Alright I can sleep now

I lay awake at night thinking about world's and adventures.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  There are so many little details that I have in my head about world's that I haven't quite got on paper (or digital) yet.  For the most part these are the little things that crop up when I'm trying to fall asleep.  Here's a few examples of that. 

My old school campaign:  I ran some basic fantasy a LONG time ago with a group.  The big bad was this Hobgoblin and his army.  The PCs never quite got to him.  They just wandered around doing adventures.  Obviously the sessions ended, however world kept moving with or without the PCs.  The nagging thing in my head is starting an adventure after the war.  The hobgoblin and his troops have devastated the countryside, the forests burn, the dwarven mines have been flooded, there is death everywhere.  In the midst of all these chaos the PCs are holed up in the basement of Elerd's Keep, the sounds of catapult ammunition bounces off the walls, creating rumbles in the room.  Elerd sits with the PCs.  "It's time for you to save the world....."  says Elerd.  The PCs question how.  Elerd, whose pale skin shines in the lantern light points at a small ebony stone altar.  "That is a time stone, and I intend to send you back, to right these wrongs and save our world".  

(I should note that Elerd is a local ruler, whose been around for years.  He is a vampire.  But not totally evil.  Every few years the local populace starts to figure out that he doesnt age.  At that point he marries a woman, has a child, that child then becomes the newest ruler.  It's a whole bunch of magic, and sleight of hand to make it look like he's actually human.  In reality he's just figured out away to make it work, using doppelgangers at public appearances. )

The PCs are sent back thru time, the goal to stop the hobgoblin.  They need to make the Elves and Dwarves aware of the situation.  Setup alliances, possibly run errands for them, and be as diplomatic as possible without coming off as crazy.  The supply lines for the Hobgoblin army need to be destroyed.  There's small encampments all over the northern part of the province.  This provides a ton of adventure.  At some point the PCs may meet 3 witches, who send them into a demon realm looking for a weapon to destroy the hobgoblins (or some other coolness).  There's human barbarians that play a role in the adventure as well, similar to the elves & dwarves they don't care much for the human settlement of Elerds Keep.  At some point hopefully the PCs are able to convince them to help.  

There's a random mechanic for time travel.  Anytime the PCs show up in a new location, there's a 5% cumulative chance that they may run into their previous self.  The disasters of which could be catastrophic!  One handy thing about this is that if one of the future PCs die, the past PC could be introduced to the party.  Of course at a lower level.  

There's also a statue in the wilderness that will grant visions of the future.  Foreshadowing the hell that has already happened.  (yup timey wimey stuff.  I love it!) 

Eventually the PCs get to the giant battle.  It may take place on the steps of the Hobgoblins headquarters, or it may take place at Elerd's Keep.  It could even take place around a small halfing village.  The fight ensues.  The players take over regiments of Elves, Dwarves and barbarians fighting against the forces of chaos.  Cut scenes to individual PCs fighting hobgoblins for a few rounds.  

Unfortunately this whole thing is a bit railroadey and not entirely old school.  But sections and a map could detail different parts to it.  Setting it up as more of a hexcrawl, the PCs could make  a beeline straight to the hobgoblins palace if they want.  

Here`s a pile of shit I`ve written about this campaign.  

This is one of a few different campaigns/worlds that I've been working on whilst attempting to fall asleep.  Hopefully I'll get a bit of rest this evening, before Crimhuck wiggles it's way into my head. (Which is a whole different thing). 

Mashup Campaign Idea

I've been watching a lot of TV lately.  Just finished up West world season 1, The Alienist, and season 1 of the Frankenstein chronicles.  All of which are really good! I highly recommend them.

So here's the idea, I've always been a HUGE fan of the old horror movies, Lon Chaney, Bella Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Claude Rains, the list is never ending honestly.  Another movie I absolutely loved when I was a kid was Monster Squad! Of course you can throw in some Penny Dreadful into the mix as well.

Setting: Early 1800's English Countryside, and England (well sort of).
System:  Lotfp (with black powder guns), or maybe Call of Cthulhu.  I just realized this could totally work for DP&D as well!

The PCs are in a virtual environment, much like West World, It's England in the early 1800s.  They are fully aware that they are in the environment, it's an escape from everyday life in the year 3000.  The evening is foggy, the oil lanterns burn low in the tavern.  There is a scream from outside, the PCs rush to see what happened.  Lying in the street is a prostitute, her body is crumpled, head twisted almost all the way around.  No human could do this.....

The rabbit hole leads the PCs to all the great monsters from the horror movies, Frankie, Dracula, Werewolves, etc.  It's up to them to find out what's happening and stop it.

It's going to be campy, just like those movies, it's going to be scary.

The twist of course, unlike West World, and much like Total Recall the PCs can die in the world.

Mystara as my campaign setting

I think from now on I'm just going to use Mystara as my campaign setting.  If the players do something it affects the world moving forward.  If I play an old school campaign or a fifth edition campaign, doesn't matter.  A few things have crossed my mind latetly:

Old School Campaign: 

After reading the back of The grand duchy of karameikos gazetteer, There's lots of little adventure ideas.  My first thought would be for the players to start in Luln, and investigate the old castle (which would be the sample dungeon from basic).  From there they can get hired by Gnomish caravan to bring goods to Specularum.  During the trip a major rain storm will hit, causing the caravan to get stuck in the mud, falling over, spilling out the contents of one of the wagons.  There the PCs will uncover the map & letter regarding Isle Of Dread.  Once in Specularum I think a perfect adventure would be "Veiled Society".  After that the PCs will hopefully have enough money to make the trip to the Isle of Dread.  (And be of decent level).  Since Specularum isn't that detailed in the gazeetteer, I think using specific bits & pieces of Blacksand should do the trick.  There's a lot of good information for sections of a city in the book.  Should be easy to use that.  At some point maybe "A nights dark terror" or "castle amber" might make an appearance. 

Fifth Edition Campaign: 

I've been reading a pile of Al-Qadim stuff latetly.  The land of fate is a really good book.  In Mystara I could pretty much set everything in the Emirate of Ylaruam, in the city of Tel Akbir.  I really dug "Golden Voyages" and a "Dozen and one adventures".  I think they would be relatively easy to convert to fifth edition.  At least bullet points, rather than the adventures (In the case of a dozen and one adventures).  There are a lot more combat opportunities in the 2nd edition adventures, and because combat in fifth takes for friggin ever I'd probably trim it down a bit. 

With Golden Voyages I think I would redraw the ocean map near the coast of Tel Akbir.  For the most part I think I'm going to sit down and do a bit of detailing for the city of Tel Akbir & Dozen and one adventures.  If I can get 2 or 3 adventures re-written & converted for Fifth that should give me enough ammo if I ever have to run a one shot campaign.  I guess I'll create a wiki for the players.

Oh and the gods are going to be the immortals. Until the players reach 20th level, then they can replace em.

That's enough rambling for me this morning, cheers!