Worst campaign setting concepts you've ever played

[barsoomcore]

Some might disagree with me, but there's no way I'm gonna accept that Kung-Fu Cthulhu -- a Charlie's Angels meets Tsui Hark meets H.P. Lovecraft, high-kicking lovelies battling mind-melting evil idea -- is not a BRILLIANT campaign concept.

No way. No how.

 

[eatenmyeyes]

Superhero game a fellow GM ran, in which the villains possessed an unhealthy fixation with Hostess Fruit Pies and Twinkies.

Please don't make me speak any more of it.

Like This?

 

[ForceUser]

Spelljammer and Gamma World. Yuck.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Then there was the campaign involving the invisibility ring that was actully an ancient artifiact that we had to destroy before the evil overlord took over the world ...

The "throw the cursed ring into the big volcano" plot-line?

Yawn.

How lame can you get?

 

[Samothdm]

Eatenmyeyes, that's a great site. I was just about to post that same link when I saw your post. The rest of the bit on the Superfriends cartoon is hilarious, too.

As far as bad campaigns... I can't recall any specific examples. When I was younger, we played horribly but at the time I thought it was such a fun game and I was just fascinated by the whole idea of playing so I can't really look back and say "That sucked."

 

[BlackMoria]

A campaign (in 1979) where I discovered that the BBEG was a powerful wizard called Emperor Palpatine(?) whose chief minion was a powerful death knight called .......... yea, you quessed it - Darth Vader.

This wizard owned ---- yep....a Death Star in orbit and a fleet of Star Destroyers.

And he had all these Stormtroopers which were ........Flesh Golems in armor.

Aaaiiiiieeee. Was that campaign truly horrible.

And if the very off chance that that DM (whose name I have mercifully forgotten) is a member of ENWorld.......

I hate you...... still

 

[Tetsubo]

Spelljammer and Gamma World. Yuck.

While I've never run Spelljammer I ran several Gamma World campaigns. One that lasted three years using the 3rd Edition rules with the TMNT system tacked on for character creation. It's in the GM's skill, not the rules system.

 

[der_kluge]

Does this count the ones we played in High School?

I ran an awful Spelljammer game (kind of goes without saying, doesn't it?) wherein the PCs needed to find one of Toril's moons, because it had come up missing, and Elminster was concerned that magic in the land was gonna go all crazy as a result.

I think that game lasted one session, and through a bizarre combat encounter with some Slaad, and illusion of a fire lich, and I think some Githyanki, a couple of the players were rolling on the floor, laughing, and we had to stop because he was hyperventilating. That was the last game of that campaign.

 

[ForceUser]

While I've never run Spelljammer I ran several Gamma World campaigns. One that lasted three years using the 3rd Edition rules with the TMNT system tacked on for character creation. It's in the GM's skill, not the rules system.

No, I mean I can't stand the campaign concept. Half-cyborg wolverines with tentacles and external brain packs. Intelligent psionic carnivorous plants with gills and laser guns. Thanks, I'll pass.

 

[Gothmog]

This one will require a Sanity check. Back in 9th grade, a buddy of mine had just read the 1st and 2nd Dark Elf books with Drizzt, and thought they were the best thing ever done in gaming. He had us start a 2E campaign where we were all dark elves who had been out on patrol when an old man in a funny hat found us, and we attacked. The old man mopped the floor with us, but instead of killing us, turned us CG and made us a band of heroes who would try to do good in the world. Later we found out the old man was....wait for it....Elminster, and we were Elminster's Enclave. I played about three adventures with them until it go me more than I could bear, and I bowed out. To this day the mention of Elminster or Drizzt makes me see a red haze.