Jake's homepage Spellen RPG Ideas

Started at December 20, 2003

Some ideas for one-shots or (mini-)campaigns. Include selling points and preferred system!

Victorian Age: Vampire

This would probably be a mini-campaign, as I can't introduce such a rich setting in one session. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. The whole damn Gothic literature thing.
Bits 'n pieces: Toreador artistes, Tremere Freemasons, Ventrue or Brujah cult of Mithras dating back to Pompei, the Crystal Palace, Jack The Ripper (still need to see From Hell though), Dr Jeckyll & Mister Hyde, Renfield & the actual Dracula, that neat part in Paris from Interview With The Vampire, ghosts, haunted mansions.
System:: Victorian Age: Vampire backed by Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition
Soundtrack: Interview With The Vampire and Sleepy Hollow OST's, perhaps League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Cape & Dagger: Swashbuckling Goodness At Court

Mage: The Sorcerors Crusade would be a great inspiration, especially The Swashbucklers Handbook. Add 7th Sea and GURPS: Swashbucklers.
Bits 'n pieces: Capes, rapiers, musketeers, chandeliers, high court, power behind the throne (chancellor), Shakespeare, The Three Musketeers. High action mixed with intrigue and romance.
System: Storyteller or 7th Sea
Soundtrack: a lot of Blackmore's Night, Pirates Of The Caribbean OST

Weird Wars & Rifts

Begin as high fantasy. Through a portal or rift in the space-time continuum, the party is inserted in World War II. How good is your bastardsword +2 against a Sherman tank?
Bits 'n pieces: Halt, ein Verletze! Band Of Brothers and Guns Of Navarone, Hamburger Hill. Lots of guns, nazi's, 'Allo 'Allo, the Resistance, The Longest Day, Ausweis bitte!, Spitfires, Pearl Harbor, grit grit grit.
System: d20 in the form of the core rulebooks and Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine from Pinnacle.
Soundtrack: No idea.

Wraith: The Oblivion

Just about any era, any party, anywhere. But I'd love a Roman era campaign, or just go into the Labyrinth (Doomslayers: Into The Labyrinth). Or a story about personal horror and redemption, romance and loss. So many choices.
System: Wraith: The Oblivion, perhaps a bit simplified
Soundtrack: let's dust off my Cthulhu soundtrack

Stereotypical D&D

You're part ofthe archetypical D&D party. No multiclassing, only the core classes allowed.
Bits 'n pieces: Wizard with pointy hat, troubleshooting, glib thief, healing cleric, righteous paladin, dumb but powerful fighter against dragons & drows, a lot of loot, kill them and loot the bodies, incredible weapons, fireball, and just about every cliche. The Gamers.
System: D&D 3rd Edition, including at least one random encounter. About level 8 - 10. Oneshot.
Soundtrack: standard D&D soundtrack, with emphasis on the battle tracks
Constraints on character creation (Dutch)

Magna Crecia

Demigods walk the Earth. Heck, proper gods do as well. The Olympian pantheon, that is. You are a classic Hero. Maybe one of the less-known Argonauts, or just an unsung hero (maybe you just missed out on a good scribe). Mix The Odyssey, The Illiad, other Greek myths that are popular or very obscure.
Bits 'n pieces: High stakes. Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi. Olympic games -- the originals! Triremes. War between the city states. Pallas Athena, the Parthenon.
System: what I hear from HeroQuest.
Soundtrack: Gladiator OST

Two-fisted squishy pulp: Cthulhu meets Adventure!

You're on a mission from the AEon Society for Gentlemen to uncover some magical whatchamacallits.
Bits 'n pieces: Details are irrelevant, as long as there is at least one blimp, an X that marks the spot, and a red dotted line on a map. But wait! Something sinister is afoot. Or a-slither? Chtulhu rises! Just add a few cultist. Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, The Mummy and Call Of Cthulhu. Just add water.
System: Adventure!
Soundtrack: the scores for the various Indiana Jones movies by John Williams, some jazz (Benny Goodman's performance in Carnegie Hall in 1938).

This one-shot has been played. You can read the session log and other related stuff here

Pirates! Hrrr... Argh!

More swashbuckling goodness, this time in the golden Age of Sail with pirates and voooodoooooo.
Bits 'n pieces: Master & Commander, Pirates Of The Caribbean, maybe mixed with some good ol' Haitian Voodoo. Voodoo, zombies, ships, "Arrrr matey", pirates, galleon, privateer, frigate, South-South-West, ghost ships, great treasure, climbin' the riggin', and lively, swab!
System: GURPS: Swashbucklers, some sourcebook on voodoo. Perhaps Mage: The Sorcerors Crusade
Soundtrack: Pirates Of The Caribbean OST

Buffy: With Great Power

...comes great... Ah, you know. The Slayer (male, perhaps?) made a mistake: destroying a devil made it possible for a greater evil to enter the world. What to do? Perhaps ally with another evil?
Bits 'n pieces: Inspired by the "Blood Of Carthage" storyline in the Buffy comics. By the way, did I mention that the Cthulhu mythos is involved? Again?
System: Buffy a.k.a. Unisystem Lite
Soundtrack: teenybopper music mixed with my Cthulhu soundtracks

Amber: Throne War

The archetypical Amber campaign. Le roi est mort... ou perdu... Anyways, the throne is vacant. What do you do?
Bits 'n pieces: Amber Omnibus
System: Amber Diceless Roleplaying, without Shadow Knight
Soundtrack: harps, Blackmore's Night, Braveheart