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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6818945" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>Let me give an example of the potential dangers of pre-authoring from a campaign I'm currently playing in: </p><p></p><p>In our current Savage Worlds game set in the Shaintar campaign setting, my character is an escaped slave from the tyrannical empire "up north." I've set it up specifically with the GM that she (yes, my character is a she) has been totally shaped by her experience as a slave---she dislikes tyranny and authoritarian governments, and hates the empire and all it stands for. </p><p></p><p>Yet for going on 5 sessions now, we've been dealing with an incredibly mundane, semi-railroad-y "hunt the bandits" scenario that I haven't found terribly interesting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still having fun with the group (I'm very, very good friends with all of the other 4 members), and there's been some entertaining moments, but I'm frankly disengaged from the plot and the world so far --- because I'm not doing anything that's really RELEVANT to my character's beliefs and motivations.</p><p></p><p>Now I'll admit that part of the problem is that I don't think the GM did a very good job with the initial party/campaign setup. There wasn't any real connection made in the fiction for the characters, and the GM didn't employ any of the techniques you might use to create them.</p><p></p><p>None of us are particularly familiar with the Shaintar setting, so we're kind of still feeling our way through it, though I did buy PDF copies of both Legends Arise+ Legends Unleashed. But so far, we're just sort of muddling along with the GM's "hidden backstory" and it's really not doing much for me. </p><p></p><p>The GM isn't taking cues from our characters (our hindrances and backgrounds), has done absolutely nothing to integrate the newest member of the group's backstory (he's also the newest to pen and paper gaming, and would probably benefit most from getting some "no myth" love / fictional control over his character).</p><p></p><p>The most interesting thing that's happened so far was a development that <em>arose in play</em> of my character befriending a goblin NPC.</p><p></p><p>So, is this a fault of the pre-authored "hidden backstory," or the GM not recognizing that he's railroading? </p><p></p><p>Right now it's a little of both. Do you know what would go a long way to getting off the railroad? Having the GM change the framing of the scenes to include items, people, references, ANYTHING that connects our characters to the world. There was a PRIME opportunity for him to "fail forward" an information gathering check in a bandit hideout that would have connected the characters to the world . . . and he chose not to. </p><p></p><p>Now, am I being a bit, hmmm, demanding in expecting to engage what I want to with my character? Maybe. Is it less "simulationist" to expect that the scene frames would include things relevant to my character? Probably. Do I care in the least? Nope. Because that's what I'm interested in, and as a player I'm not going to apologize for it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 6818945, member: 85870"] Let me give an example of the potential dangers of pre-authoring from a campaign I'm currently playing in: In our current Savage Worlds game set in the Shaintar campaign setting, my character is an escaped slave from the tyrannical empire "up north." I've set it up specifically with the GM that she (yes, my character is a she) has been totally shaped by her experience as a slave---she dislikes tyranny and authoritarian governments, and hates the empire and all it stands for. Yet for going on 5 sessions now, we've been dealing with an incredibly mundane, semi-railroad-y "hunt the bandits" scenario that I haven't found terribly interesting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still having fun with the group (I'm very, very good friends with all of the other 4 members), and there's been some entertaining moments, but I'm frankly disengaged from the plot and the world so far --- because I'm not doing anything that's really RELEVANT to my character's beliefs and motivations. Now I'll admit that part of the problem is that I don't think the GM did a very good job with the initial party/campaign setup. There wasn't any real connection made in the fiction for the characters, and the GM didn't employ any of the techniques you might use to create them. None of us are particularly familiar with the Shaintar setting, so we're kind of still feeling our way through it, though I did buy PDF copies of both Legends Arise+ Legends Unleashed. But so far, we're just sort of muddling along with the GM's "hidden backstory" and it's really not doing much for me. The GM isn't taking cues from our characters (our hindrances and backgrounds), has done absolutely nothing to integrate the newest member of the group's backstory (he's also the newest to pen and paper gaming, and would probably benefit most from getting some "no myth" love / fictional control over his character). The most interesting thing that's happened so far was a development that [I]arose in play[/I] of my character befriending a goblin NPC. So, is this a fault of the pre-authored "hidden backstory," or the GM not recognizing that he's railroading? Right now it's a little of both. Do you know what would go a long way to getting off the railroad? Having the GM change the framing of the scenes to include items, people, references, ANYTHING that connects our characters to the world. There was a PRIME opportunity for him to "fail forward" an information gathering check in a bandit hideout that would have connected the characters to the world . . . and he chose not to. Now, am I being a bit, hmmm, demanding in expecting to engage what I want to with my character? Maybe. Is it less "simulationist" to expect that the scene frames would include things relevant to my character? Probably. Do I care in the least? Nope. Because that's what I'm interested in, and as a player I'm not going to apologize for it. [/QUOTE]
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