Campaign Ideas

We are currently in the Campaign Ideas phase. You can see how I simplify that here. But right now I wan to come up with a few campaigns that could set-up for the next story. And in particular, I want to create the elevator pitches for them.

Now, when I think about coming up with an idea, there is an intimidation element to it. What is going to make a great epic story for a longer campaign? But I think it’s fair for people to borrow ideas from everywhere. So whether that’s a movie, an anime, a book, folklore, whatever it might be, borrow it to help generate ideas. There is a difference between weaving elements into a bigger narrative that show-up elsewhere.

So let’s get down to some ideas.

The End is Known

For ten years there has been war with the demons. No one knows how it started, but demons and devils poured forth from the hells working together. And now only a small band of heroes remains having battled and felt loss over the years. They face off against one last devil, Asmodeus stands before them, and they quake. Asmodeus speaks and it’s all over.

You awake with a new vague memory in your head. A voice that wasn’t there before. It says, something bad is going to be happening. It’s coming, the monsters are coming. But you look outside your window and it’s normal. It’s just another day in your life and nothing seems worse, except for this voice and this vague memory of a devil speaking some incantation. This one is inspired by a LitRPG book I listened to, couldn’t find the title of it, and A Returners Magic Should Be Special.

Notes: This is both the end and the elevator pitch all wrapped into one. The characters kind of know what the end is. But how will these characters now become heroes who can deal with what is coming. And what do they believe, do they believe that is coming or not?

The Puppetmaster

It’s a world of legends and stories. But new stories keep on popping up and they are similar to old stories that you’ve heard before. A magic lamp, three bears living in a house, and wolves, oh so many wolves. The stories are just that, though, right? They are just stories, it can’t be something real.

Notes: Short and sweet pitch here. Not much to set-up, the world matters less for this one, and I wouldn’t even use the title because it’s going to give away some of what the end might be. But this is a question of what if the fairytale world came to life and it wasn’t the happy stories that we know, but the bears, wolves, and everything is now out to kill you?

The Monster Within

The wrought iron gates clanged as a strong wind howled down from the north. It shook the window panes with an unsettling rattle. But neither the clanging of the gate or the rattle of the window were what drew your attention. On the wind there was a song of melancholy and despair. The words couldn’t be made out, but you knew that they came from the castle up on the mountain. There was a narrow cart path leading up there, and that is where you needed to go, because, there was a monster up there who needed to be dealt with.

Notes: This one is going to be a bit different. Clearly I’m going for a gothic horror vibe for it. But I want to go more monster of the week with it. I enjoy the monster of a week trope and it’s going to lean into that with beasts like werewolves, vampires, and other creations that are well fitting for a Curse of Strahd type setting. What does the end game on this one look like? Honestly, it could look like Strahd or some vampire lord, or even work up to a Lich lord who is controlling things.

Time of Legends

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

Notes: The obvious thing here is that the seal is weakening on the dungeons. The second obvious thing is that these are the heroes who are needed. But while the players will know that I know that and you know that, the characters wouldn’t. Why think that they are heroes when they just lead normal lives? And the in the big town, that is there real heroes live and fight in wars for kings and defend against assassins and cast amazing spells. This one steals form a lot of anime. I’m not going full Last Dungeon Town (etc etc) where they are super powerful, but they might find that city heroes aren’t what they think.

What’s the Next Step for this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign?

The next step is pitching the idea to the players. We spun up a Discord Server to share links and notes from the last session. So I plan to drop all of the options in there today with any tweaks that I want. And then the players will get to decide what campaign sounds the most interesting to them. If I ran a game for you, which one would you want to pick?

As the Dungeon Master, I like the idea of them all obviously. But I think that if I were a player, I like the sound of the first and the last the best. The other two feel more monster of the week whereas the first and last feel like they are going to lead to a more epic end. But let me know your pick on the Facebook post or down in the comment section below.

