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kieza
2012-02-07, 01:55 AM
So, for the DMs out there: after your current campaign wraps up, what are you planning to run next?

I'm working on a police drama-styled campaign, myself. I've already written a few cases dealing with the sorts of interesting crimes that would come up in a world with magic: curses spread through innocuous objects, supernatural serial killers, runaway pet dragons...the players, as a "Major Crimes Unit," will go through one or two before they come up against a recurring villain and a government conspiracy, which will become the overarching theme of the rest of the campaign, interspersed with self-contained crime-of-the-week adventures.

Bagelson
2012-02-07, 05:09 AM
I'm looking at Kerberos Club FATE edition. Ideally I'd like to run a campaign that starts in the early century with some pulpy action and grows increasingly over-the top as the time passes. All culminating in a city-wrecking fight against a cthulian abomination in New Orleans in 1901. I doubt I could keep my players interested that long, but as long as I get to stage at least one fight aboard a flaming airship I'm happy.

Togath
2012-02-07, 05:35 AM
I'm thinking of trying a mystery/detective campaign next, though probably one set in a world with magic as opposed to the standard mundane detective campaign, I might also change the time period for it as well, perhaps to either modern times or to a tech level similar to the 1800s.

Kol Korran
2012-02-07, 06:07 AM
i've finished a generci heroic-save-the-world kind of campaign, set in Eberron. the group is in recess, but i'm planning a partly sandbox pirate game, with several other forces working, in a homebrew world set in isles influenced heavily by withccraft and voodoo magic, with an imposing colonial force, and some exotic new trading cultures.

first sandbox game we play, but the world won't sit still- there are several forces acting in the scene. hopefully it will be fun. lots of new stuff for the group- hopefully it will prove a good experience. :smalleek::smallconfused::smalltongue:

Silus
2012-02-07, 06:34 AM
Well if I can find a D&D group, I plan to run one of three mini campaigns:

1. Zombie plague shuts down a city while the PCs are inside. Halt HP-gain-on-level until after the plague is over and force the PCs to actually try to survive as opposed to running around trying to get kills (Supplies, food, shelter, and hordes of plague zombies).

2. A sort of I.Robot thing where an extremely advanced clockwork automaton escapes and the PCs must track her down. Moral implications arise when they realize that the automaton is sentient.

3. A grand expedition to an alien world using magitech (which is more or less what the world is run on). Complete with free roaming city building and plundering of alien ruins. Mind the wildlife though. Inspiration taken from Stargate, Avatar, and one encounter from Dragon Age (To avoid, make sure nobody is captured or lost, NPCs included).

Jornophelanthas
2012-02-07, 07:13 AM
I'm currently preparing a fantasy campaign where the players are the first generation born in a village of war refugees who have settled in a remote unexplored land. I intend to let them explore the region, acquiring allies and eliminating threats to their home. And at the same time they are expected to build the economy and resources of their home town, since I intend for them to quite quickly become its de facto rulers. And of course, at some point, the war will catch up with them.

DigoDragon
2012-02-07, 08:26 AM
I've been musing over the idea of running a modern RPG based off of the SyFy show Warehouse 13. Maybe throw some occult elements in there from Hellboy since my group eats that stuff up. :smallsmile:

Friv
2012-02-07, 10:53 AM
When my Changeling: The Lost game ends, I'll be starting up a Fallout game in which the players are colonists who were supposed to be sent to another planet, but their ship gets winged by a nuke and crashes back on Earth. When they finally get out of cryogenic stasis, it's a hundred years later and they're in post-apocalyptic Fallout Earth.

... I just need a system, because one of my players told me he hates Savage Worlds, and that was the system I was planning to use. :smallfrown:

Jay R
2012-02-07, 12:00 PM
I've always developed a world, and then told the players their characters have to fit into that. Last time it was Original D&D, and all players were servants of major traveling adventurers, thousands of miles from home. (Their masters died in the first episode, and the PCs had to take over the quest.) Once I dictated that all PCs had to be escaped slaves who have managed to make it across a vast desert, to a land they knew nothing about. In my last superhero game, it was set in 1959, and they all had to be Silver Age heroes.

