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The Dark Fiddler
2010-07-18, 08:43 PM
But for whatever reason haven't been able to. I'm curious, what are some campaign ideas we've all had but haven't been able to get through? And why haven't they gone through? Not enough time? No interest? No group?

Anyway, to kick the thread off I'll mention two of mine.

The first is a sort of colonization game, playing a group of humans that come from an area or world where magic is rare moving to explore a new area that's filled with a D&D world proper (or whatever world is normal for the system being used). Hasn't happened cause my group doesn't like games that don't involve straightforward, violence-filled plots.

The other is a really vague idea, kinda an Earthbound-like campaign. I guess M&M'd be the best for that one, but I don't really have much more in mind than that. Not done because my group can't stand M&M.

Katana_Geldar
2010-07-18, 08:52 PM
ODAD Tomb of Horrors. Run it, that is. But I would never be able to convince my players to play it.

zakkain
2010-07-18, 08:56 PM
I really want to play a very low-magic E6 campaign, with no full casters. I'd run it if I had to, but I'd rather play if the DM was running what I wanted.

Aroka
2010-07-18, 09:10 PM
The Riddle of Steel:
- Late 17th century Caribbean pirates.
- 18th century European soldiers.

Ravenloft:
- A "tour of Ravenloft" where the PCs try to track down the progenitor of a lycanthropic lineage to save a loved one from the curse, moving up the tree one generation at a time. The style would look a lot like the first season or two of Supernatural - monster of the week, with an overarching plot.

Lord of the Rings:
- A reboot of our old MERP campaign in Arnor (originally started 15 years ago), beginning around 1409 T.A. and progressing to around 1800 T.A. following generations of the characters' descendants. The theme would very much be the waning of the North Kingdom and the dwindling of the might that still remains from the Second Age, and the inevitable progress toward the Age of Men, as well as the insiduous, irresistible corruption that Angmar works on the lands of the North, and the crumbling of Dúnedain civilization and the rise of new, cruder ones.

Shadowrun:
- A Hong Kong campaign that starts with the PCs being bribed free from a Chinese prison just before their execution by a mysterious benefactor, and that gets them involved in the power struggles and terrorist activities going on in HK.

Twilight 2013
- Twilight: UFO Defense. An X-COM-style campaign set in the modern day, with a big focus on the human parts and small details of fighting a force of incredibly powerful alien invaders, on research and intelligence, on infiltrators and sympathizers and treachery; the PCs start off as US Army Rangers sent to secure the site where the very first alien craft is shot down, and get brutally and relentlessly slaughtered. Then the PCs roll actual characters, who are recruited into the international anti-alien defense force.

Trail of Cthulhu (or even the inferior Call of Cthulhu):
- The Pulp Campaign: Indiana Jones, with the funny replaced with despair. Set in the early 1930s, the Investigators find themselves opposing the plans of the Thule Society (that is, Nazi sorcerers), who seek ultimate power through artifacts and magic that would summon the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods. They'd travel everywhere, from Africa to Peru, from Brazil to Egypt, from Siberia to Greenland, from Atlantis to Mu, trying to get there before the enemy and foil their plans.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten:
- Coalinga Outbreak: When swine flu turns into a zombie virus pandemic, the residents of Coalinga - a Californian town with a huge prison and a hospital for the criminally insane - must deal not only with the usual hazards of zombie apocalypse, but also with the ex-occupants of those facilities...

D&D 4E
- Dragonlance. Just a cliched old War of the Lance campaign, but damnit, the nostalgia appeal of it is irresistible.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
- The city of Wolfenburg was devastated and reduced into ruin by the armies of Surtha Lank and Archaon, and now teems with monsters, skaven, and desperate madmen; refugees returning from where they had fled have formed a great tent-city outside the walls for fear of what lies inside, and the remnants of the Imperial troops try in vain to prevent adventurers, rogues, and scavengers from entering the ruins to pillage them. Even though few ever return from the dangers of the Chaos-infested ruin, there is no shortage of newcomers, including the PCs. Basically WFRP meets Mordheim.

Katana_Geldar
2010-07-18, 09:17 PM
Paranoia, and I can't play it as I'll be running it.

Kaje
2010-07-18, 09:20 PM
3.5 - Members of the major PC races - Gnolls, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, and Warforged - must defend their homes and ways of life when large groups of refugees - the world's first humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Halflings - arrive from an alternate plane.

