eris404 said:
Hey all,
So what's the deal with the "Living" campaigns anyway? I've read over various descriptions, like for Living Greyhawk, but I guess I still don't get it - I'm not trying to be offensive or snide here, I honestly want to know how they work in practice and what the appeal is. Anyone here a fan?
Some are better than others, but part of that sentiment is just "preferences vary" (so what I like, maybe you don't).
People across the world play the same modules you do, but with their own characters. In theory, these are well-written, extensively play-tested module. In reality, that's just not possible, so some modules are better than others.
It's a great way to meet other players. By playing some RPGA events at cons (or even home games which seek out new players by posting on message boards, email lists, etc.), you can hook up with other players.
Sometimes you play a stinker. Now, it may be a stinker because of a bad module, bad judge, bad gaming environment, or bad players (or some god-awful combination of all these factors).
On the other hand, a good group or a good judge (or even better, both) can tuen a bad module into a great game. Two years ago at GenCon, I played a bad LG module called "Brendigund's Bride"--there are a lot of reasons it's a bad module, which I won't go into here. But the group (DM Eleanor H. Sampson, and the other players: Dan Glovier, Scott Randall, Tom Welling, Brad Burkman, William Letizke, & Eva Lademann) made it a great experience. I knew Scott before, but the other people were complete strangers to me. We just "clicked" as a group and had a great time.
If you don't like d20, don't play in "Living Campaigns"--the RPGA has given them until the end of the year to be d20, or they're not RPGA campaigns any more. I think this only affects two campaigns (Living Rokugan and, uh, something else).
The RPGA has also killed Living Jungle (and who knows what else), so if there's not a certain threshold of interest, a "Living" campaign can die. I don't believe that "the public" knows exactly what that threshold is.
I started playing Living Greyhawk two years ago just to get more exposure to the rules. You will see almost every possible combination in "Living Campaigns" (half-orc bard, halfling monk, gnome paladin--they might be rare, but they exist in LG). You will also see many different interpretations of rules; often, different interpretations of the same rule.
If you like House Rules, stay away from "Living Campaigns"--since they are "shared" campaigns, you can't just "house rule" some issue to change something you don't like.
What a lot of people do, is play many mods with the same groups (or mostly the same group). This can happen on a small scale at a con (where you game repeatedly with people you played with in the first slot), or a larger scale, where people only play the mods (at home or at a con) with the same group. To me, that missing part of the fun--meeting new people.
For me, the "Living Campaigns" have been great (even though a lot of the modules are bad). My primary goal--to see more of the rules actually used in game, so I could learn them--has certainly happened. And as a bonus, I've hooked up with some other players that I wouldn't have met otherwise.
If you can not handle a bad module, then don't play "Living Campaigns"--you'll drive yourself nuts. That's four hours (or longer) of your life you can never get back.
