Results 61 to 90 of 152
Thread: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
-
2017-09-14, 12:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2013
- Location
- Slovakia
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
I once tried it with Shadowrun. Didn't work so well as imagined.
I want to try it again, this time with Fate. However... I won't make their character sheets. They get them empty (I'll just have a pyramid checklist to check off which skill level I gave them) and once they decide to try something, they will place the skill they used on one of them. Basically - they'll create characters in play and we'll fill in the gaps.
I'd love to play in such campaign...
I thought about running something similar to the Princess Maker game - in potterverse. They have to allocate time for studying, practicing spells, training for Quidditch (if they decide) and balance it with exploration of school (dungeon-crawling) and various events. Non-linear story, which will progress one way if they decide to not look into it, and other way if they do (and succeed).Call me Laco or Ladislav (if you need to be formal). Avatar comes from the talented linklele.
Formerly GMing: Riddle of Steel: Soldiers of Fortune
-
2017-09-14, 12:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Antihero campaign: "The People's Terminationary Front" (or "Won't Get Fooled Again" or "Revolution Means 360°")
The characters' homeland is under the control of an oppressive regime and has been oppressed for centuries. There are periodic successful revolutions but they never seem to improve anything. In truth the government and the revolutions are both secretly under the control of baatezu soul harvesters bent on turning people to lawful evil causes and then getting them killed. The only hope of breaking this cycle lies with the "Terminationary Front", a demon led conspiracy bent on taking advantage of the strife of the latest ongoing revolution to smash both the state AND the revolutionaries and also raze the capitol completely to the groundLast edited by Bohandas; 2017-09-14 at 12:19 PM.
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-14, 04:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2017
- Location
- Texas.
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
I haven't ran a D&D game in quite a while, but one of my hobbies has always been designing adventures that I'll probably never get to play. A little disheartening, but I still enjoy it.
The campaign starts out pretty normally, with a group of adventurers finding themselves in a tavern in a walled off town. But the group doesn't remember much, if anything about where they are, how they got there, or even who they are. The characters would need to be of a fairly high level, at least 10+, in order to survive what lies outside the gates, though they have no knowledge of how they obtained their abilities. The first portion of the campaign would revolve around discovering the secret behind where they are, which would then lead to what I hope is a pretty interesting quest of discovery.
-
2017-09-14, 06:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Waterdeep
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Half baked adventure ideas? Oh wow, take a seat my friend I got tons.
A Mage's Solace (Wizard Did It): Demiplane of an archmage that houses a small city with it's own population. He rarely interacts with the subjects he experiments on but they still regard him as godlike. His most recent breakthrough is a magical device that allows the use of magic when surgically attached to the spine (side effects include but not limited to psychosis, addiction, blackouts, etc)
Dungeon Defender: Party comes across a dungon with a vacancy sign out front. It's their job to repopulate and refortify it in order to attract other adventurers, successfully kill them within the dungeon and take their stuff. At later stages other dungeon owners in the area become competition.
Genesis: The party is amongst the first intelligent humanoids created by the gods. The powers are still getting the hang of the 'governing mortals' thing and hilarity ensues
Ivan: Stock standard adventure but the BBEG is like a Babuska doll. Each time you defeat him he sheds another layer until you get to the final one.
LCB Squad: The party are elite agents of a nation at war with another nation. They are handed a wand of Locate City Bomb with 1 charge and instructed to detonate it at the enemy's capital or right in the middle of their marching army. This will obviously kill them in the process but that's a soldiers life.
Phylactery: A lich pops up and starts doing lich stuff. He's not terribly concerned if he is defeated because he just comes back using his phylactery. He has left a couple red herrings for adventurers to chase but his actual phylactery is a bloodline of humanoids. In order to properly kill him you'd need to do some serious genocide.
Visionary: A low level cleric receives a vision from their god meant for a totally different and unrelated higher level cleric. Of course the acolyte dutifully attempts to carry out his 'mission' anyways, even if later learning that it wasn't actually supposed to be for him.
The Temple of Reshar: Based on the philosophies of the Book of Nine Swords, the Temple of Reshar is sending out initiates into the world to recover powerful weapons to add to their collection and use to further the development of Blade Magic. The PCs are one such group.Roll for it 5e Houserules and Homebrew
Old Extended Signature
Awesome avatar by Ceika
-
2017-09-14, 08:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Some relevant links
Funky Settig Ideas
Fleeting Random Ideas
Special thanks to Solauren for saving these.Last edited by Bohandas; 2017-09-14 at 08:02 PM.
