The Campaign Builder's Guild

Got any works bubbling in the old brainbox, but know they'll stay there forever, never committed to paper save in some half-hearted scrawl soon to be forgotten as the next pet project seizes your mind and leads you on another jaunty ride through realms of whimsy and fruitless fantasy?

I know I do!  Share your ideas here, you listless dreamer, and let us commiserate

Wizards in space
Billions of years ago the wizards forged the known universe, crafting its laws through a coalescence and configuration of sorcerous energies.  It's now the future: humanity has spread across the vastness of space, and the wizards have returned.  You're the wizards.  You can walk in the chill vacuum of space.  You can converse with comets.  You can blow up stars.

Cthul-who?
We are the Elder Gods!  Beyond time and space, with little to no social grace and a hearty disrespect for the laws of physics and the fragile intellects of men!  Spread the crazy, corrupt the gracious, curse wildly as some nebbish dilettante summons you in the middle of your cosmic poker game (and you had a Full friggin' House!).

Dentists
I dunno... I just want to write an RPG about dentists.  Go figure.

Quote from: Salacious AngelDentists
I dunno... I just want to write an RPG about dentists.  Go figure.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OMHHWfSe4TE

Failed Idea 1: Floaty Islands. For some reason, there are floating islands all over the place. People rock and roll through the skies with bicycle-pedaled gyrocopters and steam-powered jetpacks. There are lots of low-tech aerial dogfights for some reason or another (smuggling?) On second thought, I think this used to be some kind of cartoon.

Failed Idea 2: Making Me Nervous. Game takes place inside a single human being. Players assume the roles of various brain/nervous system components, jointly steering their human through various daily hardships.

Failed Idea 3: Generic Fantasy Leadership Thingy. It's another generic fantasy setting, but the players are the generals, rather than the front-line grunts. They raise armies, build fortresses, and lay siege to stuff. Treacherous alliances and backstabbing a must.

Failed Idea 4: Hell, Even I Think This Is Pretty Stupid. Apply standard tropes of fantasy gaming to mundane, boring real-world jobs. I'm a level 6 Accountant, and I've got my +2 Briefcase, and I'm going to do this CR 8 paperwork!

Failed Idea 5: A Freeform Dual-Worlds Thing? The idea with this one was that players could be normal people you might meet on the subway on the way to work, but also they would be disguised/misperceived mythological whatsits. So your neighborhood mechanic might be a servant of Hephaestus, or your history teacher might be related to Odin, or whatever. Then I realized that this was basically World of Darkness with more of a lame gimmick.

QuoteThen I realized that this was basically World of Darkness with more of a lame gimmick.

No, I think it's got a better gimmick than world of darkness.  The idea is actually pretty cool; there could be basically-detailed pantheons that interact with one another, and the characters could slot themselves into the mythos as major or minor players in the game of powers.  It has a few things over WoD: a more variable tone; different power levels; and a range of crazy plot elements.  And you can take it as seriously as you like, so it could be deadly serious and dramatic, flippantly absurd, or anywhere in between.

Quote from: Salacious AngelCthul-who?
We are the Elder Gods!  Beyond time and space, with little to no social grace and a hearty disrespect for the laws of physics and the fragile intellects of men!  Spread the crazy, corrupt the gracious, curse wildly as some nebbish dilettante summons you in the middle of your cosmic poker game (and you had a Full friggin' House!).

Dude, you so deserve an award for that.  How about a !turtle because it makes as much sense.

So is this thread for any ideas that'll never see print, or just the ones you figure you have to be crazy for?

Any idea at all, really.  Shoot away.

Life, Interrupted
You're not dead.  It's not desperation or stubborn refusal; you just know, somehow, that even though your body is lying next to you, splayed out on the floor with a nasty hole in the head, you're not dead.

The characters are normal people, who, after a near death experience, discover that they can return to the point of death and in so doing become poltergeists.  They fight demons, ghosts, and degenerate members of their own kind.

It's like that one movie, or that anime where the schoolkids shoot themselves in the head at 3 O'Clock am to gain kewl powerz.

Bacchanalia: You and your drinking buddies are having the party of your lives! To bad those goblins/orcs/trolls/dragons feel like harshing your buzz.

 Carnival: Your traveling band of circus "freaks" solve mysteries and combat evil while maintaining an interesting evening show.

Sentience, v1.9
Humans have created "Strong AI," truly sentient artificial "lifeforms."  These AI are quickly advancing and evolving, with or without human intervention, respectively.  Their forms range from robots to androids, personal AIs, child-like AIs which replace computers, to the Interplanetary Network, an artificial Collective Unconscious, after a fashion, and everything in between... and soon beyond.

Humans must deal with not only cyberethics, but also the newly emerging transhumans, ranging from Augments, who have upgraded their mental or sensory faculties, to Cyborgs, who have upgraded their physical capabilities, to Fractals, who have replicated their own minds within their bodies, to Uploads, who have shed the Mortal Coil, so to speak.

This is to say nothing of genetic engineering, which, while under strict limits when applied things like humans or their diet, has helped to terraform Venus into this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TerraformedVenus.jpg), despite the fact that it lies outside the Solar System's habitable zone.  Venus is still relatively hot compared to Earth, and the gravity is slightly lower than Earth.  However, the problem of the Sun rising every 115 Earth days has been fixed with a series of solar mirrors, controlled by the Venusian Solar Array AI (who calls herself "Vasa").  Of course, Venus now only has one timezone, but it is a small price to pay.

Damn... I should totally do this...

To start off with I have a metaconcept that keeps coming up:

The Creators and the Transporters
There's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where we find out that the reason everyone in the galaxy looks human is because millions or billions of years ago the only sentient species existing in the Milky-Way seeded planets with their genetic information.  Neat concept, but there are a couple of nitpicky issues I have with it: 1) How does this simple genetic "whatever" ensure that everyone keeps coming out looking so much alike?, 2) This does nothing to address how a Trekkian galaxy (with so many habitable planets) comes about if we assume that habitable planets are rare.

