"Themed" Campaigns

[AlphaOmega]

I'm sure there's been a thread on this before, but it's always good to touch upon this sort of topic again and again.

Does anyone run a "Themed" campaign? What I mean is, does anyone run a campaign with a Greek theme, in which everyone wears togas and there is only one Medusa, one Minotaur, and a whole bunch of tragic Titans?

Or a "Lost World" campaign, in which Dinosaurs roam free and human(oid)s are but scavenging savages?

Or and Egyptian themed campaign, in which the Gods are many and voice themselves through great Pharoes?

Or any other type of themed campaign?

Any ideas for themed campaigns?

Actually my campaign contest submission was partly based on ancient cultures like Egypt and Rome. I've ran that campaign world for two very different groups and both really like it. But I have some twists thrown in because it's not humans who use those cultures templates but rather other species/races.

Earlier this weekend there was another thread about Egyptian themed campaigns and a number of people thought the idea was pretty cool. Alas, WotC did not pick my submission or I could have brought my world to the masses

Someone in that thread said something I agree with: Old-World cultures are very underused in RPG settings. So many sources you can draw upon.

 

[Theuderic]

Hong "vile content possible" Ooi [/B][/QUOTE

OK I can't take it anymore. I have to ask. What in the gods' name is that Ooi that you type in all the time?

 

[dren]

Not sure if this would count but...

I'm running a psionic "themed" campaign.

Aprox 80% of npc's are 1st level psionic. Clerics and church temples are extremely rare. Wizards have secret towers. Sorcerors hide their presence acting like psions. Fighters, monks, and rogues use psionic devices to augment their abilities, and the barbarian hordes threaten to destroy the psionic civilization. Bards tell ancient tales of runic magic, nearly forgotten psionic overlords (illithids), great behmouth war beasts (dragons) and riddles of a great leader who can bring avert the next conclave (opening up of planar gates!)

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Well, I run a Roman themed campaign, though with some differences. I have a fantasy Rome where I postulate an empire that survived the barbarian invasions and began to rise again with the introduction of monotheism.

I suppose being the "Roman DM" means I ought to be the one to mention that Togas were a Roman thing, not Greek.

The homebrew I want to run is similar to that. However, I have "Rome" surviving well into the monotheistic era and surviving as a theocratic empire until the advent of "Protestantism," which in my game will be a return of the polytheistic gods after their little nap.


And boy, did they wake up on the wrong side of the bed.....

 

[MaxKaladin]

Say, what classes did you use in the Roman campaign? Did you have a gladiator match? How about monsters? Or was it Human only?

All classes are allowed, but some are only allowed for folks who are not "Romans", such as Paladins and Druids.

I've not had a gladiatorial match, though an ex-gladiator has turned up as one of the other clients of their patron and they've helped him out on a couple of occasions. I've used chariot races more. One of the PCs has been dropping his patron's name to get a chance to try out for the races and has had one race so far. I woudn't rule out a match sometime in the future though.

No restrictions on monsters yet, though I've used very few. The religious/magical history I gave the world allows for a lot of strange critters. Off the top of my head, I've used wyverns, griffons and a bullette.

The game is not human only, but humans are most prominent. Halflings are limited to a few areas in other lands and have one homeland a fair ways from the empire. The dwarves have their own empire that acts as a trade middleman with the campaign's China much like the Persians did. The elves are a mysterious bunch that mostly keep to themselves and the gnomes are mostly not around. They're much more prominent in another part of the world.

 

[Kesh]

I'm planning on running an "Ice Age" campaign (the weather, not the movie!). Now that I've got the FRCS and Silver Marches, I'll probably base it there, instead of the homebrew world I was planning on.

Essentially, something is happening to bring a new Ice Age onto the world suddenly. The heroes have to deal with the harsh weather, cold-based monsters and the beings who are planning on freezing the world solid.

Now I just need an appropriately sized Giant Praying Mantis slottabase miniature for one of the creatures I'm making.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

OK I can't take it anymore. I have to ask. What in the gods' name is that Ooi that you type in all the time?

I could be wrong, but my guess has always been that it's his name, as if I were to sign my posts as so:

Kajamba "As So" Lion



Best,
tKL

 

[Nightfall]

Lots of Undead.

Lots of Outsiders

Lots of Gods.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Essentially, something is happening to bring a new Ice Age onto the world suddenly. The heroes have to deal with the harsh weather, cold-based monsters and the beings who are planning on freezing the world solid.

My, now dead, Dead of Winter game in the IC forum was meant to start to head that way. Set in the middle of a major heat spell in northwestern Impiltur, I was slowly going to push the characters northwards and into colder weather during the summer, and when they came back, they'd have found the colder weather had followed them (it would've been late summer or early fall by that point). Of course, the game was going to involve a couple of nasty little plots by an aggressive branch of Auril worshippers and a couple of Cthulhu mythos cults and some other nasty things like that (including a red herring Hasturian revival that would lead them north in the first place).

The eventual end-game (that in retrospect I would've never reached in an on-line campaign — I got way too far ahead of myself in the planning) taking place in a glacier to the far, far north in an ancient and abandoned city (as per the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness). I was absolutely psyched of the idea of the party travelling northward with sled dogs and the rest, setting up camps in the ice, dropping that six-armed horned polar bear beastie from the CoCd20 book in on them and all sorts of nasty little tricks.

It was a nice idea at the time, I just couldn't keep up with the pace I wanted the game to run at and do real life stuff as well. Not to mention, it was a big mistake to try and run the game's early chapter in 4 different time lines. Just a lot of work. Oh well. At any rate, I'd be really interested in hearing how your campaign goes.

Best,
tKL

 

[Darkness]

I've done all fighter and all rogue. Both worked out great. I had to make sure each character had their own unique concept so they all had something to offer. THen I needed to alter the game to not punish them too much for trying this.

Yeah, that's what concerned me about your comment of using only one class: The lack of certain abilities that D&D just kinda takes as a given.
But if you found a way to alter the game to make it playable, that's quite cool...