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PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 10:51 AM
Note: If the phrases "giant flying turtle fortress", "prismatic githyanki scout ship", or "General Melchor, that bastard!" remind you of your last campaign, you're in my group and need to stop reading now.


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So here's the deal. I'm usually really good with coming up with new and different campaign ideas, but I'm sort of constrained idea-wise given the current circumstances. We have 4 DMs in our group of 12 who are rotating the DMing duties each semester. I'll be running my 2nd campaign with this group come autumn, but I have two problems:

1) Since the other 8 folks are new to D&D, we DMs have been going out of our way to showcase iconic monsters, races, planes, etc. to give them a taste of the lore, with an emphasis on Planescape but with aspects from many other settings.

2) I don't want to repeat anything that someone's already done (or step on anyone's stated ideas for future campaigns), since we want to give them as broad a selection of campaigns as we can.

So, given that, I can't really come up with anything that satisfies both criteria. Here's what's been used in prior campaigns, and thus what I don't want to repeat much, if at all:
Kobolds are trying to incarnate Tiamat on the Prime to help them take over. Lots of dragon and kobold stuff, deity/ascension theme, wilderness adventure.
The elves have been co-opted by demons and devils, who have signed a Blood War truce and sealed off the Upper Planes. Lots of outsiders of all alignments, mystery- and combat-heavy, Great Wheel domination theme, Outer Plane plane-hopping like no tomorrow.
The ethergaunts, clockwork horrors, and kaorti join up to destroy the Prime. Lots of constructs and aberrations and some Ethereal creatures, planar destruction theme, bits of horror and survival, mostly Inner and Transitive Planes.
Two kingdoms have joined up to overthrow an empire and a war erupts. Lots of classed NPCs, war theme, RP-heavy with lots of spying and intrigue, mostly small area of the Prime.

These are planned campaign ideas people have already fairly fleshed out, so I could steal a few things from them and it wouldn't be too bad:
Explore an ancient lost jungle civilization whose descendants want it to rise again. Lots of subterranean and jungle monsters, exploration theme with hints of Eberron, old-style dungeon crawl, mostly underground.
A city-state of demonbinders and necromancers has turned most of the world into ash, tundra, and desert and the last remnants of one nation have called heroes from across the planes to help. Lots of undead (for the bad guys) and fey (as allies), nature and death themes with a sense of pre-devastation Athas mixed in, "grand sweeping epic" feel, mostly wilderness with an emphasis on exotic locations and flight.

So...what can I do that (A) will use a bunch of iconic monsters or whatever and (B) won't step on the other campaigns' toes? I've thought of using the classic mind flayers or beholders, but the "take over the world" theme has kind of been done to death, and already having done the evil elves thing kills the drow for right now. Any ideas? The fate of September's D&D sessions rests on you!

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-29, 10:56 AM
Hmm... Mind Flayers that only eat brains to support their dieing mother?

<.< I don't think that makes sense though...

EDIT: SAve the Mind Flayer Princess!

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 11:12 AM
EDIT: SAve the Mind Flayer Princess!

While that's an interesting take on the old idea for an adventure, I don't know if that's enough to support a whole campaign. I will keep the idea of altered-alignment monsters into account, though, thanks.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-29, 11:21 AM
That's what I aim for, random statements that help people somehow.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-29, 11:26 AM
While that's an interesting take on the old idea for an adventure, I don't know if that's enough to support a whole campaign. I will keep the idea of altered-alignment monsters into account, though, thanks.

In that case, here's an interesting concept...

A flourishing Mind Flayer civilization was recently uncovered in *insert place name here*. Frightened of the proximity of these infamous creatures, the surrounding inhabitants began hunting them down...which only serves to anger the flayers. Their response is to rise from their fairly neutral position and launch a counter attack, infiltrating governments and towns, forming guerilla groups of mind-controlled citizens, and generally doing what mindflayers do best.

The twist? They're not the villian here. The agressors are what the PCs might normally consider the "good" races...whose actions in this case sparked off retalitation from the Flayers. The solution could be diplomatic, or could be violent in either way (against the flayers, or against the initial attackers).

I don't really know where it would go from there, but I'm sure it could be an interesting campaign seed.

Myrmex
2009-07-29, 11:40 AM
I've been kicking around ideas for a Flayer campaign myself. It'd start at level 8, where all the PCs receive an urgent message from an old adventuring friend/mentor/employer. They show up at the planar citadel that's in Stronghold Builder's Guide, which is the base of operations for the higher level adventuring group that sent them the message.

