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View Full Version : DM Help Slightly Disjointed Campaign Ideas



Delicious Taffy
2017-04-19, 10:41 AM
I'm thinking about getting back into roleplaying, since the last time I played any sort of game was on Halloween of last year. The problem is, I really only have a vague idea that I'd like to play a campaign, without a solid idea of what it would be like. So, yesterday, I took my notebook with me and jotted down any random idea that sprang to mind. It looks something like this:

Bad guy making robot army illegally (Whether the authorities are aware of this or not is an important question.)
Players are cops (This one would be somewhat tricky with the people I know, but it could be broadened to a more general "Law Enforcement" and then elaborated upon as a particular guild or Secret Police-type organisation.)
Dead Ball Zone (This is a video game combining soccer, dodgeball, and Twisted Metal. It involves weapon drops like chainsaws, grenades, and baseball bats. Maybe it could be worked into some sort of twisted prison system?)
Avatar(The main part of this that interests me is controlling a body remotely to avoid harming the user.)
Brynjolf(Not sure why I wrote this, but he's an NPC in Skyrim who, when not participating in Thieves Guild stuff, can be found hawking shoddy merchandise like a snake oil salesman Maybe a similar character could provide the party with some sort of item, either low-priced with a catch or high-priced and relatively useless in most situations.)
Skyrim?(This is only a suggestion for the setting/game world, and I'm not super sure about its viability with the rest of these.)
Super Powers(The intent behind this one was for each PC to get an individual power of their own, beyond their regular capabilities. This would probably work best in a low-to-non-magic setting, I think.)
Alien invasion(This one I came up with as a way to keep enemy variety relatively low and have combat be somewhat scarce, but still rewarding.)
False names(I think this had something to do with true names or some sort of spy code. Not sure how interesting it would be as a plot hook, and it feels like it could be gimmicky at best.)
Eldritch horror(I'm a fan of Lovecraftian things in general, so this usually winds up on any ideas list I make, by default.)

I'd like to come up with a way to consolidate at least a few of these into something playable, before I decide on which system to use. There are a few I think could work together nicely, but others I'm not entirely sure would work at all with the rest. This is mostly a way for me to brainstorm in a space where others might have something helpful to add, since most of my circle have little-to-no practical gaming experience. I guess that makes this also a way to determine a decent campaign for newish players.

For reference, the systems I have access to are:

Living Legends
Wanderlust
Pony Tales: Aspirations of Harmony
D6
D&D 4e (Plus a Modern variant)
D&D 5e
Fate Core
Godbound
Risus
King Arthur Pendragon 1st Edition

Mr.Sandman
2017-04-19, 05:21 PM
I don't know about System, but how's this. The party are special forces guards in Skyrim, and have just finished rounding up a rather vicious gang of bandits (which could be a good opening adventure) when they all pass out where they stand. When they come to they have no idea where they are, but they soon find out they have been abducted by Aliens and put in a Battleworld style arena so they can study how the people of Skyrim fight in preparation for an invasion. They keep running into an old con man they remember from their days as just guards, who always seems to have something odd, but later helpful, to sell them, until eventually he sells them strange and wonderful powers. Turns out he is an ancient eldritch entity with 'money' on Skyrim in the coming invasion, now they have to play their way through the Murderball battleworld, escape, and warn the world before their debt to him comes due, as he has to play by the rules too. Rules only he seems to know.

Honest Tiefling
2017-04-19, 05:33 PM
Well, I don't know half of what your systems are, but I think they lean to fantasy?

Let's start with combining the first two. The PCs are bounty hunters (which implies a lot less taking orders, just jobs, and a bit more colateral damage as is often needed with PCs). They go on a few missions, and find out that some guy is making golems...By yanking out people's brains/souls and sticking them into golems. Undead also work, I think that's a personal taste issue. Either way, we have #1 and #2 covered.

We can sprinkle in Alien Invasion by replacing aliens with demons or Far Realm/Aberrations/Cthulu type things, probably the latter. See, they're the ones giving Dr. Crazypants her ideas of sticking innocent people into golems/rotting bodies/whatever. If the players don't make good choices, they start to control the city through their puppets, leading to a Resistance type situation, which is what I think you want. Now we have #10 and possibly #8.

But what about Dead Zone Ball? If we go medieval fantasy, it's a type of blood sport practiced illegally via wizards. The previous bounty hunting missions might have come connection to locating matches, finding out who is throwing the matches, or rescuing innocent people from them. A crime lord who is a powerful (but moronic) wizard decides that his prisoners have to go through a game because he is bored. So if the PCs mess up, they get a Get Out of Jail Via Murder card from this NPC. As the eldritch horror creatures take over, they might enjoy the fear and rage generated by these games and choose to carry them on...And maybe throw the PCs to them so they can feast on these delicious emotions. So we have #3.

Not all of them, but perhaps a start?

Ken Murikumo
2017-04-19, 06:55 PM
Easiest way to do it would be a time/dimension hop scenario. They could be time cops or something; perhaps normal modern cops pulled into a rift and adventure ensues.

One of the DMs in my group is keen on this. Ironically with the dimension hop gag, you get nigh infinite variety, but he keeps starting new games because he gets board of the one he was just running.

Delicious Taffy
2017-04-19, 09:49 PM
Absolutely no time travel, and dimension hopping is iffy. I suppose setting the campaign in Skyrim would leave room for traveling into places like Apocrypha and the Soul Cairn, and Tamriel in general would let me take advantage of Oblivion as a whole. I could re-flavor the alien invasion into some form of Daedric invasion, possibly led by Molag Bal/Mehrunes Dagon. The robot army could be kept intact if you replace "robot" with "Dwemer automaton", as well. Honestly, having an established setting I'm already familiar with seems like a good way to go, since it has ready-made locations, races, lore, and scenarios. The only roadblock might be statting up the races, but I actually enjoy things like that.

Honest Tiefling
2017-04-19, 10:02 PM
Why not Hermaeus Mora if you want eldritch horror?

Delicious Taffy
2017-04-19, 11:21 PM
Why not Hermaeus Mora if you want eldritch horror?

Why not Hermaeus Mora at all times, for that matter?

EDIT: Alright, so maybe all Mora, all the time might get old after a while. Still, if the campaign winds up being set in Tamriel, I do intend to include as much of him as I can reasonably manage.

Future Sword
2017-04-20, 11:34 AM
If you run a Tamriel campaign, how are you going to keep the players from all picking Argonian as their race?

Delicious Taffy
2017-04-20, 12:36 PM
If you run a Tamriel campaign, how are you going to keep the players from all picking Argonian as their race?

There are like a dozen races in Tamriel, if you count Falmer and Dwemer, and that's just the humanoid ones. If my players can't keep themselves from dog-piling on the Argonian, I'll just enforce a rule against it or change the setting.

Honest Tiefling
2017-04-20, 02:05 PM
There are like a dozen races in Tamriel, if you count Falmer and Dwemer, and that's just the humanoid ones. If my players can't keep themselves from dog-piling on the Argonian, I'll just enforce a rule against it or change the setting.

Actually, I think a full Argonian party would be a nifty idea. You could explore the culture, have them speak their own language, pull a Hides-His-Eyes, and stuff.

I'd probably kick a child to get a group that would work together cohesively.

Delicious Taffy
2017-04-20, 03:28 PM
Actually, I think a full Argonian party would be a nifty idea. You could explore the culture, have them speak their own language, pull a Hides-His-Eyes, and stuff.

I'd probably kick a child to get a group that would work together cohesively.

Kicking a child is actually a really good way to get a group to work together. Unfortunately for the kicker, said group is probably working together to punish them for the kicking.