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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Azgulor" data-source="post: 5215390" data-attributes="member: 14291">(For the casual pick-up beer-n-pretzels GM, "These aren't the droids you're looking for...")Lately, I've been giving thought to how I might better introduce thematic elements & atmosphere into my campaigns and/or adventures.  My goals are to provide the players with a better game experience but also to help reinforce genre elements as I find it helps me keep the creative juices flowing.What prompted the thread were a few video game trailers for the Star Wars games Force Unleashed 2 & the Old Republic.  The trailers are extremely well done and grab me as a viewer with an incredibly strong "I want to play that!"Let's face it, bad Star Wars is really, really bad.  But Star Wars done right gets you fired up to blast bad guys and swing lightsabers.  In the Star Wars genre, you know what to expect.  Sure there's room for variation in theme for an adventure or two, but by and large it's Jedi vs. Sith, dogfights in space, and epic battles on alien worlds.Three other video game franchises, similarly scratch my genre itch:The Thief series of games, the Mass Effect games, and the Dragon Age: Origins game.  Now being video games, they all have the benefit of graphics, music, sound to reinforce their thematic elements which adds to the superior stories.At the gaming table, however, I find it much harder to pull off.  I want to provide my players the freedom of sandbox-style exploration and decision making yet at the same time reinforce the atmosphere and genre elements (in my particular case, the swords-n-sorcery genre).So my fellow campaign-driven GMs, how do you do it?  Do you let game mechanics only set the tone and reinforce genre elements or are their campaign and adventure design strategies that you employ?</blockquote>

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