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Top 50 Anime – 20 through 11

20. Steins;Gate

Like I said, this is one that was on the top of the list for me for a long time. I still love it and have fond memories of staying up late and binging it because it’s that good. It’s one of the best time travel shows I’ve ever seen and one of the best time travel things period. It’s up there with something like Primer in terms of time travel.

But to do it that well, you need part of it to be that time travel goes wrong. And it does in this show, and because it does, there are some heavier moments with it. One that I probably should watch again, it’s not that long, but it’s that good.

19. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

Now for one of them that I watched the most recently, this one is amazing. It’s a super fast paced comedy that I love. I saw the first episode or maybe two, in Japanese a bit ago. And I thought it was great, but it’s a lot of reading. Well, turns out that he dubbed version is amazing as well. Ian Sinclair is able to overact in it as the narrator and it really sets the tone for this fast, smart, and absurd romance. The two characters who should fall in love and do love the other can’t admit it because it would be losing. So it becomes a battle to get the other to admit their feelings.

The reason it didn’t work for me in Japanese is that there is so much reading, like I said. This reminds me of witty slapstick comedies where it is a mile a minute dialog. Bringing up Baby is a great example of that. This is way more sarcastic and still as over the top. One that I really think will appeal to a lot of people, even if you don’t like romance anime.

18. Ghost Hunt

I like to find horror anime to watch, from time to time. You’ll notice not a ton on my list, though. Mainly because a lot of them are just okay. Ghost Hunt, however, really was a ton of fun. And I like how it worked as well. It didn’t do the thing where it was one massive horror/ghost hunt that happens. But it’s also not monster of the week. Each case that the team investigates takes a few episodes. That time to breath lets them build up the horror and build up the lore. Each case wraps up quickly enough though so it doesn’t drag.

17. Mashle

I expect Mashle to move higher over time. It’s an anime that doesn’t set itself apart as something that is completely unique. In fact, a lot of what Mashle does, the main character who is the chosen one to bring balance to a corrupt world that looks down on those who can’t cast magic, it’s pretty normal. It’s set in a school, also normal. But it then makes fun of those tropes.

The main character, Mash Deadburn is a moron, how he will bring balance who knows. He also is insanely strong, that’s how he makes up for not being able to do magic. But it’s not that he overpowers everyone, he has to use it to pretend to be doing magic because otherwise he’d be cast out from society. This is a good action and comedy anime storyline.

16. Bofuri

We’ll see were this one lands, I need to watch the second season of Bofuri. But the premise is a fun one. A girl takes up playing an RPG. But she’s afraid of dying and getting hurt in the RPG. It’s her first time playing one. So she maxes out her defense, that’s part of the long title. And as she does that, this sweet RPG player comes up against more powerful, more cutthroat players, but can she overcome them just with her defense? And will she lose her sweetness? That’s the biggest part of this pretty wholesome feeling anime.

15. Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom is another one that was higher on my list, and it’s dropped some. This is an absurd anime again. The main character is an “alien” who needs to be killed before they destroy the world. Well, they take up teaching a remedial class of students who need to learn but also are tasked with coming up with a creative way to take him out. Because he knows he needs to die, but he’s not going to make it easy.

The whole thing is really built around the emotional stories and growth of the students. But it’s done with one of the weirdest backdrops ever. Assassinate your alien teacher is not where you’d expect to get character development and growth stories from.

14. A Returners Magic Should Be Special

I’ve found a trope that I really like which A Returners Magic Should Be Special is one of. What do you do when you know how everything ends. You know that in the end, everything is for not because you fail. But now you’ve been sent back to where you started at, how do you do it differently. That’s the question that is being asked in this action and adventure anime. Where there are portals opening up and a dragon at the end of them destructs and destroys the world. The main character’s mind is thrown back into his body when he started out training. So what is he going to do different.