I'd probably mess with a few stats though so the monstrous races aren't quite so martially inclined. I've decided that in this world the Warforged were made by the gods as prototypes for the organic races, so maybe up their INT or WIS so they could be ancient sages. Considering a few of these races have LA anyway I figure it wouldn't be too unbalancing. Up a stat for the Kobolds and Goblins too. Oh, also, ignoring LA.

Natael
2010-07-18, 09:23 PM
Paranoia is something I'd love to play.

Dark Sun is something else I'd love to work with, though will most likely either play it in 2e AD&D or GURPS, depending on the GM and how much conversion he wants.

Otherwise, I'm finally getting to run a Red Hand of Doom game, which has been going well (players just got to the Skull Gorge Bridge).

Planning on finally running a LARP within the next couple of months. Much more how to host a murder crossed with a soap opera crossed with Lovecraft one shots than running around with a foam sword hitting each other type (NTTARWT). World of Joe stuff, for you potentially familiar Californian people.

Tyndmyr
2010-07-18, 09:29 PM
Paranoia is...good in small doses. A one shot of it is a blast, and generally a good time all round. I wouldn't want to actually play a campaign of it, though.

Larps are fun. Im an archer in Dagorhir, and shooting people in the face never gets old. I reccomend everyone try it out, or at least watch the movie Role Models. Hilarious.

Pretty much everything I've wanted to do, I just do. I do kinda want to get another 7th sea campaign rolling at some point. It's just generally an awesome system, and I haven't played it for a while. I do have a rather nice selection of sourcebooks building up for when I can play it, though.

Natael
2010-07-18, 09:35 PM
Role Models was pretty entertaining. Though much of the LARPing I've done is rather distinct, in that it usually involves 12-20 people trapped (effectively, reasonably, or literally) in a small area without much combat and any kind of confrontation either role played out, or combat merely being GM fiat (and usually ends with "I shoot him" "'K, he's dead"). A couple of hours of a bunch of people figuring out how they're related, some heavy roleplaying, another hour of trying to figure out how to get out of their situation and some factioning, then a finale with everyone starting to sneak off to kill someone or just getting away some how. Awesomely fun stuff.


Ooh, 7th sea, I love it a fair bit. I have a campaign I kind of started, but have not been able to continue for group is in chaos reasons.

Kylarra
2010-07-18, 09:37 PM
I really want to play/run a oneshot of paranoia or MAID.
I really want to play in a longer campaign for SWSE.

Felirc
2010-07-18, 09:53 PM
I've been wanting to put together a Werewolf: the Forsaken game that has a Persona/ひぐらしのなく頃に (when they cry) kind of feel to it. As much as I'd love to play in such a game, I don't think I'll ever be lucky enough to find someone who would make it the way I would want it, so it looks like I'm stuck as the Storyteller. =P

Why haven't I done it yet? Something like this is going to take a lot of work to get going, and that means a lot of time too. It doesn't help that I don't have a local gaming group right now, and I've had a lot of PbP games die on me, so I'm a little gun shy of trying to run it.

-Felirc-

valadil
2010-07-18, 10:10 PM
I've had a game brewing around in my head for a while now. It's inspired by Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. It might be a Mage game - I'm not sure yet. There should certainly be technocrats. Not sure if the PCs should be mages or not. Long story short, the technocrats learn to factor which completely blows away any computer secrecy the PCs may have had.

I'll run that game some day. It just keeps getting interrupted by other games popping up and seizing my immediate attention.

Also have a homebrewed diceless system I need to beta test.

IonDragon
2010-07-18, 10:11 PM
My old GM had a homebrew book he wrote for psionics. His psionics did not have any V/S/M components for most powers. The powers are also different, they work on a slightly different system but we'll ignore that for now. I always wanted to play a psion using that system in a magic heavy world, a magocracy. He pretends to be a mage by maxing Spellcraft (CC if I couldn't convince the GM to let me have Spellcraft for RP reasons) and going through the motions of casting the most similar spell to the power I was manifesting. Basically, he's a sham.