Next time I'm reversing it. The players will design the kind of PC they want to play, in 2nd Edition AD&D. Whatever they come up with, the world will be designed around it. Does someone want to be the last dwarf alive, out to get revenge on the goblins who wiped out your race? Fine - there will be no other dwarves. Japanese samurai in Europe? OK - I'll put in a Japan way to the East I have lots of ideas for the world - geography, history, climate -- but I won't put it together until after character design, when I know what I can and can't use.

They can choose any flavor they want, but not extra power. They have to have no more than a 1st level character's power, and they have to fit into a medieval fantasy campaign. (No dragon PCs for the first reason; no Vulcans for the second; no Kryptonians for both reasons.)

There will be guidelines to prevent people from using this to gain power beyond first level. Someone wants to be the first son of a recently deceased king? Fine - but he was killed in a palace coup, and the 1st level PC had to flee for his life. He can plan to come back and re-conquer it when he's strong enough.

The character they can play will not be defined by the game setting; the game setting will be defined by the characters they want to play.

Grelna the Blue
2012-02-07, 12:15 PM
It's hopefully stilll a ways off, but my next campaign will be set in the same world as my current campaign, fast forwarded about 175 years. This homebrew setting has had three separate campaigns, each following after a gap, and the world has become a darker, grimmer place in each successive campaign, although player success has meant that isolated locales have fared better than the norm, making past player bases of operation the only real beacons of hope.

In past campaigns, the main villains have been a civilized goblinoid empire run by vampires (dangerous in every campaign), dark nagas and their yuanti servitors, and the hidden remnants of the elder trolls (spellcasting greater doppelgangers).

In the current campaign the world is at total war, with humans the weakest force vs. the aforesaid goblinoid empire and a theocratic nation of orcs led by necromancers and tanarukk war-captains. At this point the humans are fortunate that the goblins and the orcs are focused primarily on each other, but is because the humans do not seem to pose much of a threat, having suffered a magical apocalypse. The party is attempting to rectify that.

In the next campaign, the wars will seemingly be over and humans will either be a tiny remnant (if the current party fails) or struggling to rebuild. The danger then will come from the elves. They plan to emerge from their forest strongholds to finally make their move to regain the domination of the continent they lost after the long ago Great Racial Wars with the nagas and the trolls (they actually won those wars, but were greatly depleted in numbers). After the explosive rise of the younger races, the elves have been biding their time behind their spellwrought defenses, building their strength and waiting for the shortlived mortals to waste their strength against each other. They have maneuvered humans as their favored catspaw against the other, even less appealing, races, giving them help from time to time but not enough to allow them to truly prosper. In fact, they've occasionally acted to prevent humans from getting too strong. In this future campaign, humans will have to stand on their own two feet against a foe that has been planning and preparing for a war against them for centuries. It will not be a war of extermination, of course. The elves will offer to resettle any and all non-elves who do not wish to live under their "beneficent" rule through extraplanar gates to other worlds. They will simply claim that this world is theirs. Naturally, I don't expect the other races to see it their way.

Tyndmyr
2012-02-07, 01:42 PM
So, for the DMs out there: after your current campaign wraps up, what are you planning to run next?

Don't know, really. I don't plan too heavily for campaigns, and mostly rely on informally batting around ideas with folks until we find something everyones pretty ok with, and someone's enthused enough about to run.

AtwasAwamps
2012-02-07, 01:47 PM
Sci-Fi horror. No idea what system. Fully intend to give players nightmares.

DaMullet
2012-02-07, 05:33 PM
I've been musing over the idea of running a modern RPG based off of the SyFy show Warehouse 13. Maybe throw some occult elements in there from Hellboy since my group eats that stuff up. :smallsmile:

Oh, I would play the 9 Hells out of a Warehouse 13 game.

Me, I'm working on a setting for standard fantasy where demons are consuming the faith of the pious in order to manifest and destroy the material plane. Sort of investigatory to start, mostly running across the continent fighting demonic incursions before the breach is wide enough for dark gods to start leaking.

