rappan Athuk is the one I own.
• Banewarrens set in Ptolus. Kind of depends on whether I back the Ptolus kickstarter
  
• Finally, I want to run a 4e game, I just haven't figure out what the adventure framework would be (see thread somewhere else on EnWorld).
• Non D&D, but fantasy - Freebooters on the Frontier (a Dungeon World hack with an Old School feel).

 

[Blue]

• All rogues is also one I wanted to do too. Mine would be an Oceans 11 type game.
• I also was thinking of an all soldier types (Paladins, Rangers, Fighters, Barbarians, Monks) as a 7 Samurai or Dirty Dozen type of game.

We tried an all-rogues one, but with the idea that we were all members of various theives guilds within a city and the guilds were ... "friendly" but definitely rivals. But each guild had a specialty so they would often work together. It unfortunately didn't get too far.

I'm currently playing in a Greek-themed all-soldiers (+ mascot) where we are all members of Athena's Legion, but class wasn't required to match, the Legions have people of all different classes as long as they can act as a soldier and follow Athena. We have a Paladin, a Cleric, a Divine Sorcerer, a Fighter, and our mascot is a Druid.

We all started with serious soldier mentalities and that we'd be troubleshooters and such, but due to our own actions we pissed off a high official by calling him out on his corruption to his face, got framed, captured and imprisioned by Zeus' civil police for breaking the law, had the court turn out to be a mickey mouse court due to that corrupt official so we broke out of prison and we're now A-Teaming it. Not what we expected when we started the campaign but a load of fun.

 

[aco175]

Just came back from a Convention where we played the modified 3e D&D cartoon where we played the characters in the cartoon. There was also a table playing Scooby Doo PCs. Modified where Scooby was a gnoll ranger or something.

 

[Oofta]

Modified where Scooby was a gnoll ranger or something.

Sounds like my 4E gnoll PC, although I did barbarian instead of ranger. He'd get really upset if he didn't get his Scooby Snacks.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, I tried running a campaign in Legend of the Five Rings that was themed around love. The setting of L5R is basically fantasy feudal Japan, where love gets in the way of duty, but the premise was that the emperor's best friend's family holdings were nearly wiped out by a tsunami, and the whole family died except for the friend's daughter. So the emperor has arranged her a suitor who is rich enough to restore her family's fortunes, and asks his favorite poet to write a love poem for the wedding.

Two things. The suitor's identity is secret, leading the seven Great Clans to fear how an emperor-favored wedding might upset the balance of power. And the poet is going senile, and insists his apprentice write it.

But his apprentice has never been out of the imperial capital, so the emperor asks each clan to send along one single samurai to be an escort on a journey across the empire, to teach this poet in the ways of love.

It was going to be part harem anime, part samurai drama, part ironic deconstruction of western love stories by recasting them through the lens of bushido.

We got through two of the seven clans I had planned before the PCs figured out the meta-plot: the suitor is actually a ningyo (sort of like a mer-person, long ago banished from the empire) whose wealth comes from shipwrecks. His fortune would restore the bride's family's status, except the ningyo was actually responsible for the tsunami in the first place.

The party figured this out with a mix of guess-work and deciding to change the route of travel because they were being followed. This led to them having little motive to continue the conceit of 'travel to different clans and see how they view love.' They just alerted the emperor's people, and let powerful samurai ambush the villain and save the day.

So that was a lot of research and planning of how to mesh Cyrano de Bergerac with the Scorpion clan's tradition of wearing masks, etc. Maybe some day I'll repurpose it.

