Those are the main non-fantasy concepts I had but I included some fantasy as well because it's been a year since we did that and it might be a good change:
- Dungeons of Drakkenheim (5th Edition/5.5/Tales of the Valiant) - I have it, it looks like fun, and it's finish-able as a campaign which gives a nice sense of closure/completion. D&D Mordheim does sound like fun since this group is unlikely to get into a 20-year old skirmish miniatures campaign it's probably my best chance to play out this idea. It does go against some of my wants but it could be worth it.
Campaign idea: play the campaign! - Ruins of Myth Drannor (2nd Edition AD&D) - This is my retro option. Half my table never played 2E, I think it's a very playable version of old D&D, it's the Realms, it's the Dalelands, it's Myth Drannor -lot's of touchpoints there and it's by far the most traditional thing on the list. I just think it would be a lot of fun and being one of the more dangerous parts of the Realms it could go on and on into some high levels without needing to spend tons of time in a giant dungeon. There's room for some travel and a lot of exploration.
Campaign idea: Start out poking around the Dalelands, start learning about the ruined elf stuff and gradually explore the forest and the city and see what happens. - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (5th edition) - the updated rules just came out, most of the group hasn't played any version of WFRP, it's traditional fantasy but it's not traditional D&D fantasy ... I have a few ideas on what this could be as a campaign and no, it would not be The Enemy Within.
Campaign idea:
1) Expedition to Lustria - Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs sounds like a good start to me. Play around in the Empire for a bit then join a noble's expedition to go build up a settlement in these strange lands.
2) Dark Elves - there's a new supplement about a Black Ark and it has a lot of good material in it from what I can see. This would probably be coastal Empire based, fighting off Dark Elf raids, holding off Orcs, and possibly allying with some High Elves or Wood Elves and would eventually lead to a direct attack on or by the Black Ark itself. Seems like a good option for a campaign with a solid finale ending point.
- Warhammer The Old World Roleplay (right, the new one with the very similar setting but a completely different system) This is a new game, same setting 100+ years earlier, and I would probably run a similar campaign to what I described above. A lot of the supporting material is heavily tied to Talabheim so it wouldn't really help with those and I might have to think up a more Beastmen-centric campaign. There's also not a lot of it as it's a pretty new game. Getting to throw the Arachnorok spider on the table for an RPG is an attractive possibility for sure.
- Age of Sigmar Soulbound - The other other Warhammer Fantasy RPG from Cubicle 7 with a different setting and a different system. It's a different level of fantasy, kind of like starting out as a mid to high-level D&D party exploring and fighting Big Evil in the various planes. After reading back through it I do think it could be a lot of fun. I have some concern about the system maybe not being crunchy enough for a long campaign but that's just based on reading it not playing it.
Campaign idea: Start with a version of an airship crash, possibly move in to the starter set stuff around the city of Brightspear, then move into their published "Shadows in the Mist" campaign set in and around another city. That would give us a solid start and give me a chance to get a feel for the system before working up more original adventures. - Pathfinder Second Edition "Mythspeaker" - it's been years since we played PF2E. It checks a lot of boxes as far as support material, tools, system depth - it probably scores the highest for all of those. This is a level 1-10 adventure path and it's been years since I tried to run one of those too. The reason I would consider this one is that it's set in a distant part of their setting and it based on Greek myths and heroes and that is not something we have tried here for quite a while. I'm reading the campaign still so I don't have a final verdict but it definitely has a different feel than a typical D&D adventure. It's an island chain and there is a lot of travel involved so I would have room to add in some things I think should be there - like a lot of Harryhausen monsters and set pieces. It also incorporates Mythic power which we explored in Wrath of the Righteous with 1st edition and they say it works better now. If we like it there are some other published APs that could pick up where this one ends or we could just do our own thing. There is a lot of flexibility here, especially for being a published campaign.
So that's the Fantasy list.
After working through my thoughts on these 12 games and reading a lot of rules I brought them up to the crew in a first round of discussions to see how they felt. Some things came out pretty quickly:
- No one wants to play more supers right now. We did two campaigns this year and apparently that box is checked. This was disappointing because I had just finished going back through the Marvel game and was building up a head of steam to run that. Ah well - maybe after whatever is next.
- No one is terribly excited about a 5th edition type game. We've all played it, some have run it, and they've pretty much had their fill of it for now.
- There was some interest in the potential 2nd Edition D&D game.
- There was some interest in Achtung Cthulu
- There was some interest in all of the Savage World games to be fair. The system continuity was seen as a bonus, not a problem, so there is that.
- When I pointed out the sandboxiness of Stars Without Number it kind of fizzled. My players like a little more of a framework than that game really assumes.
- There was one or two person interest in the Warhammer games
- There was a lot of interest in the Mythic Greek Pathfinder game. That's probably the leader after this first discussion.
After reading through more material this past week I am taking Achtung Cthulhu off of the table. It is very much "here's a mission go handle it" for most of the potential campaigns and I am trying to get away from that. That leaves:
- Wrath & Glory
- Rifts
- Hell on Earth
- Warhammer 5th
- Warhammer Old World
- Soulbound
- Pathfinder Mythic Greece
AD&D 2E Realms might come up again and I may have one other option to throw at them but I feel like it's narrowing down nicely. People might say "But what do you want to run?" and my answer is I like all of these options. Given more time I'd like to run them all! But I only have time right now to run one, consistently anyway, so I like to ensure solid buy-in and a good consensus going into a new undertaking like this.
We will discuss again Saturday night before the game and try to narrow it down or even make a definite call. I'll talk about that tomorrow.