I did get to play this character for two sessions, but unfortunately, the game ended after that. :smallfrown:

Kylarra
2010-07-18, 10:13 PM
My old GM had a homebrew book he wrote for psionics. His psionics did not have any V/S/M components for most powers. The powers are also different, they work on a slightly different system but we'll ignore that for now. I always wanted to play a psion using that system in a magic heavy world, a magocracy. He pretends to be a mage by maxing Spellcraft (CC if I couldn't convince the GM to let me have Spellcraft for RP reasons) and going through the motions of casting the most similar spell to the power I was manifesting. Basically, he's a sham.

I did get to play this character for two sessions, but unfortunately, the game ended after that. :smallfrown:Psst, psionics doesn't have VSM components.

arguskos
2010-07-18, 10:13 PM
Always wanted to play a D&D 3.5 game where we're all superheroes. No one else wants to play it though, and I just flat out refuse to DM it, since I want to play dammit, so it's never going anywhere.

IonDragon
2010-07-18, 10:23 PM
Psst, psionics doesn't have VSM components.

Yeah, but it makes noises or lights and things. The homebrew system did none of that.

Denkal
2010-07-18, 10:28 PM
3.5, Have the party get sucked into the Astral Plane, where they have to journey to different planes and fight off hordes of creatures from the Shadow Plane that are trying to expand it to swallow the outer planes, then the Material Plane. Then, see how long it takes before they realize they're playing Kingdom Hearts.

SurlySeraph
2010-07-18, 10:28 PM
Twilight 2013:
Anything. Anything at all. A rag-tag group of survivors trying to establish a home/ carve out a fiefdom somewhere in the Balkans would be fun, as would be trying to survive in a post-nuclear city with an occupying enemy army, but anything would be enjoyable.

World of Darkness:
A Geist campaign
A Hunter campaign based around Lovecraftian themes, taking place at Miskatonic University.

DnD 3.5:
A GRIMDARK urban campaign, possibly using E6.
A Planescape campaign.
An Underdark campaign fighting Illithids.
A campaign where you go through much of the game without equipment, probably due to being held captive. (There was a PbP game on these boards back before the board purge called Escape From Hell, whose premise was that your character was a hero who died defending his or her people from an interdimensional elven empire. The next thing you know you're awake again, naked and unarmed, with a few people in similar condition around you, in the middle of a gladiatorial arena packed with cheering elven spectators. Monsters appear. Go. Basically, I want to play that game).

ToySoldierCPlus
2010-07-18, 10:36 PM
I want to play in the Red Hand of Doom, and I want to play in a D&D 3.5 campaign that actually lasts long enough for the characters' stories to be resolved, and for the main plot of the campaign to be resolved.

Kylarra
2010-07-18, 10:38 PM
Yeah, but it makes noises or lights and things. The homebrew system did none of that.It would've been better to say display rather than VSM components then. Additionally, you can make a concentration check to mute your display. see? (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm).

ToySoldierCPlus
2010-07-18, 10:41 PM
3.5, Have the party get sucked into the Astral Plane, where they have to journey to different planes and fight off hordes of creatures from the Shadow Plane that are trying to expand it to swallow the outer planes, then the Material Plane. Then, see how long it takes before they realize they're playing Kingdom Hearts.

You have my claws, if you want to DM this.


DnD 3.5:
A GRIMDARK urban campaign, possibly using E6.
A Planescape campaign.
An Underdark campaign fighting Illithids.
A campaign where you go through much of the game without equipment, probably due to being held captive. (There was a PbP game on these boards back before the board purge called Escape From Hell, whose premise was that your character was a hero who died defending his or her people from an interdimensional elven empire. The next thing you know you're awake again, naked and unarmed, with a few people in similar condition around you, in the middle of a gladiatorial arena packed with cheering elven spectators. Monsters appear. Go. Basically, I want to play that game).

Again with the claws-they-are-mine-you-have-them-if-you-will-DM-any-of-these-thing.

IonDragon
2010-07-18, 10:43 PM
It would've been better to say display rather than VSM components then. Additionally, you can make a concentration check to mute your display. see? (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm).

Ah, yes. There is that. I was previously unaware. Still, I like the homebrew system for a mechanics reason. But that's cool. Would make it easier to find a group if I were using the 3.5 system.

NM020110
2010-07-18, 11:12 PM
One campaign idea I've been throwing around: Adventure group goes through the standard high-fantasy campaign yada-yada, faces the lich necromancer, almost beats him, and then the lich pulls out a portable hole and bag of holding. Party gets dumped into the Far Realms and attempts to get back. After fighting through some nasty stuff that I'd prefer not to think about, they return to finally defeat the lich necromancer (curbstomp battle as they are likely level forty or something by now). Oh, and the portal you came back through didn't close.

