My mind is a Blank

clawingwolf · Unread post by **clawingwolf** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:02 am

So this Monday is my group gets together to make characters, and then the Monday after we play. This year i have the most people i have ever had, 8 players with a possible 9th. This will be a new challenge for me, this many people and right now we only have a 4 hour playing slot which sucks but as of right now its the best i can do. SO here I am thinking of what I can do for the campaign and I'm coming up with nothing, or just stuff i don't like. So if anyone has a few ideas to get my brain rolling that would be great.

clawingwolf · Unread post by **clawingwolf** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:03 am

Oh i should also add, that i don't really want to do anything Tolkeen, cause i have done to many Campaigns in the past that involved that City.

clawingwolf · Unread post by **clawingwolf** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:10 am

Sounds good, though my players are not that experienced, 6 of them played last year, so they have 1 campaign of about 4 months under their belt and the other 2 are total new.

asajosh · Unread post by **asajosh** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:10 am

it would help to know what kind of OCCs/RCCs you have, what the setting is, alignments, general mind set of the players (what do THEY wanna play? Epic quest type, series of small HLS, Build something like their own town or merc company).

I bet on monday when your players start rolling up characters it'll get your creative juices flowing, and if not post details and it may get ya some better answers.

Till then, just relax. try not to think about it and ideas might just start popping up on their own.

Good Luck

Killer Cyborg · Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:11 pm

Grab Vampire Kingdoms and run a Travelling Sideshow campaign.
(Rent the show Carnival on DVD for ideas on the lifestyle and more flavor)

TechnoGothic · Unread post by **TechnoGothic** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:30 pm

I say grab :

WARLORD OF RUSSIA / MYSTIC RUSSIA
Run a game set in the Warlord Camps. OCCs only from these two books.

NEW WEST / SPIRIT WEST
Run a game set in the wild west of Rifts. OCCs only from these two books.
You might need Lone Star for the Hovercycles and bandit group.

SOUTH AMERICA 1 / SOUTH AMERICA 2
Run a game set in Rifts South America. OCCs only from these two books.

CHINA 1 / CHINA 2
Run a game in Rifts China. OCCs only from these two books.

Noon · Unread post by **Noon** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:47 pm

Why are the players turning up?

What drew them - what specifically drew them to come and game?

Figure that out and/or ask them, then write something up which is like that, but also like something that draws you to the game.

What do they come for? PS: If it's just for socialising, your screwed. Cook them a nice dinner and each time they mention the game, stuff their mouths with food

clawingwolf · Unread post by **clawingwolf** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:20 pm

Ok so i think the campagin will have to be a little munchkin.

I'm having everyone start at lvl 4 , for a change.

Players characters are

Russian Necromancer (human)
Gypsy Wizard Thief (human)
CS Special Forces (human)
Tattoo Archer (human)
Techno Wizard (human)
Grackletooth Merc
Zapper
Mega Juicer (human)

Also the people deffently come to play, this is a really good group playing wise.

The guys playing the Grackletooth Merc , Zapper, Mega Juicer are the people who love combat, the others are up for anything.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:31 am

as stated before use their back grounds. Make entire storylines of where PC histories connect or cross, or interesting singular stories. Unexplained deaths? missing family members? Giris? hunted? hunting? Take turns between the players, highlighting each character making them the star for a night or until this story line hits a pause or an end

