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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4619300" data-attributes="member: 2067">pssst...MT...you might want to take a deep breath and compose yourself before posting next time...all this rage is kind of pointless.As for the actual points..."Character-Driven" vs. "Plot" (or "Event") driven is a choice of storytelling focus as old as the medium of narrative itself. Much like basic story structure, it's pretty eternal. It's not really "wrong" to have an event-driven narrative, it's just a different choice.Effectively, if you want to use "invasion" as a plot device (aliens or orcs or robots or whatever), you need to choose what exact threats are there to overcome.The DM chooses what the aliens are doing, what they represent, the kind of threat they pose. In something like Independence Day (and, I would imagine, most D&D games) the aliens represent a threat that must be stopped. You solve the problem through action. So you go after what's in ur base killin ur doodz, and you kick the snot out of them so they can't do it again. You might do it for a variety of personal reasons (they killed your dog, you're a big racist, the mafia makes you, whatever). OotS represents a very "plot" focused D&D adventure, and, I think, is pretty typical for that. Someone evil is doing something evil somewhere and the PC's must stop it!In something like Battlestar Galactica (and, I would hope, a lot of FFZ games) the invaders are clearly threatening, but they can't be stopped. Signs does the same kind of thing. The story isn't about how you kick the snot out of them. It's not about what happens to the world. The story is about what happens to the characters. How does Mel Gibson feel about these aliens? How does it question his faith? How does this retired commander feel about being called back into service? How does this schoolteacher feel about being thrust into a leadership role? How does this rogue pilot feel about having some sort of "destiny"?FFZ uses a lot of questions of motive, and a GM running FFZ is encouraged to make a large part of the game directly about the characters -- their histories, their personalities, their goals -- and how they feel. It's a lot of fun to sort of see these characters emerge in this world over the course of several sessions, seeing them develop relationships and explore their motives as they discover things about the villain and its evil desires (and how they're really just dark reflections of each other). D&D (and this is rather especially evident in 4e) is usually more concerned with solving problems by beating them up, 'cuz that's certainly a lot of fun, too. A DM doesn't decide what the characters do, but they generally do decide what the NPC's do (and what actions are really possible and effective against the bad guys). For instance, if the orcs are invading, and the DM lets you know that it's overwhelming force and that any violent actions are likely just to get you killed because of their immense power, then obviously the game is either over very quickly when the PC's are idiots and try to kill the Orc King, or the game isn't about killing orcs (and it might be more about uniting fractuous nations into a cohesive rebellion, for instance).</blockquote>

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