Campaigns I Want To Run (Someday)

I own more RPGs than I’ll ever know what to do with. There are so many campaigns I’d love to run, and sometimes, it feels like even running two games a week is too few to play everything I want to play!

I feel like the most obvious answer would be to run one-shots, or mini-campaigns of a few sessions. Currently, with everyone playing online, however, it’s not as simple as pulling out a book with some premade characters from a starter set adventure. You have to fill in the character sheet forms on Roll20, set up a whole game, usually add in some visuals. It’s an hours long process to set everything up. Also, with my two different weekly groups, I just don’t have time to add in a whole new game. I see some of you out there with your 5-days-a-week game schedules, and I’m very jealous.

So, here are the games I’d love to run someday in the future.

Doctor Who: I’d love to run a campaign with the players playing as themselves. When I first got the game, I statted up myself to see how character creation played, and it was a pretty smooth system. I’ve played in a one-shot of this myself a few years back, and I’d love to run a short campaign. This one, especially, feels like it would be most entertaining with a group of players who all know each other, so you have established relationships.

Usagi Yojimbo: I excitedly backed the Kickstarter, as the original edition was the second RPG I ever ran. I love the setting of Edo-era Japan (but with animals), and the new edition uses a PBtA engine. I’d want to run the tale of a bunch of displaced commoners forced to bond together to stop a powerful and corrupt warlord.

Battlestar Galactica: This one utilizes the original Cortex rules, and I’ve been holding onto it since it came out, waiting for the chance. I want to run the game aboard a completely different Battlestar which found a way to escape the Cylons. None of the Cylons from the show would be the Cylons in the game. I would reveal characters who I’d describe vaguely as the Cylons from Galactica in order to cause the players to suspect them, but it would turn out to be other forces entirely. I’d want to run this long-term, building up tensions, not revealing too much at a time. It could be really fun.

Marvel Heroic: While I wrote for the game, and continue to occasionally produce content for MarvelPlotPoints.com, I’ve only ever run one or two-shot games. I REALLY want the chance to run a massive campaign sprawling (comic book) years. I’ve got so many ideas: A campaign set in a universe where the Marvel universe began in the 60’s and time has moved forward from there, or a campaign utilizing the Civil War event and moving forward from there… I’d love it if I could find the right group.

Mouse Guard: It’s been a long time since I’ve played MG, and I got pretty good at it, running small one-shot games for groups, but we’ve never gotten to really explore the characters and the tiny world they inhabit. I wouldn’t want to run an especially long campaign. Maybe a couple of game-years’ worth.

Android: Netrunner: I absolutely adore the setting of Android: Netrunner. The card game was great, diverse, and dynamic, hinting at a really amazing world. The Worlds of Android book they brought out was essentially an RPG setting book but without the mechanics, and shows a really detailed world. With the FFG Genesys system, they brought out a book specifically for Android. FFG’s system is really cool and a lot of fun, but I may need to run this using The Sprawl, a PBtA cyberpunk game that will work so well in that setting.

Hackmaster: Over the past few months I’ve been collecting Hackmaster books, eager to run something, ANYTHING with it. With how deadly the game is, I’m not sure I could run a long-term campaign, but some fun occasional games, revisiting the same characters as they delve, plunder and slaughter. It could be a ton of fun.

Dark Heresy/Wrath & Glory: I’m not sure whether I’d use Dark Heresy, which I own a bunch of books for, or Wrath & Glory, which is the current batch of 40k RPG rules, but I wanna run a game set in the dark underbelly of the already grimdark world. I’d want to explore the fascism of the setting, and present the players with a story that would challenge them, mentally and emotionally.

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So those are the games I’d love to run at some point in the future. Of course, there’s always the Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Zweihander, or a half-dozen more, but this gives a small sample of what’s going through my head right now.