Yora
2012-02-07, 05:36 PM
I am considering a lower-level adaptation of the GDQ series for the campaign world I am currently working on, to showcase its locales and people to the players.

Since I plan on gathering a new group when I return to univerity in october, it might even be a D&D 5th Edition Playtest Version campaign.

Alaris
2012-02-07, 05:37 PM
Well, I'm currently running a D&D campaign, but in all honesty, I don't think I'm likely to run something not D&D-related, assuming I keep running.

I've planned this campaign out in chapters, so the world progresses with each chapter, a new plot (with the overarching world plot) each one. My players seem to like the idea, so I'll probably stick with it.

arguskos
2012-02-07, 05:41 PM
This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172194), for lack of a better way to explain it. Zaaman-Rul in all its unfinished glory is finally taking flight. I'd give more details, but I actually can't, since a number of my players read this forum.

I may be keeping a campaign journal, if I can create the time to do so.

SamBurke
2012-02-07, 05:41 PM
My next campaign will be... I don't have a regular gaming group. I have no idea.

BUT if I get a choice, it'll be My Little Pony Pathfinder, (with extensive rules overhauls to keep things more Pony-style), set right after the "Golden Era" of Equestria, with the long line of Elements of Harmony having fallen broken.

Mo_the_Hawked
2012-02-07, 05:42 PM
I just had the thought for a d20 game based on the Maltese Falcon. Also sorts of intrigue and backstabbing.

Othesemo
2012-02-07, 08:39 PM
I'm trying out a more morally gray world- the sort of place where the BBEG is LG (as are the PCs). I'm homebrewing the setting, too, so I'll get to mess around with all the insane stuff that pops into my head.

Aidan305
2012-02-07, 09:17 PM
Currently pondering a Fireborn game. Dragons in London.

Coplantor
2012-02-07, 09:52 PM
Well, in the last 6 years of being a DM me and my players never actually reached the middle of a single campaign, players stop showing, motivation fades from those who do and we start something new. Hope this doesn't repeat itself but anyway, here are my future projects:

Cthulhutech: A campaign in which the players are soldiers of the New Earth Goverment in Argentina and must retake Montevideo from the Mi-go in order to control one of the main maritime access points to South America.

Alternity: The Fallout 1 story or an alternate history encounter between ancient romans and aliens.

Morithias
2012-02-07, 10:01 PM
I have two campaigns on standby.

Campaign 1: X-crawl

X-crawl is a blood sport of dungeon crawling set in modern day. The crowds are bigger, the fights are risker, and the pay is much bigger.

Campaign 2: Steal the pact primeval.

The PCs are recruited by a cult that needs them to steal the pact primeval to case a spell that will cause "The end of humanity" (the PCs are evil).

Needless to say I have a very good twilight zone twist planned for when they finally succeed.

Mo_the_Hawked
2012-02-07, 10:04 PM
Campaign 1: X-crawl

X-crawl is a blood sport of dungeon crawling set in modern day. The crowds are bigger, the fights are risker, and the pay is much bigger.

That is slick, love the idea. Golf clap.

arguskos
2012-02-07, 10:31 PM
That is slick, love the idea. Golf clap.
Not to diminish how awesome it is (and believe me, X-Crawl is completely awesome), but it's actually a published setting. You can go buy it online. I fully recommend it. :smallbiggrin:

Mo_the_Hawked
2012-02-07, 10:44 PM
Well, well. I think I just added somthing to my shopping list.

Anxe
2012-02-08, 12:48 AM
Jay R, your idea sounds super cool!

My current campaign isn't going to finish anytime soon (At least I don't think it is. My players surprised me at the last session O_0). After it's done I'm going to switch from epic battles to the gritty, lethal Hackmaster system. Probably do something about traveling monster-slayers for the first campaign. Just to learn the rules. Monster-slaying can always evolve into taking on a bigger threat, like the Catfish King rising from the depths of the lake to get revenge for all his slain and eaten brethren.