But if we take the idea further we can take highly advanced aliens and give them the ability to set planets up to support life.  This proposes an interesting alternative to the Drake Equation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation): if the number of sentient alien species that reach a level of technological or biological ability to manipulate or control system and life'"including sentient life'"formation so that there are habitable planets is 1 then (assuming they make use of their abilities) all we need to know to figure out how many other species are out there is how long said aliens last in that state.

That takes care of the basics of the Creators.  The Transporters are an even easier concept to understand: they exist to transport different species to a unified setting.  Rather than having a bunch of spacefaring cultures bandy about in something Star [insert other word here]-y you give them one planet on which they have a not-quite-space-age culture or less, or perhaps a couple of nearby planets and they have limited stardrive.  The Transporters general hang around as caretakers, either known or unknown.  Most of the time they are not the same as the Creators, but not always.

Someday I'll get my 'basic carnal' skills and subskills into their own game, for an X rated system that allows someone with 'Kamasutra level 6' and 'Basic Gymnast, level 2' going up against/with someone with 'I-ching, level 5' and 'tying and knotting, level 2'
(might sell poorly as a table-top, but on an x-box, I'll make a mint.)

We are the Empties
There's nothing to be done, now.  We've got everything we could ever want, and noone to stop us doing exactly as we please.  Everyone loves us, because everyone else is dead.  And you know what?  We're absolutely worthless.

Rich, sexy, powerful.  Callous, degenerate, despairing.  Somewhere along the way the PCs lost themselves amid the money and the pleasure and their own moral squalor.  They've covered their empty souls with a mask of pride and persuasion, but it won't last, and every day they drive themselves closer to a self-made oblivion.  How do they liberate themselves?  Are they strong enough?

EDIT: Another one, which I may have seen as someone else's idea on these boards.

And so it Was
The PCs are the creator gods at the beginning of the world.  They have stats determining their various powers and spheres of influence, and compete for the power to define and redefine their nascent planet.  There is no GM, just friends engaging in cooperative world-building.

[blockquote=SA]And so it Was
The PCs are the creator gods at the beginning of the world. They have stats determining their various powers and spheres of influence, and compete for the power to define and redefine their nascent planet. There is no GM, just friends engaging in cooperative world-building[/blockquote]
Or the players play their god roles and the gM tells them how the world and bands of PC's react.  Compete and see who can get the best group of worshippers!

These following ideas make use of my Creators and Transporters metaconcept from above:

Weird Time at Sentry High
You were a normal kid.  Well, as normal as one can be on a world populated by different species brought here by highly advanced aliens when your home planet was dying, and all way too similar.  But that was it, until the day you arrived at Sentry High.
Your parents were thrilled that you had been accepted into such a prestigious high school (likely despite any signs that you were competent enough), but it was way out in this town in the country.  You didn't think there could be anything interesting out there.  Your opinion changed that first day when you had to battle that first giant rock-crab shaped like a hand.  And you found out you had special powers.  The school administration tells you that these monsters come from the "Spirit World", which is trying to invade your dimension.  You've been chosen to fight them and keep them in the Spirit Wrold.  And you have to keep all this a secret from the kids at the school who aren't in on it.  Sounds like the plot of a Saturday-morning cartoon'¦'¦'¦'¦'¦'¦

[Okay, so this is a derivative of every "group of kids must battle monsters" cartoon out there.  There's a reason it's used so often: it's so easy to understand the basic premise that you can throw in all the character development and various tribulations with a monster battle for variety or emphasis and your audience can easily switch between the two.  I'd also like to think this setting has another possibility: since it's not modern Earth you can spend some time building the world collaberatively, along with the various aliens and the cultures they brought with them.  And these "Spirit World" monsters aren't really generic enemies they're tied into the metaconcept of the Creators'"who're responsible for why everyone looks so much alike (which the planet's inhabitants know nothing about).  Depending on how you want the personalities of the monster to go there are three suggestions:
Criminals: Some of the worst offenders the Creators had, locked away in another dimension and now itching to break free.  Good if you want the monsters to be really vicious and willing to do anything (plus you can insert come bad boy/girl romance.)
Testers: Just because you were rescued from your dying planet doesn't mean you're worthy yet, and these guys are your judges.  Good if you want the monsters to do a variety or odd things, and/or because it makes them willing to put people in danger without really trying to hurt anyone.
Distraction: The Creators don't trust you to be friendly with each other, so they left some insurance.  So long as the world has to worry about the monsters they won't be fighting each other (that's the plan, anyway).  This could allow for some interesting ideas: The monsters' tactics are getting more and more desperate because they need the world to know they exist and pose a threat.  You've found out the true purpose of the monsters, and now you have to decide whether the world is bad enough to warrant letting them be discovered.  You found out their purpose, you decided the world is okay, and now you want to peacefully negotiate for them to stop attacking.]

Shaman Division
Ever since your kind was transported to this world people have had to fight off "monsters" from some other place most people call the "Spirit World".  These things are too tough for just anyone to deal with, but you've got the training and/or (hopefully "and") the gadgets/powers to beat them.  Oh, you have to wear a mask while working.
Why?  Because in the beginning it was shamans who wore masks to channel the power of gods or something, and it's tradition.  Because (supposedly) it scares the monsters.  Because just in case those things come after you they're too stupid to realize that the mask isn't you.
Bad news?  These things are weird and completely messed up.  And dangerous.
Good news?  State funding, great benefits, people really really like you even though they aren't allowed to know who you are.  And your friends and family accept that you can't talk about your job.