Ponderthought
2010-07-19, 12:14 AM
here are two that Ive never been able to finish the outlines of:

Oriental adventures campaign based on ancient china, the players have to stop the emperor from disturbing the balance of life and death. Then he dies. And something..else..takes his place, convincing the people that the assassination failed.

A standard campaign where the players become completely isolated from civilization. Want to really hammer home how alone they are, and how they must discover the secret of the basin to escape a fate worse than death. Want a shadow of the colossus feel for it.


But ill never finish them. im just too flakey.

RE:Insanity
2010-07-19, 12:16 AM
'Typical' adventure using core rules in devious ways. Players meet in a tavern, do a few small campaigns, then get wrapped up in a biggy. I'd really break the trope.
EDIT: Also, a fantasy/sci fi setting where the characters discover a spaceship and become the emissaries of their planet.

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-07-19, 12:29 AM
Scales of War. Every time I try to join one of these, it seems to just fall flat.

A Scion game, just any Scion game. That game is awesome and no one seems to ever be interested in it. It's also really the only White Wolf game that I like. Exalted just feels so alien, and either incarnation of World of Darkness seems just too cynical for people like me who like to play quixotic heroes with unflagging moral compasses and paladin-like ideals.

An Oriental Adventures campaign, kind of like Rokugan but not with the L5R brand-name. Sort of like, starts off with warring clans, but then the evil god and his oni rise up and so a band of heroes unites to take him down, one of them becoming the first Emperor and unifying the clans under his rule.

An Eberron Campaign that isn't the one I've been playing in for 5+ years online. You can barely recognize it as Eberron anymore. I feel like it's never really had that much of an Eberron feel, since we've never really left Sharn and seen the rest of the world.

A Mass Effect game. Mass Effect has an awesome universe, and I'm certain I'm not the only one whose played BioWare's great space opera and said to himself, "Damn I'd love to RP in this universe!" Dragon Age got its own PnP game designed by Green Ronin, why can't Mass Effect get the same?

A game where I just get to freakin' play! Every time I want to play an RPG that isn't on the computer, I can never find anyone interested in running it so I can just play in it. So I end up running them myself, which I hate because I'm rarely organized enough to pull it off well, and they usually end up collapsing due to the fact that no one I know is either interested in RPGs or has the time to play them. :smallsigh:

Cardea
2010-07-19, 12:35 AM
I love the Eberron Campaign setting and I would trade my left foot to play in an Eberron Campaign with a DM who knew how Eberron worked.

I want to play the Savage Tide campaign path.

Lord Raziere
2010-07-19, 12:39 AM
I want to play Exalted, but I can't find the books, or maybe I'm too lazy to look for them

Amiel
2010-07-19, 12:42 AM
A nature documentary style campaign, where there is no combat, no enemies, merely the enjoyment of the splendor and majesty of nature; stirring themes and heartfelt orchestrations will rise and diminish with each vista sighted and creatures observed.

Dr.Epic
2010-07-19, 12:50 AM
I want to try to DM a gritty real d20 superhero vigilante campaign, although I haven't played d20 in awhile and need to brush up on it.

Totally Guy
2010-07-19, 02:25 AM
I'd love to try a game of Burning Empires. But I don't think my current group is ready for such a game. Concepts such as scene economy are quite alien.

HunterOfJello
2010-07-19, 02:27 AM
Any pnp game with a competent DM where I am not the DM.

kieza
2010-07-19, 02:41 AM
My next campaign will be an "expansion" of sorts; my group has been playing in one setting for two years, and they've been all over the current continent; I'm about ready to introduce another (which is going to be a third 100-page Word document in addition to my Player's Guide and DM's Guide).

Basic plot: An adventurer comes to the Council (a sort of UN-thingy) with a map that he recently found in an abandoned library, and wants to trade it for protective custody because ever since he took it, something's been trying to kill him. They take the map, give him a new identity and a bunch of bodyguards, and upon examining the map confirm the old legends that get told and retold in waterside taverns: there's another continent across a large ocean. Rather than try to sail there, they hand the map and an airship over to an expedition, which includes the PCs. Just as the airship sights land, BOOM go the engines. The ship crashes, a good chunk of the crew survives, but they're out of supplies and a long ways from home. Nobody has any long-range teleportation or communication spells, because the ship was carrying an entire crate of scrolls, and just as they think things can't get any worse, a bunch of armed horsemen come over the top of the nearest dune. Cue a lengthy adventure to find a way to repair the ship, get another mode of transportation, or failing that, just survive in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile land.

