Campaign Seeds/Ideas

[jtelson]

I have a friend who, finding himself deprived of gaming opportunities, sought a release for his creative energies. He found his release by sending out a weekly email containing a campaign seed or seeds in various states of development. He called these "Savage Wednesdays" (Can you guess what system he was enamoured of?).

 

So, I was thinking: I have a trove of partially formed thoughts and ideas for campaigns. Things that I've tabled for other ideas, that my group wouldn't want to play, that I couldn't flesh out, or that I decided were just plain not good; And that if I've got these rattling around in my head, other Hero players probably do as well.

 

What better to do with these than start sharing them with others getting feedback, critiques and advise that could help finish and improve those half formed thoughts or just make them available for someone else to take and run.

 

Anyway I hope many people will post their thoughts for campaigns and about those posted here.

[jtelson]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

OK so to start

 

In the Year of Our Lord 1150 a brave group of robbers and brigands gathered together under the banner of a disgraced noble to fight against tyranny and injustice. Sriking with a determined swiftness then fleeing back into the safety of the forest, this merry band does its best to harrass the local gentry loyal to the tyrant and returns the bulk of their captured wealth to the downtrodden peasantry...

 

Meanwhile far to the south a tyrant takes notice of this organized rabble in Nottingham and begins to move against them as vague memories of lincoln green begin to haunt the thoughts and dreams of his sorcerous advisor.

 

On the battlements of his shining castle the King stares north and calmly commands his vassel 'Bring me Robin Hood's Head.'

 

Merlin nods 'Yes Lord Arthur.'

 

I put forth the idea of Robin Hood vs Arthur to the Alpha player in my group whose immediate response was "So you want to destroy all my childhood heroes". Which is why I dropped the idea, without much exploration. The only thing I did know for sure was that Robin either had to be a cameo appearance guy or get offed/captured early on (Another option could be Robin as one of the players)

[bubba smith]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

a very poular lightweight pro wrestler is hired by a wrestling fedration who's boss wants to only use big men the lightweight is given a super-hero style persona as a comedy relief grappler who soon finds himself/herself in more battle action agains villian types OUTSIDE the ring than in

[jtelson]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

a very poular lightweight pro wrestler is hired by a wrestling fedration who's boss wants to only use big men the lightweight is given a super-hero style persona as a comedy relief grappler who soon finds himself/herself in more battle action agains villian types OUTSIDE the ring than in

 

How about

 

Are you Ready to Bumble!

You were at the top of your game, the best in your class, and you would've been going places if those fatcat Wrestling Kingpins didn't control all of the real prestige matches, blocking out the smaller managers and only running Unlimited Weight Class Wrestling and Ultimate Fighting bouts. OK, to be honest you we're pretty good, had some fans and didn't have to do those midget fights any more. But then everything changed, you're not sure why your manager sold your contract, maybe they wanted out, maybe the money was just too good or maybe they realized you'd gone as far as they could take you. No mater why you we're bought out and added to the stable of the enigmatic Mr. Mercury, He'd just made a huge splash by ponying up the 100 million dollar buy in to become the newest member of the League of Wrestling Kingpins, International.

 

So now you're new handler is telling you that Mercury's stable going to be Super-Hero themed and you need a new persona, you and the other X new members are going to be Comic Crime Fighters in the ring, facing off against guy 2-3x your weight class. You're expected to be funny and occasionally even to win. You're first match is in Paris. Good Luck

 

Allows for a group, travel, action, wacky adventures in and out of the ring plus a bit of mystery "Who are the Kingpins and what is LoWKI really up to and what's Mr. Mercury's game?"

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

The Champions supplement Villainy Amok, by Scott Bennie, is a large collection of generic supers scenarios, plots and plot seeds, which I highly recommend. This website also used to host a free downloadable PDF with additional plot seeds from Mr. Bennie which weren't included in VA. It's no longer here, but as it was offered freely I see no reason not to Attach it to this post for people who might have missed it before.

[bubba smith]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

How about

 

 

Are you Ready to Bumble!

