NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7073893" data-attributes="member: 29398">For what reasons?  So there's a world for the PCs to play in, for one thing...a living breathing world that has more to it than just what the PCs might happen to interact with.  This is important in that it gives the PCs a sense of there being a bigger world "out there" beyond just what's right in front of them.  Depth and immersion.Where I don't analyze it to nearly this level.  The magistrate - maybe by random die roll, maybe because the PCs lipped him off, maybe just because they were blatantly guilty - threw 'em in jail.  Now it's up to the PCs to either get out or not (but if you're running this A-4 style it'll take some serious DM manipulation to help them escape).First off, not everything has to be tied to the PCs' backgrounds.  Second off, what if those things have already been done?  Third off, what if they've been done by someone else? <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=":)" />In my example the only DM desire is that the party keep adventuring; and if that's already too much DM input for you we might as well call it quits - we're comparing apples and bicycles.The DM is, one would think, always going to narrate with the backstory in mind even if it's not obvious at the time.  That said, she's also going to, one would think, narrate to what's happening in the moment.That's a very narrow view.  If everything from the PCs' backgrounds has been resolved the campaign is still very much alive, because finally they can stop thinking only about themselves* and start looking at the greater world.  There's goodly deeds need doing.  There's wealth and riches and fame to be had.  There's the King's representative knocking on the door of these now-famous adventurers calling them to defense of the realm.* - because that's what all of this is - if everything is tied to or framed around the PCs' backgrounds you're almost forcing a PC-selfish type of play: it's all about their own issues and problems, and righting their own wrongs.  Sure some bigger things might happen as a side effect - getting vengeance on the lizardmen might lead the party to learning the scalies are the vanguard of an invasion which they end up thwarting - but it's unintentional on the PCs' part.Two-way street.  When the players run out of hooks it's on the DM to set some; and when the DM runs out it's on the players.Also, individual characters come and go all the time; but the party(ies) remain(s).  This is why I rarely if ever like to pin a story or adventure to a particular character (e.g. the guy who swore vengeance on the lizardmen has persuaded the party to help him out) as it's inevitably that character who then dies at the first opportunity - leaving the rest of the party asking why the eff they're doing what they're doing.That's hardly what I'd consider as relaxing R&R downtime for the PCs; still, good on 'em for taking the time off.  (our parties rarely if ever take much non-enforced time off even when there's nothing pressing; they instead look for an adventure or something worth doing and get right back at it, if for no other reason than to get themselves out of town before they do something stupid/destructive/highly-illegal and get themselves banished)Lan-"shuddering to think what rolling 18 months worth of wandering monster checks must have been like"-efan</blockquote>

Verification