One-Sentence Setting or Game Ideas

One- or two-sentence setting or game ideas. I'm saving up some to keep in my pocket for my players, and want to give Veeky Forums the opportunity to do the same for theirs.

>Apocalyptic Hellgate: London/DOOM-esque near future where the techno-Templars and Freemasons fight demons.

>Modern day, every human being has superpowers, but they need to be trained like any other skill.

>Water/jungle moon of an industrious planet recovering from a major war.

>Rapture, future, angels in space with plasma swords, demons in power armor. Humans stuck ind middle.

>Shadow of the Colossus meets Demon Souls.

>STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl meets Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

>You play as hunters of the supernatural in the late 1600's during a salem witch trial styled world where holding onto your sanity is your best chance of survival.

>Post-apoc Rust Belt and adventurers go into overgrown factories, abandoned towns, and thick forests to reclaim resources, lost knowledge, or on fact finding and surveying missions for a few of the remaining universities or reassembled governments.

>Flying western in post-1947 green apocalypse.

>British spies during the Peninsular War (Britain vs. France in Spain) trying to thwart Napoleon's occult research division.

>Post apoc, basically Mad Max but with tanks everywhere instead of cars. The tank commanders act like knights, their tanks are their 'steeds' and the crew are like their squires.

>Chronicles of Darkness, but add the Immortals from the Highlander acting as their own little aspect of the supernatural world. It takes place in a Gotham-esque platonic ideal of the City.

>Stereotype fantasy world where mortals get selected unsolicited by gods to act as their champions in a world-wide battle royale against other god-selected champions.

>Civilisation persists in massive cities, Orcs roams the wastes outside.

>Be a shadowrunner-equivalent in a setting that's a clusterfuck of Halo, Mass Effect, and Eclipse Phase. The year is +2569 Human Chronology.

>Self-mutilating mages battle for ultimate cosmic power amongst the ruins of a continent-shattering ancient war.

>Fantasy Suicide Squad working for the NOT Catholic church dealing with problems inspired by/stolen from Berserk, Ravenloft, and Darkest Dungeon.

>Delta Green: Generational campaign starting with the Office of Naval Intelligence in the Carribean in the 1920s, then some WWII stuff, 1960s, 1990s, and Today, tied together with some recurring astronomical phenomenon.

>Treasure Planet, but instead of hunting treasure the players are crew in a merchant vessel headed to an alien planet. The planet had primitive technology until humans made contact and started trading modern weapons and tech for local products. That destroyed the planet's century-long social order and begun a warlord era.

>Maybe a planet with some rings around it that when inspected close are revealed to be formed by millions of thousands of interlaced ships.

>A standard D&D party in Silent Hill-esk town

>An alleyway is discovered behind the player's apartment building that wasn't there yesterday leading to a street that's on no map

>Players are mid-level programmers at an office that suddenly lacks any doors to the outside and something is making noise in the break room....

I've been on a horror kick later.

>You're an immortal soul trapped in the lowest circle of Hell. You must fight your way to the top.

>Supers, but each government has their own international team. Eventually conflicts between Enhanced individuals begin to replace warfare in a sort of gladiatorial death-match, for the sake of keeping casualties to a minimum.

>Star Wars podrace plot that goes along a bunch of unique planets. The ultimate galactic finale race is basically the plot to Redline, but also exploring the underground element a bit more.

>Black powder/Napoleonic fantasy, the player(s) are mercenaries that are trying to gain their own titles in a time of political struggle and war.

>A setting and plot like The Warriors, but in a massive planet-sized metropolis

>Robot ninjas invading the city-sized castle of a demon lord who has conquered the world. Lots of Shadow Warrior/Shadow Warrior 2 CUHRAZEE action.

>A plot really similar to Master and Commander--and during the same time period--but the ship you're chasing has a ghostly reputation, and it may not be from the world of the living...

>Old West setting, but there is actually not a stop to the exploration. The party shows up during a new boom, but the maps never seem to have an end; and the further you go, the more lawless the land becomes...

>Standard fantasy of your favorite flavor, but the winter snows haven't stopped. And it's been a really long time.

>Multiverse setting like Spelljammer/Planescape/MtG, but you're chasing a pirate king who's willing to do anything to achieve the greatest prize: a mighty ship so ancient that the gods themselves cannot stop him.

>Space setting that's a mix of Riddick and Alien; your party discovers a massive hulk of dead ships the size of a moon. Some of them are older than any civilization on record, and your captain wants to take a look inside.

>Chasing down an Immortality cult. Early members are pretty basic: vampirism, magical items, etc., while higher level villains are looking into things like soul-eating and god-killing.

