What's your campaign theme?

Dagger of Lath

First Post
Do you usually have a theme for your games? Intentional or not?

If so what themes have you used?

For example are your games about "the meaning of family" or "what it means to be a hero"? Or are they simply, "punch dragon, steal gold".
 

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I enjoy having a central thematic but given that my games tend to be very player driven I rarely plan out the thematic before hand. It just seems to work itself out. For instance, the last game I ran, a wild west one, ended up being largely about just what the Law is and on which side of that line the party stood.
 

In the past it was more "whatever I feel like doing."

Now I try for themes. Creation Schema is level 1-20+ dealing with the collection, discovery of its power(s) and possible destruction of an Intelligent Artifact.


The next campaign that won't start for another 6-9 months will be The Chaos Effect. It deals with war time politics and the issues of war. Topics include revenge, sorrow & grief and the snapping of a person's mind. PCs will be involved in a possible new Last War as such while trying to stop the causes(s) of the Chaos being aimed at Breland, Thrane and the other 5 (...well 4) nations.
 


Hi-

Last week, started running Age of Worms, I tryimg to give the campaign an H.P Lovecraft type of feel and theme, what with cultists and an otherworldly entity trying to make over the Wurld of Gygax er I mean Greyhawk in their Image.

Excellent adventure BTW with only one PC death, poor Bard fell to to his doom climbing down an Elevator shaft.


Scott
 

Dagger of Lath said:
Do you usually have a theme for your games? Intentional or not?

If so what themes have you used?

For example are your games about "the meaning of family" or "what it means to be a hero"? Or are they simply, "punch dragon, steal gold".

I don't bother incorporating themes into a campaign. I very rarely see the point. In my many years of gaming, I've had only a tiny handful of players who bother to notice it. I'd much rather just get on with the campaign and have fun.
 

While it's not a strictly spelled-out theme, the Final Fantasy game I'm running now has developed a "United we stand, divided we fall" feel. Originally there was a very, very high level of mistrust between the party members; never outright blows or anything, but more than one in-character shouting match (which was quickly balanced by the players themselves laughing and congratulating each other outside of the session, so I knew there was no genuine rage). As time went on, each character began to rely on the others more and more, and friendships developed where before they treated it as a co-worker arrangement. Some have been slower to warm up than others, but I know without a shadow of a doubt at least five of the six would not hesitate to die for any of the others, and the sixth would after some hemming and hawing.

The other theme that my players pointed out is "Everything is connected." Apparently a staple of my games is that each little thread introduced connects to something else in some way. Nothing happens randomly, and everything will somehow all fall into place with one final piece. I hardly realized this, and don't think it's that unique, but they adore it, so I do what I can to keep it up.
 


He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
 

I've always enjoyed adding themes to my games, although as others have said, sometimes the players never notice.

The theme of my current campaign is "what is evil?"
 

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