You were at the top of your game, the best in your class, and you would've been going places if those fatcat Wrestling Kingpins didn't control all of the real prestige matches, blocking out the smaller managers and only running Unlimited Weight Class Wrestling and Ultimate Fighting bouts. OK, to be honest you we're pretty good, had some fans and didn't have to do those midget fights any more. But then everything changed, you're not sure why your manager sold your contract, maybe they wanted out, maybe the money was just too good or maybe they realized you'd gone as far as they could take you. No mater why you we're bought out and added to the stable of the enigmatic Mr. Mercury, He'd just made a huge splash by ponying up the 100 million dollar buy in to become the newest member of the League of Wrestling Kingpins, International.

 

So now you're new handler is telling you that Mercury's stable going to be Super-Hero themed and you need a new persona, you and the other X new members are going to be Comic Crime Fighters in the ring, facing off against guy 2-3x your weight class. You're expected to be funny and occasionally even to win. You're first match is in Paris. Good Luck

 

Allows for a group, travel, action, wacky adventures in and out of the ring plus a bit of mystery "Who are the Kingpins and what is LoWKI really up to and what's Mr. Mercury's game?"

very good where's it from?

[jtelson]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

very good where's it from?

 

Your idea. My words

[bubba smith]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

good workVERRY good work

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

Well you did ask.

 

I have various Fantasy campaigns bouncing around inside my head, here's a couple I'm particularly fond of.

 

A Gathering of Worlds. (You should read this one in a portentious or possibly pretentious tone of voice).

Britain in the 21st Century is a nation smothered by fear. But terrorism is not the issue of the day. They say that magic is seeping back into the world. Which just goes to show that they don't really know what they are talking about. In truth magic is just one word among many, a label to put on forces beyond our understanding, beyond our reality. For many years our little world has cruised along cheerfully on its own, but now other realities are intruding once more. Some like Olympus, Valhalla and Faerie are familiar to those in the know. Others are so alien that anything but the lightest of contacts with them could shatter the very laws of our universe.

 

Earth is a convocation of powers and all sorts of creatures are coming out to play.

 

As if such a world was not complicated enough certain people have woken up with strange new abilities, powers or skills that they didn't have the day before. A secretive organisation draws some of these individuals together, informing them that they have become linked to heroes and champions from other times and other worlds. These people must now work to protect their reality from the forces that would destroy it, but what are the true motives of their mysterious sponsors?

 

Spear and Sorcery.

In a land which is not so different from the African continent on Earth all is not well. The Spider has left his ancestral lands and gone wandering; when a god forgets his place and travels to places where he is not wanted only chaos and strife can result. A wise man who knows the ways of spirits and deities gathers together a group of champions and sends them to repair the damage caused by the errant Spider and if possible to bring him home.

[Psybolt]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

The Champions supplement Villainy Amok' date=' by Scott Bennie, is a large collection of generic supers scenarios, plots and plot seeds, which I highly recommend. This website also used to host a free downloadable PDF with additional plot seeds from Mr. Bennie which weren't included in VA. It's no longer here, but as it was offered freely I see no reason not to Attach it to this post for people who might have missed it before.[/quote']

 

 

Thanks Lord. I liked the link a great deal.

 

I also like the wrestling ideas. It goes nicely with Luche Libre Hero coming out later this year.

[jtelson]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

Well you did ask.

 

I have various Fantasy campaigns bouncing around inside my head, here's a couple I'm particularly fond of.

 

I did and I'm glad to see there's some interest.

 

A Gathering of Worlds. (You should read this one in a portentious or possibly pretentious tone of voice).

Britain in the 21st Century is a nation smothered by fear. But terrorism is not the issue of the day. They say that magic is seeping back into the world. Which just goes to show that they don't really know what they are talking about. In truth magic is just one word among many, a label to put on forces beyond our understanding, beyond our reality. For many years our little world has cruised along cheerfully on its own, but now other realities are intruding once more. Some like Olympus, Valhalla and Faerie are familiar to those in the know. Others are so alien that anything but the lightest of contacts with them could shatter the very laws of our universe.

 

Earth is a convocation of powers and all sorts of creatures are coming out to play.

 

As if such a world was not complicated enough certain people have woken up with strange new abilities, powers or skills that they didn't have the day before. A secretive organisation draws some of these individuals together, informing them that they have become linked to heroes and champions from other times and other worlds. These people must now work to protect their reality from the forces that would destroy it, but what are the true motives of their mysterious sponsors?

