Campaigns You've Wanted to Play/GM...

[The Dark Fiddler]

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]

ODAD Tomb of Horrors. Run it, that is. But I would never be able to convince my players to play it.

[zakkain]

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]

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]

Paranoia, and I can't play it as I'll be running it.

[Kaje]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I really want to play/run a oneshot of paranoia or MAID.
I really want to play in a longer campaign for SWSE.

[Felirc]

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]

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]

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.

[Kylarra]

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.

Psst, psionics doesn't have VSM components.

[arguskos]

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]

Psst, psionics doesn't have VSM components.

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

[Denkal]

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]

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]

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]

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?.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

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]

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?.

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]

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]

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]

'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]

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.

[Cardea]

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]

I want to play Exalted, but I can't find the books, or maybe I'm too lazy to look for them

[Amiel]

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]

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.