There they get ambushed by mindflayers who are using the place to lure adventurers and enslave them/eat their brains and gain their knowledge. Just when things get bad, a bunch of Duergar and some Half Giants show up- Topaz Guardians. Together, they all beat up the mindflayers. I imagine the Topaz Guardians to be a sort of Interpol of the planes, who police against illithid attacks.

The party finds the illithid's nautiloid docked in one of the planar rooms, and then I'm not really sure where it goes from there, other than to the Astral Seas.

AstralFire
2009-07-29, 11:42 AM
Sapient nazi bulletes!

Oh, right, iconic.

Mid-level campaign. Villagers across the countryside are going missing, and the Yuan-Ti are behind it. Their numbers have grown dangerously low, and their old rituals used to make more of them suddenly have an insane failure rate (resulting in death of the abductees), so they keep kidnapping more and more in a desperate attempt to keep from dying out.

These Yuan-Ti started off as servants of the God Apollo, healers and representations of his glory. (Apollo has serpent imagery, and he's been in Deities and Demigods, so I figure why not.) During this time they resembled Shulassakar (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040920a) more considerably. However, Apollo - and the rest of the Olympian pantheon - was slain some time ago, and it left his followers turned into wretched, imperfections of their earlier forms.

Sometime predating the campaign, the Yuan-Ti kidnapped a powerful Couatl - noting its resemblance to their earlier forms - and trapped it deep below the earth, trying to seep it of its energy to gain their old forms. Eventually, it died, and instead cursed them with impurity. Finding this out is a heavy dungeoncrawl segment.

All of this is made more complicated by the fact that the Yuan-Ti, in their dual natures as venom and healer, are intricately tied to the greater area's life. If they ever die out entirely, that area of the world, too, will wither and die.

Eventually, the PCs need to ride the Astral Plane to find a new source of deific power for the Yuan-Ti (and thus come into contact with the Githyanki, who are seeking to harvest dead gods for the greater power of the Lich Queen), or they need to do some deific politicking in Sigil to get a deity to take on these cursed but ultimately not entirely evil followers.

Darcand
2009-07-29, 11:50 AM
How about a king dies leaving behind multiple heirs who then go to war over the throne. The Hook, it's too small of a kingdom to have massive armies, and so much of the real fighting is done by character class NPC members of various mercenary guilds. Beyond that, the heads of the three most powerful of these guilds arranged the king's death, just to start this war and bleed the kingdom dry.

eepop
2009-07-29, 12:08 PM
This is what I am working on for my next campaign, maybe there is something in here that will spark your imagination:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elements of my campaign setting:

-Set in the city named Chicago. This is a vast metropolis of over a million people.

-Physically, the city itself is comprised of several dozen layers of earthmotes. The original city lies on ground level, but over the years, the city has torn up most of the surrounding countryside, mined out the motes and then turned them into floating buildings. There is always some fixed connection between layers, but there are parts of some layers that are free-floating, attached only by ropes, or shabby rope bridges.

-The countryside around the city has been mostly stripmined as above, and oceanwater has crashed in to fill much of this low-lying area. With these waters came lots of fish, which became the main food of the city. Potatoes are grown on some free floating earth motes. Most anything else is considered a delicacy. But with a city of this size and corruption came waste and pollution, and food has been becoming harder and harder to come by.

-There are numerous sectioned off areas surrounding the city. At any given time, most of them will be flooded, while a few are being stripmined for additional earthmotes. Usually when any one block gets too polluted they block inward waterflow and let it drain out into some of the nearby areas being stripmined and then let the water evaporate out. Then they will begin stripmining that area again, going ever deeper into the earth.

-An example of what the city of Chicago might have looked like at some random time, just to clarify how some of the things work.
http://aebin.net/DandD/Chicago_city_layout_example.JPG

-The population is very very diverse, and can accommodate any race or class. Most foreigners don't see much reason to come here nowadays, but if your character would have a reason to come, it would be fine for them to be from somewhere else. Aaron's thrill seeker character would have a fine reason to come here for instance.

-We'll be importing some themes from the Roaring 20s/Prohibition era. This is a city of politicians that make a whole bunch of laws, and police forces that don't usually enforce them. Corruption and crime are rife in the city. Because of its slow decay, the general populace is more disposed to suffer the evils than to try to do anything like fighting against it.