>Your party are basically conquistadors in a new land when they're framed for (or guilty of) something terrible. Now they're alone in a completely foreign place; no allies at all. What do they do?

>Your players are defenders of the Realm from the Blasted Hellmouth trope. How far can they go before their time on the Wall/Bastion's Keep/whatever last stand place grinds them down?

>Dark Souls-like in a desert setting with an obviously dying sun. The players are trying to gather the souls of gods-on-earth to try and keep the thing going by feeding souls to the bonfires; each in the center of its own holy oasis.

>In the aftermath of a devastating war using immensely powerful arcano-tech, the massive golems that we believed caused the destruction of the societies past wander the world; forces unto themselves. Our only defense are the orders of knights in magitek powered armor; and even then, only just.

>Motorcycle cops patrolling the massive highway that circumnavigates the world and connects all cities. Entire Mad Max-like road cultures have built themselves around and under this massive complex.

>A game of Numenera, but all of my favorite science fiction settings actually came and went on this one planet.

>Shadowrun, but playing as a DocWagon response team. Drop in, secure the area, get the patient out; deal with corporate fuckery at home; juggle personal lives since you're allowed to be actual people outside your jobs; deal with the moral ramifications of leaving injured behind since they can't pay.

> You live on a planet where forests replace the oceans. The shorelines are very light folliage, but the further you head into the forest, the darker and more dense it gets. Wildlife and civilization becomes more and more rare, and the creatures become more deadly and horrific.

You are reality TV show star, who is venturing with another group of survivors into the middle of the ocean, or rather: the heart of the forest.

It's not one sentence but fuck it you'll read it anyway

>Amnesiac astronauts manipulated by AI to investigate brain-bending alien artifact.

>Mech-mercenaries attempt to hack it on their own after their company is annihilated.

>You wake up at the bottom level of a megadungeon because, I dunno, wizards. Find your way out.

>Party has freaky superpowers inflicted on them by magic orb and now everyone wants a piece of them.

>Brain-swap with malevolent alien intelligences, party must learn to operate their new bodies, navigate the bizarre structure and reverse the swap before its malevolent plans are complete

>Orcs killed your parents, now you must perform Herculean tasks for God of Death to earn their resurrection

>War-Wizards' raiding parties raiding countryside for 'meat' to turn into raving murder-machines; Conan the fuck out of them.

>Exploring the cyclopean ruins of some long-ago alien race, trying not to wake the things that killed them.

>Virgin sacrifices to volcano-god wake up in 0th circle of Hell for 'unspecified'.

>Star-spawn raining down from the heavens seek to unite with giant mouth at the hollow center of onion-layered planet; stop them.

>All-wizard party stumbles upon Alpha Complex.

>Party tasked by King to fully map endless labyrinth, desertion punishable by death.

>Party is robots trying to maintain themselves and avoid angry luddite mobs after spontaneously gaining free will.

>Party inexplicably respawns after every death, is hunted by singular powerful entity for unknown reasons. Find out why, and die as little as possible.

>Demonologists get Earth nations dragged into the wars of Hell.

I swear I have seen this idea somewhere before.

>Players are nobles instead of typical adventurers (how they became noble is up to them). They all swore themselves to a wise king, and then he dies--leaving behind one sickly boy with no inclination or inherent power/charisma for rule.

>The desert was once ocean floor many ages ago. Adventurers find a way to live while exploring abandoned temples with bizzare architecture: because it was designed with swimming in mind.

>The massive jungle is slowly taking over the world. At its center is a tree so massive it reaches the upper ends of the atmosphere. Can this tree--or something connected to it--be at fault; and can it be stopped?

>You're spies in the Cold War, MGS-style, trying to stop a madman from completing and setting off Operation Pluto.

You're right. But it's a good setting idea.

You've heard it before because it's one of the only good things to ever come out of tumblr. There was a really neat comic someone did for it.

>Humanity is gone; no one knows where. You play robots trying to get by, the green apocalypse only just taking over the cities that humanity has left behind.

>In a Victorian-era-inspired setting, you are guards on a massive train that leads across haunted and untamed lands. Can you protect your charge from the spirits and savages of the world beyond the safe, civilized walls?

>Dieselpunk sky world where flying aces dominate the culture. From warfare to celebrities, being an ace is the best way to make it in this world.

>Napoleonic fantasy where you hunt down the things that go bump in the night--and the cultists who are helping them along.

>Space opera where Earth was destroyed and humanity is the migrant species.

>lowest
>not understanding that the lowest pit of hell is satan himself
>start at the top and crawl you way through to get out the other side.

>You play as a band of mercenaries in 17th century Germany, fighting witches, werewolves, and vampires with a combination of occult knowledge and steel.

