Well, 2022’s gaming plans didn’t turn out the way I expected. Out of five one-shot games I planned to run, I ran exactly zero. That’s not to say I didn’t run games (I did), they just weren’t the ones I planned on running. Instead, I ran a couple of Star Trek Adventures sessions to introduce the game to new players. I ran a Call of Cthulhu scenario for Halloween, and I even ran a couple of sessions of my own homebrew 1970’s Boston street crime game, The Hub. I ran a short-lived Mutant: Year Zero game for some friends before I came to my senses and decided I don’t enjoy being aggravated (and I don’t mean by the game); but the main thing I ran was a monthly Witch Hunter-themed campaign using Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

My LotFP campaign is due to wrap up in January or February. and I’ve decided I would like to run another online campaign in 2023. Unlike my current LotFP campaign, which is episodic in nature, this new campaign will be more of a sandbox. You, as players, will guide the direction of the narrative based on what you decide to do.

Below is my elevator pitch for campaign ideas for several games. If you are interested in getting a seat at the virtual table, send me an email; or, if you’re on Instagram or a member of my Discord server, drop me a direct message via either of those platforms. (If you’re not a member of my Discord, you will need to be in order to play; as that’s the platform I use for audio/video). Be sure to let me know which game(s) you would be interested in playing. The one that gets the most votes will be the one I run.

Please note: I live in the Eastern United States, specifically Lovecraft Country, which is the EST time zone. Keep this in mind, because depending on where you live, it may not be reasonable for you when we ultimately schedule a game day/time. For example, California is 3 hours behind me, England is 5 hours ahead of me and Australia is 16!! So, if I start a four hour session on Sunday at noon my time, someone in California will start at 9 am; England at 5 pm, and most of Australia will be at 4 am on Monday!

Without further ado, here are my RPG campaign ideas for 2023.

Call of Cthulhu: 1920’s: Kingsport, Massachusetts is known as a quaint artist colony just south of Arkham. It’s supposed to be a retreat from the bustle of the big city; but Kingsport is anything but the quiet, sleepy little City in the Mists that it is called. As members of the Kingsport Historical Society, you know those mists hide a lot of secrets; and in this sandbox game, you can investigate any of them. First, though, the Historical Society needs a new home. Seems like the storied Lebbon House is vacant. It’s the former home of sea captain Samuel Lebbon, and it’s rumored to be haunted. How silly!

Call of Cthulhu: Modern: As happens often in Call of Cthulhu, your good friend has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Now imagine your good friend was someone like Fox Mulder; but you never knew that about them. Your friend left behind a pile of leads on all sorts of crazy things, from evil cults to strange places to UFOs to lake monsters. The thing is, your friend wasn’t a crackpot, not by a long shot; and now your friend is gone. Could any of this stuff they were looking into hold a clue as to where they went, or if they’re even still alive? In this sandbox game, you can follow whatever leads you choose. After all, they can’t all be connected, can they?

Star Trek Adventures: 2370. Things are heating up along the Cardassian Neutral Zone, and your vessel has been assigned to Outpost 31, a Federation Space Station near the Badlands. In this game, you and your fellow players will collectively build a starship, form a crew, seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go…ah, you get the idea. What ship will be your home among the stars? An old vessel that’s seen a bit of action, or a new, state-of-the-art frame fresh off the assembly line, maybe even a prototype? What will be your mission? Exploration? Science? Diplomacy? Security? You and your fellow players will decide. (For Star Trek purists, this campaign is set somewhere around the final season of The Next Generation and the beginning of the third season of Deep Space Nine. So, the Enterprise is still Galaxy Class, the Klingons are still allies of the Federation, and Sisko still has hair…for now.)

OSR High Fantasy: About 10 years ago I ran a D&D 3.5 campaign set in a world of my design, called Wyndia. It’s a fairytale land where magical things happen every day; populated by fantastic beings like dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes… and maybe the occasional dragon. (Everyone knows they exist, even if no one has seen one in hundreds of years.) In one of the kingdoms in this magical place called Mornellorn, something very bad is happening. Something that will quickly spread beyond Mornellorn to threaten Wyndia itself. You play the heroes of this story.

I said Wyndia is a fairytale land, and I meant it. Players may see things here that they recognize, or think they do; but rarely is anything what it seems. For example, you may find a princess with exceedingly long and beautiful hair imprisoned in a tower…but just because you’ve read Mother Goose, don’t think you know how to rescue her, or even if you should.

After a year of running a grimdark Lamentations of the Flame Princess game; I’m ready for something a bit more Tolkien-esque and fireball-y. I think I’d like to revisit Wyndia. 5E is not my thing, and LotFP doesn’t have the High Fantasy vibe I’m looking for. I’m leaning towards Castles & Crusades for this one, because I’ve heard great things about it; but I might go with Old School Essentials if I can convince myself it’s worth buying a streamlined version of Advanced D&D 1E when I’ve owned those books for decades.

And there you have it.

Mostly. There’s more. There are a lot of games I want to run as one-shots, including all the ones I said I was going to run last year but never did (Star Frontiers, Marvel Super Heroes, Slasher Flick among them). I also want to continue running my 70’s street crime game, The Hub. And for those who can’t make regular campaign play but want to play something, I have plans for some one-shot Call of Cthulhu and Star Trek Adventures games, and some other surprises.

Like I said, if you’re interested in playing in any of these campaigns, drop me an email at angrypiper@angrypiper.com or DM me on Instagram or my Discord server, if you have access.

Let’s play some games!