>>>Campaign Premises

Interested in gauging some interest from /pfg/ over a couple of concepts. It'd take some time to prep them, but these are potential campaign ideas I'd be interested in running for you guys along with some elaboration into each. This will seem sporadic at first as the beginning of each category is going to maintain copy pastes from the initial posts for the sake of posterity. I'll probably post this or a modification of it a few times, before ending with a poll to see which one /pfg/ wants then start a period of in depth review of my notes, modifications, and gathering of supplies. At the end of this period, I'll post up a campaign on Roll20, along with potentially a googledocs/pdf primer for the campaign in /pfg/.






>>Monster Hunters

Original Premise: Monster Hunter style kill all the big things campaign where monster parts can be used in gear crafting

Additional notes:

This game would be a higher point buy, potentially Gestalt. Some old 3.x things would be making a comeback for item crafting purposes (for example, eventually Weapons of Legacy progressions). There would be a subsystem for progressing a weapon/armor/etc based on creatures killed for example - ie. older dragons give better quality materials. The goal is for heroes to go hunt big fucking things and get big fucking rewards.

Elaboration:

Currently the point buy is being set at 30 points starting above level 1 probably around the 3-5 area. Gestalt is a potential option. As is Mythic and potentially the option of Called Shots. Some old 3.x items and item crafting options are coming back (such as Augment Crystals from Magic Item Compendium). This may include some 3rd party options that give say, alternate arrow options. One in particular is Weapons of Legacy as a reward system for higher levels of play. Another returning element of 3.x will be Incarnum. There will be some modifications to Skill references/Hit Dice, but otherwise it will be close to a straight port over. Some third party will be allowed, such as DSP's Psionics system, and Path of War. The main draws for this system, are intended to be a subsystem for crafting and the inherent hunt big things train of thought. With regards to crafting items, to elaborate on the subsystem. Characters will have the ability to skins, debones, or otherwise gain resources from monsters that they defeat. These resources will be used to craft items. The monster itself being pivotal in the quality of the item. A Great Wyrm Red Dragon produces a far better quality hide for armor than a Young Adult. Likewise, templated monsters produce iterations of resources that are otherwise abnormal - for example, a Foo Dog or Imperial Foo Dog produces effects on the gear crafted on it far different than those from a normal dog. Which leads to another 3.x element coming back - Legendary Creature template. Very rarely players will have the option to hunt unique beings of a species that possess traits far more potent than any of their kin. These produce extremely powerful materials and are the type of thing you used to craft artifacts/weapons of legacy out of. As for how the campaign plays, players will be members of a monster hunting guild and travel together via a caravan (not using the Caravan rules from Jade Regent). You'll get a list of jobs available at the beginning of each session and have to plan out which ones you want to go for, alternatively, you can also choose to migrate to another region for different hunts or research for rare hunts. By the end of the game you should be expecting to fight colossal beasts with the ability to deform continents like Kaiju or the Tarrasque etc.

Inspiration: Monster Hunter series, Castlevania Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow, Diablo series, World of Warcraft






>>Pirates

Original Premise: Privateer/Pirates game that starts with Skull&Shackles or Serpent's Skull and diverges into some golarion freedom for exploration

Additional Notes:

This would involve hero points, increasing firearm availability, and a more lengthy look at nautical travel. Government interference will be visible - via privateers to navies and pirate hunters. Inspiration will be drawn from historical piracy, whaling/fishing etc., Herman Melville/Coleridge/etc. to help round out the edges that paizo left jagged. Eventually there will be less restraints - if you want to be the Scourge of Minkai go right ahead. You want to go shack up with some Ulfen wenches, you can do that too.

