Exonauts: A Campaign Brief
Thinking about putting my pitches for campaigns I won't get around to for a while here, both to hopefully inspire others and just as a sort of archive.
Pitch: The Society for Exonautical Research is dedicated to exology, the study of parallel and imagined worlds, funded by generous grants from interested members of the aristocracy. A revolution in their endeavors came with the invention of the Exonautilus, a submarine-like vessel capable of crossing into other worlds. Unfortunately, some of the Society's less reputable members have stolen the Exonautilus and vanished into alternate dimensions in search of exotic plunder. The Powers that Be are less concerned with the Exonautilus's disappearance than when the prospect that the pirates might return with barely-imagined treasure and abilities. For this reason, a more primitive version of the Exonautilus was quickly designed and a crew of rugged but reliable members of the Society entreated to follow the brigands. Ideally, they would capture the ne'er-do-wells and return their ship, but their destruction is an acceptable contingency. Upon their return with proof of their success, the PCs are each promised the equivalent of a small barony back home.
System: Electric Bastionland or Troika!
Elaboration/Thoughts: This is an attempt to make a playable version of a portal-ly game. In an attempt to make it more familiar to a TTRPG setting, I think it comes off a bit more like Planescape or Spelljammer, but I still think there's some cool potential. I think having a time component is important so the players don't spend all of their time in the first world they visit. I would probably give the pirates a head start of 2 or 3 worlds and then roll each time the players visit a world to see how many days before the pirates move on. The smaller the dice, the more rushed the players will feel, and the more likely they will be to fall behind their quarry, extending the length of the campaign.
I think most people have a backlog of modules they'd like to play, and in the interest of getting a wide variety of settings and genres I might spring for:
- A western setting, maybe Jon Davis' Ghosts of the Sierra Verde
- A medieval setting
- A Roman setting
- A cyberpunk setting
- A space-y setting, maybe the moon from Wolves Upon the Coast
A more conventional way to do this would have the players be the pirates. This could be a lot of fun in a Time Bandits-y way. Knowing that the interdimensional cops are on their tails would add the time pressure element, but I think you would have to do a better job of seeding things in the modules you're using that would justify these transplanar escapades.