>You play as the crew of an airship flying above the clouds of Venus, committing piracy across the High Skies.

>You play as the crew of one of the first outposts into the afterlife. The atmosphere is highly toxic, so you must do battle with the bioengineered nightmares that roam the wasteland in a mecha.

>You play as the citizens of a cyberpunk city created from 20 years of human/demon cooperation.

>You died, but it turns out that getting peace in the afterlife means facing all of the demons of your past.

>In a stone-age/tribal fantasy setting, your party is a part of a tribe who's land is being invaded. All of these men, armed for war, following someone they call an "emperor."

>Your party have recently ascended and reached immortality--they now control the world with the other immortals. But not everything is peaceful: being all-powerful tends to make you want more...

>In a post-nuclear world, everything's not quite destroyed--but almost. Society remains, but nuke-free mercenaries are the order of the day, fighting proxy wars so the world doesn't see another World War.

>The rubble of a city that stretches a country across is all that remains, but the war is still being fought. No one remembers why, but that doesn't stop evil men in the shadows from fanning the various tribes into action when a lull is reached.

>The Great Flood has come, but the rains won't stop. This has been going on for decades now.

>In an almost Coruscant-like city-planet, the party has just woken up; robots who are to determine if the soul is not the domain of humanity alone. Hounded by authorities, your party will discover what makes a soul, and whether or not they can find purpose themselves.

>The kaiju are here, and no one is safe. Can your party survive the onslaught of the monsters, and what will they do when the governments try to fight back?

>Miners have discovered a mega-dungeon in our own world that never seems to cease. Opening into some sort of portal, infinite possibilities lie beyond.

Fair enough. In the setting that inspired this, they were talking about it being the Aztec Hell, with the entire thing basically being Doom 2016 mixed with Far Cry Primal.

>Doom 2016 mixed with Far Cry Primal
why has no one run this yet

> Author creates a Mary Sue and a threat only the Sue is strong enough to beat,Then kills off the Sue, leaving humanity to fend for itself.

>The Great Game: the British and Russian empires compete over Central Asia

>A World has achieved World War era technology without ever going through an industrial revolution. Small mercenary companies are constantly employed in petty wars.

>A world without any large cities, covered in deep forests and expansive deserts where agriculture is rare and very difficult. There are only fantasy races and humans are an extinct civilization.

>Shadowrun. A terrorist is trying to destabilize whole world order by destroying the mega-corporations and the Dragons--and damn what happens after, because it *must* be better than this. Retcon away the end-of-the-world plot that Dunkelzahn died to stop, and it was actually just an assassination (this guy). He's got a tremendous amount of support, and an entire army of followers in the shadows. What will your party do?

>It's the Crusades. An actual demon invasion happens.

>Your party is on the last surviving carrier of their government's fleet, and they stand against impossible odds. With only a few prototype mecha/starships/superfighter-equivalents, can they try to turn the tide of the war?

>In a Supers setting, you are a member of a secret team responsible for hunting down and killing supervillains that their nemeses won't handle properly.

>In a science fiction setting, the party are members of a survey ship exploring the hyperspace/warp/folding realm that ships go through to achieve FTL travel. Eldritch shit ensues.

>Mecha mercenaries in a galactic cold war.

I dunno. It'd be fun as shit.

>Suburban Fantasy Kidpunk, kids have to band together to fight off cryptids, ghouls, and monsters that are invisible to adults.

Yo that third one is rad.

>The party are part of a government program that hunts down mages and other supernatural things before they harm the public world; with a modern sword-and-sorcery vibe where the supernatural is almost always evil and magic leads to madness and lust for power.

>As the party passes through a town, the local tyrannical strongman is holding a gladiatorial tournament. The prize money is too much for anyone sensible to turn down, and the strongman uses this is an opportunity to weed out powerful foes and fight them in the open.

>Your players uncover a massive conspiracy for the city police to stage a coup for their secret cultist lord and his magic powers.

>In an expansive criminal underworld that hardly anyone knows about, the players have all been wronged in various and personal ways by the head of a massive mob. What will they do to stop him?

>Your kingdom is about to be attacked, but the greatest general is in self-imposed exile atop a dangerous mountain. The local lord bids you bring this man his sword and remind him that his people need him.

>The party are Regular Joe guards in a Supers world prison when a massive riot and prison-break happens.

>The party are hitmen and muscle for the local mob, and must deal with the moral ramifications of what they do on a near-daily basis.

>The party are Union special forces in the US Civil War, tasked with infiltrating the CSA government and investigating their Occult Division before they make a breakthrough.

>The party discovers ancient weapons of legend, but all is not as it seems: they are now chess pieces in an ages-long war for slumbering gods. And now that champions bear their tokens, they are once more waking up as an age of blood will descend upon the Realms...