[Like the one above, only bigger and louder.  It uses the same setting assumption, though this one makes as much sense ported to normal (with a few changes to work in the whole "shaman" angle) Earth.
The real benefit?  Logical justification in-world for why superheroes have to wear masks while still being cops!]

Quote from: Salacious Angel

QuoteThen I realized that this was basically World of Darkness with more of a lame gimmick.

Have you been reading American Gods lately?


Mindwipe

Everybody in the entire world, for some (understandably) mysterious reason, has simultaneously lost all their previous memory (save for various memories necessary for basic function, such as speech). What cause this? Who am I? Why does the ground get black right here, but then return to green? Does that large thing tumbling towards me pose any threat to my--

Quote from: Sdragon1984Mindwipe

Everybody in the entire world, for some (understandably) mysterious reason, has simultaneously lost all their previous memory (save for various memories necessary for basic function, such as speech). What cause this? Who am I? Why does the ground get black right here, but then return to green? Does that large thing tumbling towards me pose any threat to my--

I kinda think the adventures in this setting would be boring because you've now erased all the funny little details of life that make it worth investigating.  That's just me, but it's just sounds too off.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpaw

Quote from: Sdragon1984Mindwipe

Everybody in the entire world, for some (understandably) mysterious reason, has simultaneously lost all their previous memory (save for various memories necessary for basic function, such as speech). What cause this? Who am I? Why does the ground get black right here, but then return to green? Does that large thing tumbling towards me pose any threat to my--

I kinda think the adventures in this setting would be boring because you've now erased all the funny little details of life that make it worth investigating.  That's just me, but it's just sounds too off.

But it gives a whole new set of details to make it worth investigating, which is what makes it fun. If that doesn't help, then keep in mind that people (read: NPC's) learn-- and re-learn-- different things at different rates.

Mindwipe

Everybody in the entire world, for some (understandably) mysterious reason, has simultaneously lost all their previous memory (save for various memories necessary for basic function, such as speech). What cause this? Who am I? Why does the ground get black right here, but then return to green? Does that large thing tumbling towards me pose any threat to my--
The PC's are slowly getting their memory back as they meet people that were particularly important to them.  You have a dream where you got into a fight with your new friend, but you were wearing similar, but different outfits.  You were wearing some strange cloth around your neck and carrying a brown box with a handle when your friend pulls a strange tubular object on you and demands all your "money" (whatever that may be).  Suddenly friends are enemies and you're thrown right back into confusion.

Gene Wolfe's world of Urth
Stunningly detailed and maddeningly ambiguous; beautiful, terrifying and mystifying.  I do not believe there is a better fictional world in existence, period.  Too bad attempting to make a campaign setting out of it would send you mad.

Quote from: Salacious AngelGene Wolfe's world of Urth
Stunningly detailed and maddeningly ambiguous; beautiful, terrifying and mystifying.  I do not believe there is a better fictional world in existence, period.  Too bad attempting to make a campaign setting out of it would send you mad.

Yes, but if you played in Celtricia, you'd be the only one who understood my external genesis of the Collegium Tortoris, my guild of torturers.  I borrowed heavily, even into making it a dying and strange place filled with ancient rules and ranks, run by aging masters and young, ignorant brats, all ignorant of it's former terror and glory.  I would have to agree that Wolfe's mad world would make for an incredible game experience.
I try to think of it in terms of an homage, but I am aware that it is also theft.

Quote from: LordVreeg...I try to think of it in terms of an homage, but I am aware that it is also theft.

Ghosts of Childhood Past[/b]
Those kids know what they're talking about.  When they talk about the monster under the bed, or the bogeyman in they closet, they're describing true and tangible things.  Thankfully, those creatures are only as villainous as a child's young mind can conceive them, and so they are rarely any true menace.

But then we grow, and our eyes are opened to real darkness.  Our monsters grow too, empowered by the new fears and perversions we discover with age, and though we often forget them, they cannot forget us, for we are their creators.

The PCs are "guardian angels", protectors of humanity from its multitude invisible monstrosities.  Alas, there is only one born for every child who genuinely believes in them, and so they are few.  They struggle against the beasts beneath the bed, the monster-sharks in the swimming pool and ghosts in the attic.

And sometimes, they meet a real monster.

SA, why is it so many of your ideas would aslo make great graphic novels?  I mean, a lot of them.  Do your games all have this?  Or am I once again merely nuts?

Okay, this is something I, personally, consider more of a setting idea then a complete setting, but by it's nature, it most likely could be used as a ready-to-go setting.

The Subject of my Thoughts

Magic. Disputes. Colors. Blind acceptance. What common thread do issues such as these share? The difference between a subjective reality and an objective one. The problem is, as far as we can tell, the very term "subjective reality" is an oxymoron-- or is it? What if the overwhelmingly vast majority of Reality actually is subjective? Neighboring nations wouldn't have kings until we were convinced that they did. For that matter, they wouldn't even exist unless somebody told us they did. Magic works, of course, but it only works because we think it works. Almost everything we know is little more then a self-created illusion so intense, that we don't even realize that we created it.

[spoiler=Please note...]This type of setting does have it's problems. One primary example would be the internal consistency of sensations, notably colors. In such a subjective world, one person's "red" could just as easily be another person's "green", and when three people refer to the sky as being three separate colors, obviously a problem occurs.

The other major problem in such a setting would be interaction between characters. How can one convey any information to another, if one's very existence is merely the figment of the other's imagination?[/spoiler]

Quote from: Sdragon1984This type of setting does have it's problems. One primary example would be the internal consistency of sensations, notably colors. In such a subjective world, one person's "red" could just as easily be another person's "green", and when three people refer to the sky as being three separate colors, obviously a problem occurs.

The other major problem in such a setting would be interaction between characters. How can one convey any information to another, if one's very existence is merely the figment of the other's imagination?

