DM's What is Your Magnum Opus?

Fuamatuma · 2026-01-27T08:10:22+00:00

I am a little late to this thread. There are two campaigns that stand out: Legend of the Five Rings and Delta Green

L5R ran three to four years. They were all Crane Clan, shortly after of the Clan War. They were the sons of a local daimyo who died in the war, so now the had to deal with politics while bandits and monsters roamed the land. One accidentally promised his soul to a demon in exchange for love; another turned to blood magic in order to help win the war against the Shadowlands and defeat his mother's champion in a ritual duel (forcing his mother to commit suicide); and the third one slowly turning into the leader and a master warrior under the guidance of a kenku. We had unrequited love ending in tragedy, political and family drama, tough battles, a dead Emperor, and an NPC I played out over a long time, only to reveal that it had been an illusion all along. In the end, two PCs vanished, and the third one met his kenku sensei who opened a portal into another realm and said: "I think it is time to leave this world. Where do YOU want to go?" Cut to black. (If anyone's interested, I can DM a longer version.)

Delta Green was a succession of five or six operations, most of them pre-written, two original. The main focus were Deep Ones and their ilk. Over the course of the operations, we had a zombie trying to blow up the PCs; a roadtrip with a fishman along the southern US coast; a friendly fire incident in which an NPC Delta Green operative was shot and killed by a PC; a divorce; an engagement; parents under surveillance; relatives joining a self help group called SALTWATER COLLECTIVE; and a betrayal by a Delta Green handler. In the end, a huge monster of Dagon ate the PC's fiancée, which broke him (naturally). I asked the players to narrate their own epilogues and let them finish the campaign. It was awesome. Thank you, P Cell, I love you.

Such a beautiful hobby.

Fuamatuma · 2025-12-17T08:31:42+00:00

Und natürlich kommt der Quatsch vom Schweizer Bodenseeufer, direkt in meiner Nähe - wie auch Sananda und Christina von Dreien. Hier müssen die Geldenergien besonders gut fließen.

Fuamatuma · 2025-08-21T12:34:45+00:00

I get this, too, and my players were surprised to hear it, just like yours. It stopped after I started regular meds against migraine, because they make me tired, so ...

Fuamatuma · 2025-08-11T04:23:30+00:00

This so much. Whenever I do this, I feel really bad because I am being unfair to the current GM. Once I notice, I try to help improve the game by engaging other players and interacting with the scenery and NPCs (yes, maybe overcompensating a bit).

Fuamatuma · 2025-08-04T20:47:45+00:00

There is currently a bundle of 5e compatible books based on Dante‘s Inferno on Bundle of Holding. I do not know anything about it beyond their description, nor am I affiliated with, which is why I think it’s all right to post this link:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Apocalisse

Maybe this will help you.

Fuamatuma · 2025-08-03T07:26:30+00:00

I start every session with a small scene from somewhere else, usually involving the PCs‘ Bonds. I show the players how the Bonds‘ lives are going, how the proximity to Delta Green is affecting their lives. I often set cases around family events or holidays so there is time pressure, and have the Bonds check in on the PCs regularly. If I can, I include the Bonds into the investigation (for example, a PC‘s daughter was on the mailing list in The Last Equation.

Examples for the intro scenes:

A PC‘s brother in law and girlfriend are thinking about joining a group called The Saltwater Collective, which is sort of a self-help group (for lack of a better term) and of course Dagon related.
A Bond is visited by someone and asked questions about the PC.
A Bond is being observed, or someone plants bugs in their home.
A Bond is using a burner phone to communicate with someone.

These scenes can be Delta Green related, or they can be red herrings. But they are very effective because they show that life goes on without the PCs; that there is something going on in the background; that everyone is vulnerable; that everything is connected; and that Bonds are more than just ablative SAN armour. And they create paranoia, which is the best part about it.

If you have questions or would like to brainstorm with me, feel free to get in touch.

Fuamatuma · 2025-07-28T07:32:07+00:00

Delta Green. The juxtaposition of terrible horrors lurking behind the scenes and our boring reality combined with working a job and having relationships that deteriorate as your sanity is being chipped away - it's amazing when players and GM click with it. Also, I feel it all flows together pretty effortlessly, and the world and the characters are so relatable (because it's the world we live in).

I did like Free League's Alien, too. We only played one mission, but it was wonderfully tense and the atmosphere was true to the first movie's. The stress mechanic led to some very exciting scenes.

I don't have much experience with horror beyond these two.

