Pick Your Problem Set: Ideas?

[Leitz]

Okay, after a few years of playing various RPGs I've come to the conclusion that I have tired of yet another dungeon, yet another game where you start from the bottom and "eventually" work your way up; given that "eventually" you'll be on another game before you make it to "up".

I like taking a character and resloving a problem. Ealry on it was some nastiness in the village of Homlett. Or hanging around with some guys who were building a ship. Or even before Homlett it was just some dungeon; "Here, try this potion we just found! Oops, how about you roll up another character?"

So what problem sets have you had fun solving?

Damsel in Distress
Learn new skills as you become powerful
Big nasty spells that take care of things you used to struggle with
Learning the ways of the Force (d6, thank you!)
Being heroic while being Super
Land overrun with "orcs|evil|Chtulu|non-Romans|them"

Some games I've wanted to be in for a while, to see how that problem set worked:

Noble
Rich
Leader (though a stint in wargaming was pretty good)
Powerful
--You know, all those things we adventure to get to...

Remember in D&D how at around 9th level you could become a powerful leader in some remote place? How many folks actually played that part out?

What are some fun problem sets you've been in or run, and how did it work out? How different were the mechanics and goals?

L

 

[Hemdian]

I ran a campaign where the PCs were in the IN (homage to FASA's Star Trek RPG) during the 5FW. Adventures included:

• Search & Rescue
• Espionage
• Anti-terrorist
• Murder mystery
• Escape from large damaged ship (homage to The Posidon Adventure)
• Survival after a crash
• A dungeon crawl (okay, I had to have one didn't I)
• Sneaking into an enemy base

Worked pretty well.

 

[Sturn]

D&D as Referee:

City overrun by undead (your land overrun by..)
Soldiers in a frontier military campaign.
Adventurers setting down roots ruling a village.
Missions as agent of then later member of a secret society (Circle of 8).

Star Wars as Referee:

Bounty hunters / Mercenaries for hire.
Double agents, once Imperial agent peons turned Rebel spies.
On the run in a stolen ship while hunted by a criminal syndicate.
Leaders of a small rebel cell going on missions from a secret hideout.
Slowling finding out the mystery of your father's death then retribution.

2300 AD as Referee:

The given alien invasion campaign (another land overrun by..).
Multi-national mercenaries.
Leaders of a small criminal syndicate.

 

[Leitz]

As referee

Besides using the Village of Homlett in a dozen games systems over the course of a decade, I think my most enjoyable stint as a referee was in 7th Sea. The two character's didn't like each other, had to deal with capricious Elven magic that's not nearly as nice as Tolkien, an "anti-Elf" group that was observing them for possible recruitment, time travel they could not control, being hunted by unknown assassins, supernatural nasties a loud and annoying imp, and finally waking up married in a land where all their dreams had come true. Elven magic, that. Especially since the female character still couldn't stand the other and she was pregnant!

The one player wnted to do some noble stuff and he was getting started in that. Unfortunately a relocation in real life ended that.

I like the idea of spy games but have never been good at them; player or DM. I've tried the Noble thing once in a while but can't get into a game that lasts long enough for me to figure things out.

L

 

[MR TEK]

Most fun I had as a GM

I ran a D&D campaign that started with an Orc invasion. The group came together to investigate a local monster attack. They stumbled on a scouting party for the invasion.

They took off for the nearest big city, hoping the info they had might be valuable, (different characters that the info would be valuable reasons) Then the invasion began, and adventures were a string of encounters with small bands at the leading edge.

With traveller travel times, a group would like never be more than a jump or two from the Calvary, but it could still make a string of encounters that could be combined with some investigations, and possibly covert intelligence gathering, ether as hired guns, at hired by a patron behind the sceans.

Anyway, it was great fun as a game master, and the players enjoyed it too. When they were safe, however and the pressure was off, the game lost steam quickly.