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-14, 09:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
-
2017-09-14, 11:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
-
2017-09-15, 02:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Waterdeep
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
It was something like
Stage 1: illusory/fake Ivan
Stage 2: Animated armor Ivan is wearing
Stage 3: Ivan
Stage 4: Zombie Ivan
Stage 5: Skeletal Ivan
Stage 6: Spectral Ivan
I think I named him Ivan because its A) a russian name and B) the mysterious guy that my father mentioned but never explained when my father was drunk enough.
Edit: Crap forgot polymorphed Ivan, i knew there was 7Last edited by Kane0; 2017-09-15 at 02:43 AM.
-
2017-09-15, 04:31 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2011
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
This is similar to a boss idea I had!
1) Nika the humanoid.
2) Nika the corporeal undead.
3) Nika the skin balloon rips itself off and stands up.
4) Nika the muscle and tendon tentacle monster knits itself together a few rounds later.
5) Nika the skeleton assembles a few rounds later.
6) Nika the pool of blood (water necromental) collects into one blob a few rounds later.
7) Nika the incorporeal undead provides spell support a few rounds later.
If they visit the same place after a significant time delay, Nika the bone dust cloud (air necromental) gets one last go.
Then there's also Penanggalens, who by default just leave behind a lifeless and organ-less torso and legs. The template could be tinkered with to make it a legit splitting monster, the torso could make melee attacks or trip people......Homebrew:
Rolled up yet another +1 Flaming Longsword or Potion of Cure Light Wounds as loot? Refluff them! Also included, Riding Dogs and Horses with personality!
Awesomely detailed avatar by Derjuin.
-
2017-09-15, 06:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2015
- Location
- Mid-Rohan
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Nerull's Plot
Any D&D edition (originally planned for 3.5).
This concept actually won me a prize at a small, local plot submission contest at my dorm in college. Not a huge pool for competition, but an interesting point.
Ancient prophecy has foretold the coming of The Hands of Fate, basically a party of Chosen Ones whose lives have ultimate agency over events on the material plane (yes, the PCs). Nerull has dealt with Vecna to obtain the secret knowledge of the names of the next incarnation of these individuals (helping him ascend to the status of demigod in repayment). Nerull immediately sends his servants to seize these individuals and gather them together before their potential is noticed by themselves or other gods.
The campaign begins with describing to the players that they are helplessly restrained, minimally equipped, and ritually CdG'd (there may be a little railroading as this is more of a cutscene than an active scenario). Their characters die in a ceremony that denies their souls access to their rightful afterlife determined by alignment and hands their souls instead into the control of Nerull, who basically tortures them eternally until their will is broken and they swear themselves into his service (in a timeless dimension where eternal torment requires no passage of time back on the material plane).
After breaking them into his service, Nerull ressurects them from their graves on the material plane. He commissions them to sow death among the mortals (inconspicuously, the other deities might intervene if they aren't careful and Nerull would be displeased if any hero were negligent or beligerent in their duties). This quest will involve some petty murder, but moreover will involve political assassinations and the ultimate effort to push the world deep into WW2 style genocide, hopefully with some religious crusades fueling it all. The goal is to Total Civilization Kill all sentient races, giving the god of death supreme power over the material plane and substantially advance his standing in the pantheon (possibly giving him the ability to overthrow other deities).
He grants his servants each Relics that serve as both Carrot and Stick as they reward the "correct" behavior and punish "incorrect" behavior and help the heroes succeed in their given goals (such as a holy symbol for ex-paladins that make them seem like they haven't fallen).
From here, the campaign actually begins. Players may run it as a "way of the wicked" campaign, serving Nerull faithfully to obtain positions of favor in the next life, or they can carefully try to subvert his will (as good or evil characters), alert the other deities, and break free from his influence, possibly saving the world from the catastrophes that Nerull is setting up to take place with or without the Hands of Fate.
Sandbox Star Wars
Star Wars Saga Edition
Setting is the Dark Times (after episode 3, but before episode 6). The primary galactic events of the movies/books/games are only vaguely true.
For example, Darth Vader is now a seperate character from Anakin (who officially died confronting Vader), his true identity is actually unknown to the players (and actually needs no secret meaningful reveal, he can just remain a threatening enigma). Obi Wan isn't hiding on Tatooine, but raising Luke in the heart of the Rebellion and training him as needed. Most other characters and events aren't substantially changed (Han is probably working with the rebellion as a smuggler with rebel sympathies and debts with the Hutts).
For PC interest, playing Jedi is not advised: most force traditions are oppressed and users are hunted. Lightsabers will bring the local trooper barracks down on you. It isn't banned, just be aware of the consequences. You also present a danger to your allies should any inquisitors (or Force forbid, Vader himself) sense your presence.
Let the sandbox begin.
