I have a piece of an idea for a campaign using the latest Deadlands The Weird West setting, for Savage Worlds SWADE edition.

The players are all members of a travelling circus, with fitting roles.
Perhaps one players is a strongman, another is an acrobat, a fortune teller, knife thrower, animal tamer, and so forth.

The questions are, what type of campaign would even work for such a group? And would people want to play in it?

I don't think I'm a very good GM, but the only way I can get better is to keep trying. So if there would be interest, hopefully we could have fun, and learn together.

This is a cool idea, which is the starting ingredient for being a good GM.

In a fun weird west setting I could see this group being a crew of undercover specialists--thieves or monster hunters who are either criminals (a carnivalesque Ocean's 11) or government agents (the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

In a sinister, more psychological campaign the players might just be regular people trying to live their lives but the darkness of the human soul makes life difficult for them... Circus people were often marginalised social outsiders and subject to suspicion and prejudice. Watch the classic film Freaks (1932) for inspiration.

Either way, I bet there are people here who share your vision of how cool a campaign this could be.

Another idea is to base such a thing around Carnivale - make the group on the road, both bringing hope to towns, and, long-term, 'searching' for something or someone loosely defined. A lot of strangeness follows the group, and in turn, they follow the strangeness.

Using this or not, it sounds like a very interesting campaign idea.

Wheel of Time and Valan Luca's traveling menagerie could also serve as a point of reference or inspiration.

Sounds an interesting and fun idea!

Best wishes! :)

Some additional sources for ideas, the old TV program Route 66 is full of ideas as is the old show Wagon Train.  You might also want to take a look at On The Road.

But a fascinating idea.

Wouldn't have thought of On the Road, but that's pretty darn inspired.

Another potential source: Elephant Man by David Lynch.

Count me interested! This is a tried-and-true campaign concept for Deadlands. :)

Thank you for that, it just seemed appropriate.  Elephant Man is a good one I hadn't thought of.

A couple of others that popped into mind - anything on Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and of course P. T. Barnum.

A different system and I'd certainly apply.  I'll be keeping an eye out and will follow the game when you have it going.

Waking up to responses this morning was certainly a promising sight, as I weren't sure if people would be interested.

I'll spend some time working things out before progressing, however my initial idea is owner/ringmaster uses the circus to find "unique" individuals, protects them via the circus, but also as a means to look for specific items. It just so happens that those items always seem to be in places where there are monsters, or other strange goin' ons...

EDIT - Game is now made!
link to another game
This message was last edited by the user at 10:03, Tue 23 Mar 2021.