The Campaign Builder's Guild

Laws of Nature
What happens if a society carries nature worship too far?  They take the "laws" they see in nature and make commandments out of them.  Of course, they're open to interpretation.
(in no particular order)
1. All parings must have an ultimatley procreative purpose.
Interpretations (more than one may apply per group):
â,¬'Birth control is wrong.
â,¬'No casual sex.
â,¬'Homosexuality is wrong.
â,¬'Non-gendered beings are "wrong" (i.e. shunned, expendable, etc.).
â,¬'Those who do not have/loose the ability to reproduce are expendable.
2. All species mate with their own.
Interpretations:
â,¬'Interspecies mating is wrongâ,¬Â¦
â,¬'â,¬Â¦unless it can produce viable offspring (i.e. not sterile).
â,¬'â,¬Â¦unless the two species are very similar (i.e. elves and humans) and can produce viable offspring. [So this means no half-dragons.]
â,¬'â,¬Â¦always.
3. Chainging the natural form in unnatural.
Interpretations:
â,¬'No shapeshifting magic.
â,¬'No ressurrection magic.
â,¬'No healing magic.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpawThe Old Civilizations Fall, But Not Quietly
But the elves and dwarves refused to die knowing that their world would come down with them.  They gathered together with the creatures that were dying because of the humans.  They made a pact to fight the humans until either they were dead or the humans were no longer a threat.  But the numbers of both dwarves and elves would never be sufficient to stand against the hordes of the humans.  So the elves used their powerful magics to call upon the spirits of ancient warriors to return to battle one last time, creating the first of the purpose-born [undead, but the idea is in this setting that all of them have been raised by their own spirits to fulfill some purpose they've decided to take on (asked of them or of their own volition); no mindless and/or just plain destructive undead].  Against armies of undying warriors armed with the greatest of dwarven-forged weapons the humans stood no chance, and fled in terror not only of being overrun but simply because the dead were rising against them.  The elves would ride into battle atop skeletal horses and unicorns, weilding scythes, their faces painted like skulls, calling out to the huamns that this was nature fighting against her murderers.

I like it. Many of the ideas could even be mixed into the campaign I described above where the gods closed up shop.

Perhaps they even go to far in their summoning of the ancestors.  The dead won't be happy until the world can start new. In the end, every race has to unite to stop the dead from cleansing the entire world of intelligent life.

And interesting twist.  I simply came up with it because I keep feeling that no one tries to explain undead, why/how they came into existence in the first place, why undead could exist without a necromancer summoning them.  I like "purpose-born" because you could justify the raising of undead for a good cause because thay want to help, and you can justify random undead rising because they have something that they must get done.

[ic=(Comedy)Superhero Setting]
Long Ago, Heaven and Hell bled through into the mortal realm.  Faced with direct conflict, the heavenly army and the infernal horde claimed vast swathes of territory and settled into a long and protracted conflict.  Shortly after the initial invasion, lieutenants were selected from among the mortals, usually those that were already in positions of power.  Imbued with mighty powers, these Barons quickly secured their power by eliminating all other mortal threats to their position.  Recently, a force of rebels possessing minor powers and sporting colorful garb called the Casped Crusader's has arisen as a third-party in the conflict, seeking to reclaim rights and exact vengeance for the people of Earth.

Main Ideas
-The B.A.D.s- The Barons are rulers of a territory, given power by either a Demon or Angel, and expected to use their influence and pwoer to further the goals of their sponsor.  Collectively, the B.A.D.s are seen as the enemy of the people, and rule with an iron fist, consumed by their eternal conflict.

-The CCs- The Caped Crusaders are a newborn rebellion movement, determined to fight for liberation and the rights of the people.[/ic]

Doesn't sound quite comedic yet.

Well, it mutated quite a bit as I wrote it...  Acronyms apparently =/= humor.

Has anybody tried roleplaying in a end-of-the universe campaign? It could be pretty cool for D20 Future campaigns. You could have the pc's meeting other races, debating wether to join a civilization's quest for ultimate control of the universe and ownership of the contracting point, and dodging bose-einstein condensate pools.

Hmm...there have been some SF books based on this era. Maybe they could do for a base of a campaign...

Um, what is it with you people and dark tones?  They never get you down?

Are you kidding? Dark tones=High adventure! Temple of Doom style. It's the societies that actually function that are scary... like in Brave New World. Happy place... but the implications are really friggin' creepy.

I'm going to post this on another thread so as not to derail this one.

Quote from: Realm WeaverI called it 'Rayne' as a temporary title.

In short, it takes place in about 3090 CE, on a somewhat distant planet. A colonization attempt was made in 2450, since the planet already had favorable conditions, but the large colony ship crashed before it could land safely. However, a few pods managed to jettison before the impact, and landed in several parts of the world. The descendents of the settlers remember Earth only in legends and mythology, though Terran gods and culture have influenced their development for many centuries. The people are not back up to the level of technology they originally were, as many computer systems were damaged, and rendered inoperable; they use swords and crossbows, along with a few electrical systems, but no pistols or much in the way of fossil fuels other than coal.

What made the ship crash was another matter entirely. What the settlers didn't know, was that a very powerful, and very insane being, who claimed to be the merged consciousness of an entire race of magically poweful beings, had managed to influence the minds of the ships's crew and passengers, and even steer the ship itself, guiding it towards it's body, in an apparent act of suicide. When the ship impacted this being, it's magical potential was scattered across the landscape, creating ever more chaos the closer one gets to the wreck. But at the middle latitudes, the magic is calm, and low, enough for humans to be able to manipulate.