I like the story, I like the overpowered nature. And I really appreciate that it is a fun character as well. This could be dark, and there are some elements or some ways where it feel like it is. But overall the story is handled pretty lightly, there are fun moments, and I want more of it.

13. Horimiya

This is one that we, both my wife and I, read first before watching. I think that helps build it up some as an anime and as a romance. The books are great, and the anime, while it bounces around and basically wraps up the whole story in a season, and then goes back, it’s weird. But the heart of the story is great. Two highschoolers fall for each other, but both of them kind of live a different life in and outside of school. It’s just a good heartfelt and funny romance anime.

12. Spy X Family

The biggest hit in the past few years. I mean, you can say Attack on Titan, but that had it’s start before the past few years. Spy X Family is about a spy who needs to set-up a family to get close to a political leader. Turns out, you can lie about that, and he creates a fake family. It has some spy stuff, it has some assassin stuff. But it’s really about that family element. How does the spy, and their fake spouse an assassin, keep their hidden lives hidden from each other? Plus, how do they actually act like a family?

11. Komi Can’t Communicate

This anime is just adorable. Komi Can’t Communicate is about Komi, a girl who has severe social anxiety and can’t communicate with anyone. She comes off as cold and aloof because of that. But when one of her classmates actually spends the time to reach out to her in a way that she can handle, they start to form a bond. And she doesn’t want to be cold and aloof, but wants to make 100 friends. So how can he help her do that when she can’t talk. The anime is adorable, and it’s a good romance, and there are a lot of funny moments. It’s one that is just easy watching in the best way possible.

Final Thoughts

There it is, the penultimate last. Next week, and I will remember to write it for next week, the Top 10 Anime for me. Don’t expect a ton of heavy hitters on the list, though a number of them are quite popular. I have my type of anime that I like, though I will watch most.

Based off of what I’ve written about thus far, which anime do you think will make the top of the list? And which anime do you think I should continue to checkout that maybe I haven’t. Let me know down in the comment section below.

Top 5 Anime of 2023

It’s worth noting before I get into some honorable mentions that these are anime I watched in 2023. It doesn’t mean that the anime had to air in 2023. It might be something I stumbled across for the first time.

Honorable Mention

A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special – This is one that I just started watching and it’s actively coming out or at least actively getting dubbed. It’s about a character who when the world ends gets sent back in time with his knowledge to try and save the world. It’s a fun trope that I enjoy in manga and anime recently.

Jujutsu Kaisen – Jujutsu Kaisen is probably one of the more talked about animes where sorcerers are fighting demons. The main character, well, he’s a bit of a special one with the cursed energy that he has and how much he cares. This is mainly an anime with an okay story and some cool fights.

My Love Story with Yamada-Kun and Lv999 – You’ll find a few romance anime on this list, and I like this one a lot. It’s a cute story of a girl who joins an RPG only to get dumped by her boyfriend who got her into the game. Swearing off gamer boys, she finds that she accidentally might be falling for one again.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too – Ah, the classic long title. This is the story of the zero to hero over night. As the main character is a nobody in the real world, and then when inheriting a portal to another world from his grandfather, he levels up there and well, levels up in the real world too.

5. Mashle

To start the list we have Mashle. This is one that I already talked about on the manga list. In fact, you’ll find a few that overlap. A lot of that is that I’d stumble across something and then hear that it’s coming out as an anime later. Mashle though, I think maybe makes a better anime than a manga. And I really enjoy the manga.

The story is pretty simple, it’s a non-magic user in a magic users world. In fact the world leans so heavily on magic that it shuns and throws out of society anyone that can’t use magic. So how is Mashle able to survive in a school for magic users? Well, that’s where the action and comedy come in as this story parodies other anime and manga out there.

This is one for people who want a pretty simple plot but a lot of dumb fun action and a dumb fun character, Mash Burnedead. In fact, all of the characters could qualify as dumb and fun. It’s just a good time.

