"Themed" Campaigns

[Theuderic]

His last name?

Is this your last name Hong?

 

[ForceUser]

The theme of my campaign is based on medieval southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam. Themed campaigns are cool and I've wanted to run one for a very long time, but your players HAVE to buy into it. We've started slow, but by the 5th session I have noticed that they are speaking out more, roleplaying more, and I'm happy about that. I think they weren't sure how to roleplay Asian people in an entirely Asian environment. Now I am beginning to see archtypes emerge: the kooky old wu jen, the stern monk, the compassionate no-sheng (sohei), etc. It's exciting.

Themed campaigns are a great way to spice up D&D. I have considered running Mesoamerican and Russian campaigns too!

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The River

I did a Heart of Darkness themed campaign in Shadowrun. The PCs ended up sympathizing with Kurtz a great deal. It was very strange. Soon afterwards the campaign ended, unexpectedly...

 

[Desdichado]

Cthulhu-esque game. Underwater game (short-lived.) Alternate realities game (Nazi Germany won WWII -- set in the present.) Alternate reality Middle-earth (Tolkien explained how he would have written the book if it were an allegory for WWII once -- thought it sounded like a great campaign setting.)

 

[s/LaSH]

I'm running a campaign themed around a fantastic medieval Europe. I've done a lot of research, then twisted things to shift closer to regular D&D, but the period is quite fun in itself. There's a lot of additional emotion involved when one PC is from France, and the other is from Italy. (The players are both New Zealanders, of course; they're good players, if a little slow.)

Basing a webcomic on the campaign brought me more feedback too. People seem to like the bits in the intro where elves sack Rome. The fact that Saladin has gnolls in his army appealed to others. When the focus shifts into the East (Russian steppes and Mongolia), there are orcs - but the first orc they met was a street performer doing a cossack dance. They gave him money.

It's not necessarily a strong theme, but there's enough resonance there with what players know that it works. (They're both fluent in French, I should mention, which makes it difficult for a DM who isn't.) They can discuss the style of sleeving on their armour and know what they're talking about.

For flavour in a campaign, you can't really beat seven thousand years of development.

That's the first smiley I've ever used in public...

 

[nopantsyet]

Barbarians, barbarians, barbarians...

Just started a campaign this Sunday where all players are human barbarians. They come from a clan-structured barbarian culture that I've described in pretty heavy detail, including leadership structure, differences between clans, lifestyle, etc., and they are extremely xenophobic. After only one session, I'm pretty pleased at how it's working out. One thing I can say is since CRs are based on a party comprised of a fighter, a rogue, a cleric, and a wizard, the average party level for a short combat seems to be about +2. For a longer combat it will be different since they don't have the convenient healing that a cleric provides. But so far it's really fun. Time will tell whether the appeal will last.

 

[WayneLigon]

I've done several themed games, but ptobably the strongest theme was the Byzantium game. Set about 400 AD, in a world where Christianity never really did take off and was just one more cult among many (ala The Dragon Waiting). Elves came from a big island to the west: Atlantis. The Germanic nations were all dwarf controlled. Not many halflings or gnomes. The steppes were the home of vast orc hordes that menaced civilization. Byzantium was the New Rome, after the old empire destroyed itself by turning to the worship of fire demons (Efreets), and was the greatest city in the world, greater than even the Chinese cities of that time (China was overrun with orcs; they were a series of huddled client states paying tribute to the orc khans).

 

[ForceUser]

(China was overrun with orcs; they were a series of huddled client states paying tribute to the orc khans).

Great minds think alike. In my Vietnamese campaign, Xiao Lung (read: China) is a subject state of the Mongols, who happen to be hobgoblins in my world. They are ruled by hobgoblin khans.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm actually working on something similar. What kinds of Polynesian elements are you using? IMC I've got a bunch of Pacific Islander imagery to play with, but haven't found a way to bring it all together into a "theme" yet. The humans of the campaign have tribal Culture Heroes/Ancestors instead of gods, the actual "gods" being scary, elemental forces like Typhoons and Volcanoes. There are Easter Island-esque stone heads that guard the entrances to an undead-riddles Underworld. I've replaced scrolls and wands with talismans and Tikki masks.
But all this stuff is still just flavor elements, with nothing thematic tying them together.
My initial thought was a cataclysmic volcano eruption that destroys a major city (echoes of Mt Vesuvius and Atlantis here), and the campaign focuses on the chaos left behind. How does that sound as a "theme"? Playable?

Hi I'll get back to you on this later (gotta go work now) you've got a basic start their I can help with any other questions you may have though - just ask

PS I am Polyneisna and have a degree in Anthroplogy specialising in Polynesian culture and Myth so, yeah I can help

 

[Meds]

Elizabethan London

I run a campaign set in Elizabethan London: lots of espionage, heinous plots, and opulent soirees. (Think 'Alias' but with frilly ruffs and bad pants.)

It is also a single-class campaign -- Rogues -- but, er, there is only one player.