The Henchmen -- a campaign idea

Since Jason Packer posted an interesting idea for a fantasy setting the other day, and Douglas Cole has been embellishing on it, I thought it would be an opportune time to post a campaign idea I had.

Name: The Henchmen

Genre: Dungeon Fantasy

The Setting: Any Dungeon Fantasy world, or any setting that enables dungeon crawling at all

The Team: Sure, adventurers get all the credit, but they didn't loot that dungeon alone, did they? Did they carry all their own provisions? Polish all their own armor? Bandage all their own wounds? Of course not! You did. You are a henchman in the employ of the Heroic League of Mylenbrak, a legendary band of dungeon-delvers. You are perhaps a guard, a clerk, a cook, an acolyte, or even a mere torch-bearer. Where they go, you go -- but at a safe distance from the fire-breathing dragons and flesh-rending demons, of course.

The Mission: While the heroes enter the mysterious cave, you are supposed to stay behind and guard the horses. Oh, no, goblin attack! All right, this chamber has been cleared -- search for secret doors while we scout down the hallway. Oops, someone hit a switch and the door opened, revealing that thing, whatever it is. We're running low on healing herbs -- go foraging for some in that valley. Hey, nobody said there would be fairies here! Here, carry this magical figurine until we figure out what it does. What is this strange new voice in my head? Stay here while we scout out the lower level. It's been three days. Should we go and look for them?

The important thing here, since the adventurers are literally an entire party of GMPCs, is to keep them off-stage as much as possible and concentrate the game on what happens when the henchmen are left alone. Don't game out the climactic fight with the demi-lich, just say, "The heroes have gone down the stairs to the crypt. Now, while they're doing that, you're safe back here in the antechamber. But suddenly, the frescoes on the walls begin to move...." The NPCs are just there to serve up plots and then leave the PCs alone.

For a GURPS campaign, Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen is an ideal source of character templates. I'd start the PCs at 125 points, because I think 62 points is just too low. Played straight, the PCs could gain experience and eventually become full-fledged adventurers heading up their own parties. The players would have the advantage of getting to know how the GM's world works before they have to set out on their own, so it might be less lethal than most DF games. Played for laughs, Nodwick style, the PCs become mightily competent henchmen as they gain experience, but they always remain henchmen.

I think the big trouble would be coming up with a gaming group who want to play, or at least start as, low-powered peons in a world of high heroic adventure. I already run a fantasy game in which the PCs started at 130 points and are working their way up in the world, so I don't think it would interest my group. Sigh. Another campaign I'll probably never get to run.

Special Collections -- a campaign idea

Here is a lighthearted approach to hunting monsters that I thought would be fun. As with most of my ideas, whether campaigns or one-shots, I'll probably never have the time to run it.

Name: Special Collections

Genre: Monster Hunters

The Background: Since the late 19th century, strange artifacts and curious specimens have found their way into the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Over time, other federal and state agencies began to rely upon the Smithsonian to clean up anything situation that carried the whiff of the occult. During the 1930s and through World War II, these situations grew from mere curiosities to serious threats to the welfare of the nation. In 1948, after the Roswell crash showed that the Air Force was unprepared to deal with extraterrestrial threats, President Truman officially gave responsibility for all paranormal investigations to the Institution, including alien visitations, hauntings, cursed artifacts, demonic possessions, esoteric technologies, and infestations of undead.

The Organization: The Smithsonian Institution is the nation's formost authority on paranormal phenomena and technology. It is led by Secretary G. Wayne Clough (Georgia Tech '64),  a practical-minded leader and a civil engineer by training. The Secretary serves under the 17-member Board of Regents, a body made up of prominent politicians and academics and which includes Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice President Joe Biden. The Institution's vast collections and state-of-the-art research facilities serve a staff of 17,000 scholars and researchers, a select few of whom work in the area of Special Collections.

The Team: You are a member of the Special Collections Office of the Smithsonian Institution. You are an expert in a field covered by one of the member museums of the Institution. You might be an expert in extraterrestrial biology and technology working in the National Air and Space Museum, or an expert in secret societies working at the National Museum of American History, or an expert on cryptozoology working at the National Zoo. Alternately, you might be a liaison from the Library of Congress, specializing in holdings from Class X: Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know. But you're not just a scholar -- you're a member of the Field Team, trained in the practical side of collections as well as the academic. You are on call around the clock, ready at any time to pack your revolver, bullwhip, and field guild

The Mission: Whatever your background, your job is simple: discover, locate, and collect objects of paranormal interest for return to the Institution, where they can be studied and kept from harming the public. In some cases -- many cases, actually -- the artefacts or specimens may put up a fight, and it's your job to quietly subdue them while minimizing public danger and public exposure. Remember, intact specimens are more valuable to science. Typical jobs would be preventing General George Armstrong Custer from recruiting young Army veterans into his Ghost Cavalry, trapping a wendigo that wandered down from Canada, or thwarting the aliens who are still trying to recover the wreckage from that crash in Roswell. Oh, and visitors to the National Portrait Gallery have been disappearing lately -- could you look into that?