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As a Player, why do you play in games you haven't bought into?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8118853" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>There are four basic approaches a DM can take to running a game for their players:</p><p></p><p>1.) <strong>Out of the Box</strong> - You're playing a stock module/adventure, and don't design a dang thing if you can help it. You're there to implement someone else's vision and let the players explore it.</p><p></p><p>2. ) <strong>DM's World - </strong>The DM has a lot of ideas and puts them together to create a world they think will be fun to explore. They set up story hooks, create fun places to explore and try to make something the players will like - but in the end, the world is theirs and they're running the game they want to run. This creates a consistent and (hopefully) immersive world, but sometimes it is not something that interests the players.</p><p></p><p>3.) <strong>Player's World - </strong>The players provide the DM with the things they want to explore and enjoy in the campaign, and the DM crafts a world to give them that opportunity, even if it is something they do not find interesting. The design is there primarily there to pull together the desires of the players and make them mesh together. The drawback here is that you often get a lot of highly varied storytelling going on, and it can be difficult to mesh them in a cohesive story world.</p><p></p><p>4.) <strong>Hybrid World - </strong>The DM has an idea, but before going too far with it he finds out what intrigues the players and folds it into his design. In this pattern, the major storyline often comes from the DM while secondary storylines are products of the origin stories of the PCs. </p><p></p><p>If you look at Critical Role as an example, Campaign One was a Hybrid World scenario. There was a major storyline pre-stream that focused on Pike and Grog. There was a short one that focused on the family of Vex and Vax. There was a story that explored Grog's tribe. Percy's family story was a major storyline, and there were a number of short stories about Keyleth. Mercer bounced back and forth between their stories - but in the middle you had major storylines that had nothing to do with their origin stories. Kraghammer, the Conclave, Vecna... these were stories their PCs wandered into rather than stories that grew out of their origins.</p><p></p><p>Campaign 2, however, is much more a Player's World. All of the stories have been driven by the history of the PCs (after a brief introductory period of Carnivals, Demons and Gnolls). Uk'otoa, the Traveler, Yasha's lost time, Caleb's origin, Veth's curse and family, Molly's origin, Cadeuces' family ... only Beau has really been along for the ride (outside of one or two brief interludes into her family history). Otherwise, everything spawns from the seeds that Matt pulled out of their origin stories. Now, I think that Matt worked their origins into the story he planned to tell (Molly specifically), and I expect the big swings that come down the road will be no more tied to their origins than Vecna's tale was for Vox Machina, but the campaign, so far, has been more about their origins than in Campaign 1.</p><p></p><p>So - back to the original question - why does a player choose to play in a DM's World or a Hybrid World if the DM's contributions do not make them happy? Usually, it is a lack of other options. Many of the groups I've been in have switched DMs from time to time. When we do so, we often see different styles at play. My game may have been a Hybrid, while another DM really wants to run the idea they had without worrying about the player's ideas, and another DM may just want to run a WotC stock adventure path. Personally, I have so many character ideas floating around that I never get a chance to play that I can find something fun to run in almost any game - so I enjoy the DM's World and Hybrid World models the most. However, to play with my friends, I will play in the Stock Adventure Path or one where the DM let Players set the stage. However, I watch some of the players in my group groan when the Stock Adventure doesn't meet their expectations - but it is the only option if they want to play with the group that week.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8118853, member: 2629"] There are four basic approaches a DM can take to running a game for their players: 1.) [B]Out of the Box[/B] - You're playing a stock module/adventure, and don't design a dang thing if you can help it. You're there to implement someone else's vision and let the players explore it. 2. ) [B]DM's World - [/B]The DM has a lot of ideas and puts them together to create a world they think will be fun to explore. They set up story hooks, create fun places to explore and try to make something the players will like - but in the end, the world is theirs and they're running the game they want to run. This creates a consistent and (hopefully) immersive world, but sometimes it is not something that interests the players. 3.) [B]Player's World - [/B]The players provide the DM with the things they want to explore and enjoy in the campaign, and the DM crafts a world to give them that opportunity, even if it is something they do not find interesting. The design is there primarily there to pull together the desires of the players and make them mesh together. The drawback here is that you often get a lot of highly varied storytelling going on, and it can be difficult to mesh them in a cohesive story world. 4.) [B]Hybrid World - [/B]The DM has an idea, but before going too far with it he finds out what intrigues the players and folds it into his design. In this pattern, the major storyline often comes from the DM while secondary storylines are products of the origin stories of the PCs. If you look at Critical Role as an example, Campaign One was a Hybrid World scenario. There was a major storyline pre-stream that focused on Pike and Grog. There was a short one that focused on the family of Vex and Vax. There was a story that explored Grog's tribe. Percy's family story was a major storyline, and there were a number of short stories about Keyleth. Mercer bounced back and forth between their stories - but in the middle you had major storylines that had nothing to do with their origin stories. Kraghammer, the Conclave, Vecna... these were stories their PCs wandered into rather than stories that grew out of their origins. Campaign 2, however, is much more a Player's World. All of the stories have been driven by the history of the PCs (after a brief introductory period of Carnivals, Demons and Gnolls). Uk'otoa, the Traveler, Yasha's lost time, Caleb's origin, Veth's curse and family, Molly's origin, Cadeuces' family ... only Beau has really been along for the ride (outside of one or two brief interludes into her family history). Otherwise, everything spawns from the seeds that Matt pulled out of their origin stories. Now, I think that Matt worked their origins into the story he planned to tell (Molly specifically), and I expect the big swings that come down the road will be no more tied to their origins than Vecna's tale was for Vox Machina, but the campaign, so far, has been more about their origins than in Campaign 1. So - back to the original question - why does a player choose to play in a DM's World or a Hybrid World if the DM's contributions do not make them happy? Usually, it is a lack of other options. Many of the groups I've been in have switched DMs from time to time. When we do so, we often see different styles at play. My game may have been a Hybrid, while another DM really wants to run the idea they had without worrying about the player's ideas, and another DM may just want to run a WotC stock adventure path. Personally, I have so many character ideas floating around that I never get a chance to play that I can find something fun to run in almost any game - so I enjoy the DM's World and Hybrid World models the most. However, to play with my friends, I will play in the Stock Adventure Path or one where the DM let Players set the stage. However, I watch some of the players in my group groan when the Stock Adventure doesn't meet their expectations - but it is the only option if they want to play with the group that week. [/QUOTE]
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