Five Concept Campaigns

[Paka]

You found a game with five concepts, the system doesn't count as one. The players are urged to embed their characters into these concepts or create further concepts that are either related to the founding five or fit into their flavor.

(I've been thinking a bit lately about what a GM needs to bring to the table during that first character generation and what the players need to have in their minds when first gathering.)

Examples:


Fantasy City

1) The first city built by humanity, founded and constructed with the direct aid of the gods.

2) Familiar fantasy institutions (wizard's council, thieves' guild, city watch) all founded by gods at the dawn of the city's founding.

3) Intense and violent gang warfare.

4) Priests are saying that the gods are angry and will send angels to demolish the city any day now.

5) Labyrinthine sewers that hold evidence of a city underneath this one, pre-dating it.


Elven Grief:

1) The game is based in the port from which the Elves sail west when the Grief becomes too much.

2) Settling what has been left undone in an Elf's life as he goes west.

3) The elven king's wife is coming with a dramatic train of wailing followers and mourners, including the king, behind her.

4) A ship that was lost on the journey's mast washes up.

5) A mediteranean port with blue seas, cool breezes and white fluffy clouds. How did you come to live here, to know these Grief-stricken immortals before they leave the Lands of Men?

The Cathedral

1) Players are all somehow related to a nearly completed cathedral to a religion that we will create together.

2) Dwarven masons and Elven stained glass artists aiding in the construction.

3) A holy order of knights garrisoned nearby to see the cathedral completed as it was their money taken from a crusade that began the building, almost a century ago.

4) The city was chosen for the cathedral's building because of its central placement in a pilgrimmage route for the religion.

5) Dark powers that do not want to see the cathedral completed, from within or without?

Got Any Five Concept Campaigns?

[mike_ravenwood]

Under the Catherdral you could change # 5 to,

5) Dark Powers want to sit at the center of the Cathedral, and slowly twist it into something dark and of course take every one with them.

[Paka]

Under the Catherdral you could change # 5 to,

5) Dark Powers want to sit at the center of the Cathedral, and slowly twist it into something dark and of course take every one with them.

That is exactly the kind of refining I'd want from the players during chargen.

Here's another one:

Prophets and Bastards

1) A city where all religions are welcomed and the freedom breeds all manner of mad prophets, demon worshippers and fiends.

2)A world where killing a god is quite possible and doing so makes the mortal a god...but a god of what?

3) On the streets, block to block jihads are waged between rival temples.

4) On the throne is a queen who wants nothing more than to be a goddess, hence the welcome to all religions.

5) A compact of smaller temples bands together to form a ragtag pantheon and defend their place in this city where the grander temples are not bought with noble principles or holier commandments but money and power.

[mike_ravenwood]

I was always a fan of the worship based worlds. You know the type if you get enough followers together worship and believe in a particualr deity then the mystical powers that be create that being. Of course if only five of you believe then it's going to be a fairly pathetic entity. Make it 5000 followers and your in buisness. The gods will be slightly more interested in keeping the faithful...faithful, or maybe most people don't know that this is the way the world works and only a few historians or religious figures know the truth. Of course the knife cuts both ways if you and your friends are afraid of "the thing in the woods" then guess what there IS a 'thing in the woods".

It's a good time and read "The Coldfire Trilogy" by C.S. Friedman is filled with lots of good ideas, call it fun with faith.

[Kaare Berg]

Great idea Judd.

The Black Heart of Al-Kazaar

The sorceror-king is dead, his cohorts gather their forces for covert war.

The Black Heart of Al-Kazaar is lost inside the Citadel of Night

He who holds the heart holds immortality

The City, a sprawling filthy mess of low buildings huddled under the walls of the Citadel of Night.

Agents and assasins ply their trade while black hearted mercenaries flock to the town.


Hope this fires a few synapses.

[Paka]

Hope this fires a few synapses.

Absolutely. I'd play in that game.

I like how it is vague enough so that the players have room to fill in. That's what I think this kind of campaign set-up would all be about.

Thanks for posting.

[luke]

Ah, Judd... so many good ideas, so little time.

You think we could reframe something like this into Beliefs and Instincts for the story/campaign? Riffing off of Kaare's Conanesque vibe:

Beliefs (setting statements)
The sorceror-king is dead, we, his cohorts, now gather to sieze power.

The Black Heart of Al-Kazaar is lost inside the Citadel of Night

This city is a sprawling filthy mess of low buildings huddled under the walls of the Citadel of Night.

Instincts (mechanical impeti or NPC reactions)
If you bear the heart, then immortality (and +4D to Health) are yours.

Those who make their gambits known are cut down by agents, assasins and black hearted mercenaries who flock to the town.

After the death of the king, the black priests hold their rituals for 21 nights, sacrificing criminals and prostitute to the furnace. (In other words, if you are caught stealing the heart, you'll be put to death.)

-L

[Paka]

Ah, Judd... so many good ideas, so little time.

