Why Adventure-Building is Bad

[Raven Crowking]

Man, I must be getting good at recognizing your work, RC. I read the first post and thought, "D Joseph Bishop must be Raven Crowking."

I am so very, very sorry.

 

[Emirikol]

My literature geekness says, "How is theme possible without plot?"

Excellent question.

Theme is your world (if it's anything other than standard). A good example: Dark Sun. There's a world where THEME is the world. You can take any adventure from DUNGEON and stick it in ATHAS and you already know how and where to modify your scenarios. Greyhawk compared to FR though....not much going on without adding additional "Theme." For example, if you'v egot a flood that drove all the Drow out of the underdark..that's THEME.

I'm in near total agreement with this unknown person who wrote it on several layers and I'll throw out some thoughts:

Plot is railroading. The Adventure Path series from DUNGEON. They have a foregone conclusion. There's no altering what happens along the way. YOu're going to fight the BBEG at the end. ALthough I use the AP's extensively for my home games, it's essentially railroading. Not un-fun..just railroading....but in our game, we don't play in GREYHAWK, in fact, we play a lower magic ancient-history THEME. There's always the stuff around you.

Another random thought: if you hate your job, it's probably because you're a fireman instead of a FIRE CHIEF. Being a problem solver all day can bear down on you. Now, being part of the mission..there's where the lofty goal of "making a difference" is at

The same is true of a DM. If you don't have a theme, but are just playing a plain game with the BBEG at the end, encounter to encounter, chances are you're going to burn out and so are your players. There's no "big picture." The BBEG I suppose could be the "big picture" insome cases..but in most cases, he's just the end of the traintracks.

Personally, I find "theme" games to be tedious to create and run. I get tired and sometimes I just want to read boxed text and move to the next encounter..but when I find the game getting a little too generic, I can always throw some campaign "themes" in there to make the players feel like the've escaped from reality into the fantasy world.

jh

 

[DonTadow]

Excellent question.

Theme is your world (if it's anything other than standard). A good example: Dark Sun. There's a world where THEME is the world. You can take any adventure from DUNGEON and stick it in ATHAS and you already know how and where to modify your scenarios. Greyhawk compared to FR though....not much going on without adding additional "Theme." For example, if you'v egot a flood that drove all the Drow out of the underdark..that's THEME.

I'm in near total agreement with this unknown person who wrote it on several layers and I'll throw out some thoughts:

Plot is railroading. The Adventure Path series from DUNGEON. They have a foregone conclusion. There's no altering what happens along the way. YOu're going to fight the BBEG at the end. ALthough I use the AP's extensively for my home games, it's essentially railroading. Not un-fun..just railroading....but in our game, we don't play in GREYHAWK, in fact, we play a lower magic ancient-history THEME. There's always the stuff around you.

Another random thought: if you hate your job, it's probably because you're a fireman instead of a FIRE CHIEF. Being a problem solver all day can bear down on you. Now, being part of the mission..there's where the lofty goal of "making a difference" is at

The same is true of a DM. If you don't have a theme, but are just playing a plain game with the BBEG at the end, encounter to encounter, chances are you're going to burn out and so are your players. There's no "big picture." The BBEG I suppose could be the "big picture" insome cases..but in most cases, he's just the end of the traintracks.

Personally, I find "theme" games to be tedious to create and run. I get tired and sometimes I just want to read boxed text and move to the next encounter..but when I find the game getting a little too generic, I can always throw some campaign "themes" in there to make the players feel like the've escaped from reality into the fantasy world.

jh

Plot is having a story. An adventure without a plot is just an MMORPG.

 

[Slife]

Plot is having a story. An adventure without a plot is just an MMORPG.

Whereas a theme of a MMORPG is "Oh NOEZ! The time axis is out of alignment! Kill thirty goblin chiropractors and bring me theri shinz!"

 

[Emirikol]

Plot is having a story. An adventure without a plot is just an MMORPG.

Thank you

jh
Never played an online game or MMORPG in my life..missed that generation by 'that' much...

 

[Pants]

Plot is having a story. An adventure without a plot is just an MMORPG.

MMORPG's have plot/story, I don't know where you'd get the idea that they don't.

Then why the heck did you post it?

He lost his sense of wonder.

 

[Imagicka]

Greetings...

I thought it was funny.

--

As for why I think the whole 'world building' thing is interesting to us is because we're gamers... and we're not your average gamer. But we're the type of gamers that are happy to read/write/discuss our lifestyle/hobby in great detail.

 

[DonTadow]

MMORPG's have plot/story, I don't know where you'd get the idea that they don't.


He lost his sense of wonder.

Let me elaborate. having a plot in an RPG is having a story the PCs can engage, change, manipulate and shape.

With plots and world background, you have a bunch of players meandering about a world with no real point to the game. It doesnt matter whether a plot is created from the beginning of the campaign or evolves from the pcs actions, without one, you really have no cohesiveness in a campaign.

NOw, whether this is cool or not depends on the players in your campaign. Some players don't really care about the world or the story, just point them to a dungeon and let them go (hack and slash) or give them some good NPCs to talk to all night (theatrical group). Some players want to feel as if they are moving through a story of some kind.

This is typical to an MMORPG where you have a moving world but no real story, in particular not one that the pcs can interact with and make a difference.

 

[questing gm]

Adventure comes first, plot second.

And we all know that adventures are fraught with dangers (that's where encounters come in!)

 

[shilsen]

I am so very, very sorry.

That's okay. Everyone has their cross to bear