What's the tone of your campaign?

[pdkoning]

One campaign I play in is a bit light-hearted, humorous, high fantasy, but combat is dangerous sometimes. Everything is possible: For example: We traveled about 60 mile over a sea, I traveled together with a wizard who brought me and him there magically within a second. The other party members, including a Rhinoceros animal companion, traveled by a small fishing boat. (Imagine a Rhinoceros on a small fishing boat).
After a day or two we met in exactly the same village on the other side of the water - just coincidende. But one day later, while we travelled trough the desert, we were almost slain by an encounter

The other campaign is a lot darker, level 3 characters thrown into the underdark. We are always on the brink of death. But out of character we also have a lot fun.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

The campaign I play in is fairly high powered PCs (~11th level), fighting the works of a Orcus and trying to save the city state of Greenridge from a magical plague, a super evil 6 year old girl, a derranged Necromancer and an orcish invasion... currently taking a somewhat political turn trying to recruit allies for the war... it's fun stuff!

The campaign I run is a mostly city based game set in a place that looks/feels like crusader era Spain (hot climate, religious zeal, culture clash, feudal rulers) crossbred with dark ages Britan (isolation, civil war, fading technology) - if it had been invaded by Egypt instead of Rome. It's fairly low level Arcana Unearthed... PCs are 'proper heros' - very few people have any PC levels, so they really stand out...

Next up I want to jump on the bandwagon and run a 'swashbuckling pirate-ninjas of dinosaur island campaign'! Or Planescape. Or combine them both!

 

[diaglo]

It's got its serious moments, but overall, it's pretty light-hearted, with OOC humor here and there, with characters doing some really stupid things occasionally, and the players enjoying each others' company immensely. It's the way we prefer it overall, with the occasional more serious game.

ditto. beer & pretzels all the way.

 

[The_Gneech]

I used to be all about deep-immersion storytelling, or at least I used to think I was, although my deep immersion storytelling tended to involve a lot of ninja and pirates.

These days, my game is more like a summer action flick -- some humor, some darkness, lots of action sequences, enough drama to keep it engaging, but on the whole it doesn't take itself too seriously. Hopefully not as dumb as a lot of the current crop of summer movies, tho ... think Big Trouble In Little China.

-The Gneech

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I let the players determine the tone and direction of the campaign. I ran a homebrew setting that spanned nearly a decade, and I just created adventures that allowed the players to stretch their creativity as much as I did. It ended up being a series of byzantine plots and counterplots which saw them all becoming rulers of various realms.

The next campaign I started I had a definite story arc in mind, where there world was in danger of being conquered by an alliance between Yuan-ti and a dimension-conquering warlord. It fizzled after 3 years, because the players didn't feel like they had much say in how the story played out.

I've gone back to my previous game world, albeit 1.5 editions later and 20 years in game time. I hope that by using the same formula which keeps players talking about that campaign will work for this one.

 

[Psion]

My current campaign:

Arcanothriller.

That is, magical technothriller. Power is in elite characters instead of swords. They do things for major organizations in conflict. Often, there are big stakes. And the world operates by the laws of reality (as they exist).

I would add that any campaign I run has elements of intrigue. Someone is always trying to do something sneaky and get away with it. What they are trying to do might have disaster movie level consequences, but it always seems to start with subtle moves in my game.

 

[Nifft]

Dark mysterious high-magic high-fantasy epic (currently 11th level, but planned to go up to 30th level or so), with some serious parts and some not-so-serious parts. Characters are still in the "explore-the-universe" mode. Soon they'll transition into "save-the-world" mode.

Things may get lighter or darker, depending on the actions they take. I tend to plan events more than story-lines.

-- N

 

[The_Gneech]

I'm doing a complete send up of Van Helsing in an Urban Arcana kind of tone. I call it Phantom Corp.

Formula:
Urbane Arcana. Monsters and the magic of Fantasy like The Lord of the Rings intrude upon our modern world. The heroes are like anime characters who investigate the fantasy world of Salt Lake City.

Theme and Tone.
Urbane Arcana. The Fantasy exists alongside the Mundane. Most people don’t see the fantasy, but can the heroes defend the populace from horrible monsters?
The Tone: is an exaggerated, black humor tone with over the top action.

I gave this to a player of mine who is working up a character.

Dude, sign me up!

-The Gneech, loading plasma bolts into his BFG

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... certainly there is a major focus on realism, or better pseudo-realism (since we are still playing D&D, which is at its base highly unrealistic ).

Our campaigns also tend to be more heroic, than grim-and-gritty. Characters are above average, gifted persons.

There is surely quite a bit of action involved, altho roleplaying doesn't fall short. It's neither a tabletop, nor a storyteller's dream. Just a good enjoyable mix of both.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. After seeing van Helsing, I also had some thoughts how to incorporate parts of it (but not really the organisation of the church or the story of the movie, just minor parts, which I liked) in a game. Might actually do so eventually.

 

[hong]

I used to be all about deep-immersion storytelling, or at least I used to think I was, although my deep immersion storytelling tended to involve a lot of ninja and pirates.

D00d, ninjas and pirates is _so_ 2003. Vampires and werewolves is where it's at today!