You think we could reframe something like this into Beliefs and Instincts for the story/campaign?


Right back atcha, man.

Using Beliefs and Instincts to blueprint a campaign seems like a concept deserving its own thread, if not its own damned book.

[Viper]

Hell, you could even give campaigns traits... loose faction or location specific guidelines like:

Mercenaries from the steppes are renowned for being brutal - they always take trophies from the body parts of those they vanquish

City natives never refer to the black heart directly- they always use elaborate euphemisms

The black priests never speak to the uninitiated- they speak to subordinates who then relay the message to the outsider.



Then, with a campaign's BITs in place, you can *gasp* give players artha for playing to them!

for example, if a player is trying to impersonate a black priest, and he goes through the trouble to never speak directly to an outsider, then he could get some artha for it- he isn't penalized for not doing it, but is rewarded for playing in the spirit of the campaign...

[Paka]

And suddenly we can use BIT's to set up a paradigm for our Burning Wheel game that casts an umbrella over the entire game. Below are the BIT's for a swashbuckling campaign:

Beliefs

Love conquers all.

Rage can make a blade all the more blood-soaked.

Style and honor define a gentleman and gentle-lady.


Instincts

Always swing on an available chandolier (or equivalent) during a fight.

First battle of Wits, then a battle of blades.

Deliver a monologue before dying in an epic manner.


Traits

Style under Fire: When going about a bit of swashbuckling derring-do, you can gain between 1-3 dice on your combat dice for style and panache.

Wits into Steel: A battle of wits can inform a combatant and defeat and enemy before they even draw a blade. Successes and damage from a battle of wits gives the winner their successes in extra combat dice on their first attack.

[luke]

for example, if a player is trying to impersonate a black priest, and he goes through the trouble to never speak directly to an outsider, then he could get some artha for it- he isn't penalized for not doing it, but is rewarded for playing in the spirit of the campaign...

that rocks.

I was thinking that Beliefs and Instincts would be campaign/story specifc and traits would be "world builders". But I could be cookoo for cocoa puffs.

-L

[Kaare Berg]

You mean like this

Prayers in the Dark

daytime in the villages is a happy affair

In darkness they come out

Where daytime flourishes open arms and welcoming smiles, night brings shuttered windows and barred doors

The forest broods over the ruins of the Gilded Age

The curse lies on the land until the injustice is corrected and the crown restored.

Beliefs:

At prayer a day keep them away

A house is a castle and your host the lord

A wicked life leads to an empty grave

Instincts:

Always lock the doors and windows at night

Distrust strangers

Do not speak of them.

Traits:

Sense the approach of Dusk; never caught by nightfall unawares

Touched by Them; an impalpable aura of unease surrounds you, +1 ob on interaction rolls to the common folk. -1 ob to same when interacting with nobles and the un-folk.

K

[Paka]

Beliefs

I was swallowed by the Leviathan for a reason, a divine purpose.

There are citizens from all over creation here in the cities among its cyclopean guts.

My ways are righteous ways.


Instincts

Always work on your own scheme to get home or help someone else work on theirs.

Kill anyone who keeps me from the traditions of my people because those traditions keep me closer to home..

Protect my niche within the Leviathopolis.


Traits

All Peoples Within Its Guts: The Leviathan's guts want peace and send out aid for anyone who speaks out for uniting the disparate people living in the Leviathopolis.

Rememberance of Home: You have one thing that you managed to cling on to before being sucked into the maw of the Leviathan. What is it?

[Paka]

Beliefs

Father hates me most because I remind him of himself.

Mother loves me most because I'm different from father.

I deserve to be declared heir.


Instincts

Always watch one's back for assassins.

Always carry a dagger.

Never trust family and never trust outsiders.


Traits

Noble Family - When aided by family you gain double the usual amount of dice.

[Paka]

Beliefs

When the emperor has the Mandate of Heaven his word and will are unshakable.

The Bloody Road of Tasoshi Huru is the pilgrimmage of the true scholar of sword-work.

My sword is a reflection of my lord's honor.


Instincts

Always work to prove the superiority of my swords school.

Only draw my sword when I intend to spill blood.

Kill any who sullies my, and thus my lord's, honor.


Traits

Tasoshi Huru's Path - While on this pilgrimmage, all rolls made while defending one's honor through some form of combat (words can count) explode.

Honor - Like Grief or Dwarven Greed, this would be a stat in this game that can be added to rolls at times. To be fleshed out later.

[Kaare Berg]

Beliefs:

Hard work always rewards amply.

Gold spent frivoluosly, is Gold lost.

First Honour, then Clan, then Kingdom.

Instincts:

Never leave the Clan Hall without your Axe.

Keep beard neat and clean.

Always haggle.

Traits:

Squint eyed - Hard to read when bargaining, + one die.

Grudgeful - voe to all who wrong you and yours. Never forget, never forgive.

Oath of Doom - wronged and set to seek death in combat against honourable foes, like trolls giants and dragons.