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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1512724" data-attributes="member: 3146">I tried this as a DM in a campaign that ran for several years. Without a steady hand at the helm, the game drifted aimlessly as the players wondered what was going on and stumbled through the world around them without ever connecting the dots that could have informed them of the bad guys' plans. It was an instructive experience.Now, perhaps the explanation is that I gave the players too few dots to connect and put in too many red herrings. Perhaps the explanation is that my players were beer and pretzels gamers who simply wanted to "find the adventure" so they could "play it." Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. However, regardless of all that, it illustrates one thing: there are a variety of things you can role-play but the story is key to whether or not it's an enjoyable experience. If you are role-playing the story of a bunch of adventurers who wear swords and go tavern hopping until they get bored and then get jumped by thugs in the alley when the game gets boring and then try to leave the city and get ambushed by skeletons, the story is not a good one. It lacks theme, it lacks unity, and it lacks movement. The players need to have a sense of what story they are in and the DM needs to give that to them--except in a few rare cases, they can't create it on their own.I've done this too. It works OK as long as there are only a few personal agendas and they aren't too different from other members' of the party and aren't too earth-shattering. If one player wants to conquer the kingdom of Cimmeria, another player wants his character to join the assassin's guild and avenge his father's murder, another player wants to dethrone Orcus and take his place, and another player wants to become a great hero so that the bards sing tales of his praise and his beloved's father will consider him worthy to court his beloved, the campaign is destined to be incoherent and short-lived. If all (or even a significant number of) the PCs have different personal goals that are primary for them then the group won't share the common perspective necessary to act in concert. Rather than create one story, you will create four or six separate stories and give the DM a headache in the process. Players who have individual secondary goals for their characters are an asset to the campaign. More than a couple characters with individual primary goals for their characters, however, will derail a campaign. In that sense, their functionality in most games is contingent upon having a majority of players who just want to "play the adventure."</blockquote>

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