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View Full Version : Gamer Tales Themes and style of your campaigns and settings in 25 words or less



Yora
2016-05-13, 06:18 AM
I saw an interesting way for sharing the style of campaigns and homebrew settings in a very shrort paragraph: 25 words naming major things in the campaign that establish the overall themes and style. Really very curious what kinds of list you might come up with.

The Old World (campaign setting and two mini-campaigns): Ancient, wilderness, barbarians, elves, reptiles, insects, chiefs, halls, shamans, witches, bronze, blood, spiritworld, fey, ships, spear, knife, bow, forest, mountains, islands, volcano, river, cave, storm.

Blackhawk748
2016-05-13, 08:13 AM
I am Intrigued

Amerhikan Wasteland: Post-Apocalypse, Radiation, Lasers, Gnolls, Orcs, Bugbears, Goblins, Elves, Dwarves, Lizardmen, Oni, guns, mutants, vehicles, scavenging, A.R.C.s, 70s, raiders, Super-Soldiers, giant bugs, Piranha Frogs, wasteland, tank.

goto124
2016-05-13, 08:41 AM
I have no idea what I'm doing! :smalltongue:

TheTeaMustFlow
2016-05-13, 08:55 AM
My E6 Setting: Standard Greyhawkesque D&D Setting, then Vecna retroactively broke leveling above 6th. As such, mortalkind is now boned.

Democratus
2016-05-13, 11:31 AM
Old Story, New World: hexcrawl, sandbox, wilderness, fallen empires, Tenochtitlan vs. Angkor Wat, ancient wonders, float-stone, character-driven goals

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-05-13, 11:40 AM
Boot the room: Big maze, tries to kill you.

Malimar
2016-05-13, 11:48 AM
Premise: The world is recovering and recolonizing after a 500-year global flood.

Theme: Everybody you meet has an agenda, usually nefarious.

2D8HP
2016-05-13, 01:36 PM
Wail on scaly types, collect shiny objects, avoid bandits, bring shiny objects to.tavern in noble quest for ale and time with hotties.
Also pizza! :smallwink:

BONUS WORDS
Setting:
Beyond the fields we know
Themes:
Exploration
Some "Odysseus" like island hoping.
Some "Grimms fairy tales" like Dark Woods.
Some Baghdad,/Byzantium/Lankhmar city adventures (thieves, assassins, corruption, innocents and Magic Carpets oh my).
And some Arthurianish quest through the "Forest Sauvage", past the wall into Faerie (next to the Dark Wood).
No Barsoom yet, but over the horizon. ...

RazorChain
2016-05-13, 01:52 PM
Mythic Europe, Magi, Faeries, Grim, Dark, Gritty, Brutal, Corrupting Demons, Fantastic Beasts, Inquisition, Witch Hunters, Mortal Sins, Redemption, Seven Seals, Conspiracies, Secret Organizatons, Feudalism, Knightly Orders.

ludoge
2016-05-14, 06:49 AM
Renaissance fantasy, New World exploration, morally ambiguous optimism; widespread magic, prosperity, but intermittent warfare. Inquisition, demons, devils. Ancient mysteries lurk in vast unknown.

Yora
2016-05-14, 07:31 AM
Mythic Europe, Magi, Faeries, Grim, Dark, Gritty, Brutal, Corrupting Demons, Fantastic Beasts, Inquisition, Witch Hunters, Mortal Sins, Redemption, Seven Seals, Conspiracies, Secret Organizatons, Feudalism, Knightly Orders.

Wow, that sounds rough. In a good way.