As well, this being had an affinity to rain, so it rains almsot everywhere on the planet for 420 days out of the 440 days in the planet's year. Needless to say, this has been a problem the humans have had to overcome.

I had a different take on a very similar idea, for my SF campaign:

A thousand years ago, during the Downfall Wars that inaugurated a dark age across the sector, an earthlike planet was hit by an asteroid weapon that was exactly the right size to fry the entire surface, destroying all life, native and imported, and completely vaporize the oceans. Whether this was intentional or accident is lost to history.

After eight hundred years, the atmosphere had cooled enough that the water vapor in the air could start to condense, resulting in a planet-wide downpour that would last for centuries. When it was rediscovered a century ago, the temperature had decreased to human-habitable levels, and terraforming began anew from a completely fresh start.

The environment now is still a continuous planet-wide downpour, but with sufficient sunlight penetrating the clouds that photosynthesis can happen. The as-yet small oceans have been reseeded with bacteria, algae, kelp, shrimp, and small fish. The landscape is mostly barren rock, clay, and mud, but ferns, gingkos, and palms are beginning to spread widely, and bacterial cultivation is creating enough soil for tropical rainforest hardwoods to begin to take root. Land animal species are mostly burrowing worms and insects to condition the soil, but lizards and amphibians have been released and seem to be thriving.

Human habitation is a chain of terraforming stations across the main continents, with a larger town built around the primary starport. In the last couple of years they've had up to two or three days a year where you can see the sun! Otherwise, it's rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain.

I haven't got any particular storylines developed for this planet; I just figured it would be a fun change from the desert planet the PCs have been on for the last year.

Here's thumbnail sketches of the settings I'm going to offer in my gaming prospectus when the current campaign's storyline comes to a close, roughly in the order I thought of them:


Agents of the League

This is the continuation of the current League of Tarregon (Sanjafar) campaign. PCs could either be the existing characters given 30 points of "secret agent" training, or entirely new characters at slightly less total points. The Great Game set in the stellar hinterlands, against the Batavians (a known rival empire) and a mysterious other power.

Always 'Round Midnight

Modern urban fantasy/horror/conspiracy set in a very large East-Coast American-type city, that is actually a pocket universe whose specific properties are to be determined. Play would go through "discovery", "mastery", and "supremacy" phases, as the PCs learn about the nature of the setting, their place in it, and finally their control or escape from it. I might use Unknown Armies for the system.

Connecticut Yankees

A modern enormous cruise ship in the Mediterranean sails through a rift and drops back hundreds or thousands of years (to be determined). Inspired by the 1632 and Island in the Sea of Time series. PCs would be either junior ship's crew or intrepid passengers. Play would focus on finding a place to live, conquering and/or colonizing it, and then protecting it against the powers of the era.

Tunnels

A mini-campaign to last around six months. A team of modern-day archaeologists/spelunkers/engineers/soldiers goes into a tunnel system (natural, sewers, catacombs) and never comes out. The tunnels change from time to time and become tunnel systems in other places, times, or universes, with suitable encounters with other lost parties (e.g. early Christians in the Roman catacombs, Egyptian priests interring a mummy, London subway tunnelers, etc.). Eventually the PCs would learn the pattern and cryptic markings in the tunnels to find a way out or find a way to the controlling center.

Rise and Fall of the Vanadian Empire

A series of mini-campaigns set in my vanilla fantasy world originally developed for a campaign back in college. "Imperialism" in the formative period, "crash of empire" during the late antiquity, "squabble" during the dark age, and "successor states" early in the modern period. Each section would be connected to the following by family-historical ties, where the actions of the PCs would not only set the conditions for the next section, but the new PCs would be descendents of the previous ones.

Lost Cities

Victorian fantasy -- like Castle Falkenstein without the steampunk aspects. Imagine the Great Transformation from Shadowrun happened in 1840/1850/1860. Legendary places suddenly become real, magic starts working, ten percent of the world population turns into something ... else (including critters). Play would focus on world exploration (especially Africa), where the white man doesn't have so many advantages as in real history.

Vosemnadtsaty Angar

Pulp X-Files. Soviet scientists visit the site of the Tunguska Event in 1927 and find a wrecked alien spacecraft, which they bring back with them for examination and exploitation. The rest of the world sees new science and technology coming out of Stalin's USSR, and send spies and adventurers to wrest it from them. ("Vosemnadtsaty Angar" is, roughly, Russian for "Hangar 18".)

Bronze versus Steam

Revolutionary France meets the Peloponnesian War. Rival city-states are in equilibrium until the court magician of one accidentally invents a non-magical steam powered engine. Its use turns peasantry and townsmen out of their livelihoods, which combined with a lowering of the mana level and withdrawal of the favor of the kingdom's patron deities results in overthrow of the old monarchy in favor of a coalition of radical philosophers and artificers. Now the other two kingdoms are threatened by the first but nevertheless they scheme to enlist the revolutionaries against each other.

In Klezkavania

The Mythical Balkans during the Mythical 19th Century. All the fictional/legendary European principalities -- Ruritania, Klezkavania, Syldavia, Borduria, Latveria, and of course Transylvania -- exist together in a mountainous region (bordered vaguely by The Empire, Russia, and The Turk), inhabited by superstitious peasants, oppressive nobles, Jews, Gypsies, vampires, werewolves, strange beasts, and of course The Devil Himself (in his suave trickster guise). Play would be either Prisoner of Zenda/Flashman/Princess Bride type adventures and/or Van Helsing-style monster hunting.


Heh. That's it for now. I'll almost certainly have more before prospectus time, and I may cull out some of them if they're not inspiring me anymore. System would almost certainly be GURPS 4th except where otherwise noted.