Stone Heart
2010-07-19, 03:25 AM
Kieza that sounds so awesome.

I want to play another piratey game, as the last one we did was pretty fun.

Oh and a Western fantasy game, like Elves and Cowboys, Dwarves and the gold rush, etc etc.

Simba
2010-07-19, 03:35 AM
Twilight 2013
- Twilight: UFO Defense. An X-COM-style campaign set in the modern day, with a big focus on the human parts and small details of fighting a force of incredibly powerful alien invaders, on research and intelligence, on infiltrators and sympathizers and treachery; the PCs start off as US Army Rangers sent to secure the site where the very first alien craft is shot down, and get brutally and relentlessly slaughtered. Then the PCs roll actual characters, who are recruited into the international anti-alien defense force.

Seconded, I would love such a game!

Cahokia
2010-07-19, 04:19 AM
Well, I'm working on a big 'ol project (my own personal revision of D&D 3.5 made to fit a particular campaign setting I'm writing, 'cause hey, every homebrewer worth their salt has got to have a crack at remaking the system they learned first) that I'd like to both play in and GM some day.

I also mostly echo others: I want to play a Wild West game, I want to play a Wild West game but with MAGIC, and I want to play a colonization game. I also want to play a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sort of a thing. On a similar note, a game set in the real world, playing as fairly extraordinary characters (from, say, 3rd to 6th, probably with d20 Modern). I've been itching for some SotC just dripping with pulp for a good while, and Mouse Guard has begun to catch my eye (though the lack of free SRD makes that sort of far off).

But most of all?

I want to play a game under SilverClawShift's DM. If someone asked me offered me the chance to do so in exchange for my soul, I'd consider it.

Morithias
2010-07-19, 04:27 AM
Players like playing nobles and "lords" and such. So I bought the AEG Empire book and wanted to give it a spin.

Needless to say none of my players wanted to use it. I've concluded that they just take the titles to compensate and fuel their egos.

Other than that, maybe a Shadowrun camp.

Beelzebub1111
2010-07-19, 04:42 AM
I've wanted to play Age of Worms, trying to convince my DM to use it when we go over to 3.5.

Satyr
2010-07-19, 05:31 AM
These are only settings I more or less came up myself with, and which are at least partially fleshed out. I also enjoy prefabricated settings and campaigns, but that's just a short list: It's basically more Unknown Armies, more Degenesis, more Trail of Cthulhu and finally a round of Earthdawn or Artesia: The Known World

Apart from that, Satyr's three campaigns he never came to play even though they are supposedly awesome:


Only the Ape stands between humanity and total extermination


http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs48/f/2009/186/0/3/Austronaut_Ape_Redux_by_gennady.jpg

System: All Flesh Must Be Eaten / Terra Primate
Genre: Science Fiction of intermediate hardness
Setting: Earth/Solar System in the late 22nd century
Moot: Silly concept, played dead serious
Plot Elements: uplifted animals (apes), warfare, alien invasion, zombies, struggle for equal rights, psionics
Sources of Influence: X-Com: Enemies Unknown, Planet of the Apes, 28 Days Later
Player Characters: Sentient Ape soldiers, pilots and technicians with cyberware fighting against aliens and cannibals with feeding frenzies or heavily cybered human psions
Soundtrack: The Misfits: Astrozombies, Die Monster Die, Lost in Space, other

Summary: In the end of the 22nd century, mankind has spread across the solar system. Incredible progress in medicine, and technology has allowed to create sentient animals - especially apes and dolphins - who live on the fringe of society, but the future is bright. Technological implants and
Out of nowhere, the human settlements are under attack by an unknown extraterrestrial force which seem only interested in total annihilation. The invaders unleashed a terrible bioweapon on earth, turning the mother planet into a wasteland, since the infected people are turned into rabid cannibals. But there is one hope: Apes are immune against the virus, and as such are chosen to reclaim earth. Can the brave Primate Privates protect the remaining safe zones on earth and reclaim the planet - and can they claim the rights as sentient people or do they remain slaves? So join the Guerrilla Gorillas in their struggle for mankind's survival - and the RIGHT TO VOTE!

