takasi
First Post
All campaigns have these four elements, but usually one is stronger than the others. Which do you prefer and which one are you playing in now?
Action Oriented: Fight scenes are the primary focus of the game. Classic dungeon crawls. Think Diablo.
Character Oriented: This game works best when there are only three or four characters at max. The primary focus is connecting and developing everyone's backstory. Think Game of Thrones.
Story Oriented: There is an epic story to be told that the characters can shape, but it is much larger than any individual PC's life. Think Lord of the Rings.
World Oriented: The theme of the game is exploring the world. Do whatever you want without any major catastrophes or impending doom on the horizon. Think World of Warcraft.
I strongly favor action oriented games. I will gladly build a sheet with no character whatsoever, just point me to the dungeon entrance and give me some phat loot. I also consider myself moderately "rules savvy" and can referee these games without any problems.
I would love to play in a character driven campaign, but these are hard to find. As a DM, they are also very difficult for me to create because I always have so many players and it's difficult to weave everyone together. (The farmhand must find his sister's killer, but the cleric just arrived to start a new mission in town, the street orphan is wanted for pickpocketing a prominent merchant, the wizard needs to go to the haunted woods to find a crucial spell component, the monk feels his master his holding him back, the druid sees too many loggers in the forest, etc) It's also difficult to recover from a TPK, or a significant party loss. This is always difficult, but even more so for this type of game.
Most of the games I've run are story oriented. Age of Worms, War of the Burning Sky, etc. Lot of scenes (some plotlines linear, some not so much), but the metastory is the center of attention. These are the easiest to run (IMO) and provide more roleplay than your typical dungeon crawl.
Despite being a huge fan of Eberron, I have not ran very many world oriented games recently. I'm running two right now, but (ironically) they are for a homebrew and for the Forgotten Realms. These are the toughest to run IMO because players will quickly get used to pushing the boundaries of the world, forcing the DM to think on his feet far more than in other types of campaigns.
Action Oriented: Fight scenes are the primary focus of the game. Classic dungeon crawls. Think Diablo.
Character Oriented: This game works best when there are only three or four characters at max. The primary focus is connecting and developing everyone's backstory. Think Game of Thrones.
Story Oriented: There is an epic story to be told that the characters can shape, but it is much larger than any individual PC's life. Think Lord of the Rings.
World Oriented: The theme of the game is exploring the world. Do whatever you want without any major catastrophes or impending doom on the horizon. Think World of Warcraft.
I strongly favor action oriented games. I will gladly build a sheet with no character whatsoever, just point me to the dungeon entrance and give me some phat loot. I also consider myself moderately "rules savvy" and can referee these games without any problems.
I would love to play in a character driven campaign, but these are hard to find. As a DM, they are also very difficult for me to create because I always have so many players and it's difficult to weave everyone together. (The farmhand must find his sister's killer, but the cleric just arrived to start a new mission in town, the street orphan is wanted for pickpocketing a prominent merchant, the wizard needs to go to the haunted woods to find a crucial spell component, the monk feels his master his holding him back, the druid sees too many loggers in the forest, etc) It's also difficult to recover from a TPK, or a significant party loss. This is always difficult, but even more so for this type of game.
Most of the games I've run are story oriented. Age of Worms, War of the Burning Sky, etc. Lot of scenes (some plotlines linear, some not so much), but the metastory is the center of attention. These are the easiest to run (IMO) and provide more roleplay than your typical dungeon crawl.
Despite being a huge fan of Eberron, I have not ran very many world oriented games recently. I'm running two right now, but (ironically) they are for a homebrew and for the Forgotten Realms. These are the toughest to run IMO because players will quickly get used to pushing the boundaries of the world, forcing the DM to think on his feet far more than in other types of campaigns.
