Campaign ideas. Big or Little?

DocMoriartty · 20th January 2002, 10:26 PM

What do most DM's here prefer?

Do you like the campaign filled with lots of little stories and plots, some related and some not that make up a long story?

Or do you prefer the main theme that everything really revolves around, sure there are ocassional tangents but in the end there is a end all goal of the campaign.

I prefer the large single story. My favorite being the ancient truly evil diety that is either lost or imprisoned etc. The kind of God who has worshippers so sick and insane that just walking through one of their temples will make the PC's paranoid and sickened be thevery alien horror of the place.

Eosin the Red · 20th January 2002, 11:13 PM

Big.

All of my campaigns have defined goals (players may not know them). When those are met we move on, after wrapping up things that are important to the characters.

Hand of Evil · 20th January 2002, 11:17 PM

I work with a lot of threads and take current events and add them to my games.

The stories are little things to begin with, local troubles. As levels go up the stories get larger and more involved with greather impact on things.

I do have a world view but it is really just an outline for my games.

DocMoriartty · 20th January 2002, 11:17 PM

I like to keep the overall plot hidden from them as long as possible. Though eventually one of the players will catch on from the various small hints.

EOL · 20th January 2002, 11:44 PM

I've tried it both ways and of course the latter is more difficult, that's what I'm doing at the moment. The Dragons have decided to regain dominance over the world and everything else pretty much pales when the dragons have declared open war on everybody else.

DocMoriartty · 20th January 2002, 11:48 PM

What level magic world is it?

Quote:

Originally posted by EOL
I've tried it both ways and of course the latter is more difficult, that's what I'm doing at the moment. The Dragons have decided to regain dominance over the world and everything else pretty much pales when the dragons have declared open war on everybody else.

20th January 2002, 11:52 PM

My game is still involved in an arc that began in 1984, with one of the original players still in the group. Its been through eleven groups and sub arcs, with the main arc encompassing three worlds, four other DM's campaigns, and a side spill into my Superhero and Star Trek games. So I suppose that's a vote for "Big".

rounser · 21st January 2002, 12:04 AM

Hybrid.

Lots of side-adventures but with a main thread to follow when they get around to it...

Agamon · 21st January 2002, 12:08 AM

It's gotta be big for me. Yes tangents are good, especially early on when the party's just getting its feet wet, but over all, there has to be an uber-plot point to it all. And the more it involves and intertwines with the PCs and their lives, rather than just unfolding around them, the better.

barsoomcore · 21st January 2002, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DocMoriartty
Do you like the campaign filled with lots of little stories and plots, or do you prefer the main theme that everything really revolves around?

Neither.

I like LOTS of BIG THEMES that everything revolves around.

What I mean is, my campaign is filled with great big horrible scary bad guys -- LOTS of them. And they're all trying to either take over or destroy the world, for their own nefarious purposes. So there's tons of plots, all of which are earth-shattering and none of which the party really has any chance of stopping. Heh.

I honestly have no idea how they're going to (or if they're going to) stop evil from destroying everything. My campaign may have a less-than-triumphant ending. Oh, well.

Grim · 21st January 2002, 02:47 AM

Big. It may look small now, but that is because it just started. I have plans though... big plans... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH

UD · 21st January 2002, 03:01 AM

I have a big plot line, which I weave little plot lines into. It makes me seem like a kick arse evil DM, plus it gets the players really worried/confused...

goatboy · 21st January 2002, 03:13 AM

My DM definetly likes BIG....

My group (a lich necromancer and myself, a dwarven barbarian) just destroyed this evil cube type thingy that had tried to posess my partner earlier, but I beat him to near death and took it from him.. but anyways, we entered the cubes home plane, and fought it there, and killed it. Causing a HUGE energy backlash in the prime plane, and THEORETICALLY destroyed the cubes home plane. But uh... then I died when the tower we were in collapased due to Tiamat, who the Cubes had previously imprisoned, beat down the tower with her tail.

EOL · 21st January 2002, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DocMoriartty
What level magic world is it?

It's a modified Forgotten Realms Campaign, so it's on the high side. On the other hand the dragons kidnapped all the high level NPC's (Khelben, Elminster, Simbul, etc.) so the PC's are basically it.

Grim · 21st January 2002, 05:30 AM

Now thats a good way to get rid of Mysteria's Little Power-Boy. IMC, i am just going to ignore the fact that Elmister and the others exist until the PCs are high enough level for it to actually matter. If they don't ask, I will never tell...