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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5200629" data-attributes="member: 2067">I actually find myself using this style most often just for that reason -- it produces a satisfying session. I'm currently playing around with how this jibes with the LTRM (long term resource management) that can be a component of heroic fantasy: when do the characters "recover completely" and what do things like HP and other resources (MP or healing surges or whatever) actually measure in terms of pacing and flow during a session, and over several sessions. Levels, too, enter into it. FFZ shows my work on this most clearly so far. Generally, every session will be an episode, but every month (real-world time) will be, to use a TV term, an arc. This borrows from anime, too, which flows well with FFZ's influences of JRPGs. Every time you complete an arc, you gain a level, and can recharge various things (buy items, gain info, etc.), but while you're out on an adventure, in the arc, you can't do so as easily. You could say that this is also a season, but the seasons are quite short, and the flow between seasons is very clear.Then, the entire year is an entire series: one complete cycle from beginning to end of one group of characters with one goal in mind.And you can have a new series every year, with new characters, new worlds, new villains -- or even a "sequel," with some of the same characters or setting elements.FFZ reflects my own personal playstyle, especially during the school years, well in this way, but it also just works well at the table. Even outside of FFZ, I don't bother to create persistent worlds or ongoing histories or one unified Campaign Setting. It's too limiting to me -- I loooooove settings.I'm comfortable being explicitly narrative about it. At the core, I'm a narrative-style player and DM: I want to tell a story. I can see how others, with more sim leanings, or even more gameist leanings, might really love a more persistent world.Thankfully, in FFZ, the structure of the source material parellels my own style nicely. Each FF game in the main series stands on its own, independent of the others, with new worlds and new characters to explore. For anyone who wants a tabletop version of that, then, having a game with a clear beginning, middle, and end, is a virtue. This probably isn't true for all tables, of course.</blockquote>

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