-Eventually one man(a doppelganger) had enough, and he began to do something about it, taking the law into his own hands. As word spread of him others realized they could do something, and began to take on alter egos in order to fight back. Think kind of like the watchmen in this respect. Most of these people didn't really have any way to disguise who they were like the doppelganger obviously did, so they began wearing masks and costumes when they went out to fight crime.

-The players will be people who for whatever reason have decided to fight back and become vigilantes. You are free to know each other in either or both of your personas. You might be crime fighting partners that do not know each others' identities, you can be best friends in real life and have no idea that you both fight crime, or you can be brothers who work together by day and fight crime together by night.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-29, 12:08 PM
Sapient nazi bulletes!

Oh, right, iconic.


How is the Landshark not iconic?

*knock kncok*

"Who is it?"
"Telegraph."
"Yeah right."

*knock knock*
"Who is it?"
"Landshark"
"Suure...." *opens door*
*Eats person*

AstralFire
2009-07-29, 12:11 PM
I made the sapient Nazi Bulletes as a serious suggestion in another thread and was sad when it was rejected for kobolds.

Someday, we shall have revenge.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 12:18 PM
A flourishing Mind Flayer civilization was recently uncovered in *insert place name here*.


I've been kicking around ideas for a Flayer campaign myself. It'd start at level 8, where all the PCs receive an urgent message from an old adventuring friend/mentor/employer. They show up at the planar citadel that's in Stronghold Builder's Guide, which is the base of operations for the higher level adventuring group that sent them the message.

So, good mind flayers + Spelljammer + possible conspiracy. Hmm. I'll see if I can think of anything to do with this; both are great ideas, just not fleshed out enough yet.


Mid-level campaign. Villagers across the countryside are going missing, and the Yuan-Ti are behind it.

Actually, I was planning on using yuan-ti in the jungle campaign, but I'll definitely keep this in mind for the "hook" for that. Thanks!


How about a king dies leaving behind multiple heirs who then go to war over the throne.

If we hadn't just done a war/intrigue campaign, this would be a good fallback idea. Thanks anyway.


This is what I am working on for my next campaign, maybe there is something in here that will spark your imagination:

Hmm...That's a good idea, with the whole industral/magitech vibe. I'll look into this one too.


Thanks for all the suggestions so far, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-29, 12:22 PM
I made the sapient Nazi Bulletes as a serious suggestion in another thread and was sad when it was rejected for kobolds.

Someday, we shall have revenge.

I will steal this. This has huge potential. Especially when you consider "wait, who the hell is giving them sentience?"

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 12:55 PM
I will steal this. This has huge potential. Especially when you consider "wait, who the hell is giving them sentience?"

Why, the evil Nazi Hippie Druids, of course. Nothing says "ecoterrorism" like a landshark to the face.

AstralFire
2009-07-29, 12:57 PM
I want to sig this exchange so much but I'm afraid to lose my unique signature. Anyway, carry on.

Yora
2009-07-29, 01:09 PM
Re: Need help with a campaign idea

"giant flying turtle fortress", "prismatic githyanki scout ship", "General Melchor, that bastard!"
How do you expect US to help YOU?!

http://www.clubprotege.com/forum/images/smilies/bowdown.gif

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 01:35 PM
I want to sig this exchange so much but I'm afraid to lose my unique signature. Anyway, carry on.

You can always spoiler it....


How do you expect US to help YOU?!

Aww, I'm flattered. Mostly I'm expecting that there's at least one person here who's crazier than I am and can come up with ideas I can't.

zarakstan
2009-07-29, 01:46 PM
I like many others on this thread am part time working on a Flayer game! :smallsmile: I recommend it if you want to showcase some of dnd's better monsters while having a game that will be interesting for veteran players!

Eldariel
2009-07-29, 01:47 PM
Druidic sects on Beastlands decide it's time to return Prime to its natural state; commence Druid/Nature Juggernaut. A faction of half-construct Arcanists works on counteracting them by opening a gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire incinerating the living. PCs have had their minds rewritten by a Mind Flayer cabal (who would rather not get personally involved, but have enough invested in the prime to make relocating their resources more complicated than using pawns to clean up the mess) to to act as mediators who are to stop the conflict without having the prime destroyed in either way at whatever cost. Might throw some sidetracks of the PCs' own journey towards the discovery of their past and fates.

