Poll: what % of sessions should be devoted to plot?

[random user]

I know there is some spectrum on this question, which is why I'm posting this poll.

First question I guess would be, does your campaign have some sort of over-arching plot? If no, I guess you can answer 0% to the poll.

If so, what percentage of sessions would you prefer be devoted to that plot, and what percentage should be devoted to side quests or other things not related to the plot at time of planning (if it later becomes part of the main plot, that's fine... as long as it wasn't part of the main plot at planning time, leave it as non-plot).

Also a related question, one that you will have to just reply and answer, a question for DM's:

How many of your sessions didn't relate to the main plot, but your players did something in it that allowed you to tie it all together? Would your players realize that initially that session wasn't part of the main plot?

I'll answer these questions myself in a little, I don't want to bias people by stating my answers now (yes I was a psych major).

 

[jerichothebard]

Since we game only infrequently, I try very hard to pull everything together. If I were Dming more regularly, I wouldn't worry so much about it.

 

[LostSoul]

The PCs are the "plot".

 

[Seonaid]

I'm not a GM, but I think that it's best for most of the sessions to advance the overall plot, if there is one. (I voted 2/3.) It's great to go on side-quests, and that's what most of life is, but too much sidetracking and I get bored and start saying, "How does this relate to our goals?" If the answers all start to become "It doesn't," I know there's too much side stuff.

 

[shilsen]

The PCs are the "plot".

Yup. Anything the PCs are involved with (and a few that they aren't) is part of the plot. Sometimes more so than others, like when the random encounter on the road turns out to be really meaningful months down the line, but they are all part of "the adventures of the PCs", and that's what the plot of my campaign is.

 

[Wombat]

All of the games are related to "the plot", assuming you are meaning "the overarching story that the GM is using to bind the individuals adventures together".

No character gets to the end without going through the middle

This isn't like some semi-Buffy "story arch" nonsense -- this is not a tv series. Small matters in one game may inspire direction for later in the game. Equally the characters have as much power in deciding the direction of the game as does the GM.

 

[random user]

All of the games are related to "the plot", assuming you are meaning "the overarching story that the GM is using to bind the individuals adventures together".

No character gets to the end without going through the middle

This isn't like some semi-Buffy "story arch" nonsense -- this is not a tv series. Small matters in one game may inspire direction for later in the game. Equally the characters have as much power in deciding the direction of the game as does the GM.

I disagree. Some campaigns have no overreaching plot, others do. There was a good thread about this just a couple weeks ago where someone compared campaigns to be "Babylon 5" like vs "Star Trek" like etc.

If you are of the camp that there should be no overreaching plot, then feel free to vote "we don't need no sticking plot." Each session is pretty much self-contained, and while characters may grow from session to session, there is nothing overarching. There can be a bad guy that spans a couple sessions, but once he's dead he stays dead and no one cares (well excpet for him, and the party who is wearing his nice treasure now). That's a fine way to run a campaign.

On the other hand, a campaign can be like "the bad guys are trying to conquer the world by summoning forth a horde of demons. To do this, they are trying to acquire certain magic items to work as catalysts, and eliminate many of the traditional powers so they can't get in the way. The party is trying to stop this." Through 20 levels and years both in game and out of game, the party may either be able to save the world or cause its downfall.

It is the latter types of campaign this poll is mostly aimed at. I am sorry, I should have clarified what I meant before if I was unclear.

 

[Buttercup]

I don't think I can quantify it that easily. Sometimes plot points come up frequently, and others they don't come up at all. And then there are times that the PCs decide to go in a completely different direction, and you have to abandon all your pet ideas. I don't think it pays to be rigid about a formula, because then you end up railroading.

So sorry, I can't answer your poll.

 

[Wombat]

If you are of the camp that there should be no overreaching plot, then feel free to vote "we don't need no sticking plot." Each session is pretty much self-contained, and while characters may grow from session to session, there is nothing overarching. There can be a bad guy that spans a couple sessions, but once he's dead he stays dead and no one cares (well excpet for him, and the party who is wearing his nice treasure now). That's a fine way to run a campaign.

On the other hand, a campaign can be like "the bad guys are trying to conquer the world by summoning forth a horde of demons. To do this, they are trying to acquire certain magic items to work as catalysts, and eliminate many of the traditional powers so they can't get in the way. The party is trying to stop this." Through 20 levels and years both in game and out of game, the party may either be able to save the world or cause its downfall.

Actually we do have an overarching plot, to a certain extent, but it is highly malleable, as determined by the players. We do not run non-connected stories, certainly, because each adventure creates a ripple that affects the world and the players, to a greater or lesser extent. In other words, all the adventures are connected, yet the adventures may not be leading to an obvious goal, at least at first.

The GM sets a general plot; the specifics work out by play of the characters. Some NPCs who might seem important at first become less so. A major badguy might prove less important, or more important, depending on how the players twist things around.

Basically it falls to this: there is a basic important plot. Details, major & minor, of the plot alters depending of actions. As such, there is not set plot but a highly fluid plot.

 

[random user]

Sure that's fine too, even if there is a nebulous plot out there that maybe even the GM doesn't fully understand yet, but it ties together multiple series of adventures. I would call that an overarching plot.

Perhaps I should give a counter-example.

The party, while traveling, comes upon a cave to spend the night. As they are making sure it's clear, one of the falls down a hole that was hard to see in the darkness and discovers a cave network.

The party decides to explore it the next day, goes in, kills some random underground dwelling, non-intelligent monsters, maybe find an item that is magical but not unique at all (ie a generic +1 longsword etc). They kill everything they can find and climb back up. They proceed to continue to go where they were going.

This session which I just made up is totally optional. It furthers no plot. It gives no items that further plot. It provided xp and a little treasure. That's all it did. That's what I am trying to measure.

Now, that is an extreme, but I wanted to use it to show as a good example. A less simplistic but perhaps more interesting example, is perhaps you add a band of drawven explorers somewhere in the cave system. The party may not even find them, and you, as a DM, don't have any plans at the moment, to include them as more than "window dressing."

In such a situation, it may be possible that someday, those dwarves may come back into play (assuming the party even meets them), or, it's also possible that they will never meet the dwarves again and will never have anything to do with them ever again. But it's another example of an adventure which doesn't start off as a session to move the plot.

I know what I'm trying to ask, but feel that I'm not describing it well. :-/