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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uzirath" data-source="post: 7870526" data-attributes="member: 8495">When I'm a player in a great campaign, I don't want to miss a session because I want to be there for the story. It's not the same when I hear it second-hand from the others. It's like having someone tell you about a great concert. Bleh.Does it seem like the game plots are too similar? Are the stakes of the game meaningful? Can the PCs lose? (Whether by dying or by failing to achieve goals that will have real consequences.)The first few items here seem to be related to the stakes again. Side quests are only compelling when they are interesting to the characters and/or the players. Exploration is only exciting when the world has become real enough that you want to find out what's in all the shadowy places; you must be confident that those shadows hide things that matter to your character and the ongoing story. Same thing with roleplaying encounters. I love roleplaying for its own sake, but sometimes I've played in games where we're just wasting too much time not getting anywhere. I get much more into it once I'm fully invested in the NPCs and their side-plots.Finally, wandering monsters seem like another sort of thing. Most players I've played with want to avoid wandering monsters as much as possible. Why risk characters' lives and expend precious resources when it's not necessary? What's to be gained by slaying the giant snakes on the way to the evil temple? Much better to avoid their nest. (If PCs only care about XP, maybe it makes sense, but then why not just head out into dangerous territory and just fight wandering monsters all day, like XP-farming in a video game?) This isn't to say that wandering monsters can't be fun. Each encounter should have surprises and add to the enjoyment of the game. If I don't think I can pull that off as DM, then I skip the encounter and just get on to the main course.</blockquote>

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