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GryffonDurime
2007-09-04, 10:25 PM
So, last year a couple friends of mine asked me to run Dungeons and Dragon for them--most had never played, and I was only a novice myself, really. Even still, we trudged on, our party armed with such characters as a Half-Giant Duskblade, an Aasimar Warlock, and a Human Ranger played by the only veteran in the group.

Now, we're coming back to school and we're trying to get a Dungeons and Dragons night back together. I've thrown about a few campaign setting and ideas, but I'm just not sure. Contenders are settings like a uniplanar Sigil University (complete with a dangerous bardic marching band and ninja cheerleader infiltration squads), a homebrewed setting that mixes the steampunkish high fantasy with Cthullhu-esque horrors (Imagine the Elder One of Love), and another player who's a bit more history-based who'd like either meat and potatos DnD or perhaps even a setting more akin to 7th Sea.

So, then...I'm looking for ideas. Does anyone have any great campaign ideas they'd like to share? A hook, a story, a setting--anything, really. I'm just not even sure what to formally propose to them. Alternate rules and the like are also open for suggestion--an all-Arcanist party? Generic classes? I'm just not sure.

slexlollar89
2007-09-04, 10:37 PM
I have a camp. setting (low power, low magic) where the heros start out in a town and work their way up in the government. eventually, they uncover a secret binder cult (I have one church in my world that worships ALL gods equally, and they control evrything like the catholic church) tht is persecuted. the binders are led by an evil sorcerer binder who tries to take over the countryside. eventually, the PCs would save the city, an the king would award them with land and a castle, BUT the BBEG did not die completely nd returns as an UNDEAD sorcerer binder!!! the PCs have to fight him off and out of their castle.

this is heavilly sumarized and typed badly, so i apologize.

CASTLEMIKE
2007-09-04, 10:49 PM
I like the low level stuff myself.

Return to the Keep on the Border is meat and potatoes fun and doesn't require much tweaking for 3.5 plus the Well of Worlds could be easily fitted into the locale.

It's 2E but Well of Worlds introduced the PCs to Gates via a One Way Gate to Avernus (Of course there was an immortal guard), Sigil and the planes. Tales from the Infinite Stairway or The Great Modron March would require tweaking but could make interesting adventures.

GryffonDurime
2007-09-04, 10:55 PM
I should state that I don't like pre-made adventures, both out of financial and creative reasons.

Macrovore
2007-09-04, 10:55 PM
Contenders are settings like a uniplanar Sigil University (complete with a dangerous bardic marching band and ninja cheerleader infiltration squads)

www.sigilprep.com

BEST CAMPAIGN SETTING EVER

except, of course, eberron. but sigil prep is definitely the funniest.

TheThan
2007-09-04, 11:19 PM
Darksun

Everything is better in a place where you can be murdered by the air!

For more information click here ( http://athas.org/)

CASTLEMIKE
2007-09-04, 11:21 PM
I should state that I don't like pre-made adventures, both out of financial and creative reasons.

Then you might want to check out Wizard's free adventure pdfs as there is probably something you can use for ideas or tweak for your your campaign and some of it has a planar theme and some is meat and potatoes and some are seafaring:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

There is a lot of good older stuff in the old editions section stuff particularly if you are looking for ideas. Retail adventures and source books they used to sell available for free in pdf form (some despite being free at Wizard's is still available for purchase).

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-09-04, 11:57 PM
The ongoing campaign I'm hosting is about a group of 16 year olds that grew up together (and played some of that growing up in 4 year time skip bursts) that got warped to the complete other end of the universe (loosely based on a combination of the Planescape and Starjammer rules for planar interactions) due to an alignment of lesser gods (played by the players and myself as the pantheon in question) in an attempt to raise worthy avatars, coinciding with a once-every-10,000-years legacy where a handful of children born under the right stars are selected to (gradually) receive the powers of the physical universe itself in order to reshape it as they see fit. As the gods, the players are constantly having an internal power struggle as well as playing high stakes political games with other deities, which has led to an all-out alignment war that nearly destroyed their private plane once already. As they destined mortals, the players are constantly hunted by people that covet their birthright or would like to prevent them from changing the universe, and they meet a lot of famous fantasy characters on appropriate worlds, as well as their own characters from other campaigns.