Oh, and the Mind Flayers obviously plan on using the PCs as powerful hosts for some new 'Flayers once all is said and done.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-29, 01:50 PM
I want to sig this exchange so much but I'm afraid to lose my unique signature. Anyway, carry on.

I'm stealing this idea too.

And if you want truly great ideas, you can't restrict creativity.

Of course, then you get stuff that makes no sense. But they'll be great at least.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 02:13 PM
Druidic sects on Beastlands decide it's time to return Prime to its natural state; commence Druid/Nature Juggernaut. A faction of half-construct Arcanists works on counteracting them by opening a gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire incinerating the living. PCs have had their minds rewritten by a Mind Flayer cabal (who would rather not get personally involved, but have enough invested in the prime to make relocating their resources more complicated than using pawns to clean up the mess) to to act as mediators who are to stop the conflict without having the prime destroyed in either way at whatever cost. Might throw some sidetracks of the PCs' own journey towards the discovery of their past and fates.

Oh, and the Mind Flayers obviously plan on using the PCs as powerful hosts for some new 'Flayers once all is said and done.

This could work too--combining it with the "peaceful (but provoked) mind flayer community" idea would make for an interesting setting.

Kol Korran
2009-07-29, 05:26 PM
if you'll be willing to try Eberron, then i might have an idea or few to share with detail. but since i don't know that, here are a few other ideas. i suggest them with your criteria in mind, but also with keeping in mind that these are new players, so i keep the ideas fairly open, so you can adjust when you know what ticks them off. most of my ideas assume you're taking the players from low levels to high (around 15 levels or so should be enough)

1) the refugees: this one has elements of things you've done, but hoepfully it's new form can be refreshing. one of the prime material planes have been destroyed/ occupied by some nefarious force, but a group of survivors have escaped. (few dozens to few hundreds) they have managed to obtain some sort of a dimensional traveling vessel. however, their pursuers send various agents to hunt them down.
first arch- suvival: basically the PCs are sent on small-big missions to help secure the refugees safety- gaining resources, dealing with threats, allies, decoy against the pursuers, and more. features:

every adventure or so hopping to another plane, you can present the features of different plans, and iconic monsters. some of these could be other prime materials even, though it would be hard to explain why they don't try to settle there.
the PCs have limited resources- just what's carried by the refugees, and what they can gain from others. this could simplify resource management, as well as introduce vital/ interesting sub missions to acquire that needed resource/ reagent
most of the time you're dealing with small types of settlement, but the cultures can be very varied. fun, but not overwhelming.
just an idea- dealing with the githyanki for safe passage or their services against their pursuers.
the pursuers themselves gives you an enemy right from the start- it could send lots of minions, that can be defeated in small hunting groups, but not large ones.
a mystery- how do they keep finding us? the answer could be many things- having allies amongst the planes, able to track the vessel it self, or perhaps there is a secret cultist amongst the refugees, who send the "masters" their location,
ends when they solve their mystery, and are guided to a reletevly safe place- a githzerai monestery, or something of the sort, but i suggest- Sigil, the city of doors.

second arch- the start of a new life? in this new thriving place, the refugee group is given a chance to settle and make a new life. but how? i'll use the Sigil example: the characters can now realy go in various ways, and you should accomodate them. perhaps they want to join an organization? perhaps they seek to research about those who took their home plane? perhaps they want to create a special community, that presrves the features of their old culture? perhaps they want to distance themselves from that culture, and integrate to another?
Features:

much more open ended, as have been suggested- this is where the players realy feel they can go many places, and do many different things.
if you're going with Sigil, you can showcase all of the planes in one small place, and can continue to hop to planes on missions if you wish. unneeded though- you have everything you need in the city, and it's full of flavour.
possible underlying plots: someone has an interest in the refugee group, an unhealthy interest (though s/he may present themselves as benefactors). maybe the blood or knowledge or bloodeline of those from that plane is needed for some ritual or something? or maybe they are trying to contact the invading force somehow?
the refugees are given a safe home from their persecutions, but only for a limited time, or for a hefty price... the refugees may still seek a permenent home. or maybe it's just some of the refugees? trying to seperate the "elite" from the rest? and what price might have the refugees paid in order to be kept safe? maybe it's something the PCs won't be happy finding out about?
the hunters may be restricted, but they are still there- maybe they send shapechangers this time, or maybe they contract the work of others to do their dirty work for them?

later archs- ???? well it all depends on what your players want to do. they can go to try and strike back at their aggressors, they can try and find a new permenent safe place, or do whatever. so long as it's big, as it's influencing, and that it's importent to the players. it's like a small saga of the uprooted people.

