Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The role of organizations in RPGs
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 7063378" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>In my experience organizations aren't just flavor, or background, they're pretty much vital to a successful campaign. Every campaign that I've ever really enjoyed, either from the player or GM side, has had the PCs making major connections to organizations in the world. If a group truly wants to just kill things and take their stuff, well that's fine, but that had better be spelled out explicitly and clearly in the group social contract, the GM must create content that fits that agenda, and by golly the players had better be <em>actively and aggressively pursuing that agenda</em>, not just saying that they want that agenda and then just dinking around. </p><p></p><p>The problem occurs when players don't express any innate interest in anything related to the game world, and the GM has a set of intricate organizations established in the backstory thinking that the players will interact with them. Most of the time the players generally ignore this kind of setup. Since the GM isn't really giving them what they really want (a chance to just go kick butt and get rich), the campaign just stalls out in this nebulous, half-baked "plot," everyone sort of just gets bored (including the GM), and things sort of implode and the campaign dies. </p><p></p><p>This has happened so often in sooooo many campaigns I've joined (including the one I'm in now), that as a GM I've just adopted the rule that all PCs will either be recognized members of an existing faction, or be directly aligned with a current faction. This is not optional, and I make it very clear to the players during Session Zero that this is the case, and if they're not interested in that, they should look for another group. In my experience this has been a significant boon to my campaigns, as it has created a much greater sense of player engagement and involvement.</p><p></p><p>One of the major "root causes" for me taking this approach can be found in an OP so eloquently stated by @<em><strong><u><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=2067" target="_blank">I'm A Banana</a></u></strong></em> (the former Kamikaze Midget) here: </p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?373913-I-Am-SO-Over-The-quot-Rootless-Vagabond-quot-Archetype" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?373913-I-Am-SO-Over-The-quot-Rootless-Vagabond-quot-Archetype</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 7063378, member: 85870"] In my experience organizations aren't just flavor, or background, they're pretty much vital to a successful campaign. Every campaign that I've ever really enjoyed, either from the player or GM side, has had the PCs making major connections to organizations in the world. If a group truly wants to just kill things and take their stuff, well that's fine, but that had better be spelled out explicitly and clearly in the group social contract, the GM must create content that fits that agenda, and by golly the players had better be [I]actively and aggressively pursuing that agenda[/I], not just saying that they want that agenda and then just dinking around. The problem occurs when players don't express any innate interest in anything related to the game world, and the GM has a set of intricate organizations established in the backstory thinking that the players will interact with them. Most of the time the players generally ignore this kind of setup. Since the GM isn't really giving them what they really want (a chance to just go kick butt and get rich), the campaign just stalls out in this nebulous, half-baked "plot," everyone sort of just gets bored (including the GM), and things sort of implode and the campaign dies. This has happened so often in sooooo many campaigns I've joined (including the one I'm in now), that as a GM I've just adopted the rule that all PCs will either be recognized members of an existing faction, or be directly aligned with a current faction. This is not optional, and I make it very clear to the players during Session Zero that this is the case, and if they're not interested in that, they should look for another group. In my experience this has been a significant boon to my campaigns, as it has created a much greater sense of player engagement and involvement. One of the major "root causes" for me taking this approach can be found in an OP so eloquently stated by @[I][B][U][URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=2067"]I'm A Banana[/URL][/U][/B][/I] (the former Kamikaze Midget) here: [URL]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?373913-I-Am-SO-Over-The-quot-Rootless-Vagabond-quot-Archetype[/URL] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The role of organizations in RPGs
Top