Greetings,
It would be great to hear how you are using the Adventure System. Reply by way of this post and let us know what type of campaign you are running and tell us a little about the characters. Beware, if the campaign is a good fit for a primer, we might just ask you to write it up...
Enjoy!
Scribe of the Adventure System
I'll get things started. My current campaign is called the Outland. It is a sci-fi campaign set in our solar system in the year 3648, but it not hard science fiction. It includes Mentalism and I take significant liberties in terraforming worlds like Mars and Venus along with moons in the outer solar system like Titan. The Martian Republic also did some genetic engineering during the terraforming era that resulted more options available for players than just "human".
There have been over 30 session in the Outland, but the current group of characters is on session 8. The group is as follows:
- Arden Horkos: A Reckoner in service to the Blind Seers of Orcus
- Dash Ransom: A spacer and merchant prince of House Ransom from the United Mining Combine
- Etox Listanio: A plutonian hacker from Kharon
- Fenris: A dog soldier from Njord
The campaign started with the characters working for Judda Vonn the de facto leader of the corsair resistance during the occupation of the Free State of Saturn by the Kingdom of Jove. The action started on the Flotilla, a massive ramshackle ring station, in orbit around Enceladus. The players were sent on a mission to recover a hauler filled with water from Titan. With 80% of the Flotilla under enemy control, the resistance was slowly being crushed due to a lack of food and water.
Scribe of the Adventure System
Here's the map of the Flotilla I cooked up for the Outland gazetteer.
Scribe of the Adventure System
I'm introducing my group to the Adventure System via a wild west campaign. I intend to have it evolve into a horror sort of monster of the week campaign inspired by the Supernatural series, but my group does not know that. I am going to slowly introduce the supernatural to them. I try to get the players to experience the surprise of learning the world isn't what you thought it was.
Originally, I was going to convert Rise of The Runelords to a western campaign where a Native American shaman was opening a portal to the old gods (sort of borrowed from Deadlands) to destroy the civilization that had destroyed and taken their lands... but that turned out to be too much work.
So now they are on the path of a killer who is going to be something more than human.
Outstanding; let us know how it goes.
The Primer: Old West should give you just about everything you need to get going. You'll need to give Damage Resistance some thought depending on what type of "horrors" you are going to introduce. For example, vampires have Damage Resistance and can only be harmed by arcane weapons; except, the thrall which is elemental. So, the characters would need to find 'em some "magic" bullets or what not to have a chance. The more low-level stuff (skeleton, zombies) have mundane Damage Resistance, so they are just a bit harder to hurt.
All of which should be very interesting.
Have a great time!
Scribe of the Adventure System
The Western Primer is what made me choose Adventure System. Good work adding that!
Thanks! If there are any other primers you would like to see, please let us know.
Scribe of the Adventure System
I would eventually like to do a Stargate sort of campaign. I'm a big Ancient Alien's enthusiast. So, games like Adventure System that give primers for different genres and times are a good foundation for that.
Thinking of Stargate, a bronze age setting would be cool as well as a prehistoric and an Atlantis island (before it sank) primer would be cool.
I've always wanted to run a campaign where the PCs are refugees from a city like Troy that just got destroyed. They sailed away to a distant land and founded a settlement, only to find that it was a continent inhabited by reptilian or snake like people (e.g. D&D Yuan-Ti). Then let the cultural clashes and battles begin.
Cool! I'm a big fan of the Weird West myself. There is a lot of possibility to add Steampunk elements as well. I'm interested in the horror aspect you mention. I think this kind of mixing and matching of elements is exactly what the Adventure System is for. I the idea of adding Lovecraftian cosmic horror to a wild west game, in addition to shamanism, etc.
I'm interested in your idea to gradually introduce the supernatural elements. That should shake the players up. Good luck!
@von-fuge I love Lovecratian horror... Funny thing is that I do not like any of Lovecraft's stories. I like it from other authors. I have tried Lovecraftian adventures with my group, and they don't get it. It is difficult to give the players a sense of Earth shattering horror leading to insanity. Vampires, werewolves, witches and the such, though, those do the trick, so I envision my sessions turning into monster of the week. Everyone in my group is a fan of the Supernatural TV show, so that is where I'm drawing my inspiration. I will still have the overlying arc of the shaman trying to create a rift or summon some ancient gods to wreak havoc on the Europeans who stole their land.
There is actually a news article from 1880 about a guy who found Egyptian ruins in the Grand Canyon in 1880, so I'm going to try and work that in, and there is a conspiracy theory that the Smithsonian was founded to cover up the evidence of giants in the Americas.. Thats all good inspiration.
It might almost be a downside that the Adventure System is so versatile. Why would you run a straight campaign of any type when you can mix and match styles and genres? I agree the cosmic horror is tough, which is probably why there are so few good movies in that genre.