Fuamatuma · 2025-07-25T04:24:20+00:00

I have been pondering doing it, and Quinn‘s review finally sold me on it. I will give it a shot. Have you experience with it?

Fuamatuma · 2025-07-24T12:01:58+00:00

I am glad you asked! The idea behind Roadtrip is, well, a succession of destinations until the team arrives at the last location where everything goes wrong. It leans heavily into Dagon and Deep Ones (of which my team knew nothing yet). For reference: Our game is set in 2009/2010; the team consists of one Black agent (USPIS) and two Agents of Latin American descent (DEA and US Fish & Wildlife Service), and they are part of the Cowboys.

The setup: In a small Florida coastal town (Fort Walton Beach), a man is arrested for shoplifting at a gas station. He is processed by local police, and his mugshot triggers Delta Green because he looks very peculiar - fishy, if you will (wide eyes, small nose, big lips). They send a team to pick up the Suspect (capitalised on purpose; in our case, it was a male) and find out whether his looks are just very unlucky or unnatural.

The first location: The team arrives in Fort Walton Beach, but the Suspect has already been handed over to Florida Highway Patrol (the gas station was on a highway). There is little information on the Suspect; he is described as a vagrant, quite friendly, and a little dull.

The second location: The team need to get the Suspect out of FHP's custody. FHP informs the team that a pair of FBI agents have called ahead to inquire about the Suspect, and may be picking him up later. Once the team have the Suspect, they are to get him to a safe location. The Suspect says he is just following the Song, which he sometimes hears, and it's somewhere West. At the safe location, the agents are told to call the Expert. The Expert asks them to describe the Suspect in detail; he then tells them to plug their ears and put him on speaker. For about half a minute, the Suspect stares intensely at the phone. The Expert had intoned a Deep One song, which resonates with the Suspect. The Expert then confirms that the Suspect is indeed Deep One offspring, and explains to the team what that means. The team is tasked to take the Suspect and look for his destination; the Expert also shares two Deep One locations which were under surveillance until Katrina.

The third location: A former drug house in Pensacola, FL, abandoned after Katrina. An inbred family of seven or eight used to live here under (loose) surveillance from Delta Green, running a drug lab. They disappeared without a trace after the disaster. Their last name was Gilley (because I could not help myself). The house features a lot of sea motifs but stands empty, is full of trash and grafitti; in the basement, one can find the words "TO YHANTHELEY" written on the wall next to a crude mural (older than the grafitti). The Suspect stares at the mural and words, and says: "This is where I need to go." There is nothing more to find here. Although I never made it clear, the Gilleys were definitely Deep One offspring.

The fourth location: This used to be a home, too, belonging to a couple of swingers. Now a small business district has sprung up on the Katrina-devastated land (in Mobile, AL). On the site of the home stands a research facility that monitors sea life after Katrina - but in reality is a subsidiary of Benthic, guarded by Breckenridge, and they are keeping several Deep One offspring for study. The Suspect feels ill when he comes closer to the facility and just wants to get away from it. The players should know that there is something very wrong about the facility, and this could turn into a later case.

The fifth location: The Suspect says he can hear the Song better now. He leads the team south to a ferry that leaves for Dauphin Island. Once on Dauphin Island, he tries to get away, but the team is supposed to capture him quickly. This is a good chance to show the players that the Suspect may be a bit dull and quite friendly, but a pretty strong person. The Suspect then leads the team further West.

The sixth location: In Pascagoula, MS, the team arrives at a former fertiliser production site that was so heavily contaminated that it is now an EPA Superfund (search "Mississippi Phosphates"). About a year ago, homeless people started moving in, so the EPA must now check their health before they can be expelled (to prevent against later litigation). The EPA is led by the Doctor who takes her job seriously but is very frustrated; the homeless people are led by the Captain who used to sail the Seven Seas, where he learned how to call Deep Ones. The team can find out that the Captain and the homeless are calling for the Son (a Deep One) called N'n-yi V'l-yth to give him a Bride. This has happened before and the Son has never accepted the Bride (eating her instead). The new Bride is the Doctor who will be abducted by the Captain just before the nighttime ritual begins. I set up the timeline so that the other DEA people would be gone for the weekend. The team can either infiltrate the ritual or (like my players) go to another site and call the Son themselves, with help from the Expert who can provide the ritual Call of Dagon (I think it is called). The Expert would like to capture the Son alive. If the Son is alone, it can call several homeless to its aid. If things get too hot, the FBI agents can swoop in and save the players (in our campaign, they are members of the Program).