>You are an elite unit of immortal supersoldiers, created by anchoring a living soul to a dead body.

You've been trapped at the bottom of a dungeon well well well below ground level and left there for years, and all of the sudden the door just opens, and you look for a way out.

>Highjump II: Deep in the Antarctic interior, your party finds a zomgsecret nazi base leading to the Hollow Earth. Turns out Germany has been holding the door against extradimensional incursions for 75 years.

>Battlezone III: take the 1998 Battlezone game and Veeky Forums it up. Add limited KSP-style customization for extra fun.

>The party are Bedouin-like nomads in a desert so fine that the preferred method of travel is wind- and push-powered skiffs. Their nation is in the center of a fantasy cold war between not!America and not!USSR.

>Players are part of PANDORA, an alleged "terrorist," organization that recruits burgeoning Powers, people with unnatural abilities (low power-level supers), to fight the Fallen: demons that posses the skins of the innocent and use their powers to spread chaos upon the world; and the Spurned: Powers that use their abilities for destruction and personal gain. Can you stem the tide of evil while avoiding the authorities and learning to control your powers?

>A group of unsavory bandits, led by a fearless and peerless warrior, has been disrupting vital trade. With the local lord a useless sod, the local crime lords have requested your help in handling this menace. For the benefit of the people, of course.

>In a stone age/tribal fantasy setting, an albino deer--a holy spirit--has been spotted in a high valley, and your medicine man has requested you bring him some of the fallen antlers the spirit has shed. But beware...a failed or overly clumsy execution will not only attract the foul attention of the spirit, but also that of the rival tribe who claims the valley!

Someone important to each party member is in a perpetual sleep, and authorities do not know what's wrong. Upon investigation, they discover a cult has captured their souls, to be used in sacrifice to summon a god of sleep and death (their goals are similar to the Covenant's "Great Journey").

>The players are mutated posthumans in a future world where civilisation has collapsed after the planet became too polluted to be habitable. Their goal is to raid the fortresses of cyborg warlords and ancient AIs to find lost technology to upgrade their bodies with, knowing that they need to become machines to survive.

Sorry if this is too long.

It seemed longer when I was typing it.

>Your car is your life. Don't lose it.

I would play the shit out of that.

Although basically that is the hybrid Supremacy + Harmony path in Civ: Beyond Earth. It is best path.

Dogs In The Vineyard Ringworld adventure.

Empire of Sentient Ants and Bees, need mercernary sentient spiders to deal with Wasp and Hornet incursions.

Magical Girl Mad Max adventures using Wild Talents.

Adventurers explore a dungeon with a dragon at its end for treasure or some reason.

>The Battle of the Somme has accidentally torn open a portal into hell. Close it.

>Your mech is shit, you're under-supplied, your CO hates your guts, and your enemies are the ones with the not!Gundam. Win.

>Find the North Pole. Don't wake the slumbering gods.

>You accidentally found the Garden of Eden, and now you've pissed off Uriel. Survive.

>The war is over - but those guys didn't get the memo. Take 'em out.

>You get powers depending on your awesome
>They may change or fade if you change or become lame

I am Hawai'ian and my explanations for mana have never made sense to my white friends. This screen cap will help immensely, thank you.

These are all great, so why does nobody run them? Every time I join a game it's just the same old thing over and over again.

Lack of imagination, maybe?

Honestly, I think it's a system issue. So many people are used to their own system they love to play, which most of the time does not allow for games outside of the typical fantasy world or whatever, and a lot of people don't really want to learn a new system or a generic one that will let them run whatever.

Honestly, I'm guilty of this, too. I was playing 3.5 for a really long time until someone got me to play the WEG Star Wars d6. I had so much fun and then discovered MiniSix. The d6 system is basically my go-to now, and with personalized modules it would be pretty easy to play most of these. But it took me a really long time to find that, and someone had to show me.

The end-times are coming, and your king thinks his subjects' best shot at survival lies in restoring an abandoned dwarven mountainhome, and riding out armageddon inside.

The Estate - A world consisting of a massive, endless Versailles style royal estate extending forever which suffered a social collapse a few generations ago,and is now populated by a few fortified nobles and tribes of wandering savages

Even with adaptable systems like gurps or eote, or settings that nominally take place in a city, it always boils down to a bunch of murderhobos and a tomb.
This happened even when we had the whole map of Boston to move around on.

Then your group sounds like--based on that small bit of information--that they're ignoring the entire personal potential for adventures.

Victorian-era Power Rangers

The whole planet is Australia and humanity made a lot of mistakes getting this far.

so Borderlands?