You could either do it solo, or you'd have to accept some amount of consistency but use a system where the players can dictate some parts of how the game world works.  I'm sure I've read descriptions of indie games where half the point of how they're played is that the GM isn't in control of every piece of the world.

sdragon, that sounds quite a bit like the book 1984

Quote from: LordVreegSA, why is it so many of your ideas would aslo make great graphic novels?  I mean, a lot of them.  Do your games all have this?  Or am I once again merely nuts?

Dunno... might be because when I visualise them there's always a kind of painterly image in my mind.  I think "what if I made an illustrated worldbook or comic out of this idea?"

It helps me keep the writing reflective of the atmosphere.  At least I'd like to think.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpawYou could either do it solo, or you'd have to accept some amount of consistency but use a system where the players can dictate some parts of how the game world works. I'm sure I've read descriptions of indie games where half the point of how they're played is that the GM isn't in control of every piece of the world.

There's bucketloads.  Over at indie-rpgs.com and story-games.com.  Really changed the way I look at rpg design.

Setting-wise or mechanics?

QuoteSetting-wise or mechanics?

Our Wandering Kingdom[/b]
Beyond the Empire's cities of brick and stone, along meandering rivers and clasped in the wood's drowsy bower, our kingdom is nowhere and everywhere.  We are the landless people, the children of the trackless road, and we are the lords of our unbound castle, for not all who wander are lost.

Yours is a universe existent in the spaces between the civilized world, with traditions and truths that the common mind would call foreign, even monstrous.  They call you gypsies, witches, tricksters, river-rats, and your people profess to be all these things and more.

What it's about
Responsibility (to one's clan; to one's history) versus individual desire.
The familiar and the strange.  Prejudice and acceptance.
Old traditions versus new ideas.
Preservation and destruction.

What you do
Trade/interact with the people of the Empire.
War (normally not in the literal sense) and connive against other families.
Arrange marriages (and other gypsy politics), settle disputes, '˜discover' new territories.

I've always wanted to run a campaign where everybody starts their characters and when they sit down to play, apply the Ghost template, because something terrible has happened....

I've also loved the Sky Pirate/Floating Island idea, for like, forever.  Then I played Skies of Arcadia and saw it done better than I ever could.

A journey down the river Styx.

Slave ship wrecks and a handful of unfortunates survive (the PCs) but so do a handful of well equipped Slavers.

Just not enough time to do them all.

Well, your ideas 1, 3 and 4 could be combined into a pretty interesting adventure.  Heck, slap all four of them together and you get: a group of recently capured slaves on a sky-pirate galley are killed along with their captors when the ship crashes into a strange island.  They're all ghosts now, and they discover that this eerie island is in fact the mooring for Charon's (the afterlife ferryman) own flying ship, and an ancient astrolabe that charts the courses of the unearthly wind, Styx, which whirls through the skies toward Hades.

Oh, and that has got to be the awesomest avatar I've ever seen...

All came to pass as was foretold. The serpent freed, the world aflame, the giants loosed on the waters.  In the afermath of Ragnarök the new world is born from the blood and ash; the last man and woman, Lif and Lifthrasir, come forth from the Forest to reforge humanity's kingdoms.

But the promise of Paradise is no easy thing, even with the price paid by the Æsir.  The Tree has bled bitter sap, and those who supped upon it have grown mad.  They trouble the lands of man's children who, but scant generations after the thricefold chill of Fimbulwinter, are still few.  The insidious dragon Nithhogg keeps watch in the chambers of the Honourless Dead, but grudgingly so, and he would gleefully see the tree afire again.

The PCs are the Shamed, the inglorious remnants of Odin's Einherjar who did not achieve honourable death at Ragnarok.  They are charged with the protection of the fledgling human Clans: each player selects a bloodline to champion, and their fates are thenceforth intertwined.

Quote from: Salacious AngelWell, your ideas 1, 3 and 4 could be combined into a pretty interesting adventure.  Heck, slap all four of them together and you get: a group of recently capured slaves on a sky-pirate galley are killed along with their captors when the ship crashes into a strange island.  They're all ghosts now, and they discover that this eerie island is in fact the mooring for Charon's (the afterlife ferryman) own flying ship, and an ancient astrolabe that charts the courses of the unearthly wind, Styx, which whirls through the skies toward Hades.

Oh, and that has got to be the awesomest avatar I've ever seen...

Wow, I absolutely love that campaign idea. I've got to try it sometime...

Thanks.  The avatar is just a bit of fluff on Windows Paint.

Hmm, mashing up all the ideas....  The themes (as intended) for each aren't tremendously compatible (savage survival for the shipwrecked, their own murder mystery for the ghosts, The Journey Is The Goal for Styx, and, well, Sky pirates are self explanatory) but improvisation is the soul of DMing.  No plan survives contact with the players!

I was in a writing class once and one of the things that stuck with me is, "Come up with a great story, full of all the things that make stories great.  Finish it with a nice little plot twist at the end, and when you're all done, make it chapter one."

Game adventures are different as they are all plot, and little story so its much harder to do.

Love the astrolabe idea, by the way.  I had figured on an old pirate king's hideout, now haunted.  Charon's mooring is so much more... cooler.  Nice one!

Cold Turkey Villains
There was a time when you had this pitiful city siezed between your fingertips like a bug, and you'd squeeze and it would squeal its invertebrate squeal, and you'd laugh.  You were a lord then, with your death rays and your pain-gas.  If not for those meddling heroes you still would be.

But now you're on medication, and there's a court order.  Twice a week some pissant with a shit-kisser smile called Gary comes for your check-up, and Sally your bitch manager keeps lording over you how you used to be an "evil genius" and now she's making you mop the aisles.