 

So do you envision this as a Torg/Rifts kind of world where everything has literally gone insane or more like the Buffyverse/Feng Shui where people might be aware that the world isn't quite right but bury their heads in the sand and our heroes fight their battles behind the scenes trying to protect people from things they don't want to know about?

 

Either can be interesting, I personally tend towards the 'Behind the Veil' kind of campaign. I can definately see it playing out like an Action/Horror game.

 

 

Spear and Sorcery.

In a land which is not so different from the African continent on Earth all is not well. The Spider has left his ancestral lands and gone wandering; when a god forgets his place and travels to places where he is not wanted only chaos and strife can result. A wise man who knows the ways of spirits and deities gathers together a group of champions and sends them to repair the damage caused by the errant Spider and if possible to bring him home.

 

Hunt games always make me think of the Pretender (sort of like Zombie games always make me think of Herbert West). Although this sounds like it would be well served by a High Powered Supers sensibility. The Gods amoung Men hunting an actual God.

 

The thing I always worry about the Hunt is the players feeling railroaded. "Oh look late again" "We've got him cornered, I wonder what will happen now?"

Everyone I've ever talked to about the "Whispers of the Vampire Blade" module for Eberon has gotten fed up and found a way to derail the thing before the planned resolution so whenever I decide to run a Hunt I always expect it to be a short game (<50 sessions) and include a lot of subplots (ala The Pretender) or plan for capturing the target to begin something else.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

Here's one I've pitched in various places and gotten a good response to. No reason not to drop it here.

 

Out of the Dungeon

 

Twenty-five years ago, a group of teenagers vanished while playing Dungeons and Dragons. What really happened, of course, was that they somehow traveled to the world of their game.

 

This game is not about those teenagers.

 

Because of the law of equal and opposite reactions, for them to travel to the other world, someone else had to come to this one. Someone else would, of course, be their player characters.

 

This game is not about those player characters, either.

 

It is twenty five years later, and those player characters have, over time, learned how to fit in to our world, finding jobs, settling down, and raising families. They all now have kids, who are teenagers.

 

This game is about those teenagers.

 

They themselves grew up here, not knowing of their heritage (though when you're the only kid on your block with pointed ears, it's hard to not think something is going on). Their parents have kept pretty quiet about their origins; sometimes they're Polish, Hungarian when they meet real Poles, Romany when they meet real Hungarians. The kids have put two and two together over the years -- and each of the sets of parents has a space in the attic blocked off under lock and key.

 

The disappearance is in the news again lately, for some reason.

 

Also, one of those kids has discovered a game called Dungeons and Dragons. Somehow the earlier players' old game notes have found their way into these kids' hands......

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

In 'A Gathering of Worlds' the strangeness has been going on for several years but it hasn't destroyed society or toppled the government. Most people still manage to live relatively normal lives. On the other hand most people are aware that times are changing. The government has relaxed or revoked most of the laws about offensive weapons so that citizens can defend themselves if attacked. National and local newspapers regularly publish stories about the latest occult goings on.

 

'Spear and Sorcery' is basically Sword and Sorcery in an African style setting. Mostly the party would be pursuing the Spider rather than catching him if you see what I mean. They would be dealing with the disorder he has caused. There would be other distractions on the way as well such as evil civilisations or people in need of rescue. The heroes should only confront the Spider himself a couple of times.

 

So these teenagers. Would they be returning to their parent's world? Or are they going to be using otherworldly abilities to fight evil on Earth?

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

So these teenagers. Would they be returning to their parent's world? Or are they going to be using otherworldly abilities to fight evil on Earth?

 

The original idea was that it would be run under Primetime Adventures and would be a sort of teen drama with D&D-ism of the week and the whole mystery looming over them. I never ran it, unfortunately.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Campaign Seeds/Ideas

 

Sounds like an interesting idea, but honestly, I have no recollection of what it is like to be a teenager. I have memories and even memories of opinions and attitudes, but they seem somehow "alien" to me these days. Almost like I am remembering events from some other person. I suppose having to be a "responsible adult" has dulled my perspective from my rebellious youth.

 

Or maybe I am just imagining this change.