Elaboration:

The campaign will start with either Skull & Shackles or Serpent's Skull, minus some modifications or an alternative start. Character creation will be around a 20 to 25 point buy, along with the Hero Points system. Players are free to opt out of the Hero Point system, receiving an additional Feat at 1st level (though, I will allow players to withhold this bonus feat until a time in which they feel they can get the most out of it for their build). Material wise, this campaign will be open to DSP's Path of War and Psionics, and potentially Spheres of Power. Guns will be far more available and readily usable. There will be some modification to existing NPCs so as to adapt to the campaign premise. Now, as to how the campaign will play, once the players attain a ship, it will become more free reign over how you take it. If you want to hunt the great while whale, go right ahead. If you want to go set up a pirate safe haven for trade, go right ahead. Hell, you could even contract yourself out to a nation such as Andoran to interfere with the Chelish slave trade or the Chelish Navy as privateers/pirate hunters - an alternative to the traditional piracy. As for what your main antagonist will be, it will likely be the governments of the nations you raid, or other pirates. Things can get quite cutthroat. When it comes to what you'll look like endgame? If you go the way of being a pirate you should be aiming to be a Pirate Lord, or potentially a Storm King (and yes, there will be multiple). If you go the way of joining the navy, you'll be looking at more of an Admiral, controlling a fleet of ships tasked with breaking down that pirate scourge.

Inspiration: Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Black Sails, ACIV Black Flag, One Piece, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Treasure Island, Captain Blood, The Princess Bride, historical whaling/fishing/piracy/slave trades








>>Cosmic/Body Horror

Original Premise: Lamashtan cult/cosmic or body horror urban campaign involving themes of transcendence of flesh

Additional Notes:

Lower/Average point buy. Potential for mythic to be involved. Potentially a test of alternative crafting system for gear. It'll likely be based in a modified Andoran. Religious inspirations may be taken - though the primary influence will be Lamashtan /Lovecraftian.

Elaboration:

This is ultimately a 15 to 20 point buy. DSP Psionics involved, some 3.x coming back as well. In this case, some of the old Heroes of Horror, along with Book of Vile Darkness stuff, Fiendish Codices and the Warlock. The same rules about adapting 3.x material will be carried over. Mythic might be involved - I'm still not 100% sold on this idea, but its a strong candidate. This campaign may also potentially be a test for an alternative crafting - that is gear will not be crafted simply by the crafting feats and time. You'll be able to spend experience points to reduce crafting time/produce gear that might be above your traditional capabilities of crafting - however there is a catch - experience points in this campaign represent an aspect of your character's soul and memories/experiences. By choosing to use a portion of yourself to fulfill requirements of crafting or enhance it, you are trading your memories away - ie. If you saved a friend from the grasp of a tormented fey creature, and later choose to spend some experience gained from that session, your character might lose that memory - sure people can tell you about it but you won't have lived it. This is represented by potentially being lower level than your party mates who refuse to trade in a portion of their being, and by roleplaying. At higher exchanges, you might find yourself accruing penalties - ranging from a penalty on saves vs. energy drain to resilience against resurrection (or harsher penalties as the usual negative levels - not all of you is coming back). This will all be done by interacting with NPCs capable of channeling the exchange. Likewise, if a party member chooses to take the crafting feats, they can channel for you themselves - but there is something to be said for having your hands tainted by the soul economy. As the campaign goes on there will be a larger focus on transcending the flesh - whether it be into the domain of gods, the realm of undeath or the pits of hell/abyss, your characters will have the opportunity to eschew their humanity in order to gain power. And this might very well be required in order to reach the end of your adventure. I should also note, that occult themes are well suited to this campaign.

Inspiration: Lovecraft/Arthur Machen/Clive Barker/Chambers/Assimov/Ligotti works, Bloodborne, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Drakengard, Roadside Picnic, Eternal Darkness, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Junji Ito works, John Carpenter, Event Horizon, HR Giger, Jodorowsky, Harris' Silence of the Lambs/Red Dragon, Narutaru







>>Warring States/Jade Regent

Original Premise: A Jade Regent styled romp in Golarion's Minkai

Additional Notes:

It'd start with Jade Regent or at least portions of it and edge away from simply just installing Ameiko as empress but rather focus on an overarching narrative set in a feudalistic notJapan! with chances to get dark quite quickly.

