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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9531862" data-attributes="member: 29398">Yet from all external points of view it seemed permanent at the time.  OK, I see the difference now.If they interfere with the story (intentionally or otherwise) and send it in a new direction isn't that in itself an act of participating in the story's creation?For example, if I-as-DM have "story-boarded" out a series of six coastal or maritime adventures to get a campaign started - let's say...1. (homebrew - introductory)2. Secret of Saltmarsh3. Danger at Dunwater4. Bone Hill5. (homebrew - pirates)6. Slavers' Stockade...but the players/PCs decide after Danger at Dunwater that they never want to see another boat in their lives and head for the inland mountains instead*, they've just upended "my" story and are now creating their own, putting me in react mode where I'm riffing off what they do with or to the setting rather than the reverse.* - the story of my DMing life, this: I've been trying for ages to run a mostly-maritime campaign but just can't get the players interested in such other than for a single adventure now and then. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Assuming those courses are pre-cut and that the river isn't cutting its own course as it goes.That the river will start at some preordained high-elevation point X and then flow somewhere is a given; and some of its flow pattern might initially be either a) predetermined or b) somewhat predictable.  But sometimes neither a) nor b) survives contact with the players, and after that I-as-DM am in react mode.Even in the moments of playing her when she hadn't died yet?'Cause that's what matters most to me as a player: the enjoyment in the there-and-then moment.Saturday night I'll be playing Lanefan the character and (in theory) will enjoy that session.  I just can't understand how my enjoyment of this coming Saturday could be diminished post-hoc should he then perma-die the Saturday after.No, but neither does it mean the game needs be designed with tha tinterest first and foremost.This could be - and for the next bunch of years will be - a whole big topic of discussion all on its own.I'm still sitting at the same table with the same friends, aren't I; and still playing in the same campaign?  If yes, that's a lot of underlying connection that doesn't even look at what specific character(s) anyone - including me - has in play at the moment.Now if I was playing with strangers I could see character as being a bigger connection point, but (other than one-offs or convention games) only play with people I already know from elsewhere.So how do you handle playing multiple characters in the same big sprawling campaign, and cycling them in and out of parties depending on your preference and-or what the party/mission needs at the time?'Cause that's the background I come from.Taken to that extent that is, I think, something of a rare and distant-outlier viewpoint.Far more common, I think, is the sense of characters being to some extent easy come easy go; if for no other reason than that's the most likely take from casual players and casuals represent the vast majority of the hobby's player base.</blockquote>

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