Vwrt
2016-05-14, 11:47 AM
"Worsening University": atrocious puns, horrendous conclusions, irresolvable moral dilemmas, periodic table of elemental planes, dignity loss, scary little girls, gutbusting laughs, vile complexity, startling revelations, unhealthy relationships.

or alternately,

"Maltopia": decaying cosmology, Lovecraftian themes, paranoia, race war, system rules evolve, gods are cruel, destiny not all it's cracked up to be, finger-in-dyke victories.

and occasionally

"Pandora Balks extraplanar concert tour denies playing abyssal New Jersey": Bard band battles, pop culture pun antagonists, Apocapalooza, derailed soul train, "lost chord" mcguffin revealed as curse, groupies, patrons, riots, worsening. Dear god the worsening.

before that one there was

"Tendrils of inky shadow creeping": magic outlawed, wizards burned at stake, antagonist DR/magic with magically compelling voice, shadow/darkness theme, party member becomes villain, apocalyptic crescendo, world changed forever.

or even

"Cultastic for": omens, angelic chorus, uncontrollable unwanted resurrections, unwilling messiah, character's disconcerting sister reveals other planar origin of grand religious deception, multiplying antagonist, tainted sexuality, unexpected inspiration.

and somewhere in there we had a

"Moonsands": plane travelling city, psionic plague, recurring disturbing villain escalates monthly, uncomfortable alliances, truename magician transforms lifeforms, deity renounced godhood, legends killing one another, Traumatorium, catastrophe.

Demidos
2016-05-14, 12:11 PM
Rise of Man: Roman, Fey, political, gladiators, augmented humans, experimentation, good-aligned cults, Gaul, biosculptors, corruption, war, unseelie, feral dragons, revenge.

2D8HP
2016-05-14, 01:24 PM
"Tendrils of inky shadow creeping": magic outlawed, wizards burned at stake, antagonist DR/magic with magically compelling voice, shadow/darkness theme, party member becomes villain, apocalyptic crescendo, world changed forever.You had me at "wizards burned at stake":smallbiggrin:

GorinichSerpant
2016-05-14, 02:03 PM
"Worsening University": atrocious puns, horrendous conclusions, irresolvable moral dilemmas, periodic table of elemental planes, dignity loss, scary little girls, gutbusting laughs, vile complexity, startling revelations, unhealthy relationships.

or alternately,

"Maltopia": decaying cosmology, Lovecraftian themes, paranoia, race war, system rules evolve, gods are cruel, destiny not all it's cracked up to be, finger-in-dyke victories.

and occasionally

"Pandora Balks extraplanar concert tour denies playing abyssal New Jersey": Bard band battles, pop culture pun antagonists, Apocapalooza, derailed soul train, "lost chord" mcguffin revealed as curse, groupies, patrons, riots, worsening. Dear god the worsening.

before that one there was

"Tendrils of inky shadow creeping": magic outlawed, wizards burned at stake, antagonist DR/magic with magically compelling voice, shadow/darkness theme, party member becomes villain, apocalyptic crescendo, world changed forever.

or even

"Cultastic for": omens, angelic chorus, uncontrollable unwanted resurrections, unwilling messiah, character's disconcerting sister reveals other planar origin of grand religious deception, multiplying antagonist, tainted sexuality, unexpected inspiration.

and somewhere in there we had a

"Narem v Onus": plane travelling city, psionic plague, recurring disturbing villain escalates monthly, uncomfortable alliances, truename magician transforms lifeforms, deity renounced godhood, legends killing one another, Traumatorium, catastrophe.

I like your style.

Gallade
2016-05-14, 02:41 PM
Traps, Ancient Gods, Army Management, Decks of Randomness, Transformations, Succubi, Badgers...uh, I got nothing else.

2D8HP
2016-05-14, 06:46 PM
Traps, Ancient Gods, Army Management, Decks of Randomness, Transformations, Succubi, Badgers...uh, I got nothing else.Badges, we don't need no stinkin'........
Oh wait.
My mistake.
Badgers?
Badgers???!!!
I can't even imagine.
Sounds AWESOME!!!:smallbiggrin:
I have definetely noticed that more of the campaigns described seem more Leiber/Lovecraft/REH "Weird Tales"ish, and less Tolkien "Middle-Earth"ish.
From Somewhere Gygax is smiling.

