D6 Rift Walker Campaign Ideas
Below I will list six ideas that have been bumping around my head for various campaign settings that could be run in Rift Walker. Before I get into the list, first I must define some core attributes of a Rift Walker campaign. First, Rift Walker campaigns must involve the act of rift walking. This means That there must be multiple “worlds” for the Rift Walkers to visit through the means of stepping through a rift or portal. This could mean full worlds or planets in a sci-fi setting, or it could be simply different regions on a map that are separated by large distances. It also must include places that facilitated venture by being interesting to explore or have unique people to interact with. What differentiates different settings the framework which sits around them. This includes things like the flavours and genres of the different worlds and how they tie together to form a cohesive setting. This includes things like optional rules that help differentiate the different campaigns and make each campaign field unique. This is usually tide to a particular goal that the characters will be achieving. The list I create below is really more of a sketch of a campaign. I haven't fully fleshed these out, but I go through the steps at the end of this article on how I might begin to fill this out in a sustainable way as a potential Rift Master
D6 Campaign Ideas
Traditional Fantasy Hex Map - In this campaign the characters would travel across a large hex map with different regions representing the different worlds in which they would need to explore. I envision that they would need to collect and unlock different riffs around the map in order to then fast travel or rift walk between them. In this system travel would be fleshed out as a main component of each session. In an optional system morale and endurance would be not only tide to the characters in terms of combat and other negative effects but would apply different conditions whilst travelling. I imagine exploration would be highly exaggerated in this as a cool theme. Maybe the characters would go through and collect various items or meet various groups of people. I envisioned this in a traditional fantasy setting and I have seen inspiration in this from classics such as Legend or Lord of the Rings. Of course, there would be a central map that is filled out by the players as they travel around it.
Animal worlds - in this characters would take the form of different animals from in our real world represented in the game. It would be a majestic fantasy style setting. Each character would have special traits exaggerated by their type of animal that they are. The worlds would be representative of our actual continents of this world. I imagine in this setting environmentalism and protection of the environment would be core themes. Maybe the animals have taken over in this setting as a sort of post apocalypse as humans have died out. Or maybe animals are coming together to fight encroaching humanity within the environment. I have seen a lot of inspiration from this from classics such as the Chronicles of Narnia and recently reading other games such as Dagger Heart where animal ancestry is a huge part of its design.
Video Games - in this each of the worlds would be different games which the players’ characters come from. There would be a sort of central hub world that is a kind of down zone or centre between the different games. I imagine this in a kind of arcade style. There is obvious inspiration that comes from not only classic arcade video games but movies like Wreck It Ralph. Each session would be in a different kind if video game and would require different kinds of challenges. This would facilitate different genres and a different kind of extended challenge. This would include things such as boss fights races etc.
Monster Hunters – This sort of campaign would be a classic kind of monster hunting gaming. Here players would upgrade their home base and visit all sorts of different worlds represented by common mythology. This includes hell, heaven, earth, limbo and forest type worlds. Players would need to learn about creatures before having any hope of being able to fight them and banish them back to their home world. There would be grim portents and an evil war brewing in the background where the world's all secretly want to take over earth. There is a lot of inspiration here drawn from things like the Witcher and Supernatural.
Historical Mythological Raids - in this campaign players would take on the role of outcasts of various real earth historical timeframes examples might include ancient Rome, Vikings, ancient Egypt etc. It would be kind of island and time hopping in nature where their rifts might be sailing on a ship through time. They are trying to redeem themselves from some past discretion by building favour with their chosen mythological deity. There would be a favour system in place to facilitate this which would allow the players to unlock new powers and weapons. The overall goal would be to accepted back into their time frame and maybe once they had accomplished a number of great deeds their character would retire and a new character would come. This would be done by travelling throughout time in different worlds to go on raid like missions found in video games. I imagine there would be a more thorough weapon style system for this kind of war maker campaign. This would draw on inspiration from all of history and my love of mythology and different kinds of ancient deities.
Supers - in this players would play as superheroes in a classic downtown fantasy superhero campaign. Optional rules would include things like powerful team up abilities and he rhotic recovery. I would also include phases in the game where players must be there alter ego and manage their home life. Different worlds would represent different classic comic book locations the docs Uptown downtown etc in this mega city. The players would be fighting a sinister group similar to how Spiderman fights the sinister 6. All of the inspiration comes from my love of comic books throughout the years both DC marvel and all the other great publishers out there. It would be great to design your own superhero in rift Walker because powers are so flexible. This heroic recovery system would allow players to more frequently used powers maybe even at the cost of their own health as heroes continue fighting even until the bitter end.
Extending a Campaign Idea
In order to flesh out one of these campaigns I would use my one to six preparation system for campaigns. As I've previously written about I do not want rift masters to spend too much time fleshing out a campaign before getting it to the table in a session zero and first session with their players. Players need to be a part of building this world as much as rift masters do. However there are 6 cool categories of things that can be fleshed out by riff masters in order to create this as a full campaign idea. Before I get into those it's worth noting that this should be used in amongst other one to six preparation structures, such as characters and worlds, which go over more ways that can be fleshed out with your players and not just by yourself. But let's get into it:
First, write one idea for your theme and core idea. This would include a sentence that has genre themes structure adjectives and missions.
Next, write two optional rules that would be included in the campaign. These could be additional to the rules, replacement to the rules, passive or active for the characters.
Then, write three touchstones that influence this idea. This can be any kind of media that inspires the campaign.
Forth, write four known facts or truth's about the world and the campaign. This could include things like, conceits, history, folklore, common blights, monarchs etc. Anything that all players should know no matter which world they're from so that there is a piece of common understanding amongst all players.
After, you should list five different worlds where the characters can be from and where they will go. This of course can be fleshed out more in the one to six preparation list for worlds. Each world should be different but related to the core theme and is a good place to throw in different genre ideas.
Finally, you should write six starting ideas for legends that the Rift Walkers will go on. These are six plot hooks to dish out to your players in the session zero to give them something to do for their first session or beyond.
Once this has been fleshed out, you're good to go. I hope this has been inspiring for you and lets you think about the different ways in which Rift Walker can be played, while still facilitating the sort of game that it is by design.
