This Campaign Needs a Name

For awhile now I've been planning on writing something on a new campaign idea, but didn't really have anything special to say about it until now. A recent post at Jeff's Gameblog called "Alchemical Proposal" presents a simple structure for describing and developing campaigns. Obviously, it's neither comprehensive nor definitive, but seems to be a good brainstorming technique nonetheless. I'll give it a try.

Core ruleset: Labyrinth Lord, the free retro-clone of Basic D&D, is still my default D&D ruleset for online campaigns. On the other hand, I've come to prefer Tunnels & Trolls for play-by-post games, due to its more abstract combat system and intertwined Saving Roll and advancement systems. Or maybe some other fantasy rpg.

Inspiration Source #1: The Journals of Lewis & Clark.
I wrote briefly about this book a couple posts ago. This is the primary inspiration for the campaign. Elements from the book that I'd like to adopt into the campaign:

• Exploration and mapping of unknown territory.
• Diplomacy with warring native tribes of various dispositions.
• Discovery of trade routes through mountains; especially via navigable rivers.
• Resource management; especially trading with natives to obtain food and transport.

Inspiration Source #2: The Hobbit. Like the Lewis & Clark expedition, this is a story of going "There and Back Again" over the hills, along the rivers, and across the mountains. There you had the Rocky Mountains. Here it's the Misty Mountains. Gosh darnit..maybe in this campaign they'll be called the Snowy Mountains.

Inspiration Source #3..."The wild card": The Muppets and other Jim Hensen creations. Some Muppets skits and related movies, such as The Dark Crystal, have great fantastical settings or backdrops, the flavor of which I would like to impart on this campaign. How long can the expedition survive on the meat of a single snuffleupagus or "big bird"? Ever since I started thinking about this wilderness campaign I've imagined the party encountering big bad Sweetums.

"Touché, little green one!"

The inclusion of The Hobbit and The Muppets as inspirational sources is for their fantastical elements (in contrast to the non-magical setting of Lewis & Clark), and not for their playful or comedic aspects. A bit of lightheartedness is good for any campaign, but I envision this one to be a bit more gritty than what I've done in the past.

Whereas I've had the above three inspiration sources in mind since I first hatched this campaign idea, I haven't put much thought into adding supplementary, setting-specific rules. I can see how this can be a good way to connect the players to the setting right off the bat...during character creation. Because it will be a wilderness-based campaign, I've given thought to various wilderness creation tools and exploring techniques, but nothing in the way of additional classes, races, spells, monsters, and magic items as Jeff suggests. I haven't decided exactly which core ruleset the campaign will use, but, because converting almost any fantasy rpg supplement to basic D&D or T&T is such a simple task, the choices for supplementary rules sources are plentiful.

Supplementary Rules #1: Griffin Mountain. This is an old Runequest wilderness campaign setting. I maybe wouldn't have thought of using it for this campaign if not for Jeff's "Alchemical Proposal". Now that I've taken a closer look at it, I think it is a perfect fit for this campaign in that it describes a large wilderness region populated by neolithic/hunter-gatherer tribes. I don't know if I'll use its setting exactly as is. It might work admirably as the setting for the first part of the campaign expedition. If nothing else, I'll mine it for additional classes, races, spells, monsters, magic items, locales, personalities, etc.

Supplementary Rules #2: Hmm...maybe the possibilities for supplemental rules are too plentiful. There's more old Runequest stuff that piques my interest: Dragon Pass, Prax, etc. I'll definitely use the medicinal herbs charts from the old Mirkwood supplement for the Middle Earth Roleplaying game, but I don't know if the rest of the book would be of much use. Maybe something from Planescape...any tiefling fans out there? Anybody got any ideas?