NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9237651" data-attributes="member: 2629">I think you're misunderstanding me.  I'm talking about choosing a system, and choosing the homebrew rules to use within that system, as part of deciding how to run a campaign.  And I'm talking about doing that with the players, not doing it myself and telling them what I'll run.I have a strong preference for D&D, but if the group wants to run a western game, for example, we'll be discussing Deadwood, GURPS and my 4E based homebrew as options.  If they came to me and said, "Hey, we'd really rather use the 1980s TMNT rule set for a Western Game" I'd have to say I'm not up to speed on those rules, and I wouldn't be up for learning them ... while they might like it, it is too much to ask of me at this time to relearn them to run this game.  However, that type of thing is really unlikely.  Usually, they come into it wanting to play D&D and the primary topics are the style of the game - Is it weighted more towards Dungeon Delve, Exploration, Politics or Sandbox?  Mature or Kid Friendly?  Clear Morality or Shades of Grey?  Where would they like their characters to go - towards an empire of followers, towards being a master of a wizard's tower, or a blaze of glory ending?  Are they comfortable with other characters being evil or obnoxious as part of the character, or should everyone be more accomodating?  For example, when I started my most recent campaign I'd already played with several of the players and knew their preferences in general.  I still asked them to tell me what they were interested in running.  We settled on D&D (to nobody's surprise).  Once we'd had that discussion I selected which of my homebrew campaigns I'd run (based upon their preferences - what they wanted to do fit in with the campaign that was easiest for me to run), and then I began adjusting it for their stated (and unstated but observed) preferences.  Then we did character creation and backstories - and I wove more and more into the backdrop to capitalize upon what they wanted to do.  I also reviewed my homebrew rules and figured out which I needed to highlight for them, if any needed to be modified to suit their preferences, and then I began the game.That is my normal approach.  That is a common approach for many DMs that have run games for me and my friends.</blockquote>

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