Elaboration:

This campaign is like the above in that it will stay around 15 to 20 point buy. No real additional subsystems though, so its straightforward. DSP's Psionics and Path of War will both be available. And in the case of Path of War quite encouraged. The campaign will use elements from Jade Regent - maybe even assuming that Jade Regent was previously played and successful. A larger focus though will be on society and in particular concepts of duty and honor. Consider this game more akin to a deconstruction of the samurai genre - elements such as things like a Golarion equivalent Shinsengumi will be present but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be the heroes they are often portrayed as in real life. Likewise, if characters attain renown and status as samurai or proficient swordsman/archer/spearman/etc., there will be certain expectations of them from their respective feudal lord - whether it be acting as a bannerman as this lord wages war in a campaign to take the throne, or participating in duels for their lord's life or honor, the characters will be feeling a lot of pressure as social matters start to rest upon their soldiers. And not all lords are equal. Some will be quite monsters. You'll deal with oni, kami, ninjas, wandering swordsmen, you name it. With the later aspect of the campaign beginning to focus a nation that is beginning to fragment and the ensuing war for control.

Inspiration: 13 Assassins, Surugajou Gozen Jiai, Shigurui, Kenshin, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Harakiri, Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi, Shogun Assassin, Ran, Lady Snowblood, 47 Ronin, Samurai Warriors series, historical battles in the warring states era (such as the Incident at Honno-ji)





>>Urban/Crime

Original Premise: urban organized crime campaign involving the building of a guild/gang with a focus on gang warfare/politics and law enforcement

Additional Notes:

Least special of the bunch. Averagish point buy, no additional systems. You'd start a bit higher than rusty dagger shanktown, but you're still bottom of the barrel. Your city is huge, the gangs are plenty and the full force of the law will be breathing down your ass ranging from buddy cops to the Raid/Dredd depending on your actions. Or maybe you want to be one of them? Expect convoluted storylines and grey morality abound. This is the one where you find conspiracy theories can be true. Inspiration will come from non-fiction accounts of various gangs, Cormac McCarthy/Ashbury works and some western motifs.

Elaboration:

This campaign, like the above, is a bit lower on the power scale. You're looking around a 15-20 point buy with no subsystems. Though hero points may be potentially included due to inherent lethality present. As stated above about hero points, you may opt out, and I will not penalize a player for this choice. You'll start out around level 3 or so. Not quite rusty dagger shanktown, but still quite light. The setting will primarily take place in a homebrewed city of around 100,000 people or so, sectioned off into various quarters and complete with its own laws/legal system. These laws (for example, one might be no casting divination magic) will be met with a variety of punishments - some as simple and nonlethal as a fine or night in the stocks. Others more oppressive like torture or death. Characters will be expected to navigate legal systems, gang warfare and politics in a locale experiencing fluctuations in its economy, a looming war and immigration. There will be things like the draft or anti-Orcish sentiment abound. You can build your reputation free range, you can join one of the local gangs or start your own, hell you can even join the law enforcement. This is a campaign where storylines will become complex and interwoven. Some becoming a tangled mess, that might not ever become untied. Its also a campaign where danger lurks in the shadows and thieves will act like thieves. Just because you killed a thief from say the 34th Street Butchers, doesn't mean his homies aren't gonna snipe you one day on your walk to the corner store. Ambushes are a very real threat and a lot of the NPCs you encounter will aim to take advantage of you or situations which play to their strengths (ie. a drow rogue might use poison and only engage you when he has the advantage due to darkvision if you are a human). Hence why hero points are being considered. That said, I'm not just gonna metagame and pull up whatever the players are weak against to fight them all the time - dicking a person over just isn't fair. But if you say make a name for yourself by shooting fire about, chances are someone might bring some fire resistance. Especially if he's one of the fat cats in the local Triad. Which on that note, I should mention - gangs and guilds will run a gamut of different styles. You might see Irriseni bratvas, Minkai yakuza, Tian triads or even Varisian street gangs. Its up to the players to ally with which one best fits their style or create their own and rise to the top becoming legends of the underworld or law enforcement.

Inspiration: Yakuza series, Cormac McCarthy (in particular Blood Meridian, The Road, No Country for Old Men), Fargo (tv series and movie), Black Lagoon, Durarara!!, Brigada, The Boondock Saints, Infernal Affairs/The Departed, usual italian mafia films (Goodfellas, The Godfather, Bronx Tale), Carlito's Way, Scarface, The Raid, conspiracy theories, historical mafias/triads/yakuza/gangs, Herbert Ashbury's Gangs of New York, Eastern Promises, Breaking Bad, True Detective, The Wire, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, historical accounts of serial killers/crimes



And those are the options. Hoping to here some feedback. Thanks /pfg/.