"But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them." ― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Overview: The world is filled with old magic, ancient beings, and mysterious forests. Sometimes mortal's interactions with the supernatural go well, but sometimes they do not. This is a time where they have not gone well.
For instance there are rumors of a walled garden mysteriously under constant daylight. Or a sly thief who stole something more precious than he can imagine. And that of a fair elf maiden appearing in adventurer's dreams requesting aid.
Appendix N: The Broken Sword, The King of Elfland's Daughter, Celtic mythology, The Magicians, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, the Reynard tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arthurian tales.
Player Buy-in: Fairytale fantasy (and fairy tale logic). Conflict with dragons. Conflict of old world versuses new world. Organized religion veruses ancient religion. Eventual expanding into hexcrawling.
System: The Black Hack"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." ― Robert E. Howard
Overview: Old school adventuring in biodiverse region. Each for your own reasons has taken passage/work on a caravan bound for the town of Illmire. Perhaps you heard about the Obsidian forge worked by the dwarves hidden in the nearby mountains. Perhaps you received a strange request from a messenger owl, or maybe you’re visiting a remote relative you haven’t seen in years. Whatever the reason upon your arrival you've felt something’s off about the town and it’s up to you to figure out what.
However the town of Illmire isn't the only place you'll have to keep your eyes peeled. The wilderness outside of town is dangerous; full of monsters, warring humanoid factions, forlorn ruins, and hazardous natural features. You may find themselves exploring Illmire and plundering dungeons while trying to uncover the mysteries around the area.
Appendix N: Conan, Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, H.P. Lovecraft
Player Buy-in: Dark fantasy, minor hex crawling, dungeon devlving, faction play
System: The Black Hack"The excitement lies in the exploration of the world around us." ― Jim Peebles
Overview: The world is an industrial fantasy where the subways are a gateway to the astral border of reality, the tenement dwellers have to rub shoulders with malformed living muppets on their way work in sweatshops, some worship alien god-spirits, the Deep Country is a never-ending wilderness chocked with weird ancient ruins, and it gets more and more like a lethal Dr. Seuss drawing the deeper you go.
You are a resident of the only city that matters, Bastion, and you're deep in debt. To get out of debt you've decided to plunder the treasures that surely lie in the ruins in the wild. Or perhaps you'll explore the strangeness of the Underground, or the hidden dangers and wealth of the city.
Appendix N: Wizard of Oz, Jules Verne novels, Steampunk
Player Buy-in: Industrial revolution fantasy. Deadly combat (combat should be last resort). Minimial character growth through rules (based upon succesful expeditions). Focus is on foreground growth through experiences, and making your characters interesting, not necessarily powerful.
System: Into the Odd"For those she liked she did things; to those she didn't like she did other things." ― Manly Wade Wellman, Fearful Rock, and Other Precarious Locales
Overview: The Shudder Mountains are a place rife with superstition and forlorn secrets. In the shadowy, pine-grown valleys of the hollows lurk mysteries of a bygone age and a new evil emerging from the ruins of the past. Shuddfolk villagers must plumb the mountains’ secluded reaches to root out this rising terror before its power comes to fruition. Standing in their path are cackling witches, subtle devils, lingering spirits, and foul things that move in the night.
Appendix N: Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories, Scottish and Irish folklore, Justified
Player Buy-in: Medieval fantasy with an Appalachian twist. Folktales and folk songs. Primary religion is a singular diety.
System: built for Dungeon Crawl Classics, but open to using a different system.Overview: Halcyon City is the greatest city in the world, and home to the most superheroes and their adventures. The city has seen four generations of supers, and you're on a team that is part of the newest generation. Each of you have a central issue that drives your play as you deal with supervillains, alien invasions, older superheroes sticking their nose in, and things in your normal life.
Appendix N: X-men, Spider-Man, Young Justice, Young Avengers, Teen Titans, Birds of Prey.
Player Buy-in: Superheroes. Teenage emotional drama. Helping shape the world.
System: Masks: A New GenerationOverview: It is the 22nd century, you’re working on a space hauler, trying to earn enough credits to make in ends meet. Hours ago you received a distress signal from a vessel that hasn’t been seen in nearly 200 years. Curiosity has gotten the better of you, so you’re going to go investigate. Who knows, maybe you can find something worth salvaging on that old bird.
Appendix N: Alien, Event Horizon, Cowboy Bebop, The Expanse
Player Buy-in: Sci-fi horror. Your PCs are under constant strain and space is dangerous. You lead dangerous, violent, and unstable lives under the shadows of crushing monoliths of power. You want to get rich; you’ll probably die trying.
System: MothershipOverview: the year is 2099, and despite the bright lights and technology, its still a rat race. You're hired hands in a sprawling metropolis working for one paymaster or another. A fixer called Faraday has a new line on the job for you guys. If you do the job properly you’re coming home with a hefty 10,000 credits reward. If you don’t you might be coming home in a body bag.
Appendix N: The Sprawl Trilogy, Johnny Mnemonic, Snow Crash, Android: Netrunner, Syndicate, Cyberpunk
System: Maybe the Sprawl or Cities Without NumberOverview: it’s been almost 80 years since the world went to shit. Governments fell, corporations fell, hell most of society fell. Those are left had to crawl out from the rubble, and start over. The aftermath of the disaster has resulted in the rise of new life and the adaptation of existing life, you’ve got robots, plant people, mutant, and a variety of animal folk, sharing the earth with the human who ruined it. you are amongst those survivors fighting and crawling to get by day today and it seems you just might have looked yourself into it a lot of credits.
Appendix N: Mad Max, Fallout, Wool, the Road, the Last of Us, Thundarr the Barbarian
System: Maybe The Rad Hack (hack of the Black Hack) or Mutant Year ZeroOverview: In the city of Ten Thousand Gates anything can be had if you've got money or know-how. You don't have the former, but got plenty of the latter. Money comes quickly in the City of the Black Toga, and leaves quicker so you’ve taken a job to go remove a valuable or two from one of the cities more wealthy individuals. While on the job, you are going to meet your fellow adventurers/thieves. Together you'll face new complications as you try to earn your pay without ending up dead. From there you’ll have adventures throughout the great city of Lankhmar and around the inner sea all while trying to please your various patrons, and avoid being killed by those you've wronged.
Appendix N: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, Conan the Barbarian (only the first film)
System: DCC LankhmarOverview: You stand outside the entrance to the Canyon of Ice, the first trail on your way up to Skysplitter Mountain to put an end to this unnatural winter.
This campaign will require greater input from the players as you’ll be responsible for helping build the world. This will be a 8 to 12 session game, centered around player, driven narrative and testing Jon improv skills.
Appendix N: Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, Riftwar Saga, Icewind Dale trilogy, The Cleric Quintet
System: Dungeon World (Maybe the hack Homebrew World)