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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7062915" data-attributes="member: 29398">Cool! <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=":)" />I guess I fall somewhere between old and middle school by these measures.  My game worlds will always have (a) stor(y/ies) but it's up to the players in character whether and-or which one(s) they want to engage with should they decide to make that choice; but if they don't do anything about it they're going to get my story as default. <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=":)" />  That said, even when there's engagement with a story there's always time and oppotunity for side treks, other stories, diversion adventures, red herrings, and so forth.Just as an example, the last string of adventures in my current campaign:(preamble - shortly before this one of the PCs had pulled a keep and title from a Deck of Many Things; this drives some of what follows)--- Mysteries in Lariana: heart-and-soul meta-story adventure, party is acting as secret agents in an Elvish town trying to find out what's driving the Elves to invade...well, everywhere.--- Halls of Azarius / Volcano: a strange split-party adventure where half of them help the PC investigate some ruins near his castle while the others follow up on some leads from the previous adventure...until one of them gets captured by the enemy and the rest get beat to rat-spit.  Volcano part would have been meta-plot had they got in the front door; the Halls were a diversion.--- King of the Woodlands: they're not powerful enough yet to try a rescue so they go and bash some Giants not too far from where the PC put his castle.  Complete diversion at the characters' behest.--- Rescue!: a scry-buff-teleport rescue of their captive comrade...and another who they'd kind of forgotten about.  Character-driven, arising from the meta-story.--- Deep Dwarven Dead: a Ranger had joined the party for the Giant-bash; this adventure to help him out with some undead was the trade-off for his help.  Another character-forced diversion (but again tangentially related to the PC's castle) but I put some elements in to set up the next adventure.--- Against Saith: an old meta-story about some Undead Lords meets a new one (the Elves) as the party's quasi-mentor (in fact the vampire referenced at various points in this thread!) asks them to take out Saith the Lich before the Elves recruit him.  The background bits for this adventure have been on my "storyboard" since before Day One; 9 real-world years later it sees the light of day. <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=":)" /> This one's still in progress.  And, by sheer luck (a random effects roll at one point) one of the characters has picked up a mission quest that will nicely lead to another adventure I've had in the mill for a while.So of 6 adventures only one (plus the abortive Volcano) is true meta-plot, another is the culmination of things brewing for ages, and the rest are either character-driven or standalone diversions.  So - old school or middle school?Lan-"storyboard still has about 5 years worth of game on it even without whatever the characters might come up with in the meantime"-efan</blockquote>

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