That's the Good Stuff

[Jama7301]

I like talking about things I like. I also like learning and taking inspiration from others. My question for all of you, who wish to participate, is this? If someone gave you a short campaign, setting, or game pitch, what sorts of things make you say "Yes, give that to me"?

Heroic Fantasy where heroic swordsman and spellcasters work to defeat a great evil? That's my jam.

Cyberpunk missions with slim margins for error, even in a "mission of the week" styled game, with no overarching plot? Sign me up.

Communal game where players are expected to feed information back and shape the world with the GM? Awesome.

Band a thieves carefully planning your next heist, trying to get that Final Score that always seems just out of reach? Yes, Please.

A fantastically magical world recovering from a chaotic spell storm. Sign me the heck up.


This can even be something as small as "I love to be able to create fire with my mind" to complex like "intracate, multi-generational murder mystery"

... Hold on.

Hmmm....

What sorts of short pitches for characters, campaigns, concepts, settings, or systems that just make you thing "Heck yes, I want to play that".

Edit: A game I want to run as a GM: Players are bounty hunters/mercenaries in a futuristic setting where they pilot mechs/personal flight craft.

I realize these get brought up in various threads,
but a place where we can just say "I like this" is nice. Being positive and excited about things is a good feeling.

[2D8HP]

I What sorts of short pitches for characters, campaigns, concepts, settings, or systems that just make you thing "Heck yes, I want to play that".

I enjoy playing characters similar to Robin Hood (or most any character portrayed by Errol Flynn), Sinbad, Indiana Jones, Tonto, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser from fiction, and as long as my PC's may sometimes (with luck and/or skill)

Fire arrows

Swing swords

Track

Sneak

Hide

Climb

Swim

Convince,

Run,

Walk,

Speak,

and

Heal

I'm good.

What first got me hooked on RPG's was this set-up:

Spoiler: A call to adventure!

Show

100 years ago the sorcerer Zenopus built a tower on the low hills overlooking Portown. The tower was close to the sea cliffs west of the town and, appropriately, next door to the graveyard.
Rumor has it that the magician made extensive cellars and tunnels underneath the tower. The town is located on the ruins of a much older city of doubtful history and Zenopus was said to excavate in his cellars in search of ancient treasures.

Fifty years ago, on a cold wintry night, the wizard's tower was suddenly engulfed in green flame. Several of his human servants escaped the holocaust, saying their rnaster had been destroyed by some powerful force he had unleashed in the depths of the tower.
Needless to say the tower stood vacant fora while afterthis, but then the neighbors and the night watchmen comploined that ghostly blue lights appeared in the windows at night, that ghastly screams could be heard emanating from the tower ot all hours, and goblin figures could be seen dancina on the tower roof in the moonlight. Finally the authorities had a catapult rolled through the streets of the town and the tower was battered to rubble. This stopped the hauntings but the townsfolk continue to shun the ruins. The entrance to the old dungeons can be easily located as a flight of broad stone steps leading down into darkness, but the few adventurous souls who hove descended into crypts below the ruin have either reported only empty stone corridors or have failed to return at all.
Other magic-users have moved into the town but the site of the old tower remains abandoned.
Whispered tales are told of fabulous treasure and unspeakable monsters in the underground passages below the hilltop, and the story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of the older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.
Portown is a small but busy city 'linking the caravan routes from the south to the merchscant ships that dare the pirate-infested waters of the Northern Sea. Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet here.
At he Green Dragon Inn, the players of the game gather their characters for an assault on the fabulous passages beneath the ruined Wizard's tower.



None better for me, even after 39 years!

My favorite setting genre's are (in order):
1) Swords and Sorcery
2) Swashbuckling
3) Arthurian
4) Gaslamp Fantasy
5) Planetary Romance
6) Steampunk
7) Raygun Gothic
8) Viking

What I like/want:
1) Exploring a fantastic world.

2) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Robin Hood, the Seven Samurai, and Sinbad?: Yes!

3) Swashbuckling? Yes!

4) Steampunk/Gaslight Fantasy? Sure.

5) Space Opera? Sometimes.

6) Time Travel/Alternate realities (Sliders)?: I'm intrigued.

7) Archers, Dragons, Knights, Magicians to fight, Pirates, and Swords: Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!, and Yes!

Here's some recent stuff I found compelling:

As a lad 2D8HP witnessed as the local ratchatcher played his pipes after the village elder in his village didn't want to cough up the money after the ratcatcher rid the village of the rat plague. This had the effects that all the village children followed the evil ratcatcher to a nearby cave. 2D8HP who was known for being mule headed didn't seem to be affected, he kinda just followed along, wondering where his friends were sleepwalking off to. Once in the cave when the evil ratchatcher was going through his incantation to close off the cave then it struck 2D8HP, whose mind wasn't the most agile, that the ratcatchers motives might not be the most altruistic. So 2D8HP snuck behind the evil ratcatcher with a large rock in his hand and bashed him in the back of his head. 2D8HP being a very sturdy lad managed to cave in the ratcatchers skull, interrupt the incantation, and save the day.

2D8HP became famous for saving the village children and he learned the valuable lesson that magicians are best dealt with from behind, preferably with a weapon large enough to cleave them from top to bottom.

.

...set in a fantasy world which is somewhat like a cross between Conan, Lankhmar, and Lord of the Rings with a lot of random gonzo stuff from various sources thrown in around the edges....

.

...the aesthetics of the knight in shining armor or mighty barbarian who slay dragons and battle evil sorcerers with nothing but their strong arms, quick wits, indomitable wills, and martial skill...

.

...I'm sold.

I want to play "knight in shining armor or mighty barbarian who slay dragons and battle evil sorcerers with nothing but their strong arms, quick wits, indomitable wills, and martial skill" RIGHT NOW!!!

Please?

Oh I'll just show you:

"It was a time of adventure"


"We will use the old ways"


"YOU MURDERER!"


"Making this up as I go"

Dragons are AWESOME!!!

I want Dragons.

This has a Fire breathing Dragon in it

I want to imagine a Knight on horseback charging a Dragon with a lance.

I also want to imagine an agile quick witted Rogue saving said Knight, from said Dragon.

Oh who am I kidding, "You play a guy with a sword (or a bow). You start at first level" will usually work.

[Jama7301]

I should have expected that from you.

You always seem to have that on hand, and it's so clearly defined. You sure do know what you like!

[Squiddish]

A band of underdogs, from the noblest of warriors to the... morality-challenged... remaining four members of the party take down a vampire? Heck yeah.

A bunch of other underdogs go to take down the baddest (okay, second baddest) lich that ever lived? Heck yeah.

A group of kobolds band together to keep the thieving adventurers out of *their* dungeon? Hell yes!

A bunch of silly dorks get together and go on silly but surprisingly lethal adventures? Yes please.

Monks with spears, druids that turn into dinos, just about anyone with hammers, monks that act like clerics, swashbuckling everything, bards that get their music from a mysterious eldritch being, warlocks with hatchets and highly intelligent angelic familiars, robots with guns of their own design in their arms, pirate-gladiator-sorcerer-nerds with a lasting, life defining rivalry? I'll play that to the moon and back.

Science fantasy or steampunk antics, yeah I'll DM it.
Quirky oneshots in the astral plane or the high seas, I'll DM that as well.

The big thing I won't participate in, however, is evil campaigns unless they're oneshots, even that's iffy.