 

[gyor]

• Everyone is from one of a handful of races curated for an archipelago setting in a world with no continents bigger than RL Australia. No core 4 races, except for the “optional” subraces (Drow, duergar) or new options (Coral Halflings). Game starts with a big festival where the islands of the archipelago all send traders, and their best athletes, musicians, riddlers, etc to compete in the Games. All PCs are native to the islands, and about the same age. And then Chrono Cross stuff happens.
• “All rogues and other skulkers and disreputable types” game. Everyone is a criminal, someone puts together a team.
• All Knights of a realm game. Very David Eddings’ Elenium series vibe, without the more...problematic elements. Choose from different orders, who specialize in different weapons and armors and fighting styles, some more magical than others, etc.
• Fantasy Star Wars. Okay this one might happen someday. But not Spelljammer or Planescape, or even Starfinder. Elves in space, with magitech ships, in actual space. Or maybe in Jules Vern style space, with Aether ships and a Treasure Planet vibe.
• Legacy campaigns. I want to set a series of short campaigns after the events of previous campaigns, with PCs and events that are informed by the adventures and trials of the past PCs.
• Game set in Al Andalus, where the PCs are all classes and subclasses that speak to the Islamic Golden Age in that region. Alchemist-Philosophers, Holy Dervishes, Kabala-Sorcerers, etc
  

Some of those might happen someday, but I’m not holding my breath.

Not 5e, but Chronicles of Darkness' Dark Eras 2 has the most incredible Islamic Golden Age setting you can imagine, soooo deep, and interesting, if your really into that sort of era setting you will LOVE it, it along with a few more amazing eras like a Wonders of the World eras are some of the best stuff Onyx Path has done.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Not 5e, but Chronicles of Darkness' Dark Eras 2 has the most incredible Islamic Golden Age setting you can imagine, soooo deep, and interesting, if your really into that sort of era setting you will LOVE it, it along with a few more amazing eras like a Wonders of the World eras are some of the best stuff Onyx Path has done.

I’ll check that out, thanks!

 

[nomotog]

Greyhawk-based 5e game combining Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Blades & Blasters for 5e by Seth Tomlinson, and Pathfinder’s Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars sourcebook into a full-blown campaign centered in the Sheldomar Valley.

Nothing has come of it, and I’m more than a little frustrated.

I want to do this too now. There is the iron god's adventure path, but pathfinder just feels kind of complex after 5ed. It's hard to go back. Also, I think the path mixes the elements too well. I would have liked it if the Sci-Fi and the fantasy fought each other a little more.

 

[Eltab]

• Islands campaign, using IRL Philippines for the map, exploring one major island that was previously conquered / abandoned / plague / something, and looks safe (or "safe") now.
• Gamma World, set in a verdant but untamed forest not a wasteland.
• Demon-fighting campaign set in FR's Unapproachable East and using the 3e lore.
• Dark Sun, build a new merchant house
• Tomb of Annihilation, with the National Geographic Society as your patron

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Gawd after this thread, now I have another 100 games I want to play but never will...

 

[cbwjm]

Gawd after this thread, now I have another 100 games I want to play but never will...

Haha, yeah, it is a bit like that. So many great ideas in this thread.

 

[Stormonu]

Another minor one, but a pet project.

I’ve wanted to do a campaign ala ‘the Warriors’, where the PCs are soldiers in a small country, and after some escapades that get them noticed, are sent to a moot where various baronies across the land are attending an impending coronation. However, the vizier turns on the leader and assassinates the upcoming leader, and the PCs are blamed for it. What follows is a series of adventures as the PCs take circuitous route back home, facing dangerous wilderness and a hostile army bent on hunting them down.

It would be bit of a mix of Game of Thrones intrigue, the A-Team in facing dangers/helping others on the way, and a bit of the Warriors/the Fugitive in being constantly on the run from a superior force while trying to prove your innocence.

 

[Oofta]

Another one I've thought of is a zombie apocalypse game. Starts out as a normal campaign and then someone (perhaps the PCs) starts a plague of undead by opening the wrong crypt.

At first the zombies would be typical Walking Dead/Romero zombies but then eventually as monsters are infected you could have more Left 4 Dead/Resident Evil zombies, especially as some mages try to "fix" things with unforeseen consequences.

Ideally it would be quite a lethal game as the PCs are infected and have replacement PCs come in to replace them.

Haven't done it because part of the fun would be the reveal, but it also violates my "player campaign buy-in".