Ninjadeadbeard
2012-02-08, 02:11 AM
Next campaign: The players are assassins working for a stand-in for the Roman Empire at the height of its power. They serve the Imperial Cult's Death Collegia, and are tasked with rooting out Elf terrorists in an imperial province. Just coming up with unique targets and conditions at the moment.

Vknight
2012-02-08, 02:57 AM
Dark Sun or some homebrew blasted back to the stone age setting with deadly creatures and scorpions the size of your arm

Dsurion
2012-02-08, 03:27 AM
Hopefully after our Castlevania game is finished, I can get started on my Elder Scrolls campaign that's been in the works for... forever. Intending to use
Morph Bark's version of the Thu'um (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224359) for the guy who's been itching to use the Way of the Voice in Morrowind.

Inglenook
2012-02-08, 03:29 AM
I've been musing over the idea of running a modern RPG based off of the SyFy show Warehouse 13. Maybe throw some occult elements in there from Hellboy since my group eats that stuff up. :smallsmile:
I'm pretty sure there's a GURPS setting that either is Warehouse 13 or is essentially the same thing with the name changed. If you didn't wanna homebrew it, that is.

I too would love to play in something like this. Urban fantasy/weirdness is my great weakness.

Zerter
2012-02-08, 05:17 AM
I can't give all the details since there's a chance someone might read it.

All campaigns my party play take place in the same city (Omega City), it has a few million inhabitants and is governed by a council made up of the leaders of the strongest factions. My next campaign will feature a major event taking place which lead to a magicball (a sport that is popular) tournament between the major factions, the results of which will have major impact on all of them.

The party will be playing as people working for a Pit Fiend (in the beginning anyway). This particular Pit Fiends serves on the court that governs the neutral region within the most Evil faction: a region in which devils and demons have to put the blood war aside. So Evil people of all stripes can relax, trade, get a education, stuff like that.

The campaign has a limited time window (11 in-game weeks for the tournament to begin and end) and will feature palace intrigue, a lot of intra-party backstabbing (I predict anyway) and plot lines related to the magicball tournament as well as a major casino in the region.

I'll be offering each player to start the campaign with their soul sold to the pit fiend in exchange for a wish. I'll also ask one of them if he can be heavy gambler and one of them to have a secret mission to assasinate someone on the court.

Depending on how they effect external events such as the tournament, whose side they pick in the palace intrigue and how effective they are on that side there are a number of things that can happen, resulting in everything from a minor to a major impact on the city.

DigoDragon
2012-02-08, 08:04 AM
I'm pretty sure there's a GURPS setting that either is Warehouse 13 or is essentially the same thing with the name changed. If you didn't wanna homebrew it, that is.

Yes, oddly enough the book is called Warehouse 23. I've run the setting twice, the first time in a "Conspiracy Theory" style where the group were ordinary people caught up in war between two secret government agencies that were fighting for control of the warehouse and its secrets. In the end the PCs ended up handing control over to the FBI.

The second time I ran the setting, I based it off the tv show "LOST". The party was comprised of airline crash survivors on a mysterious island and the warehouse had fallen into chaos after a particle accelerator caused an alternate dimension to smash into ours.
The second one was notable because when the goal of shutting the accelerator down was finally accomplished, the party learned that the Secret Masters of that facility was THEM from the smashed dimension. Stopping the accelerator separated the dimensions, but the party surprisingly chose to remain in this dimension as ordinary people. Effectively retiring from running the world.

prufock
2012-02-08, 12:01 PM
I've been between games lately (we rotate DM duties). However, my new campaign starts up this weekend. It's a 3.5 game, starting at level 1. It's quite a break from the previous DM's game, which was level 19-20.

It's going to begin quite locally for the first few sessions. The PCs start as apprentices to adventurers.
Cleric 4/Crusader 1/RKV 2 for the Knight 1
Factotum 5/Master of Masks 2 for the Rogue 1
Wizard 1/Binder 2/Anima Mage 4 for the Warlock 1

The players are not high-op. Don't worry, the mentors get taken out of the action early-ish.

