How do you like your adventures - focused or freeform?

[Deuce Traveler]

4- I like to have a main goal, but how the PCs accomplish it and where they go are completely up to them. If I'm not ready for their actions, I'll make it up on the fly. Also, the goal is usually something that even evil PCs would be compelled to pursue... like mere survival.

 

[Nalfeshnee]

i voted 5, though having said that, around this time last year I DM'ed an evil campaign that was very free-flowing: ie I gave the PCs a list of around 20 hooks in the nearby surroundings of their start point. Each PC chose a couple he wanted to expand upon and the party as a whole chose one or two that they wanted to explore together.

this led to such disparate plot lines as: find the ambush drake thats terrorizing the countryside and make it an ally; find a bugbear to torture/experiment upon; find the goblin stronghold and become their leader; search for the lost artefact of Velsharoon; turn the helmites corrupt without them knowing it. some were short adventures, other lasted quite a few sessions.

the campaign didnt last too long, mainly because it was to freeform and as a DM i could not keep up with what the PCs wanted to do, also they realsied this and decided that direction was better... so, as is usually the case with us, instead of fixing the problems, we quit!

but it was fun while it lasted

 

[green slime]

I prefer a good, solid, well-defined plot around which just the basics hang. I don't want micromanaging the number of copper pieces owned by goblin 99 and his excellent skill set.

 

[Mycanid]

FOCUS! Must FOCUS!

Like Plane Sailing I also prefer campaigns in the 8 to 10 range.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

I voted 0. Not because myself or my players don't enjoy plot hooks (we do) but because apparently my on-the-fly adventures are much more fun on the whole than anything I've created ahead of time or published modules (with a couple of exceptions). I think what makes the spontaneous adventures possible is that I spend all of my prep time on designing the world and I encourage the players to come up with ideas as well. Come to think of it, the best adventures were definitely the ones that had player input.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Nine.

Even when given a completely freeform game, I set goals for my characters and work toward them. This isn't to say I like the adventure to have a certain way of going about things inherent within it. I like some guage to set so that I can mark my progress within the adventure. "Explore the dungeon" just isn't good enough for me, not by a longshot. Just as "see what's out there" and "get phat lewt" aren't goals in and of themselves that I find to be much fun.

Of course, I go off and do wacky crazy things like all Players. I bungle and flounder about while the DM gasps in astonishment at my stupidity. But, at the end of the day, I either accomplish the goals I set out to do or fail at them, and that, to me, is the fun behind the session.

 

[Akrasia]

3

I think the DM should arrange the campaign to be as 'freeform' as possible (perhaps include 3-4 adventure hooks for the players to consider).

As things progress, the decisions and actions of the player characters give focus and direction to the campaign.

 

[Sammael]

I love how the poll results show that the vocal "avoid-storytelling-at-all-costs" minority is just that: a minority.

Voted a 7, BTW, and that's a preference both as a DM and as a player.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I love how the poll results show that the vocal "avoid-storytelling-at-all-costs" minority is just that: a minority.

Voted a 7, BTW, and that's a preference both as a DM and as a player.

Well, it very much depends upon what you want, what you're good at, and how you view the term "campaign" and "adventure". Even though I stated that I prefer a campaign to be very low-focus (3), I stated that adventures should be reasonably focused (7). To my mind, the players should have many options as to what they can do. However, many of those options need to provide clear goals so that the players are not out there "bungling and floundering" more than necessary.

It should be noted that some goals are not necessarily obvious. The PCs might think that they just want to explore the Green Howe, only to discover that the Green Howe is itself a hook to a more focused adventure. The goals of adventures can, and should, change sometimes due to what the PCs learn on those adventures.

I don't know that I've ever run into a vocal "avoid-storytelling-at-all-costs" minority, majority, or mid-way-between-ity. I'm sure they exist, though. After all, everyone on the Internet is part of at least one vocal minority, by law.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I love how the poll results show that the vocal "avoid-storytelling-at-all-costs" minority is just that: a minority.

Voted a 7, BTW, and that's a preference both as a DM and as a player.

But, the poll has nothing at all to do with storytelling. It is about having a goal oriented adventure vs. a goal-less adventure (not even campaign). The goals need not come from the DM. Indeed, some of the best stories spring from the goals of the PCs. If your PC decides he wants to found a thieves' guild, and you work toward that goal, even though the DM never saw it coming, you're approaching a 7-10 on that scale.

So, this has nothing to do with railroading, story, or any of those other buzzwords.

Personally, I can't see the fun in a goal-less session. What do you do? When it ends, you've not accomplished anything, or what you have accomplished is merely an accidental byproduct of running around doing random things that interested you at the time (ie dungeon crawling, heading North, or what have you). It seems very stale to me.