Changes - what is possible?

[Fenes]

How many and how far reaching changes can PCs in your campaigns achieve? If you are using (semi-)official settings, how far can your PCs go? Is there a line they cannot cross, powers and beings they cannot topple, catastrophes they cannot cause (by accident or design)?

Are there "fixers" (NPCs, or gods) who "keep the setting on track"? Do you "restart" your (semi-)official/homebrew worlds after each campaign, resetting the changes, or do you keep a continuing history based on your PCs actions?

In short, how free to create and destroy are the PCs in your campaign? Do their actions top "official" events and changes?

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I'm pretty easy going when it comes to what my players can and can't come up with.

There was this one time though that they were sent back in time to do a quest, then wanted to buy the land that Waterdeep was going to be built on and have it set up in such a way that they'd "inherit" waterdeep when they went back in the future. I drew the line there.

Beyond that I've let most things happen with an apropriate amount of resistance. I mean if my Players want to go slap Elminster in the face, they're going to get beat... but they can do it if they want to.

 

[GnomeWorks]

I run a homebrew, and players sure do have an effect; that's part of the appeal of a homebrew, IMO.

The entire plot of the next game I'm going to run was set in motion by actions taken by a character from a campaign two years' past.

If you don't have an impact on the world, what's the point of playing?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm running an Exalted game, and there's little they couldn't ultimately accomplish.

Right now, they are attempting to change the cycle of reincarnation in the world so that people will remember their past lives.

 

[CapnZapp]

If you're playing 4E, and believe its retractors in that it is a MMO, the answer is "no changes at all"...

 

[Fenes]

I'm running an Exalted game, and there's little they couldn't ultimately accomplish.

Right now, they are attempting to change the cycle of reincarnation in the world so that people will remember their past lives.

Will future Exalted games of you use those changes then?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you're playing 4E, and believe its retractors in that it is a MMO, the answer is "no changes at all"...

And if you don't?

Once I start a homebrew instead of running published modules, I hope to achieve a way more open world. What I definitely want to do (be it in modules or be it in homebrew) is giving my players to change the world. As a DM, I might steer them into a certain direction, but at the end, I don't want to have a static world that never changes. The whole thing about the tiers in 4E made it even more clear to me that eventually, the characters must bring a change to the world that lasts...

One of the thing I hated about NWN 2: Mask of the Betrayer (aside from that Spirit Energy mechanic) was

Spoiler

you couldn't bring down that annoying Wall of Spirits around the City of Judgement. The whole thing appalled me at a philosophical level that I hoped for the satisfaction of bringing it down. But no, plot protection of course stood in the way...

I really liked the Zeitgeist Article in Dragon (one of the online articles in the 3e->4e transition phase). (Note to self: Don't forget to download it - if it's even still available...)

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The players do what the players do, use canon to make the world live not to trump the player actions. It should be your Forgotten Realms not WoTC's Living campaings excepted.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

In short, how free to create and destroy are the PCs in your campaign? Do their actions top "official" events and changes?

Pretty darn free to make changes. On the other hand, if the PC's decided to knock off a major empire and take over, it would not be easy, and they'd be extremely likely to fail. Also, the gods in my world are fairly unassailable.

I keep a continuing history - that's one of the really cool elements of homebrewing, I think. I like the idea that things the PC's do can affect the history that the next group of players experience.

 

[DeusExMachina]

I usually steer the party in a certain direction storywise, but if they make surprising actions that story can change at any time and that can indeed have large effects on the world.
My latest homebrew will be very open ended, so I'm curious to see what they will do to it.