Reading the Sandbox badwrongfun thread, or at least the very first page I had an absolutely idiotic idea for a campaign.  I was thence able to expand it, possibly making it even stupider.

The idea, if you will:

the players, doughty adventurers all (1st level whatsits), start within a 'classic' dungeon, have their 'little' adventure and, presumptively get out with fat loot and a couple of levels under their belt. It may be necessary to contrive a reason why they don't just go back to town every couple of days, but thats a judgment call.

Anyway: Once they've gotten all this fat loot... possibly enough that some players might think to themselves 'monty haul!'... though again, judgment calls here. Anyway: Lots of fat loot and enough xp to make them big men about town they naturally will gravitate towards town. So far, all is essentially well in 'traditional fantasy campaign #42891'.

Now for the Stupid part:

Once they get back to town, having dealt with the nasty dungeon of doom, rather than hand out lots of clues towards future adventures (not even rumors or whispers of other dungeons...), simply point out that they are filthy rich and fairly powerful by local standards and ask them 'now what?'.

In a real sense they have, by surviving and looting the local dungeon, 'won' the adventuring game.  The Classic D&D model seems to assume they will then spend all that fat loot buying better gear to clear nastier dungeons for higher paydays, which seems slightly silly.

The actual campaign, you see, is focused entirely on what the characters DO once they are wealthy beyond conventional avarice. Obviously a reasonably detailed world, with engaging NPCs and thoughtful, if not to say accurate socio-political and economic models will help, but I am reasonably sure any old hex map would do in a pinch.  

To expand it and make it stupider, one could presume that they are all local kids who found the dungeon by accident and are, in fact, NOT hardened adventurers.  Bonus points for creating lots of ties to the local community and various scenes with player vs NPC interactions BEFORE adding said dungeon.  Debatable point: This may actually REDUCE the stupid quotient.

Discuss!

This is reminding me of 'Power Kill'... kinda.

Brevity may be the very soul of wit, but if that is the case I suspect you possess rather too much soul for me.

Power Kill - http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_powerkill.html

Was published in an expanded edition by Hogshead at the end of the 90s.

Having looked at the concept of PowerKill I do not see it. I am not pulling some weird meta 'rules lite' game outside a game within a game crap.  I am simply presenting a campaign senario where you are a local hero who just saved the neighborhood and got filthy rich doing it: What do you do for an encore, a reasonable premise from the results of an ordinary dungeon crawl (and eminently far more sensible than assuming they then spend all their fat loot on a single shiny sword just to start over with bigger, scarier badguys.)

It could very well be that the characters spend a good chunk of their loot (invest it if you will) in research to lead them to the next unplundered hole in the ground, but the premise here is that dungeons are rare and hard to find, at least the ones worth Looting are, and quests do not magically seek out rich fuckers who are willing to work as caravan guards if it gets them to the next magic bauble.




At least a small part of the inspiration is my own frustrated ambitions as a player. My 13th level cleric of Gond would desperately love to build a temple-workshop somewhere, anywhere. There are two problems with this: The GM keeps us moving to an insane degree, so we have no home base (we go where the modules say we go... gah!), and all my 'temple funds' go to buying incremental upgrades to keep me alive on the fights I have that serve Gond in no real appreciable way.

Also: Its Forgotten realms, home to 25th level henchmen. The economy is so inflated from retired adventurers that even an outhouse probably costs more to build than a magical sword.

Damnit! I want my characters to have and work towards GOALS. Not just levelling and adventuring for the sake of leveling and adventuring. This has been going on for twenty years, countless game masters and three of the four states I've played in (and one other nation).  The closest I came was the old WHFRP, where my Rake (SO not my concept... le sigh), bought the local tavern when I realized the GM had no plans of letting us ever get to a major city.  That's right, bitches! I OWN that fucking tavern where all the quest givers go to meet saps like you, I keep half of every copper farthing you spend on cheap booze and loose women!  Phear mah powaz!

I like your idea, I think the reference to Powerkill was in the challenging of standard Fantasy genre assumptions, not in the metagame aspect.

Yeah I don't really see any similarity to Power Kill either, I was just providing the link to it so you knew what Simlasa was talking about. Power Kill was all about going "OMG violence", whereas what you're talking about here is stomping the power curve that's assumed in many RPGs so that people can retire after one dungeon.

I don't think it's silly really, unless you want it to be. It's hardly a million miles from the default campaign in RC D&D (where you're assumed to start getting involved in matters of national politics after a few levels rather than endlessly going in to scarier holes in the ground).

