Re: Campaign styles

From: Nils Weinander <nils_w_at_...>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 09:49:45 +0100


Mikael R:
>
> HeroWars_at_yahoogroups.com writes:
> >The BA debate started me thinking about campaign styles
> >and what resources they require. So, what kind of games do
> >you run?
>
> Well, you probably know my kind of game pretty well by now, but i thought
> i'd comment anyway.
>
> Thinking about it, i think there are two main "families" of campaigns.
> Directional or open-ended. With "open-ended" i mean those campaigns that
> don't have a single driving goal. In open-ended campaigns much more
> attention has to be paid to individual episodes, which puts a larger
> strain on me as a narrator. With directional campaigns i have a limited
> and clear set of episodic elements, which for me at least makes it a lot
> easier to improvise permutations and tie-ins.

That is another axis on which to classify campaigns and it makes sense.

> Usually i don't even have to
> be original myself, since my players kindly provide me with stunning and
> outrageous plans and ideas to get closer to their goal.

He!

> An example: my campaign aims at liberating Far Point from Harvar Ironfist.
> Recently, the PCs decided they needed a good defensive platform from which
> to organise the resistance/ rebellion, so now they have discovered and
> heroquested the long-dead, long-forgotten Three Kings of Last Light back
> into existence. Since nobody (including the PCs) knows much about the
> Three Kings, and their allies are iffy about rallying under a banner that
> may have un-heortling, non-orlanthi, or even anti-storm nature, they now
> have to "prove" that the Three Kings have heortling heritage and are part
> of the storm tribe. They are in a bit of a hurry as well, since they know
> Harvar is out to get them and he is no longer underestimating them, wise
> from experience.

For the rest of you: we did an Orlanth slays the Bad Emperor heroquest and managed to draw in Harvar as Yelm. When Harvar retaliated with his Gagarthi and a lunar squadron we had a grudge against the Gagarthi since earlier. None of them got away alive.

> >* "Farmer campaign", where day-to-day life of the community
> > is the main focus of play. You need to know a lot about
> > economics and social structure for this.
>
> Actually, i don't think so. IMO, the key to success in a farmer campaign
> is to make the players feel like they are an integrated part of their
> local world/community, doing "real" things. As long as you as a narrator
> can justify your weird antics post-hoc, i don't think you need to be an
> expert on the economics and social structure.

I still think you need to know how the stead's (or whatever) economy and ecology work out to a fair degree in order impart this feeling of integration.

> >Every time I have
> > tried to include daily life in a campaign I have bored
> > the players to within an inch of death, so I also assume
> > it requires a far better GM than I am...
>
> IMO, daily-life-instances should present something interesting or
> challenging, or at least put a twist on the characters' actions. If daily
> life doesn't add something interesting or challenging it should be
> ignored. Realism for its own sake *is*, IMO, boring, campaign-wise.

Of course. I just haven't managed to get a sense of wonder into these things.

> >* Intrigue and politics, dealing with movers and shakers.
> > Here you need a firm grasp of the people running the
> > show, and their relations. You also need a very detailed
> > timeline, including how it will change with the antics
> > of the player heroes.
>
> [I think of my campaign as pretty political in nature and scope, but Nils
> may have a differing opinion...]

No, I agree that this is one main theme (myth and heroquesting another).

> I think you are overstating the need to know the details intimately. I
> strive to contextualize the characters and put their actions and the
> consequences into a wider whole, where NPC:s and factions have their own
> agendas. You don't need to detail the agendas or possible reactions of
> various factions beforehand, but you do need to make them believable and
> motivated as events unfold. I hope i'm pulling it off...

But you also need a good grasp of what happens out of the heroes' sight, how the simultaneous events interrelate.

> Re: detailed timeline, i'd say that it's enough to have some idea of
> possible future trajectories or particular events. Players' actions *will*
> mess your planning up and you may well change your conception of what the
> NPC:s are trying to do, so i don't bother overly much with planning and
> detailing.

Yes, that was rather badly put, I was more after the parallell events than the future ones.


Wulf:
>
>I think the mistake here is confusing 'The farmER campaign' with 'The
>farmING campaign'. Interesting scenarios should NOT begin 'I was
>ploughing the field this morning, and I went on ploughing it', they
>should be more 'I was ploughing the field this morning, and a bloody
>great Triceratops was eating the cabbages...'.

Thus the quotation marks around "farmer campaign". It is certainly meant to be derogatory.



Nils Weinander
A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same forever -- Ecclesiastes 1:4

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