You do try to be good.  The medication helps calm your nerves and quiet a bit of that "God Complex" they say you've got going on.  You've met a good woman, Ellie, and the two of you went bowling on Sunday.  If you stay on good behaviour then soon they'll let you move out of the shelter and get an apartment of your own.

It's hard, though.  Really hard.  You passed a thrift shop the other day, and in the window you saw a nice little satellite dish.  It's just the right size and shape, and it was only going for 15 dollars.  And old friends have rolled into town, with their blueprints and their blood money and their grandiose schemes.  You didn't want to, but they're so persuasive.

The radar's hooked up to the ionic discombobulator, and the family next door have already started screaming.

Just one fix.

A one-liner:

Join team Super-Special-Awesome and defend Generic City from the evil agents of D.O.W.N.!

Quote from: I Found 'is Head, an' it Wern't PurdyCold Turkey Villains
There was a time when you had this pitiful city siezed between your fingertips like a bug, and you'd squeeze and it would squeal its invertebrate squeal, and you'd laugh.  You were a lord then, with your death rays and your pain-gas.  If not for those meddling heroes you still would be.

But now you're on medication, and there's a court order.  Twice a week some pissant with a shit-kisser smile called Gary comes for your check-up, and Sally your bitch manager keeps lording over you how you used to be an "evil genius" and now she's making you mop the aisles.

You do try to be good.  The medication helps calm your nerves and quiet a bit of that "God Complex" they say you've got going on.  You've met a good woman, Ellie, and the two of you went bowling on Sunday.  If you stay on good behaviour then soon they'll let you move out of the shelter and get an apartment of your own.

It's hard, though.  Really hard.  You passed a thrift shop the other day, and in the window you saw a nice little satellite dish.  It's just the right size and shape, and it was only going for 15 dollars.  And old friends have rolled into town, with their blueprints and their blood money and their grandiose schemes.  You didn't want to, but they're so persuasive.

The radar's hooked up to the ionic discombobulator, and the family next door have already started screaming.

Just one fix.

I want to play that so much.

There are two kinds of Faerie.

The first is tall and grand, mesmerising and enigmatic.  His eyes are filled with stars and his words recall the distant thundering of a storm.  His past is filled with broken hearts and exalted nations.  He is grace.  He is power.  He is beauty.

You're not that kind of Faerie.

You are the UN-Seelie, the screaming, cussing Faerie counterculture and stain on the good name of all Fair Folk.  Creatures of natural order but with an unsettlingly comrehensive knowledge of the powers of Chaos, the Faerie have stupefied and coddled themselves in layers of bureacracy and Hegemonic Corprate Mysticism.  They've lost themselves in their own fear and pretension; they've stagnated.

But you and your posse aim to change that.  You're sick of the Elfin See-Eee-Ohs, and the middle-management trolls.  You've got a fingerfull of CHAOS - just a single finger, but that's more than enough.

It's time you reminded the big-wigs what it means to be a goddamn Faerie.

Mechanics
Character attributes are totally rigid.  If you've got a lower Grace score than a rival, then he will constantly outstep you.  If you've got a lower Wit, he'll invariably out-think you.  That's where Magic comes in.  Magic is Chaos.  It's not helpful at all - in fact it has a habit of ruining everybody's day.  The good news is: it ruins EVERYBODY'S day.  He trips up, you trip up, the whole ballroom falls flat on their arses - or alternatively, the curtains catch on fire.  Or you summon a hungry dragon.

Like I said.  Chaos.

'Nuther one, much shorter.

Make a Wish with Monkey Fist
The PCs' job is to fulfill the wishes of dying children, but the wishes are mind-numbingly absurd!  Thank goodness for this company provided magical monkeyfist and it's totally consequence-free wish-granting powers.

Magicpunk
Thanks to astral projection or the like, the information age has arrived. "Cyberspace" as it were is another plane of existence, somewhere that people's spirits can actually go and communicate at the speed of thought-- and, of course, since one's actual life essence is making this journey, the "you die in cyberspace you die for real" model can hold quite well, too. The old ways of doing things collapsed almost overnight; the rapid communication leading to the rise of powerful merchant houses and trading companies. Magic has ceased to be an arcane secret and has become a commodity. Anyone who has the money and the connections can buy ridiculously powerful "magic-ware" produced by back-alley artisans, including strange weapons, artificial limbs, and things best left undescribed...

Cannon Fodder
All of the religious texts taught us that we were significant, and that somehow in the grand scheme of things we were going to have a special place. All that turned out to be a gigantic lie. The Gods have gone to war, and though our world may be the battleground, we're hardly involved in it. Our interest is more to ensure that we have a world left when it's all over.
This would also work well as a strange hybrid between a fantasy and sci-fi campaign, where an interstellar war somehow spills over onto a primitive world-- say it has large quantities of a "dilithium" or some other supply coveted by both sides.

I actually had a magicpunk setting awhile back - called it Magepunk. Don't think I ever posted any of it here. The idea of cyberspace as a plane of existence always fascinated me...there's a lot of fun potential.

To add my own little madness:

(Elder) Gods Save the Queen
During the Dark Ages, entities far older than humanity emerged from the seas, from the stars, and from the depths of the Earth. Calling themselves the Great Old Ones, they sought nothing more than dominion over humanity - and, faced with minimal resistance, they gained it. Now, in a Victorian Earth ruled by Lovecraftian horrors, the heroes are part of a resistance group that wants to put humanity's destiny back in the hands of humanity.

The Death of King Obihaj
The good king is dying, and around him gather his children, eager to glean from him the last wisdom of a fading mind.  They all have different agendas, some manipulative and others spurred by their filial devotion.  But the king, though not long for this world, has a scheme of his own.

In the hours before sunset, the children will inquire and connive, and the king will reveal and obscure.  When the life fades from his aged eyes, who will walk away betrayed, and who content?