Reason: Everything is better with zombies and explosions. Everything is awesome IN SPACE. Everything is even better with monkeys. Cyberware makes every thing cooler. So why don't put all of that together, to create Cybermonkies in space fight zombies (with explosions).




Excalibur: The Dark Age


http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3416/picts.png


System: Heavily Modified Harnmaster 3 or Gurps or perhaps Burning Wheels (I guess Riddle of Steel would be an almost perfect match, but I don't have that)
Genre: low fantasy with a strong historical influence
Setting: The British Islands and Northern France in the 5th and 6th century A.D.
Moot: serious, sombre, epic scaled;
Plot Elements: The Artus Mythology, Camelot, Excalibur, the fair folk, the Saxon invasion, nostalgia for the Roman Empire, shield walls, the quest for the "holy grail", religious strive and conflict
Sources of Influence: Every other tale of King Artus, especially the Warlord Trilogy by Bernard Cornwell and the Mists of Avalon; the Pendragon RPG for scale and seting, but explicitly not for the moot
Player Characters: followers and retainers of king Artus; PCs may become small feudal lords in the ongoing campaign; due to the length of the campaign, legacy characters are almost inevitable.
Soundtrack: King Artus (2004 movie), Rome Total War OST

Summary: A low fantasy / low magic tale of one of the best known cycle of stories: The sagas surrounding King Artus, Camelot and the like. This approach is strongly influenced by historical factoids, a dark and realistically gritty atmosphere and a lack of the "fairy tale kitsch" of other approaches. Oh, and everybody is a pretty decent person and a bastard at the same time.
The campaign is based on a two-fold approach: On the one hand it has a very strong and continuous metaplot, starring the "main characters" -Artus, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Uther and Mordred, which then forms the framework for the concrete plot of the player characters. The players may pick most of the named characters of Arthurian lore and claim them for themselves, so a group of player could easily consist out of Tristan, Morgana, the exotic dark-skinned Palomides and a completely original character.
While the metaplot involves large conflicts, between Britons and Saxons on the one hand and between the followers of different religions (which I cannot say much more about due to the forum rules) on the other hand, the actual plot is more oriented on the personal drama and fate of the player characters. Due to the length of the plot (abut 50 intime years), the characters will inevitably grow, and the grow old and die. Legacy characters like the sons and daughters of the original cast are inevitable and a part of the game; somewhere between the second and the third act, some characters are likely to have gained a fief, and a certain degree of administrative story elements are included.

Reason: I like the idea of a strong metaplot and metaplot-driven campaign, especially one which makes it easy to associate with the background (everybody knows where Britain is for example). Pendragon makes a good job of this, but it also features a somewhat dated system which is way too abstract for my taste, and while I think that the idea of a long metaplot campaign is awesome², the particular implementation of Pendragon is way too black and white colored and kitsch-driven for my taste. This is more of an ambivalent take on the tale, where no one is only a good guy or only a bad guy, the most honorable man is the enemy king and the players have often the choice to join many of the conflicts on either side or - gasp - try to stay neutral.




The Alchemist War


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/William_Fettes_Douglas_-_The_Alchemist.jpg

System: Gurps, Witchcraft, or Trail of Cthulhu
Genre: swashbucklers, spies and supernatural horror
Setting: Europe in the early 18th century
Moot: fanciful props, deadly intrigues - awesome dress period with espionage, duels and the occasional eldritch abomination
Plot Elements: The Philosopher's Stone, Immortality, fencing masters, alchemy, conspiracies, lodges, free masons, quests for secret ingredients
Sources of Influence: H.P. Lovecraft, Dr. Faustus, Dumas (especially the Three Musketeers and its follow-ups), Shea's and Wilson's Iluminatus! trilogy (of course) and my personal favorite book: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
Player Characters: Agents of an influential yet secretive mentor / pawns in a large scale secret war
Soundtrack: contemporary music of the time (Händel, Bach, Vivaldi)

Summary: Out of sight of the public audience, Europe is the location of an ongoing secretive war between loges, freemasons, the infamous order of the Iluminati, members of secretive cults and alchemists battle over hidden knowledge and lore. Some claim to be immortal, like the enigmatic Comte de Saint-Germain, others have found hints to mysterious books such as the Necronomicon. At the same time, the powers of Europe spy on each other and revel in the splendor of the great courts from Versailles to Sanssouci.There are rumors that mysterious cults have infiltrated various noble houses, the church or political movements and everyone seems to wear a mask beyond a mask. The player characters are right in the middle of it - agents of an enigmatic but seemingly benevolent mentor, they are sent out to find mysterious ingredients and books, fight against the agents of potential rivals, or stumble upon the followers of a mysterious "king in yellow" or met a smiling Egyptian gentleman.