4. Rent-A-Girlfriend

Now onto another one of the romance anime that I watched this past year. Rent-A-Girlfriend is an anime and story that I’d heard about but never really drew me in as a concept. A guy is down on his luck having been dumped by his girlfriend, so as a way to gain confidence he goes on a Rent-A-Girlfriend app and has a date with a rental girlfriend.

And I think that Rent-A-Girlfriend gets much better as the seasons go on. The first season is a bit rough. You don’t feel that sad for the guy and the relationship between the rental girlfriend and him is odd. But eventually, through some decent writing and plot, the story really develops into something meaningful. The main character never fully wins you over, at least he didn’t for me, but the rest of the characters and heart of the story work well.

3. Shangri-La Frontier

Another one from the manga list, Shangri-La Frontier is just one that I really enjoy. The main character loves his trash games. Video games that are so bad that they are almost unplayable. His goal is to beat them all and he has beat most of them. When he goes in to commiserate with a video game store owner about the last bad game, she recommends a break to a great game, and a new game Shangri-La Frontier.

I like this show as just a fun romp of a game. The most interesting part is probably the world and the complexity of the world being created. The main character is very good at the game, he should be since he’s really good at bad games. But that doesn’t take away from the wild but deep world and make it less enjoyable. Instead, you get to appreciate him appreciating something that is actually good. And sometimes dipping into appreciating something that is bad as he plays other games.

2. Spy x Family

Now we have one of the bigger anime for 2022, I believe. I just didn’t get around to watching it until 2023. In fact both my #2 and #1 are 2022 titles that I watched this year. Spy x Family is the story of a spy who has to pretend like he has a family in order to infiltrate a school and get close to one of the enemy countries leaders.

That’s the plot, but it’s really about how a spy, an assassin (they don’t know each others jobs) and a psychic daughter that he adopts all can live together and they grow together. Is it just a job or are they starting to have feelings for each other? Well, the daughter definitely loves them both, but what’s going on. It’s a story with a lot of cute little stories in it and sometimes some action and adventure as plots are uncovered and stopped. But all of that has a family backdrop to it.

1. My Dress-Up Darling

And my favorite anime of last year is My Dress-Up Darling. This one I really didn’t think I was going to like. I think my wife and I started watching it in 2022 and the 2nd episode is just tough to watch. It’s all of those cringy awkward things that I feel like you get in some comedies. It reminds me of Meet the Parents or 40-Year-Old Virgin awkward and kind of dumb writing.

But the show quickly moves on past that into a show still with some of that awkwardness, but not to the point where it’s the point of an episode. And it becomes more charming as you meet the characters more in depth and they grow. My Dress-Up Darling is really a great romance and story of characters growing together and bonding over cosplay. It’s also a dive into the world of cosplay and the people who go head over heals for it.

I know that it is a raunchy anime. There is a lot of fan service. And while I find that it doesn’t push itself too far, it definitely pushes itself a ways. That is going to be enough for some to skip it. But while it has all of that, it is, without doubt, the anime with the most heart that I’ve seen in a long while. It is just adorable and heart warming with how the characters interact.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun year of watching anime for me. There are some that I want to get back to and finish because I liked them, but it wasn’t the right time to watch.

Shy, a superhero anime, definitely interested me in what it was doing. As it felt like a different take, kind of, on superheroes, but it also hits some tropes.

Beast Tamer also almost made the list. A story of a character who seems underpowered or like his skills aren’t that great. But when the adventuring party doesn’t have him, well, maybe he’s worth more than they thought.

Didn’t I say to make my abilities average in the next life is another one that I kind of want to dabble in a bit more. An isekai, the main character wants to just be average and live a normal life in their next life. While, when they get dropped into the world, they are given the average of an ant (or something like that) and the most powerful ancient dragon. So they are on the high end of magic users and people in the world.

Plus a lot of fun ones are coming out in 2024. I’ll be doing a list looking forward soon. Which anime did you watch in 2023 that you really liked?

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