Daydream Believer
On the outside it looks like your a normal, everyday kid who has to go to school, has parents who insist you eat your veggies and take a bath, and is just being silly when you won't go past the spooky old abandoned McKinning place.

But you know better: School is the monster-infested dungeon of Red Rigghit the Rithmaniac.  Your parents are really man-eating aliens who want to stuff with their terrible food then cook you slowly in a kid-sized pot.  And the old McKinning place is really a portal to the terrifying Ghost World.

Fortunately you have friends who'll believe you.  And when you need it most you can call upon your wise old friend Mr. Whoottles the stuffed owl.

Punk 'Raq
It's happened. Gulf War III is on, after Iran nukes the puppet regime in Iraq and all hell breaks loose. This war is different, though. Soldiers that step on landmines and lose legs aren't sent home anymore; they're given new legs and sent back. The tanks have been swapped out with quadrupedal mecha. Half our helis are totally unmanned. The enemy has taken to electronic warfare, and we've developed our own countermeasures to ensure our technological edge isn't neutralized. And for all our new developments, the old-school horrors of biochem weapons are still out there.

Cyberpunk/mecha tropes, meet geurilla warfare.

The Lost Colony
Post-apocalyptic meets space opera. It's not so much that they really meant to leave us to fend for ourselves on the fringes, with barely the ability to smelt our own iron, while bloodthirsty alien conquerers try to kick down the door. But, you know how it goes, the Terran Senate orders a budget cut, and what's a sacrifice of one or two measly colony world on the fringes anyway? So, here we are, fighting off hordes of-- well, what ARE they-- with weapons that would make a King Arthur proud. How do us puny humans do it? Turns out evolving from something that had to kill its own food had its advantages against what is basically a race of sentient plants...

Wow.  Just, wow.  Combining late bronze-age with sentient plants, you could throw in some sort of "technology as magic" and have yourself a great alternative-fantasy setting.

Timeshare

So it transpires that, actually, time IS a mutable dimension. The scientists scoffed at those who tried it, the public made jokes as they drank in their bars - and YOU, criminal that you are, were conscripted to join the project.

And that's when you ripped causality.

Armed with only a packet of cigarettes, your wits, and time travel gone wrong, you and your fellow convicts must avoid dinosaurs, aliens, robots, and people from every point in history, future or past. And that's ignoring the mobs of angry, screaming people baying for your blood. Oh, and if possible, it would be nice to clear your name, mend the space-time continuum and stop the virulent futuristic disease outbreaks everywhere you look. But that's not all that important - Survival is MUCH more central to your being.

Awesome stuff here, folks!  If we could flesh out a fraction of the ideas we're churning out we'd be... real geeks.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpawWow.  Just, wow.  Combining late bronze-age with sentient plants, you could throw in some sort of "technology as magic" and have yourself a great alternative-fantasy setting.

Well, not terribly alternative.  Gene Wolfe was all over them crackers before some of us were born (see the Book of the Short Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Short_Sun), particularly In Green's Jungles).

Quote from: MOWL (my Money's on the One With Legs)Well, not terribly alternative.  Gene Wolfe was all over them crackers before some of us born (see the Book of the Short Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Short_Sun), particularly In Green's Jungles).

Alternative to the ubiquitous "Tolkienesque" settings.

*shudders*

Thankfully I think we're drifting steadily away from that ubiquity, such that (at least here at the CBG) "Tolkienesque" will soon be a welcome novelty of its own.

Quote from: Sdragon1984

Quote from: Salacious AngelWell, your ideas 1, 3 and 4 could be combined into a pretty interesting adventure.  Heck, slap all four of them together and you get: a group of recently capured slaves on a sky-pirate galley are killed along with their captors when the ship crashes into a strange island.  They're all ghosts now, and they discover that this eerie island is in fact the mooring for Charon's (the afterlife ferryman) own flying ship, and an ancient astrolabe that charts the courses of the unearthly wind, Styx, which whirls through the skies toward Hades.

Oh, and that has got to be the awesomest avatar I've ever seen...

Wow, I absolutely love that campaign idea. I've got to try it sometime...

Ditto. Seriously, if anyone ever wanted to run this idea, i'd love to play.

or this one...

Quote from: Wensleydale

Quote from: I Found 'is Head, an' it Wern't PurdyCold Turkey Villains
There was a time when you had this pitiful city siezed between your fingertips like a bug, and you'd squeeze and it would squeal its invertebrate squeal, and you'd laugh.  You were a lord then, with your death rays and your pain-gas.  If not for those meddling heroes you still would be.

But now you're on medication, and there's a court order.  Twice a week some pissant with a shit-kisser smile called Gary comes for your check-up, and Sally your bitch manager keeps lording over you how you used to be an "evil genius" and now she's making you mop the aisles.

You do try to be good.  The medication helps calm your nerves and quiet a bit of that "God Complex" they say you've got going on.  You've met a good woman, Ellie, and the two of you went bowling on Sunday.  If you stay on good behaviour then soon they'll let you move out of the shelter and get an apartment of your own.

It's hard, though.  Really hard.  You passed a thrift shop the other day, and in the window you saw a nice little satellite dish.  It's just the right size and shape, and it was only going for 15 dollars.  And old friends have rolled into town, with their blueprints and their blood money and their grandiose schemes.  You didn't want to, but they're so persuasive.

The radar's hooked up to the ionic discombobulator, and the family next door have already started screaming.

Just one fix.

I want to play that so much.

you could have so much fun with something like this.

