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

[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".