In short, the game's nuts. But I like epic feels and unique roleplaying opportunities.

averagejoe
2007-09-05, 12:24 AM
I had this idea where the PC's start out in this prison (my idea was to have it in an isolated spot in the mountains, but any locale could potentially work,) and they all manage to escape. The campaign would be about them pursuing their own agendas/trying to stay ahead of the law. My idea was to integrate the PC's goals and aspirations into the story. Not very epic, I suppose, but potentially fun.

TheOOB
2007-09-05, 12:33 AM
I always like to start my campaigns out with some action, usually right before an intense (though by no means deadly) battle. This immediately gets their attention and gets them thinking about their role in party and how their characters react to danger.

For example, in the campaign I am currently planning, the PCs (who are very Greek-ish) are part of the final battle ending a years long struggle with hobgoblins (who are quite Persian-ish). The last of the surviving hobgoblin navy is making a last ditch effort to capture a major city, and the PCs are assigned to guard one of the docks and hold off the invaders until the friendly navy can come by and mop up the hobgoblin ships.

The best part about this is that I can arbitrarily choose when help arrives, throwing enemies and enemies at them until they tire out and cant fight any longer, this allows me to push their abilities and show them I'm serious without risking the party falling.

captainswift
2007-09-05, 02:05 AM
www.sigilprep.com

BEST CAMPAIGN SETTING EVER

except, of course, eberron. but sigil prep is definitely the funniest.

I might add that Sigil Prep contains Eberron, so it's the best of both worlds. Plus, I think Merrix d'Cannith and the Lord of Blades are joining the faculty.

Logic
2007-09-05, 02:32 AM
A couple of ideas for campaigns I have always wanted to try.

An all psionic party. The only rule is that your Psychic level cannot be exceeded by your non-psychic level.

A party of Paladins. Give out a few of the Paladin's special abilities to all the characters in exchange for a few class features. Encourage the arcane caster to be a Wizard as well, so they don't want Charisma to saves as well.

Start on an island, making the world as you go. If you find that the players are making the game "feel" like Krynn, go for it. Forgotton Realms? No problem! ETC.

Jerthanis
2007-09-05, 03:01 AM
One thing I've always thought would be the ultimate challenge for wildly creative DMs is to set up a campaign world from scratch without previous planning. Say that the players start in town, and give the town a name, and from there on, nothing exists until the players interact with it. When they search for an inn, you decide what kind of inn the town has. If a player wants to play a cleric, you make up gods on the spot until the player likes the god and goes with it. When the players decide to leave town, you have to create the surrounding wilderness and whatever roads and towns might surround it. If the game goes far enough, you can compile the notes on what you have created with the players and flesh it out to make your own homebrewed setting.

I've always thought that'd be a lot of fun to try. The players would have to be ready for it though, and know what to expect.

Falconsflight
2007-09-05, 03:38 AM
For Jerthanis' idea, you must be pretty good at making stuff up as you go. otherwise, that would become boring or just plain bad!

My campaign idea, if you get yourself a D20 modern book, (Or just make it up ahead of time/as you go.) Have the world advance to a great technological level (Either with magic non-existant or a "conduit" for items.) Then for some reason, it destroys itself (Via Nuclear destruction or some such.)And your players are living in the remnants of that world. So you could have campaigns where you are dealing with people who call themselves "Wizards" But really all they have is technology. You could come across people who believe that technology is sin and is trying to destroy all of it over the world. So on and so forth.

