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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Campaign Styles : Plot-driven versus Character-driven
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<blockquote data-quote="kenmarable" data-source="post: 4619213" data-attributes="member: 40359"><p>As the original poster said, all campaigns probably have elements of both, but in my experience, they definitely seem to slide one way or another. As I see it, with plot-driven, the PCs are along for the ride and can largely be interchanged without affecting the story. If a PC dies and someone writes up another, it's very easy to plug them in. In heavy character-driven, you can't really replace any PC. Everything is so inherently tied to those particular PCs that it is very disruptive to swap anyone out.</p><p></p><p>As a player, I prefer character driven, but probably more because some of the DMs I've played with have tried heavy plot-driven that sometimes felt forced and constrained us all too much - sometimes sacrificing fun to keep the story on track.</p><p></p><p>As a DM, I'm in a bind. I have a strong tendency towards plot driven (I have these cool epic storylines in my head that I want to share with the players), BUT the campaigns that have been the most fun have been very character driven. I'm currently working on resolving my big plot faster than planned in order to go more sandbox and let the PCs explore because I came to the conclusion that letting the PCs explore would be a lot more fun than just participating in this movie I have in my head. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> </p><p></p><p>It's a tricky balance, and once I think I managed to strike it perfectly by having very loose plot points (actually more like only a villian's agenda, and some possibly allies to contact) and let how they reach those points and their outcome be entirely dependent on the PCs actions and even backgrounds. I didn't even realize at the time how I pulled it off and only recently starting looking at that and trying to figure out how to re-create that balance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kenmarable, post: 4619213, member: 40359"] As the original poster said, all campaigns probably have elements of both, but in my experience, they definitely seem to slide one way or another. As I see it, with plot-driven, the PCs are along for the ride and can largely be interchanged without affecting the story. If a PC dies and someone writes up another, it's very easy to plug them in. In heavy character-driven, you can't really replace any PC. Everything is so inherently tied to those particular PCs that it is very disruptive to swap anyone out. As a player, I prefer character driven, but probably more because some of the DMs I've played with have tried heavy plot-driven that sometimes felt forced and constrained us all too much - sometimes sacrificing fun to keep the story on track. As a DM, I'm in a bind. I have a strong tendency towards plot driven (I have these cool epic storylines in my head that I want to share with the players), BUT the campaigns that have been the most fun have been very character driven. I'm currently working on resolving my big plot faster than planned in order to go more sandbox and let the PCs explore because I came to the conclusion that letting the PCs explore would be a lot more fun than just participating in this movie I have in my head. :) It's a tricky balance, and once I think I managed to strike it perfectly by having very loose plot points (actually more like only a villian's agenda, and some possibly allies to contact) and let how they reach those points and their outcome be entirely dependent on the PCs actions and even backgrounds. I didn't even realize at the time how I pulled it off and only recently starting looking at that and trying to figure out how to re-create that balance. [/QUOTE]
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