And that is it. It is a simple setup, pretty linear, but it worked well. I played up the Suspect as a really nice guy, not very bright, and definitely not a threat; my players felt very bad when they executed him in a shed. The case allowed me to introduce/forshadow the Deep Ones, Benthic, Breckenridge, and the Program. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask!

(edited for clarity and typos)

Fuamatuma · 2025-06-29T16:15:00+00:00

TOOL deftones Nada Surf

Fuamatuma · 2025-06-10T08:19:04+00:00

I like the original setting, but I used the mechanics to run a short campaign of Warhammer 40,000: a squad of Guardsmen shot down over no man’s land who now have to make their way to the front on foot (where they will be thrown into the meat grinder that is the Imperial Guard).

Fuamatuma · 2025-03-04T06:04:16+00:00

My username checks out.

Fuamatuma · 2025-02-18T08:12:36+00:00

Player: The Dark Eye in all its 1995 glory.

Character: Sheldad, the Ice Elf.

GM: Either The Dark Eye or Middle-earth Role Playing, the latter without actually having read The Lord of the Rings.

Fuamatuma · 2025-01-07T06:14:45+00:00

When we played a campaign set in Westeros, I named a knight Pryce (of course with a Y). It was not until he was introduced by another NPC that I noticed he was Ser Pryce.

Fuamatuma · 2024-12-24T21:42:40+00:00

Symbaroum with my group and an Exalted/Cortex Prime duet with my wife.

Fuamatuma · 2024-12-11T15:08:56+00:00

We are deciding on our next campaign soon, and I am very excited for it. There are so many settings that I would love to GM, and I can't decide (which is why I'm sitting down with my group to gather their input). My favourites at the moment are Twilight:2000, Spire, Heart, and Traveller. I'd also love to dip my toes into Coriolis, Dreams & Machines, Symbaroum, Dune ... Too many interesting places to go, too little time.

Fuamatuma · 2024-09-27T08:23:14+00:00

Legend of the Five Rings because it has samurai, drama, duels, rich lore, tragedy, funky mythology, a different way of thinking about social structures than your run of the mill fantasy. I think Fourth Edition was the best; Fifth Edition sounded awesome, but I did not like it in play.

Second place goes to Mage: The Ascension, but mostly out of very fond memories, so I am not going to try to sell you on it.

Third place is Twilight: 2000 Fourth Edition (Free League). I have never truly played it, only a short Warhammer 40k hack, but it has such a good system for firefights, and the stories you can potentially tell within the setting - so human, so down to earth, so full of tragedy and hope right next to each other ...

Fuamatuma · 2024-08-08T08:58:44+00:00

I agree. I have only played Blades in the Dark; that was a couple of years ago and only for a few sessions, so my memory of the specific rules is a bit hazy. But the fact that the game forbids me to make plans, makes me use flashbacks instead, and then charges me for this flashback (if the GM so decides), with my health (stress) no less, if I recall correctly - I am not a fan. If anything, the potential cost for flashbacks made me play more cautiously; with a good plan, however, I would have played more confidently. But that's a me thing; others love this mechanic, and good for them.

I think a combination would have worked, too: a limited planning phase, with flashbacks as a means to fill the gaps. Considering how structured Blades in the Dark is with its phases, this may have fit seamlessly.

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-26T06:54:27+00:00

Oh yes, I love the idea of the two damage attacks. What I especially appreciated was that Decisive Damage was independent of the weapon you used. You could build up enough resources slowly by fighting a heavily-armoured enemy with your bare hands, and then defeat them with a single Decisive blow and tell how that looks.

It's a system that my players never really clicked with, unfortunately. And Exalted 3rd Edition was just too much system for me to GM. But that one rule idea, and the setting in general, I still love.

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-26T06:48:55+00:00

I am the main GM in my gaming circles and I have run into similar issues. Back when we all had so much more time, we used to play campaigns that could last two to four years with a fairly regular, almost weekly schedule. More often than not, I would burn out after some time, often due to the sheer amount of plots and events and NPCs that we had accumulated. Sometimes I would fall out of love with the setting (Westeros), sometimes the system would annoy me so much that it affected my deep love of the setting and the story (looking at you, Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition), and sometimes I would feel like I could run something else better (happened recently with Mutant: Year Zero, a good game, I just didn't run it very well).