Logic
2007-09-05, 03:32 PM
One thing I've always thought would be the ultimate challenge for wildly creative DMs is to set up a campaign world from scratch without previous planning. Say that the players start in town, and give the town a name, and from there on, nothing exists until the players interact with it. When they search for an inn, you decide what kind of inn the town has. If a player wants to play a cleric, you make up gods on the spot until the player likes the god and goes with it. When the players decide to leave town, you have to create the surrounding wilderness and whatever roads and towns might surround it. If the game goes far enough, you can compile the notes on what you have created with the players and flesh it out to make your own homebrewed setting.

I've always thought that'd be a lot of fun to try. The players would have to be ready for it though, and know what to expect.
My first D&D campaign was kinda like that. Not intentional though, I had a plan for them to go east, and they went south.

GryffonDurime
2007-09-05, 06:38 PM
Alright, so I think I've got a setting prepared. Would anyone care to provide some feedback? As I said, it's based on a slightly more serious Sigil and restricted, largely, to a psuedohistorical Earth:

The Middle Ages. The world still spins on the axis of royalty, and education is offered only to children of privilege. The mortals of the world are beginning to conclude that there is no secret magic, no dragons in the caves or wizards in the towers. There are witches and demons, but they are affairs for the Holy and Righteous to deal with. But I assure, magic is undeniably real; the masses simply don’t know which caverns to plumb, which towers to storm. And that’s just the way magic likes it.

In the shadows of the Mortal World, just beyond the mirror’s reflection, magic still lives. Children of potential are spirited away from their mundane homes and inducted into a world of knowledge and power, secrecy and skill. And this is not a European phenomenon: all the world’s greatest lore keepers share this forbidden haven regardless of race or location.

The halls of the vaunted Graymoore University span five continents, with small portions of the whole campus secreted away in the corners of the world and connected by ancient magic. Potentials from all walks of life, cultures, and races come to Graymoore to study, to learn, and to guide the world to the eventual return of magic.

But there are foul things in the world, both the mundane and the mystic. Demons and feykin alike, seeking to not be outdone by mortal efforts, have established their own schools, and regular competition between these rivals for the fate of humanity have become everday occurrences.

Graymoore has campuses in England, Ireland, France, Greece, Mali, China, Russia, and India.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-09-05, 06:44 PM
www.sigilprep.com

BEST CAMPAIGN SETTING EVER

except, of course, eberron. but sigil prep is definitely the funniest.
I might add that Sigil Prep contains Eberron, so it's the best of both worlds. Plus, I think Merrix d'Cannith and the Lord of Blades are joining the faculty.
What that guy said. Whoever he is.

GryffonDurime
2007-09-05, 06:58 PM
What that guy said. Whoever he is.

Sigil Prep is a bit too cheesy for me and our particular group...we want something set against an academic backdrop, but not something so utterly inclusive and camp. I mean, of course, no offense to Sigil--I love the setting.

Oh, and I though Eberron was, by its very nature, a closed plane? As in, no portals beyond the thirteen...definately not to Sigil.

The_Snark
2007-09-05, 07:19 PM
Sigil Prep is a bit too cheesy for me and our particular group...we want something set against an academic backdrop, but not something so utterly inclusive and camp. I mean, of course, no offense to Sigil--I love the setting.

Oh, and I though Eberron was, by its very nature, a closed plane? As in, no portals beyond the thirteen...definately not to Sigil.

If you are playing an Ebberon game, this is true. If you are playing a game set in Sigil Prep, then Sigil has developed connections to Ebberon.

Anxe
2007-09-05, 07:22 PM
I've got a great idea that almost every DM uses. We start the party off in... a tavern. It's perfect! The players get to know each other over drinks and then "WHAM!" A messenger comes in threw the front door saying heroes are needed by the king to slay/find/save such-and-such. All the rest is just flavor or whatever. Lets your players play what they want as long as it's all in the same genre. No space marines and wizards. That's stupid.