Three Campaign Pitches
I started a new campaign this past February. I had a couple ideas for games I’d have fun running, so in the spirit of Matt Colville’s advice on pitching your campaign, I decided to present those ideas to my players and let them pick which one they liked best.
Below is the document I wrote for them. I think it worked really well! I thought it was a great way to generate investment in the game from the get-go, and it clearly set expectations for what the new campaign would be about. If you’ve never pitched campaign ideas to your players, I think you should give it a try!
Campaigns I’d Like to Run
This is a campaign pitch doc — really high-level, I just want to see what excites y’all. I’d be happy running any of these games!
Self-direction and player ambition are a big part of my games. Not everyone has to want something, but ideally some of you will.
The Ochre Isle
It is an age of chaos.
The island of Mislan was once a wealthy province of the Dolelan Empire. But the imperial ruling line is extinguished, and the Empire is but a memory. Trade has broken down — the roads are no longer safe, and brigands and cursed creatures threaten the people. Ambitious nobles scheme against one another, and rumors abound of ancient and powerful magics hidden in the wilderness.
Medieval Fantasy Sandbox
System: Old-School Essentials (probably)
Politics: Medium
Tactics: Medium
Lethality: Medium
Player buy-in: A classic fantasy sandbox game where you get dropped into a small town with lots of potential adventure hooks, and you have to work your own shit out. You’ll get to delve into ancient tombs, acquire powerful and dangerous magic items, and contend with the politics of feudal lords. You’ll have the classic zero-to-hero progression of a fantasy protagonist, with plenty of opportunity to make your mark on the world.
Picket Line Blues
The Ceravolo Gas & Freight Corporation is sole proprietor of Nylund Station, a Helium-3 refinery station in low Neptune orbit. Nylund is a huge investment — it took some big loans and a handful of government contracts to purchase the station, and if CGF doesn’t make big profits from the investment, the whole company might go under.
But CGF’s authority over Nylund Station is fragile. The workers have gone on strike for higher pay and better working conditions. The shareholders demand action, but the company’s enforcers aren’t sure they can win a fight with the union militia. Everything sits on a knife’s edge.
Amid the impasse, the Dead Friendly sits docked for routine maintenance and repair. But the sudden death of a crew member threatens to entangle the whole crew in a web of intrigue that could decide the fate of Nylund Station.
Sci-Fi Murder Mystery
System: Violence, by Luke Gearing
Politics: High
Tactics: Low
Lethality: High
Player buy-in: The rules here are minimal and super lethal. You’ll have to navigate diverse agendas and powerful factional interests using only your wits. One wrong move could end with you being ambushed and shot in a back alley. Nobody fights fair. If Boot Hill and the Fear of Dice sounds fun to you, you’ll probably like this.
Operation Solstice Rain
Your mechs are prepped and loaded aboard the dropship, ready for deployment. Through your chassis’ camera feeds, strapped securely into the cockpit, you watch as the hatches slide closed around you and the hangar airlocks open for launch. From up here, Cressidium looks peaceful — a shimmering jewel hanging in space.
“Ten seconds to drop.”
You take a breath as the pilot counts down. Inhale. Exhale. Then your stomach lurches as the clamps disengage and the dropship’s thrusters kick into full burn.
Mud and Lasers
System: Lancer
Politics: Low (but not none!)
Tactics: High
Lethality: Medium
Player buy-in: This is straightforward military sci-fi. Challenging, tactical grid combat will take up a majority of play time. Along the way, you’ll get to build, upgrade and personalize your mech. The game will be more structured and less self-directed than the other games in this doc, but there’ll still be opportunities to fulfill your own ambitions.
These are three pretty different sorts of games, each appealing to me in different ways.
I really like the idea of building my own fantasy world, one that would persist across campaigns. I’ve never really done that yet, so Ochre Isle was my chance to do that. Building out a setting during a campaign sounded like a fun project. I’d start small and slowly work up, adding new locations, characters, and details as the players explored.
I got the idea for Picket Line Blues after I read Boot Hill and the Fear of Dice. I immediately wanted to run a game in that mold, and tying it to the world of the Restitution Project seemed like a perfect marriage. I’d drop the PCs into a powder keg of a space station, always ready to blow. The players wouldn’t even have a character sheet — they’d need to solve problems with only their wits, the possibility of super-lethal violence hanging over them like the Sword of Damocles.
Operation Solstice Rain is a published module, geared explicitly toward new players and GMs. I had the chance to play Lancer a few years ago and really liked it, but the prep work was too much for our GM. I thought this adventure would be the perfect way to get into running Lancer without overwhelming myself.
My players ended up choosing Picket Line Blues, with Ochre Isle as a close second. My players were mostly uninterested in a tactical mech combat game. We got the new campaign started shortly after, and I’m trying a lot of new things — it’s my first time running this setting, my first time running a murder mystery, my first time running with such a minimalist ruleset. I might have more to say about it later, but it’s been a ton of fun!