A Chaotic Campaign Formulae

During one of my recent voyages through the blogosphere, I found a great post on Places To Go, People To Be about a unique method for campaign creation.  There was also a link to this post on Jeff's Gameblog.  So I decided to create my own "formulae" for campaign creation, yet another great creative exercise.  Now my formulae is still incomplete, and a work in progress, but here's what I came up with...

First you take a set of core rules, add a setting, then a supplement or two, or three, and an odd game mechanic or two.  Add spices to taste.  Here's what I have so far..

I decided on a setting first, and picked the Riverworld, from the series of science fiction books written by Philip Jose Farmer.  If you are unfamiliar with the series the premise is that everyone who was ever alive on Earth gets resurrected on a planet that consists of one VERY long river valley.  The great thing is that if you die you get resurrected again somewhere else on the river.  It's a great series, and this setting has many adventuring options.  My initial decision is to use either Gamma World or Mutant Future as the core rules.  This would add something different.  Now, no one would start with mutations, but if they died, there is a chance they will be resurrected with one or more mutations.  There would be no mutant animals. There's a great Riverworld sourcebook that was published by Steve Jackson Games, so that would come in handy. 

I haven't decided on the odd game mechanic, but I'll think of something.  Perhaps a die roll to determine the number of mutations that you then draw from a Deck of Mutations.  I'm thinking that would be good, because the player keeps the card,  because if the character dies again, then they have to reroll for the chance at new mutations, and they could return without mutations.  Such is the nature of this version of the Riverworld.

I like this concept because it's weird, and would be fun to play a historical character with mutations.  Say perhaps, George Armstrong Custer with wings?  Or a two headed George Washington with a Life Leech field?  A 20' tall Pee-wee Herman?  Okay, maybe not that, but you get the idea.

Okay enough fun for now.  Keep rolling those dice!