Spoilered so Aaron, Haley, or Dave won't read this.
First story arc involves a tribe of goblins invading the town and kidnapping sacrifice victims. Not for some elaborate, super-evil ritual to bring for the apocalypse, just because they happen to live near a volcano and their culture mandates that they do so. From there we'll eventually learn that it isn't a volcano at all, but a rift to the plane of fire. There will be a MacGuffin, which will actually be in the party's possession for the first little while.

The overarching plot revolves around planar rips in the fabric of the material plane, cause in one of my old campaigns by an evil wizard seeking godhood (he's now a low-rank or demi-god).
Hoping to take this to 20 and possibly epic levels over the course of a year or two, with breaks in between. Designed to be somewhat episodic with a long-term plan.

Jay R
2012-02-08, 02:58 PM
It won't be my next one, but I have a long term plan to tart a game in a small isolated village in a slowly darkening forest. The PCs will have just become adults, and are going to leave the village.

The world is basically early medieval. The village has a single road going out of town to the north and south, and the PCs have never been on it. The only travel on it occurs when a few wagons go off to take food to market. Very rarely, a traveler may come through, and spend the night with the priest. The PCs have all listened greedily to any stories these travelers tell. Their parents say this isn’t good for them – what’s here in the village is good enough for them, and all travelers are always liars, anyway.

The PCs have occasionally gone fifty feet into it on a dare, but no further, and never at night. Three times in their lifetime the village has been raided at night from the forest. The PCs were children, and were kept safe in a cellar. Some villagers have died, but by the time they were let out, whatever the attackers were had fled or been buried.

The old folks in the village sometimes talk about how much better it was in their youth, in the time of the king. There was real travel, and real trade. Nobody knows what has happened in the outside world. The PCs may make up any story they like, and they will have heard it from travelers.

In fact, the forest surrounding the villages has been slowly taken over by goblins, cutting it off from the outside world. Darkness has been taking over throughout the old kingdom for a half a century. This should give lots of ruins to explore, monsters to fight, and legends to encounter.

The PCs will not be told that they are in a forest in the middle of England, fifty years after the fall of King Arthur and the breaking of the Round Table.

DigoDragon
2012-02-09, 08:09 AM
The PCs will not be told that they are in a forest in the middle of England, fifty years after the fall of King Arthur and the breaking of the Round Table.

Oh okay. For a moment it sounded like it would be along the lines of M. Knight's The Village. Not that I have anything against the movie. It just sounded a bit of a parallel at first. :smallsmile:

Mono Vertigo
2012-02-10, 07:53 AM
I'm strongly considering using the FF2d6 homebrew system for my next campaign, with some inspiration from FFIX. The known world is made of floating continents. No one who descended to check what was below ever came back.

The two greatest forces of the world, a militaristic empire and a religious kingdom, have always been at war with each other, as far as people can remember. No civilian on has traveled to the other side - not that they would want to, what with the propaganda and the tales of gruesome battles and devastation.
The truth is that they stopped fighting fifteen years ago, when magical gates appeared, pouring unknown and dangerous monsters over the lands. The king and the emperor still don't like each other very much, but they need to work together to solve the issue. The increasing amounts of soldiers they enroll aren't meant to fight the other army; they are told the actual situation and sent to fight monsters and close gates. Civilians who manage to reach the other continent or learn things they weren't meant to know are forcefully enrolled or jailed. They have several reason to maintain the facade of war:
- people are genuinely afraid of the prospect their country would make truce with their life-long enemy ("But we can't be their ally! They've always hated our values! And they still do!")
- the idea of demons from gods-know-where invading the world for no discernible reason would cause much more of a panic than a controlled war with a familiar enemy ("I preferred the imperial soldiers over the demons, at least they felt pain and didn't eat my chocobo.")
- it's much easier to oppress rule over your own people with an iron fist when you have the excuse of an on-going war to do so ("You say they didn't actually forbid all alcohol production, but all bottles went to the king? I would have given anything for a real bottle of wine...").

Basically, the PCs will be from one continent, and will get to learn more about the other. Both armies will be overwhelmed by the monster problems. The party will of course have a chance to change the political dynamics mentioned above in the meanwhile.