Amazons

In an Amazons campaign, obviously, most or all the characters are Amazons—reclusive women warriors.

The most interesting purpose for such a campaign would be to showcase a clash of cultures: Have a party of Amazon player-characters go adventuring in the outside world (the mysterious, dangerous, treacherous, woefully male-dominated outside world). A lot of the role-playing opportunity provided by such a campaign would involve the characters doing the following: Running up against, and battering down, prejudices against women warriors; and fighting their own prejudices, which dictate either that men are inferior and must be downtrodden, or are all treacherous and must always be viewed with distrust and suspicion. They can also have encouraging, amusing or even tragic encounters with the women of the outside world, whom they try to convince that the Amazon way of life is the One True Way.

Here's a sample adventure idea, drawn from mythlore about the Amazons:

Before the adventure begins, a ship from the world of men (or a group of horsemen, if your Amazons are landbound) arrives in the Amazon community, claiming to wish to conduct peaceful trade or negotiations with the Amazon peoples. They are graciously received by the Amazon court and negotiations are held.

But something goes wrong. The next morning the negotiators are gone, all fled—and the Queen is missing, too, obviously kidnapped by the men. The queen's sister assembles and sends forth a team of crack warriors, the player-characters, to retrieve the kidnapped queen or die trying.

The PCs must equip themselves, then head into the outer world. In the course of their pursuit of the kidnappers, they'll meet a lot of NPCs. Some will be callous and stupid, intending only to oppress or enslave the PCs, and must be dealt with by cunning or violence. Others will be admiring of the characters' independence and ability, and will challenge the Amazon notion that all men in the outer world are their enemies.

Finally, when the PCs reach the city where their queen is being held, the DM has to decide what her true status is. She might have indeed been kidnapped by the negotiators and needs to be rescued; the Amazon PCs may need to break into her prison and sneak her out, or may need to ally themselves with an outer-world army and sack the city. Or, she might not have been kidnapped at all, but might instead have been struck by a sudden love for one of the negotiators, and fled with him—especially fleeing her responsibilities as queen. If that's the case, the PCs might choose to turn around and go home, or might have to sack the city anyway, to avenge the affront done them by their thoughtless ex-queen.

Since not many playing groups will want to switch over to the eccentric all-Amazon format, you ought to read the text below on "Campaign vs. Mini-Series" for a way to play such a thing without disrupting your usual campaign.

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