2) a new continent! a bit similar to the other idea, with minor changes. i think about settling america- a new continent has been discovered, and now every known country in the world is pouring resources to the new world, to discover it's mysteries, and it's riches. this is more suitable for the Indiana Jones kind of player. i like this one better, since i think you can realy do a lot with it, and take it many places, without too much of an effort.
main differences from previous idea:

dangers come from several sources: first are the dangers of the continent itself. who knows what savage (or advanced) tribe lurk there? and who knows what dangers lie in the ruins of the ancienct civilizations there (if you know Eberron, think Xenderic). the second threat comes from the other countries, who try and sabotage your team's effort. the third comes from inside the colony- as the PCs gain power, some begin to get jealous. the last threat is from the home country- if the new colony has been misbehaving...
not much (if any) plane hopping. i inseatd suggest diffferent iconic environments- the lava mountains, the frozen tundra, the jungle ifested with yuan ti, the desert, and last but not least- the underdark (i thought i read mention about mind flayers?)
most chances the emphasis would be less about the community, but more on the PCs as "up and risers".

suggested archs:
- protetcing the new settlement, finding basic resources, making allies and enemies with native tribes and other settlements.
- rise of the PCs: they might explore deeper in land, finding more of the place mysteries, or they could deal more with the politics between settlements, and nations, including the mother one.
- great things: protecting from a great menace below (benevolent mindlflayers riding Sapient Nazi Bullets!), declaring war and finishing a rival nation's settlement, or rebeling agaist the mother country!

this has been a long post, and since i'm not sure any of these ideas remotley speak to you, i'll stop here. if you're interested in hearing more, i'll try to dredge up more ideas. i hope this helps

Kol

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-29, 11:45 PM
if you'll be willing to try Eberron, then i might have an idea or few to share with detail. but since i don't know that, here are a few other ideas.

We're willing to try any setting; so far, we've been using Greyhawk/Planescape so all the basic info is in the core books, but now that they've learned the rope we can branch out a bit.


1) the refugees: this one has elements of things you've done, but hoepfully it's new form can be refreshing. one of the prime material planes have been destroyed/ occupied by some nefarious force, but a group of survivors have escaped. (few dozens to few hundreds) they have managed to obtain some sort of a dimensional traveling vessel. however, their pursuers send various agents to hunt them down.

Now that's an interesting idea. I'm getting a Spelljammer vibe...maybe throw in some Eberron airships for atmospheric maneuvers and go to town.

Wait a minute...what do we have here? Some force has destroyed the Prime. Spelljammer. Mind Flayers. Githyanki. Are you pondering what I'm pondering? Take one "Illithid empire existed in the future" theory, add 1 part Spelljammer, 1 part Battlestar Galactica, 1 part time travel MacGuffin; stir in "illithids weren't all that bad, just framed" courtesy of Djinn; mix well, serves 12-14.

I think we might have a winner here, but everyone feel free to keep adding ideas, for future campaigns if nothing else.

Kol Korran
2009-07-30, 06:27 AM
Wait a minute...what do we have here? Some force has destroyed the Prime. Spelljammer. Mind Flayers. Githyanki. Are you pondering what I'm pondering? Take one "Illithid empire existed in the future" theory, add 1 part Spelljammer, 1 part Battlestar Galactica, 1 part time travel MacGuffin; stir in "illithids weren't all that bad, just framed" courtesy of Djinn; mix well, serves 12-14.

hmmmm, glad you liked it, though you've certainly changed it enough to make it your own. i tend to avoid time travel themes, but might work for you.

