Action, Character, Story or World Oriented Campaigns?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

O Action
O Character
O Story
O World
X All the above

 

[FireLance]

In decreasing order of importance, as a player or as a DM:

1. Action
2. Story (very close to Character, because Character often drives Story)
3. Character
4. Setting
5. Everything else in the World that is not in the setting

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I strive for a combination of character (although the focus is much less on "backstory" and more on personality) and world.

Action and story have their place as support for these elements.

That said, right now I'm running the Savage Tide Adventure Path, so my current game is a combination of story and character - I have some fantastic PCs.

 

[Blue]

I run a game that is character oriented, though there is some heavy aspect of world oriented though more in an explore the people/places/politics/etc of the world (though there are always things happening). Story is a close third and action a distant fourth.

On the other end of the spectrum, let me tell you abotu a campaign I played a while back that I left. It was story driven, where character driven was encouraged by the DM - but not taken into enough consideration by the same DM. The story would happen regardless of the characters and story took precedent over player fun.

I think you don't need a 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 balance - I think you need to find a formula that works for the players and the DMs style. I can be it separate games with different priorities,a dn enjoy both if I'm in tune with expectations.

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

 

[Hussar]

Another analogy.

Every football team needs great quarterbacks, receivers, linemen, special teams, linebackers, etc to be successful.

Every team only has so much money to pay for them, and sometimes the offense and/or the defense, will, by circumstance, improve or degrade regardless of how much money or effort is spent to change them.

So while, in a perfect world, you would have a team that is perfect at everything, teams are generally judged for their strengths and weaknesses in its elements. Coaches also have a preference for what works best for them, and even fans can have a preference for what improvements they want to see.

Similar to a salary cap, a campaign has a "game cap". There is only so much actual gameplay (and DM development) that can be given to a campaign. Which do you develop most? The action scenes? Work on integrating a character's background? Work on an ongoing metaplot? Prepare more organizations, cities, areas to explore? Do you favor one over the other as a DM? As a player?

Some situations, IMO, are mutually exclusive. For example, let's say you have a player who loves having a "base of operations". He wants a city with reoccuring organization contacts. (This is part of integrating his character development into the game.) There is a 'world' conflict if the DM is spending his time developing the cairns outside of the city, or if the rest of the party want to leave the city. There is a 'story' conflict if DM introduces a metaplot instrument (the ring must be taken to the mountain). There is also an 'action' conflict if the activities in the city are not combat oriented.

All elements must be present, but I also think they conflict with each other on occasion. I also do not believe that any campaign can perfectly balance all four elements. I also think you can develop different styles of campaigns by favoring one area over another, and that different players will react to these styles in different ways.

And I also think that no two people are going to agree on the ideas of a "perfect" amount of action vs a "perfect" amount of character backstory involvement vs a "perfect" presence of ongoing metastory vs a "perfect" number of finely developed areas to explore. What one person thinks is a perfect balance of all four elements, someone else might think the world isn't developed well enough or another might think his backstory is being ignored while another might think there are too many calls for initiative.

What does everyone else think?

What have you done with the real Takasi, because I can't believe I'm doing this.

QFT

It's fine to strive for balance, but, campaigns will always lean one way or another. It's just the nature of the beast. An Against the Giants campaign will likely see considerably more action than, say, a high intrigue campaign. That's not to say that there is no action in the High Intrigue campaign and no story in Against the Giants, but, there will not be equal emphasis either.

Oh, and Firelance, LOL.

 

[Wombat]

Character, first and foremost, no matter what the system.

Story is next.

World after that.

Action as necessary to underline the above, but never, never as the focus of the game.

 

[Jaws]

1. Character
2. Action
3. Story
4. World


j.

 

[ThirdWizard]

1. World: A goal of my campaign is for the PCs to visit every Plane using the
2. Story: A carefully crafted backdrop crafted to take into consideration the
3. Characters: Who have much freedom to do what they want and drive the
4. Action: To challenge through crazy battles against difficult enemies.

Or something like that.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I think the poll is missing one option; Genre. Which I would have picked if it was available.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Action. I'd say story, but I'm usually not dealing with "massive, epic" stories.

I think a lot of GMs are really heavy-handed when it comes to "character development" as well. When you need to write extensive backstories, you're not playing a game, you're attending English* class.

(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)

DnD is a group game. Character development tends to be a one-character-at-a-time thing (as opposed to, say, action or story). Of course you will run into this problem.

* Or whatever language.