this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Saw a discussion on reddit today and thought it might be interesting. Name the system, media influences, and basic plot ideas. Mine is: Over The Edge, Film Noir: Four friends in 1935 are involved in a plane crash in the desert and end up in Al Amarja. Stuck without papers or passports, the group is forced to take piece work from the criminal element to survive. A cross between The Maltese Falcon, Naked Lunch, The Lost Weekend, and Sullivan's Travels.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

One thing that has been kicking around my mind for a while is a sandbox campaign where the political structure of the land is based on the one used by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Unsure what system I'd use since this is just a vague idea at the moment. Currently in 3 campaigns, running 2, so I'm mostly keeping it in the back of my mind.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 33 minutes ago

What's so exciting about the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth? Must be cool if you want to base a campaign on it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I have a few campaign ideas that I have been kicking around in my head for a while. They were all options that I gave my players before we started our 3 year campaign. We ended up doing a classic DnD 5e adventure using the Acquisition Inc. rulesets for them to run a business / do downtime activity which has been very fun so far. It was set in the world they did their previous campaign 50 years later which they loved

The Revolution
Vaguely based on the mythology around American Revolutionary war as shown in Hamilton, The Patriot etc. Basically a remote colony that is breaking away from a larger empire that is on the edge of a new "unexplored" and "empty" territory. The players could be revolutionaries, empire loyalties or hired guns.

The Hunt For the 12 Talismans
This is a straight up rip-off of Jackie Chan adventures where the players try to find the 12 magical talisman in a vaguely Asian inspired campaign world. This I really liked because its a limited campaign since we can have 12 adventures to get the 12 main magic items.

Wildspace and Wild West
Aliens and cowboys. Classic western feel with a mix of space travel and advanced alien technology within there. I originally planned it to be set in a Spacejammer type world with that being the mode of space travel with their classic baddies as the BBEG.

I would like to DM one of all of them some day. They are all system agnostic and am focused mostly on the feel and general vibe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

A west marches style campaign in the 40k setting. My first thoughts for this would be either the players are rogue traders or they're a bunch of hive scum and have different gangs as factions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Sky island swashbuckler. Set on a floating archipelago where people travel by airship, the party are each given a classic swashbuckler motive and set to adventure.

I don't care specifics or ruleset. I just want the heroes to throw a villain over the edge and let him fall a thousand feet into the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I just want the heroes to throw a villain over the edge and let him fall a thousand feet into the ocean.

This is exactly how you design a campaign. A single evocative image that people can get behind. No notes 10/10.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Completely agree. I'm pretty sure the best campaign premise has people going "I'm listening" in 10 words or less.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 50 minutes ago

Agreed. I got with catchy titles which really only I know for my adventures and campaign premises so it helps me focus.

The pushing off the edge is so great because it sets up mechanics that I would base a character off of. Also gives me some ideas about how to survive a fall

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

A modern day police procedural, likely using either CORPS (if I want crunch) or FATE (if I want drama). Think something like Law & Order without the fascist apologia (but WITH Jerry Orbach!) expanded a bit to include peripheral characters including the criminals, the families of both sides, etc.

And then the world ends.

Well, not quite ends, but there's a rather sudden drop in the standard of living as the half of the world facing the sun gets burned to a crisp, in effect, while the ensuing massive wave of fire and plasma scorches most of what is left. Only very small portions of the world survive (and that only barely). Nobody IC will know how or why it happened (I naturally will—it's one of the scenarios taken from CORPS Apocalypse) but when it does, the characters will have to face living in a world where most of humanity is dead, the trappings of civilization are gone (most important of those being the supply chains that keep cities alive!) and all that's left are the buildings and a rapidly-dwindling supply of essentials.

I tried doing this once when some players were saying they wanted a campaign that would surprise them. And surprise them it did, but apparently this was not the kind of surprise they were looking for. I want to try it again with players who will be strongly warned in advance that the campaign will go completely off the rails and change genre after a few sessions of play establishes their characters, their personalities, their relationships, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

some concept I'd love to GM, but there is not enough time a week.

  • A Vampire the requiem campaign with PC part of the Cartian movement from the french revolution to let's say the fall of the Berlin Wall. And would follow revolution hero turning into dictator and all the alternating Dictatorship-->Revolution-->Republic --> Dictatorship that lasted for the next 150 years at least.

  • A Kult campaign based on the backroom creepy pasta. No spoiler, but I can really see how to intricate Kult lore in that one.

  • I am sure there is a way to turn the Steampunk Musical The doll of New albion where Anabel is raising up the dead into a great steampunk campaign, but not sure where to start, so it's lower on my priority list.

  • A Fading suns campaign where the players plays symbiot, this one is on my bucket list since War in the heaven came out. However, it requires players knowing the lore and ready for some spoilers, so kinda hard to put in place.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago

I'm running mine. I'm playing Pokemon Tabletop United with my friends. Going for Pokemon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon vibes, but in an industrial revolution time period, with the main quest being a One Piece-style journey to the other end of the world, to conquer the unknown Wilds and meet the gods. As my players Trek through the wilderness, they'll have the opportunity to impress the gods, earn their favor, and compete against other Explorers to be the first to reach the End of the World

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

System: Fate

Concept: "What if we fix the world with violence?". Sort of the non-sephiroth parts of FF7. Near future cyberpunk ecoterrorism. The villains have money and the power that brings, but they're still mortal. Find when their board meeting is happening, set off a bomb in the office. Find where the CEO gets lunch, shoot him in the back of the head. Senator voting to defund public education? Wow what are the odds he'd drown in his bathtub?

I did sort of get a game of this going for a while, but the players ended up being a little weaker than I wanted, and the "make allies with other people who hate your enemies" was slow to catch on.

I also probably let too many tangents sprawl out.

One of them also rolled well below average, based on analysis one of the players did of the dice bot.