Jane Austen meets Tom Clancy
Warring, crusading, adventuring? How positively medieval. We've come far beyond that, dear. The Great Houses are at peace and we've never known more prosperity-- at least for the prosperous, but does anyone really pay attention to the underclasses anyhow? Oh, cynics will protest that our war has simply gone cold, due to the discovery of negative-material weapons leading to some new-fangled theory called mutually assured destruction. Of course, they're the type who also contend that our royal balls are rife with spies and assassins, our grand weddings are merely political alliances, and our benevolent king is secretly being manipulated by a cabal of necromancers. Nonsense! A refined, educated lady or gentleman will pay those ramblings no heed. Shall we dance?

Quote from: sparkletwistJane Austen meets Tom Clancy

So is this the Cold War in a past-type setting that has some big magic, or is it the Cold War in a modern-ish-type setting that has advanced by magic rather than science?

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpawSo is this the Cold War in a past-type setting that has some big magic, or is it the Cold War in a modern-ish-type setting that has advanced by magic rather than science?

Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrel[/i].  Now that'll make for some cool roleplay.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpaw

Quote from: sparkletwistJane Austen meets Tom Clancy

So is this the Cold War in a past-type setting that has some big magic, or is it the Cold War in a modern-ish-type setting that has advanced by magic rather than science?

Oh, a little of each, really.
The social context might be more traditionally associated with an earlier time, that is, a rather stratified society with a stuffy elite that cares little about the outside world, so from that I would take a "19th century" flavor (which is both more primitive than "modern" times but more advanced than your typical "medieval" D&D game) but the level of technological advancement could be anywhere. Regardless of the level of technology, it may have a certain "quaint" quality to us, regardless of advancement.

A Game of Cosmic Treachery
The world is at war, though most of us do not know it.  It tears itself apart in its madness, and great armies of gods no man has ever seen spill their blood invisibly upon our streets.  They are far greater things, these gods, than the terrible sun that consumes the night, but their deaths are mere mutters on the wind.

You're a political figure in a strange fantasy world, who has been given the power to exact the will of the gods upon a world that has learned to defy divinity.  But the gods have but a faint stirring of strength and understanding to offer, so you're often left in the dark about your goals or how to achieve them.  Heck, you don't even know whose side you're on (or what the sides are!)

This is both awesome and terrible: awesome because it means there is virtually no way for you to be punished if you misuse their gifts to your own ends; terrible because the "enemy" has minions of their own, and you don't know who they are any more than you know your own distant benefactor.

PC stats/qualities are something like:

Personal - your own strengths, passions and power
Familial - the power and influence of your family
Political - the integrity of the institution to which you administer, as well as its inclinations
Arcane - the twisted goodies your unearthly benefactor gave you

Mmm... who watches the watchmen?

You could assume the roles of any of the Horsemen of the Apocalype.  You could create new ones.  Vengeance, Nihilism, Fear.  You could be any of the Seven Deadly Sins.  Or any of the Seven Worldly Virtues.  You could be Batman AND Superman!  No, I'm not being facetious.  That would be COOL!

You could create faith, promote grace, and reward trust.  Hard to do as a group, but as a graphic novel... oooh!

I had an idea like that.  Played a single session of it, using the Nobilis system (which is ideally suited to Sandman-esque roleplay); I thought it went well, but the players didn't seem too eager for a reprisal.

Sandman occurred to me too.  The thing with that is I think there is not too much room for action, at least as far as the average RPG encounter goes.  I think it would be hard to maintain with more than two players.  Maybe not, but I wouldn't know where to start.

Steampunk Wu Xia Cowboys
Seriously.  That would be my all time favourite action-adventure setting.  Ever.

The campaign setting is basically the book.  Not detailed within the book, but the book itself.  It is a tome of sorts, like the ones one might find hidden away in some forgotten corner of an old library.  It's pages are filled with worlds, beasts, rituals and deeds.

You Will Need:
The Book
Three standard dice
Both the Major and Minor Arcana of the Tarot
Some paper and a few pencils

Play begins with each "celebrant" (player) stating their name and proclaiming their allegiance to an Arcana, for example: "I am Christopher Landiss of the Hanged Man".  They each then draw a card from the Major Arcana, which they may (with a few exceptions) Deny or Keep.  This process establishes the "Stars", that is, the relationship between the Spirit World where the Arcana dwell and the World of Shapes where the celebrants currently reside.

If a celebrant Keeps the drawn Arcana it becomes their guide into the Worlds contained within the Book.  If the Arcana is the same as their allegiance they are especially fortunate, while an Arcana allied with another celebrant proves troublesome.  Denying a card binds it to the heavens in the dark place between stars; another celebrant may command its rage against you with the right invocation.  You cannot Keep the World, but nor can you Deny it.  Thus it is placed in the centre as a reminder of all the things that might be.  Drawing the Devil (XIII) is especially dangerous: if you deny it, it will spell trouble for all until you work in concert to banish it or someone Keeps it ('Accepts the Dark') at a later point.

At any rate, do not work Summonings while the Devil is about.  It is the herald of the Beast.

It is left up to the celebrant to define (or interpret) their allied Arcana and their personal relationship to it, based on the card's name and image.  A great deal of the metaphysical conflict and cooperation between celebrants depends on those interpretations (e.g. Christopher interprets the Hanged Man as a symbol of self-abnegation and vindication through personal sacrifice.  Alice, in a previous Travel, Denied the Hanged man, and Louis used it against her as a source of humiliation and strife)

When that's done the celebrants enter into the Book.  Now, I have almost no idea how the interaction with the book would work, other than that the Travels are crafted by invoke the creatures locked within its pages (though they cannot summon them, for they live in ages distant from our own) and recalling the places and happenings it describes.  They can also roll the dice to summon Terrors, whose might is great, but who hold no love for humankind.  Be wary of an 18, though (triple 6's on the dice).  If anyone's drawn the Devil, it will open the Blood Gate to the Beast, who will wreak terrible strife.

This Age

This is the time when empires have fallen. This is the time when whole kingdoms have been forced out of their homes. This is the time when kingdoms are forged. This is the time when heroes are needed to lead the hordes to battle and to forge out a kingdom in a brightening world...