Reason: Take everything that is awesome from Lovecraft, and combine it with the just plain gorgeous pomposity of the early 18th century, add some crackpot conspiracy theories to the mix, and enjoy it. This is the kind of game which gets better with every obscure historical reference and a few hints towards the Yog-Sototheries.

Earthwalker
2010-07-19, 05:57 AM
On campaign idea I saw and wanted to either run or play was a simple one. Use a generic system I am thinking Gurps. Let the players make characters with hopefully some good chunks of background describing the world in which they live. Then work a way to get these people together, slipping between their home worlds.

I just like the idea of a film noir private eye, a knight of the crystal spire and a star ship engineer working together to close the portals that are tearing their collective worlds apart.

I had a similar idea based around the movie verse. The players are characters in movies and each movie genre has its own rules, that players can carry around with them. Of course The world itself is divided into different areas, the bad guys have taken control of different movie areas and the players jump around trying to put things right. Its all a bit Torg.

Poil
2010-07-19, 05:59 AM
I've always wanted to play a low magic campaign based on Age of Mythology. Instead of wizards and clerics you pray to a god/goddess of your choice in the morning and get to cast an appropriate spell a few times a day (say lightning bolts for Zeus). Following the plot of the game (best if none of the players has played the game in question of course) you fight across the ancient world at the siege of Troy, passing through the underworld, battling Set worshipers in Egypt and struggling against giants who are trying to bring on Ragnarök far up north in Midgard.

Zen Master
2010-07-19, 06:12 AM
Ok - I've got two ideas right now that I almost desperately want to try out with my group. Neither is likely to happen, ever, because they are such standard fantasy fans. Meh :(

One is a dwarf campaign. No heroics, no rescuing of maidens - just a campaign built around establishing a new mine. Fighting off greedy humans, random underdark monsters, and so on. While simplistic, I foresee much fun for such a campaign.

The other is a gunslinger idea. With sixshooters, evil bluejackets, indian shamans - all taking place on an abandoned colony somewhere in space. Of course, the bluejackets being the remainder of the original Colonial Authority, they have access to all sorts of goodies, including energy weapons, sattelite surveilance and so on.

The Rose Dragon
2010-07-19, 06:20 AM
Any campaign. I'll even settle for... ugh... D&D 3.5.

I've never been able to play in or run a campaign. All games I've been involved in were one-shots or died before they could become more.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-07-19, 09:47 AM
Always wanted to play a D&D 3.5 game where we're all superheroes. No one else wants to play it though, and I just flat out refuse to DM it, since I want to play dammit, so it's never going anywhere.


Seems more like a problem of not playing the right game. 3.5 doesn't seem that well suited for supers.

Try Mutants and Masterminds or that other system I can't remember cause I don't have.


3.5, Have the party get sucked into the Astral Plane, where they have to journey to different planes and fight off hordes of creatures from the Shadow Plane that are trying to expand it to swallow the outer planes, then the Material Plane. Then, see how long it takes before they realize they're playing Kingdom Hearts.

This is amazing.

I love you forever.

potatocubed
2010-07-19, 10:20 AM
I'd love to try a game of Burning Empires. But I don't think my current group is ready for such a game. Concepts such as scene economy are quite alien.

You, my friend, have hit the primary problem with Burning Empires: no one knows how to play it. What you're going to have to do, if you ever want to get a game rolling, is teach them.


One is a dwarf campaign. No heroics, no rescuing of maidens - just a campaign built around establishing a new mine. Fighting off greedy humans, random underdark monsters, and so on. While simplistic, I foresee much fun for such a campaign.