Quote from: Spike;384296Damnit! I want my characters to have and work towards GOALS. Not just levelling and adventuring for the sake of leveling and adventuring. This has been going on for twenty years, countless game masters and three of the four states I've played in (and one other nation).  

Thing is, there seems to be more people interested in levelling and adventuring for the sake of leveling and adventuring because they do not want to give their PCs depth beyond what it takes to have fun in a game that they play.

Run from the Tax collectors! Dodge marriage seeking women/men who want all that money. Avoid potential heirs--of them or the dungeon monsters..

I think that might be fun, especially for a somewhat lighthearted game.

Great you are suddenly rich, have more power than you know what to do with--and not it gets REALLY interesting.

This has been done many times - it's been a part of several of my campaigns.  I believe that it's in the 2e DMG that it gives advice on events triggered by adventurer wealth : hangers on, thieves, tax collectors, charities, etc.  You could even say that it's one of the core assumptions of AD&D; once characters get rich and powerful enough, they are semi-expected to start building their own domains, deal with the world more, and adventure less.  That's what all the name level effects are about.

A few years ago I was playing in  D&D campaign. I played a gnome rogue whose dream was to open a magnificent casino, The Paradise. That's the reason he went off adventuring.

As a result of saving his putting all his money into the Paaradise fund his equipment never improved,  he sold any magical treasure he got and was very reluctant to use potions or anything  with charges. Unfortunately D&D doesn't really work that way - it's a very stuff orientated game - so as we all levellled what was a bit of fun became more and more awkward.

In fairness I am not a complete idiot and I don't set out to deliberately break games. But when I created the character I expected the game to last the usual 1-6 sessions of play, I had no idea it would turn into a year long campaign (neither did the GM, it just sort of happened).

We did sometime afterwards run a one shot game at the Paradise, but by then my heart had really gone out of fantasy.

Quote from: Grymbok;384314Yeah I don't really see any similarity to Power Kill either, I was just providing the link to it so you knew what Simlasa was talking about. Power Kill was all about going "OMG violence", whereas what you're talking about here is stomping the power curve that's assumed in many RPGs so that people can retire after one dungeon.
.

Well, my assumption is that even a low level starter dungeon provides enough real wealth compared to, say... farming that anyone could reasonably retire, or at least take a really long sabbatical from 'real work'.   Joe the pickpocket goes into the 'Hole of Doom' and three weeks later walks out as Joe the Master Thief and with three thousand good and a dagger that glows in the dark...and that just his share if none of his buddies actually die. If they do, his share goes up.

And that's not even generous (seriously. One magic dagger? No bags of potions, a wand or other gimmicky doodad?)...

Since Joe is now richer than anyone short of the local baron in a Gold based Economy (serious: What is a donkey worth? 8 gold?).  He could easily buy some noble's clothes and his own personal carriage, with eight white horses to pull that fucker and still have enough gold to hire a small army for a few months.  Is he really going to go around robbing the locals?  

Only for fun. Its not like those 1st level NPC warrior types are a real threat to him, and on the off chance the local sheriff happens to be a retired adventurer himself, the jail can't really hold him.

Or, he COULD blow it all getting some leather enchanted by a wizard somewhere, reducing him to near poverty once more in return for 10% fewer stab wounds and then starve and steal for a while until his buddies find a new, unlooted hole.

I think the idea hit 'stupid' when you realize that I would probably junk the implied 'adventure based economy' from the get go (spoke of lovingly in the AD&D PHB, where I got my start).   Eliminate the entire idea that there are regular bands of adventurer types regularly plundering the dirt. Sure, it may be a concept as old as D&D, which is why I got into the game in the first place, but I'll be damned if I've seen any sign of it in my entire gaming career.

Yeah, sorry... I took your original post as a sort of meta deconstruction of standard RPG practices... maybe I've been reading too much of TV Tropes lately...

Actually, I sympathize with your wanting to get off that treadmill of equip... level... equip... level... That was one of the big reasons I stopped playing WOW... the whole game is just about chasing this carrot-on-a-stick that leads you nowhere (or to an endgame that is at least equal to a part-time job).
Without any consequences/complications for gaining all that power and... stuff... it feels pretty meaningless.
I can see why it's optimal for the current technology in computer games (or is it?) but seems lazy and uninspired for the anything-is-possible nature of TTRPGs.

But like Jeff37923 says it also seems to be mighty damn popular...