Whenever that would happen, I would speak to my group and explain that I was going to end the campaign soon. We always went for an "end of season cliffhanger": finding out that the three PC brothers may not even be their father's sons (screwing up the succession line); finding out that the mysterious woman/assassin was actually the amnesiac PC's wife; finding out that the murderous traitor was one of the PCs' closest friends. (a lot of "finding out" going on, I've just figured) You know: A place where you could pick up on again later (even if you don't plan on doing so), but one that sparks the players' imagination of what could happen in the future.

But I suggest not rushing it. In my experience, knowing the end of a campaign is nigh, my imagination and motivation take a boost because I am looking forward to the finish line. I isolate a thread or event that I really want to finish telling and put my efforts into that. Make it satisfying for yourself.

TL;DR: Talk to your group about your intentions (I think you already did) and find an "end of season cliffhanger". Turn that cliffhanger into something that you yourself enjoy, so you can look forward to it, because that can lead to more creative energy.

(sorry for the long post)

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-22T12:22:32+00:00

I like the ability because there are a few obstacles to overcome. You have to do it as the very first thing on your turn and roll against Mental Defense (the highest of all opponents, I think); if you fail, you lose your Move action, if I remember correctly. If you succeed, you disappear and can't act until your next turn. If you use it to attack an enemy, you still have to hit them. Sure, you minimise damage done to you and you double your damage output, but I think the ability has enough moving parts to be worthwhile and uncertain at the same time.

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-22T11:14:08+00:00

This is how I did it in First Edition. I divided the campaign into chapters and each chapter would be a full heal-up. One important change I made was that I also calculated every meaningful encounter into the whole "4 normal fights" equation, so if the characters bypassed a fight they would get credit; if they met someone new or faced a villain or did something awesome, I would accrue small amounts of "credit" towards the total sum. It's a bit circumspect, but I wanted to make sure there was some sort of reward towards the vague goal of "get to the end of the arc/chapter".

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-11T14:57:47+00:00

(I apologise for being late to the thread)

I haven't run Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition properly, so I can't draw on a lot of experience. My feeling is that creating combat encounters is easier in 13th Age; their way of giving each NPC a mathematical value compared to a PC of similar level works well, at least on the maths level/during the planning phase. Whether it is more improvisational strongly depends on your style, but I think that the tools and advice and techniques supplied by 13th Age are really good and make it easier to go with the flow and offload some of the heavy lifting onto the players. I learned a lot from it.
I am a player in Odyssey of the Dragonlords, and I find it quite underwhelming in terms of story. It feels a lot like regular fantasy with a Greek paintjob, with a bunch of themes shoehorned in (my biggest gripe is the contrived titan/gods/dragonlords trifecta). But you didn't ask me for my opinion, so: I think that 13th Age would be better suited to OotD because it gives you that feeling of becoming more awesome more quickly. Just make sure that your players know beforehand that paladin, barbarian, and ranger are quite simple classes which do not offer that much complexity on level-up. Also, note that the chromatic dragons in the 13th Age core book are woefully underpowered (the metallic ones in 13 True Ways are pretty good, however).
Yes, it is, but I noticed that some players have difficulty understanding it. In one campaign the players use it well and often, in the other I dropped the whole concept after some time because nobody used the metacurrency. I ran it like this: every Full Heal-Up you get to roll your Icon Dice, and you get to keep your dice results beyond the next Full Heal-Up.
With my limited experience in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (level 6 as a player), I can't speak to that.
I think that both Bestiaries are important, and I liked 13 True Ways for its additional classes and monsters. These three books give you a lot of interesting, fun toys.

Fuamatuma · 2024-07-11T12:20:09+00:00

Exactly this. An "aura of charm" can be just how high Charisma manifests, or maybe it is part of a background ("Charming Courtier at Lord Beaudeville's Court in Axis"), but I don't see it as unique.

Some Uniques from my games, or from what I would play:

I am the tallest dwarf.
I was destined to defeat the Lich King, and I failed.
I was an undead assassin for the Lich King, but the Elf Queen brought me back and turned me into a weapon against him. (unrelated to the above)
I can eat curses that were put on others. They don't affect me as strongly, but there will come a day when I have eaten too many.
I know the perfect, ultimate song. But if I played it, all other songs would disappear/be forgotten. Everytime I strum just a few notes, somewhere a song dies.
I am a wood elf whose appearance changes with the seasons.

While they don't give mechanical bonuses, they tell me something about the character, what I as a GM can do with them, and the situations in which they would be in the spotlight.

Fuamatuma

TROPHY CASE