The ineffible GM · Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:47 pm

Okay, we're gonna set things in Europe. Everyone, whether they know each other or not, has ended up in the city of Sandholm. It's on the south eastern end of the NGR. Has a sizeable military base with a largish standing force, that sees resupply shipments once every week. It's not a terribly valuable city to the NGR, except that it provides a holding point for the Southwest. It is not a major producer of anything, and is a little distant from the NGR proper so the local authorities will often turn a bit of a blind eye to magic and more monstrous d-bees so long as they are not brought specifically to their attention. That is to say, they don't care so much if your a wizard or a grackletooth just so long as you aren't casting spells in the city.
About a month ago, the Gargoyles and Gurgoyles started getting even more riled up and making more raids than usual. Then, two weeks ago they made a major offensive. The Triax forces in Sandholm faced heavy casualties out in the field and pulled back into the city, where they were able to make a stand and hold the city walls. The Gurgoyles seemed to be wielding far more in the way of powered armor and magic weapons than usual. The city is now surrounded, and cut off from the NGR proper. It's been two weeks, and the NGR still hasn't been able to get a supply train out to Sandholm's beleagured forces. The area is infested, and the local forces are stretched thinner and thinner with every death, and every robot vehicle repair job.
The city has turned to it's populace, and all who were trapped within it's walls when the gargoyles hit. It's hiring mercenaries, and it'll accept anyone. The characters, for one reason or another, have agreed to take on the job, and get assigned together into a heavy infantry strike team.
Mission idea 1 = Have them defend the walls of the city as gurgoyles send small raids overe and over.
Mission idea 2 = Recruitment. They were some of the first to sign up, have them get sent out into the city for a day to try and talk others into coming to help fight for the city.
Mission idea 3 = reconaissance. Why are there so many gurgoyle magic items and powered armor all of a sudden here? Where is the local gargoyle leader? Can he be assassinated?
Mission idea 4 = Triax sent a convoy, and it almost made it to the city, but they're under attack! Quick, go save it, it's only a mile and a half away! The city's main forces will defend the walls, and try to keep the gate open for you when you get back with the convoy.
And then there's a lot of little things too. The necromancer won't be well liked, even if he is helping save the city. The technowizard might be asked to convert some e-clips or other powersources, as the city is running low on conventional resources. If the CS special forces is still part of the CS, then maybe he was visiting to see how NGR does their thing, so he can tell the CS back home about it. If he left the CS, then maybe he went AWOL while visiting the NGR for the above reason. Maybe he's actually an NGR special forces, assigned to Sandholm, and it's just the same class?
Why are the gurgoyles attacking? And where did they get teh gear? Well, Splyncryth in Atlantis has been building a lot of faerie powered weapons of late, and has some new models. The powered armor is actually powered by faeries (but has the same stats, just new power source) and some of the magic weapons are giant-sized faerie weapons. Atlantis sold them all this gear at dirt cheap prices because they are all test models, and Splyncryth wanted to see how they worked in the field. This was the easiest way to do it, and it also cuts into the profit of the Phoenix Empire.

Perhaps the Tattoo archer recognizes some of these things if they go on reconaisance. Perhaps he escaped from his slave duty as a body guard for the captain of one of the crafts that shipped over the weapons and gear.

There. You wanted ideas, you got 'em.

clawingwolf · Unread post by **clawingwolf** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:27 pm

So i thought of something though i had to go back to my Bread & Butter Tolkeen, but the campaign will just start there and eventually move on from there. Thanks The ineffible GM I like your idea, nice and long and detailed, i may use it later in the campaign.

Tell me what you think of this idea?

Theme: Odyssey

Characters start in the ruins of a building that has just clasped. Here the characters can meet each other discuss what just happened and find a way out of the ruins they are now in. The characters are in Tolkeen city when all this happens. Once the characters find their way out of the ruins, they find that Tolkeen is a mess; there is fire everywhere, explosions, and Samas attacking people.

The Characters will have to combat CS troops attacking the city, deal with Dimensional anomalies that happen at this time. As well they will have to decide whether to stand and fight, save civilians or just run for the hills.

Eventually the players will be in the city after the initial battle of Tolkeen, and will encounter other things such as Daemons and Spulgorth minions. Characters will then be captured by the Spulgorth and sent to Atlantis.

Noon · Unread post by **Noon** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:54 pm

Not that I haven't set up situations like that in the past, but it's lacking a key component - something in the game world that the GM cares about.

See, you've made it so player based that they could do all this at home, by themselves. They could just imagine being in some ruins, or civilains getting zapped, by themselves.

What are they going to get from you, the GM, that they could not have gotten if they'd stayed at home by themselves?