Knaight
2016-05-15, 12:09 AM
These are technically motifs and not themes. Actual themes tend not to fit in the 25 word limit as well though, so here goes with motifs:

Alchemquest: Alchemy, Archipelago, Industrial Revolution, Cultural Conflicts, Decline of Monarchies, Emerging Intellectual Class, Tribe-State Relations, Big Boats, Small Ships, Materials Science, Scientific Revolution, Broad Social Movements
Atlantis Above: Shadow of Lost Greatness, Abuse of Power, Technology and Magic, Terror as Political Tool, Resistance Movements, Imposed Heroism
Galactic Fruit: Poverty, Predatory Capitalism, Colonialism, Dehumanization, Community, Political Corruption, Atrocities, Survival vs. Resistance, Family, Technological Disparities, Gleaming Foreign Space Ships
Interapocalypse: Microscopic Aliens, Genetic Engineering, Rebuilding Civilization, Disease as Enemy, New Portugese Empire
Modbots: Artificial Intelligence, Dominance of Corporations, Runaway Militarism, Gunfights Galore, Turrets & Doors, Free Will, Thinly Veiled Pun Names, Technology as Aesthetic
Nutmeg and Church Politics: Nutmeg, Church Politics, Colonialism, Trade
Schrodingers Hummingbird: Space Opera, Nanotechnology, Dominance of Corporations, Space Pirates, Mercenaries, The Frontier, Esoteric Chemistry and Physics, Resource Limits, Pollution
Steam Vikings: Steampunk, Mecha, Viking-Ireland Cultural Conflicts, Militaristic Monastic Orders*, Surrealism, Rural vs. Urban, Raiding Cultures, Weather and Climate, Wilderness Survival, The Role of Religion in Culture

*You might be reading the rest of the list, and wondering whether this translates to an order of monks and nuns that pilot steam powered mecha. The answer is mostly, because some of them have things closer to steam powered powered armor (or limbs of powered armor) instead.

Vitruviansquid
2016-05-15, 12:27 AM
Ehhh, let's see what's the latest campaign I ran with an original setting...

Dwarves, Goblins, Feud, Tradition, Clans, Battle, Stronghold, Stubborn, Mountain, Swamp, Cavern, Runes, Hero, Noble

TechNow
2016-05-15, 02:21 AM
World War One, with Romans, Dragons, and a whole lot of death and magic. In the fantasy era. And also drunk Russians of course.

Fri
2016-05-15, 02:58 AM
Theme: Everybody you meet has an agenda, usually nefarious.

I misread nefarious as hilarious at first, and felt like it sounds awesomer that way :p

raygun goth
2016-05-15, 03:29 AM
Aesca/S'Kea:

→ Raygun Gothic

→ Indigenous American Mythology

→ Mythic West/Americana

→ Everything's Better With Dinosaurs

→ Lovecraft Country

→ Functional Magic

→ Suffering Equals Power/Powered by a Forsaken Child

→ Anthropomorphic Personification

→ Abracapocalypse
→ Humans are Cthulhu

TheCountAlucard
2016-05-15, 07:22 AM
Sailing, warfare, sorcery, adventure, gods, dreams, demons, mortals, ghosts, politics, hardtack, fisticuffs, tribalism, excellence, storms, wonders, cults, piracy, discipline, sharks, blood, monsters, urgency, awe, terror.

Jormengand
2016-05-15, 10:05 AM
Dead necromancer leaves powerful swords, three people and wolf ruin everything, everyone except lesbian goddesses are trying to kill each other. Orcs, goblins are Arstotzka (http://papersplease.wikia.com/wiki/Arstotzka).

blacklight101
2016-05-15, 11:56 AM
Welcome to Stalingrad! 40k style. Hope you make it out alive.

Malimar
2016-05-15, 12:11 PM
I misread nefarious as hilarious at first, and felt like it sounds awesomer that way :p

I suppose there are a couple NPCs that do have hilarious agendas, now that you mention it.

Freelance GM
2016-05-17, 10:10 PM
Here's my take on it.

Old Ulendran
Plague killed the Empire. Civil war, mutual destruction. Monsters thrived in lawless chaos. Decades later, civilization recovers. Time repeats. The cycle continues- as gods planned.

Lightspeed
25th Century. Interstellar colonies. Reality ensues. No infrastructure, no internet. Technology's a privilege. Corporate intrigue, pulp adventure, bizarre worlds and creatures, but no advanced aliens.