Dark Souls
I've seen others express this idea as well, but I've wanted to try it for a while now. Dark Souls is really not a sandbox adventure quite like other TTRPG sandboxes. Dark Souls is a bit more like Metroid in that the map is a puzzle box adventure (move this piece to unlock the next piece). You can go in any direction, but not every direction is equally easy or helpful in progressing to the objective.
You could try a true sandbox Dark Souls (an open world of hollows with undead society collecting anywhere they can), but the idea has less appeal to me than constructing a set play area like the games do. Because Dark Souls is really about mastering the system, including the map. An endless map just can't be mastered the same way as a set area can.
After all, what else can be the point of making an endless respawn system canonical than to imply that the character remembers how they failed and eventually learn how to overcome a specific set of challenges? This is the excuse to make your challenges excessively, trollishly difficult: your players can retry an infinite number of times.
-
2017-09-15, 07:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2012
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
One I have wanted to do is a game based around the horseman of the apocalypse.
The players would play War, Pestilence and Famine after being recently defeated by a god-king leading a holy kingdom (3 people playing and death has always been the odd one out in the horseman).
Their goal is to destroy the world by any means possible. The problem is the god-king stands in their way along with several other nations. Via manipulation, deceit and cunning they would have to slowly destroy crops, cause disease or stir up strife. A cult will slowly grow behind them as they do so and they will have to search out magical items or spells to further increase their power. All leading up to a confrontation with the God-king in their last bastion of hope to totally anhilate the world.
-
2017-09-15, 07:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Sharangar's Revenge
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
-
2017-09-15, 09:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
-
2017-09-15, 11:10 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Last edited by Bohandas; 2017-09-15 at 11:22 AM. Reason: uncorrected typo
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-15, 11:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-15, 11:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-15, 11:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2016
- Location
- The Abyss
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
In the grim darkness of the 41st millenium (warhammer 40k), a unit of guardsmen 40-60 strong struggle to survive and undermine the forces of chaos that now reside upon their hive world, as well as try to call reinforcements and wait for them. This would be a sorta 40k/xcom fusion, with each player having a 10 character pool.
barbarian speak bold and never capital letter or second/first person pronoun just like comic man do!
GitP: the only forum where discussions get more brainy over time!
-
2017-09-15, 11:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2016
-
2017-09-15, 12:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Sharangar's Revenge
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
"I've heard it both ways! The right way and then yours! I've heard it both ways! Let's not open any sores; I've heard it right, and wrong! Don't Cheech my Chong, anymore!"
Also, a quick Google search shows they are called both Babushka and Matryoshka dolls.
Somewhat related to the post above me, I first came across "Matryoshka" reading a story of the same name here: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Short_StoriesLast edited by Lord Torath; 2017-09-15 at 12:10 PM.
Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
-
2017-09-15, 12:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
- Location
- Durham
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
A few more
A group of F.B.I. Agents are called in on a double homicide the problem?
Well one victim is in one state and the other across the border in another state.
The precarious thing is they both share the same injuries, and even more complications adding up.
-
2017-09-15, 05:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
My Avatar is Glimtwizzle, a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist by Cuthalion.
-
2017-09-15, 07:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2013
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
I've got another one, thanks to a post in the 3.5 thread.
JumpChain: the Tabletop Campaign - Basically, each of the players is pulled into a fictional universe and does their best to survive and grow in power before they are moved to another one. I'd probably set this up as a Fudge game: each world comes with its own quirks, but there would be an attribute system behind it to tie everything together somewhat. Order of jumps would come from a priority list based on each of the players and sorted with a Borda count. So, for example:
Spoiler: Example
Player 1 has P1 Harry Potter, P2 Dresden Files, P3 Magicka, P4 Magic: the Gathering (any plane). They are strongly interested in mage characters, but aren't familiar enough with DnD mechanics to use their spellcasting.
Player 2 has P1 Eberron, P2 Kaladesh, P3 Spelljammer, P4 Golarion. This player wants awesome tech, preferably magitech, and each world has at least some of that going on. Coming into Pathfinder with a Spelljammer ship sounds especially tasty.
Player 3 has P1 PTUniverse, P2 Persona 4, P3 Fallout 4, P4 Fate Grail War. This person wants pets of all kinds - Pokemon, a Persona, a Fallout Companion, and a Grail Servant, to name a few.
Player 4 has P1 Magicka, P2 Persona 4, P3 Eberron, P4 Harry Potter. This one knows a couple of things the other players want, and has picked four of those they'd like to visit.
Alright, time to bring out some voting. Borda count says 4 points for 1st place, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th,
which gives usSpoiler: Borda Counts- Harry Potter 5
- Dresden Files 3
- Magicka 6
- Kaladesh (including generic MTG points) 4
- Eberron 6
- Spelljammer 2
- Golarion 1
- PTUniverse 4
- Persona4 6
- Fallout4 2
- Fate Grail War 1
I throw the top three back at them, and the order goes Magicka, Eberron, Persona 4. After all three of those jumps,
we'll go back through and vote again, adding new votes to the old ones.