as to an Eberrong themed idea- i once had a long running campaign, in which the characters started in Cyre about 2-3 months before it was destroyed, later were part of New Cyre (this part resembles the second arch of the refugees) all the while exploring clues to the destruction of their nation. they found clues, aplenty, but contradicting. they found connections to most of the potential culprits mentioned in the ECS, but in the end find that a lot of forces played a part in this, including a small group of Rakshsas, a mind flayer high lord serving the daelkyr (though the daelkyr himself was uninterested), and a house Cannith master maker who created an artifact to call the powers of the planes to protect Cyre. his goal was good, but the artifact was altere in the last minute, by an unknown figure (the puppet masters behing the scenes, who also duped the other participants). the artifact therfore caused a tear throughh the astral, sending strands to all the planes, anchoring them in cyre. through these strands, the influence of the planes flow, (some more than others) and that is why the mournland is the mess it is.
in the third arch the party goes through some of the planes and Eberron including to "cut off" the anchoring points of the strands (one of these for example is the lord of blades, who anchors Shavarath. on that plane there is a cpatured Merilith that is the same). they are racing however against forces of the various factions hunting them down.

what made the campaign great was thedevelopment ofthe characters, and the individual adventures, rather than the campaign them at general. i could detail more, but it's lloooooonnng.
oh, and the puppet masters- the hags of droaam. they want to bring back Sora Kel (whose essence was spread across the various planes, and was supposed to flow back to Cyre through special rituals performed by cults of warped followers in Cyre)

Kol.

EmeraldPhoenix
2009-08-18, 10:05 PM
Note: If the phrases "giant flying turtle fortress", "prismatic githyanki scout ship", or "General Melchor, that bastard!" remind you of your last campaign, you're in my group and need to stop reading now.


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So here's the deal. I'm usually really good with coming up with new and different campaign ideas, but I'm sort of constrained idea-wise given the current circumstances. We have 4 DMs in our group of 12 who are rotating the DMing duties each semester. I'll be running my 2nd campaign with this group come autumn, but I have two problems:

1) Since the other 8 folks are new to D&D, we DMs have been going out of our way to showcase iconic monsters, races, planes, etc. to give them a taste of the lore, with an emphasis on Planescape but with aspects from many other settings.

2) I don't want to repeat anything that someone's already done (or step on anyone's stated ideas for future campaigns), since we want to give them as broad a selection of campaigns as we can.

So, given that, I can't really come up with anything that satisfies both criteria. Here's what's been used in prior campaigns, and thus what I don't want to repeat much, if at all:
Kobolds are trying to incarnate Tiamat on the Prime to help them take over. Lots of dragon and kobold stuff, deity/ascension theme, wilderness adventure.
The elves have been co-opted by demons and devils, who have signed a Blood War truce and sealed off the Upper Planes. Lots of outsiders of all alignments, mystery- and combat-heavy, Great Wheel domination theme, Outer Plane plane-hopping like no tomorrow.
The ethergaunts, clockwork horrors, and kaorti join up to destroy the Prime. Lots of constructs and aberrations and some Ethereal creatures, planar destruction theme, bits of horror and survival, mostly Inner and Transitive Planes.
Two kingdoms have joined up to overthrow an empire and a war erupts. Lots of classed NPCs, war theme, RP-heavy with lots of spying and intrigue, mostly small area of the Prime.

These are planned campaign ideas people have already fairly fleshed out, so I could steal a few things from them and it wouldn't be too bad:
Explore an ancient lost jungle civilization whose descendants want it to rise again. Lots of subterranean and jungle monsters, exploration theme with hints of Eberron, old-style dungeon crawl, mostly underground.
A city-state of demonbinders and necromancers has turned most of the world into ash, tundra, and desert and the last remnants of one nation have called heroes from across the planes to help. Lots of undead (for the bad guys) and fey (as allies), nature and death themes with a sense of pre-devastation Athas mixed in, "grand sweeping epic" feel, mostly wilderness with an emphasis on exotic locations and flight.

So...what can I do that (A) will use a bunch of iconic monsters or whatever and (B) won't step on the other campaigns' toes? I've thought of using the classic mind flayers or beholders, but the "take over the world" theme has kind of been done to death, and already having done the evil elves thing kills the drow for right now. Any ideas? The fate of September's D&D sessions rests on you!

Ok, what about this:

You use the "Monster adapted PC" rules, and everyone in your party is a dragon. A GOOD dragon.

You're facing off against a bunch of BAD dragons, who are holding hostage a large group of humans in an attempt to force ransom from powerful nations.

They want the ransom so they can fund an effort to kill all humans on the planet. (elves, halflings, etc. are safe, though.)

Yeah, that's all I could think of.

Altima
2009-08-19, 12:34 AM
Are you wanting to make your campaign world magic heavy? Magic light? How high of a level do you want your PCs to attain?

