Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DispelAkimbo" data-source="post: 867813" data-attributes="member: 1916">So there we were, third....or was it fourth?....anyway another combat that evening, and we were only an hour into the game.  The players all sighed resignedly as the call for initiative rolls went out."Is anyone actually enjoying this?" I (the dm) asked.  The general consensus was no.  We were simply playing for the sake of it.  So after a quick vote we unanimously agreed to abandon the whole campaign book that shall remain nameless.After an hour or so discussion as to where to proceed next, we had established a number of facts. 1) We all like combat in the game, but were sick to death of it currently 2) We were all yearning for some real 'role-playing', real character development (not just levelling up), real plot, real puzzles, real fun 3) We were all willing to put extra effort into our next characters creation and do some decent backgrounds for the dm to work with.......at which point a thought occurred to me.Traditionally when we've started a campaign in the past, our group usually write backgrounds for their characters (some briefer than others, but nearly every character has their own aims and goals).  Eg.1) The half-elf who desired to build a haven for half-elves that have no true home due to their mixed heritage.2) The hunter of the dead who seeks to destroy undead at every turn3) The thief who wishes to amass wealth and set up his own guildSo usually we write these backgrounds, and give them to the dm.  The dm goes through the backgrounds and tries to integrate them into the campaign to make for a fluid game that works and doesn’t feel rail-roaded for forced etc.Now, looking at the above three character examples, it’s easy to see that they are three different individuals that are sooner or later likely to go their separate ways and follow their own goals.  So to create a believable plot that holds the group together the DM is forced to unite the players against a common enemy/threat, and what does that usually entail?You've guessed it, lets save the world......AGAIN!  And so to my point (yes, I do have one believe it or not).Has anyone else run into this kind of problem?Has anyone found a way around it?  How do you unite the players and keep the group together over a long term without running a save the world campaign?How about alternative methods of character creation?  Has anyone tried co-ordinated character background creation so that players have a common goal to begin with?  How did that go?Be interested in hearing some thoughts on this.  Cheers.</blockquote>

Verification