I love me some crossovers, so doing something like this actually sounds like a lot of fun. If I were absolutely mad, I'd use a more robust system to simulate this mess, but I can only go so far .
-
2017-09-16, 10:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Doomed Quake-Life
Someone attempts to build a Tippyverse style series of teleportation circles, but all of the resultant permanent astral conduits provide the perfect vehicle for a Githyanki invasion of the material plane"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-16, 01:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Location
- I'm on a boat!
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
In His Majesty's Service
The players are all dwarves or gnomes (in my world, many rock gnomes live in dwarven territory), and members of the dwarven military. First few sessions will be training. Later adventures will involve scouting, Search And Rescue, and of course, infiltration and destruction of dwarven enemies (orcs, drow, etc).Red Mage avatar by Aedilred.
Where do you fit in? (link fixed)
RedMage Prestige Class!
Best advice I've ever heard one DM give another:
"Remember that it is both a game and a story. If the two conflict, err on the side of cool, your players will thank you for it."
Second Eternal Foe of the Draconic Lord, battling him across the multiverse in whatever shapes and forms he may take.
-
2017-09-17, 01:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
The characters are all aspects of deities
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
-
2017-09-17, 10:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Just had a thought for a CoC game. Whatever horrible insane cultists are trying to summon some kind of great old one or outer god or what-have-you, or whatever abominable creature(s) have broken through and are wreaking havoc, are so far along that the investigators can't possibly disrupt the ritual or fend off the critters or otherwise solve the problem by conventional means. The only option would be to find a way to consult Yog-Sothoth itself for some ritual that would stop it, without going too insane in the process to do what's necessary once they gain the requisite knowledge. Instead of investigating the cults and the monsters, the goal would be to find ways to contact the Lurker at the Threshold, 'Umr-at-Tawil, the All-in-One and One-in-All without being obliterated, driven mad, or ascending beyond the concerns of petty mortals to such a degree they no longer care about earth and trivial things like an insignificant blue planet in an outer spiral arm of a backwater galaxy getting conquered by Hastur. In essence fighting fire with fire, becoming cultists themselves to fight the other cultists.
-
2017-09-17, 04:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- San Francisco Bay area
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Ooh!!! I like these "veil" of ignorance" ideas!
My campaign ideas are rather more prosaic and unoriginal, basically: Viking kids vs Morlocks
The PC's are adolescents and very young adults in an isolated village where two summers ago all the fighting age men, and many of the women left on a "trading" mission, and have not returned, so the elders of the village at a moot in the godshall have some of the youth accompany "old Ragnar", a one armed former Viking (who will die of natural causes soon after they set sail) as their guide.
What they find is that nearby they are de-populated and sometimes burned towns with no bodies and little evidence of what happened.
Upon returning home (assuming they do), they find their village simillarly emptied, with cooking fires still smoldering, and in the distance a low thumping sound, like a muffled hammering.
If they seek out the source of the sounds, they find what look to be new wells outside the village, but they see no water at the bottom, and ha hand and foot holds along the sides, and descending and exploring leads them to discover albino "Goblins" leading the enchanted people of their village deeper into the earth, and then....
....well basically the Goblins are the Morlocks in the 1895 Time Machine novella, and the 1960 film, led by albino Drow/Elves not unlike the character played by Jeremy Irons in the 2002 film.
Further exploration by the PC's leads them to find tunnels made by digging machines (like in At The Earth's Core), and locales like in Journey to the Center of the Earth (ruins and dinosaurs!), and a civilization a bit like the Selenites in First Men in the Moon.
Spoiler: Some images that inspired me
Last edited by 2D8HP; 2017-09-18 at 05:13 PM. Reason: Battle Royale with Auto-correct
-
2017-09-18, 07:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2013
-
2017-09-18, 02:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Gender
Re: Campaign Ideas You Have Had
Hmm, missed this earlier. I was in a Pathfinder convention game on this premise. To the point that we couldn't even see our own character portraits (until we looked in a mirror, which we managed to not do for four hours of play).
It was both interesting, and annoying. It's certainly worth a short play, but unless you can settle on character types beforehand, it could be frustrating over the long haul.
-
2017-09-18, 05:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2015
- Location
- Gondor, Middle Earth
- Gender
I'm a Lawful Good Human PaladinJustice and honor are a heavy burden for the righteous. We carry this weight so that the weak may grow strong and the meek grow brave
— The Acts of Iomedae, Pathfinder
Avatar made by Professor Gnoll