Honestly, you can never go wrong with a zombie apocalypse.

My personal favorite, though, is that the local princess has kidnapped a plot-important dragon and the PCs must release him from her vile clutches!

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-08-19, 07:39 AM
Both the dragon ideas are interesting, but the Tiamat campaign was already fairly dragon-heavy, so I don't think I'll be doing that. I will, however, save the princess-kidnaps-a-dragon plot for another campaign.

Rhiannon87
2009-08-19, 09:16 AM
Well... your other campaigns have covered a lot of traditional areas. But no undead-centric campaigns, it seems. One of the campaign ideas you listed mentioned necromancers... an undead-focused game could be a lot of fun and provide a whole new set of enemies for the party to encounter. A necromancer vampire or lich attacks a small kingdom, which is unable to defend itself, because as its soldiers die, they rise to become soldiers in the undead army... adventurers get called in to help... etc, etc.

And the BBEG can be riding a sentient Nazi bullete, of course.

Typewriter
2009-08-19, 09:29 AM
My last campaign involved mindflayers in a fairly interesting way. The first few sessions were all being given to the party by a certain individual (a doppelganger), and as things progressed they moved farther and farther away from that town.

After a while they were on an adventure, and during one of the 'random' encounters with some mind flayers, one of the party members was dragged off and forced to drink a potion, and then was made into a half-illithid.

The potion caused him to retain his sentience, and when he came to the illithids had left him a bag. The bag had a ring of illusions that would hide his tentacled appearance, and some more of the illithid creating worms and potions.

The player had a strange urge to keep his transformation a secret from non-illithids but also a strong urge to change people to be like himself using what was in the bag. Eventually he changed another party member, and that party member changed another, and so on, until they all ganged up on the last guy and transformed him too.

Now that they were all half-illithid they talked about it, and they decided they were pretty upset, so they went to find the illithids.

When they found them they were able to speak with the elder brain who explained that in his normal life he had been a traveler who had made himself a potion before being transformed. No one quite realized that the potion had caused him to retain his mind, so he was made into a normal illithid, and eventually became elder brain.

They were at war the doppelgangers, and had been trying to find the doppelganger home city, but they couldn't capture any doppelgangers, because they had wards/warnings against mind-flayers.

Because the party was familiar with the one doppelganger they had been targeted to capture him. The elder brain took one of the party members hostage, and used mind powers to transform them back to their normal selves(they had transformed them knowing that it would cause them to come looking for them).

The players then had to decide between abandoning their PC friend, or capturing their old ally for the mindflayers.

Cyrion
2009-08-19, 09:34 AM
I did a vampire story arc one time that worked out brilliantly- The backstory for one of the characters was that her husband, a foreign ambassador, had died, so she had come home; that's where she met the party.

The kicker was that her husband had become a vampire and was trying to court her all over again to convince her that she wanted to be a vampire too. Vampires have great opportunities for delivering flowers, love poems, etc. so there was some very strong creep factor as well as dilemmas of when it was actually a combat situation and was the vampire really hostile.

This might be expanded by having the party look for a way to "cure" the vampire, maybe change the husband to a mentor, who changed the husband into a vampire- go kill it, etc.

Myrmex
2009-08-19, 04:39 PM
I was running an archipelago campaign that was kinda fun, cause every time the PCs got bored with one island, they could take off to another.

An undead campaign would be cool. You could have all sorts of marauding undead monstrosities. There is so much support for undead, it's crazy.

I'm thinking the campaign starts with a comet, but it turns out the comet is actually a giant, crawling head that falls from the sky. It lands in a field, and draws many people. Anyone who attempts to kill it, is destroyed (It's listed as a CR20 encounter, don't remember what book). Other than that, it is content to rasp out dire predictions and bellow horrid prophecies of death and undeath, 10,000 years of chaos and blood before everything ends forever. Cults form, undead become more common, mass suicide events, ghoul children, stuff like that.

What has happened is an Atropal has passed over the world, and this giant head is debris from the cloud of undeath that follows in the Atropal's wake. The head is the herald, the harbringer of an enormously powerful undead creature (necromancer? ancient race that has embraced death? egyptian in theme?) that trails behind the Atropal and, in the shroud of negative energy that it casts over worlds, invades them. See, he's collecting followers for his ascension into minor-deity hood.