I also think there's a lot of mileage in a game like that - it's close enough to normal fantasy that it's familiar, but new and interesting in a lot of other ways.

hotel_papa
2010-07-19, 10:29 AM
I want to put the finishing touches on my homebrewed Fallout RPG. I borrowed a lot of elements from SWSE and Pathfinder, and I think it has promise.

I'd like a second crack at my reasonably successful Elder Scrolls game.

I want to run Star Wars: Saga Edition again, but frankly the first group I had was so perfect that I almost don't want to spoil it by risking a lesser group. The chemistry and dynamics between those four people was just amazing.

I'll just have to settle for what's turning out to be an Eberron campaign with a great deal of potential.

Totally Guy
2010-07-19, 12:08 PM
You, my friend, have hit the primary problem with Burning Empires: no one knows how to play it. What you're going to have to do, if you ever want to get a game rolling, is teach them.

We've been doing BW. So the conflict resolution mechanics are familiar. But BE is more about genre emulation which is very unusual for an RPG.

RE:Insanity
2010-07-19, 02:21 PM
I've always wanted to do a d20 modern game where aliens invade earth and win, but I don't have any d20 modern books.

Siosilvar
2010-07-19, 03:00 PM
Oriental adventures campaign based on ancient china, the players have to stop the emperor from disturbing the balance of life and death. Then he dies. And something..else..takes his place, convincing the people that the assassination failed.

Have you played Jade Empire? You may get some ideas from there.


The first is a sort of colonization game, playing a group of humans that come from an area or world where magic is rare moving to explore a new area that's filled with a D&D world proper (or whatever world is normal for the system being used). Hasn't happened cause my group doesn't like games that don't involve straightforward, violence-filled plots.

I had a campaign idea that turned into about a quarter of a setting that turned into what amounts to this idea.

Magic was broken by an event (the gnomes leaving on a spaceship powered by all the raw arcane energy of the world) a relatively long time ago, and the arcane cages holding in the spirits underneath one of the islands (the island itself amounts to a Morrowind ripoff) finally dissolved, letting the spirits loose. The human colony there is forced to abandon the island and leave for home - but they get blown ashore to the island where the spaceship launched. Since the ship was powered by arcane energy, there's residual magic here, including the gnome's steampunk-ish equipment in the mountains. Have fun storming the castle!


I've always wanted to do a d20 modern game where aliens invade earth and win, but I don't have any d20 modern books.

Don't need any. The d20 Modern SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd) is available for free download from WotC. It also includes Urban Arcana, d20 Future, and the d20 Menace Manual.

arguskos
2010-07-19, 05:15 PM
Seems more like a problem of not playing the right game. 3.5 doesn't seem that well suited for supers.

Try Mutants and Masterminds or that other system I can't remember cause I don't have.
It's more that I'm the only player in my group who, ya know, LIKES superheroes. :smallsigh: No one else would be interested in the concept, much less a debate about the system.

Lord Vampyre
2010-07-19, 05:56 PM
I've been contemplating running a winged campaign for awhile. One where most of the playable races had wings of one sort or another. Actual humans would be pretty much nonexistent. There would be a flying draconic race, Tieflings with bat wings, Aasimars/Devas with feathered wings, and faery type race with butterfly wings.

The final race was going to be a race of giants that had large size, but no wings. This was more for contrast than anything else.

When I was just about ready to run this campaign, I had to move.

OracleofWuffing
2010-07-19, 06:06 PM
I've recently found a "Superbabes" RPG system apparently based off of a "FemForce" comic book series.

There is no group of people that would ever play this game seriously.

And there is no universe that would ever allow me to play this game.

mint
2010-07-19, 06:07 PM
A campaign inspired by The Pirates of Dark Water.
No magic, only psionics, weird sailing and monkeybirds.


Edit: Also, glass guns containing lizards that exhale knock-out gas and anachronistic biotechnology.

Shademan
2010-07-19, 06:23 PM
I really want to play a very low-magic E6 campaign, with no full casters. I'd run it if I had to, but I'd rather play if the DM was running what I wanted.

I'm gonna run one IRL and it will be glorius. ;P

AslanCross
2010-07-19, 06:31 PM
I want to run an Eberron campaign set primarily in the Mournlands.

Yukitsu
2010-07-19, 06:35 PM
A persona 3 campaign, but only so I could replace everyone's evokers with forgeries that were in fact real guns. Which is also why we haven't played a persona 3 campaign.