This is a combination between RPG and, somewhat, strategy. There is no evil - it is merely a struggle for survival. There is plenty of land for the taking - but can you?

One half would be similar to 'the World at Dawn' in setup, allowing you to rule your kingdom with intelligence, strength, and a DM-guided plotline to assist you. However, when required or desired, you may step into the world as a hero - a human of unbreakable courage and undefeatable strength, an avatar of the gods, a canny sorcerer - and attempt to change things to work your way.

Magic would be very ritualistic. The Summoner may be able to call fire out of the air, but he has paid a price for this - the blood of an innocent, a hundred hairs off a murderer's head - bizarre components offered to the gods and demons in exchange for a few moments of their power. More frequently, rituals are performed to ask some great favour in exchange for a price - and such are sometimes granted. One who performs no rituals is one to be avoided, for he has probably bound some kind of spirit into his body - and such creatures are not to be trifled with.

The player would begin with several hundred thousand people, a nation on the move, seeking lands in which to settle. There might be already settled peoples and other hordes wandering the map, and these would be controlled by the GM. There would of course be stats and other factors - Piety, Militarism, Agriculture and so on - but these would only aid the GM in his decision making. There would be little dice-rolling involved, unless the GM wished it so.

In-player, I would envision a classless system, or one that included three 'archetypes' (the Summoner, the Warrior, the Assassin?). Depending on the piety of the nation, it is possible that the player would also occasionally be able to take control of godly incarnations, angels etc - terrible creatures with awesome power. Stealth, Combat, and Magic would each play a part, and your hero would probably increase his Stats of each kind to increase his level in each (classless, think Oblivion) or have certain stats he had access to to increase. Various levels of ability in each stat (Summoning, Swordplay, Resistance etc) would grant you access to further talent trees, as well as those you either chose initially (classless) or were granted to you by your archetype.

... wow, I should make this actually.

LARPG World
A world designed to serve as a place for incredibly powerful beings to play LARPGs in.  But this isn't one of those worlds that acknowledges its RPGness and allows you to make metagame humor.  Instead you are essentially omnipotent beings who have collectively created a place which you can go down into and LARP.

Other possible titles:
LARP of the Gods
Ultimate LARP

NOS DESERVIT
God has forsaken us, the Tribe of Judas.  To most, it doesn't even matter: Our will be done in Heaven as it is on Earth.  However, things start to happen that none of us could have ever foreseen.  Some fall to evil.  Some descend into nihilism.  Some realize their folly.  Some try to correct it.  A campaign in this setting could take place in two distinct areas: Annihilation and Apocalypse.

An important note is that this setting implies a specific conception of the divine, mainly that God is Good and in some way necessary to the Universe.  Otherwise, there is a lot of wiggle room in the specifics here.

Annihilation would occur just as God is leaving, when all of the initial "weird" things occur.  Possible ideas here could be the cessation of death (bodies would just fall apart or become undead; additionally the dead would rise as undead), the angels slowly fade away, cursing humanity for their folly, along with many other possibilities.  Of course people would fight amongst themselves: some because they blame each other, others simply taking advantage of the situation like looters in a riot.

Annihilation leaves many different ways to play open: perhaps as a choir of angels, or perhaps as an evil group, trying to take over amongst the chaos, or perhaps as a pious group dedicated on getting rid of the non-believers whose fault this was, or even a group trying to bring God back.

Apocalypse would occur long after God has left.  By this point God is a long lost memory, and the world is an entirely different place.  Only a few people are actually left, those who fell to evil destroyed each other long ago.  The planet is a wasteland, ruined for those who are left.  Luckily, most of those who are left are intent on either only survival or trying to bring God back.

Fewer play options are left in Apocalypse: perhaps the last of the angels, or the last of the believers trying to bring God back, or a hardy group of survivors.  Or Mad Max.

(The Latin means "He Has Forsaken Us.")

Oh hai.  I've been looking for this.  Have a bump.

[/b]
[/b]

You play as flyers, the gliding, errant messengers of a storm-wracked world of rocky islands, where the seas are haunted by scylla and the skies teem with the silver-winged nobility.  You might be flyer-born, inheriting your wings, flexible wind-sails fashioned in the distant past from the skin of a huge spaceship.  Or perhaps you are a one-wing trained at Woodwings Academy, one of the common folk who earned their right to wear wings in an aerial tourney.

Since the world lacks written script flyers possess imacculate memories; and though altering a message (or bearing arms through the skies) bears a penalty of death, some passionate one-wings have been known to trespass on these centuries-old taboos.  Play would involve little if any combat, rather revolving around political intrigue between the islands and the elaborate, ornately ceremonial flyer-tournaments, competitions to deem who is worthy of the wings.

Many adventures would be simple message deliveries complicated by storms, rivals, political turmoil and upheaval, and hazards of the air (pockets of still air, etc).  Stylized air-born duels somewhere between races and ballet would be commonplace.  Themes would include crises of degree, tradition versus change, class struggle, and humanity versus a very inhospitable nature.

I actually once started writing a d20 version of this setting but abandoned it - I'm not sure d20 is the best system for it anyway.  The flight rules could either be very detailed or very stylized depending on what sort of campaign you wanted to play.

Posthuman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman) Space Pirates/Gypsies.

For reals.

Quote from: DMYou walk into the great hall, burning your way through the cobwebs that stretch from floor to ceiling with your torch, when suddenly: Mormons! Thousands of them!

I am not exactly sure why, but this sounds awesome.

Quote from: Cúchulainn

Quote from: DMYou walk into the great hall, burning your way through the cobwebs that stretch from floor to ceiling with your torch, when suddenly: Mormons! Thousands of them!

When I read that I just about squirted my drink out my nose.