Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Player-driven campaigns and developing strong stories
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8972576" data-attributes="member: 6670763"><p>In contrast to "only you can stop the villain and if you don't try there would be no game", what available methods do we have to attract PCs to make someone else's problem their own even though the campaign does not require them to?</p><p>If you have an existing group of players and they are asking to prepare and run a new campaign for them, then you can ask them to decide on the pitch and come back to them a few weeks later. But of you want to pitch a campaign and go looking for players, the game needs to be ready to start within the week at the latest.</p><p></p><p>If not hooks to reel them in, there probably need to be at least some ropes within grasp that the players can pull on to see where they go. At the very start of the campaign it's often best to have the characters in a situation with very limited options and a immediately pressing problem that must be addressed. That gives them some time to get familiar with the environment and a feel for who their characters actually are. But while that helps to get things going, it still only pushes out the moment where the PCs will have to be thrown into the water to swim or sink.</p><p>Many game concepts have PCs take on jobs or other tasks for rewards, but it always feels to me that these rarely ever sound actually exciting. They are stuff you accept to do because you understand the game needs you to do so. Again, in the introduction to a campaign, that's not a bad thing once or twice. But if the players/PCs are supposed to become proactive at some point, the world needs to have things that actively sound attractive and exciting. Things that make the players want to drop the safe and predictable options and instead take avoidable risks.</p><p></p><p>I think that's kind of the goal I am after. Players having every option to just walk away from a situation and keep their PCs safe, but still rather wanting to do that thing that might cost them dearly. Which is why I feel it is very important that the players pick for themselves what they want to get invested in. If it is part of the premise of the campaign that the PCs will be heroes for a specific cause, then the players know that walking away is not actually a real option that they could go with and continue the campiagn.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yora, post: 8972576, member: 6670763"] In contrast to "only you can stop the villain and if you don't try there would be no game", what available methods do we have to attract PCs to make someone else's problem their own even though the campaign does not require them to? If you have an existing group of players and they are asking to prepare and run a new campaign for them, then you can ask them to decide on the pitch and come back to them a few weeks later. But of you want to pitch a campaign and go looking for players, the game needs to be ready to start within the week at the latest. If not hooks to reel them in, there probably need to be at least some ropes within grasp that the players can pull on to see where they go. At the very start of the campaign it's often best to have the characters in a situation with very limited options and a immediately pressing problem that must be addressed. That gives them some time to get familiar with the environment and a feel for who their characters actually are. But while that helps to get things going, it still only pushes out the moment where the PCs will have to be thrown into the water to swim or sink. Many game concepts have PCs take on jobs or other tasks for rewards, but it always feels to me that these rarely ever sound actually exciting. They are stuff you accept to do because you understand the game needs you to do so. Again, in the introduction to a campaign, that's not a bad thing once or twice. But if the players/PCs are supposed to become proactive at some point, the world needs to have things that actively sound attractive and exciting. Things that make the players want to drop the safe and predictable options and instead take avoidable risks. I think that's kind of the goal I am after. Players having every option to just walk away from a situation and keep their PCs safe, but still rather wanting to do that thing that might cost them dearly. Which is why I feel it is very important that the players pick for themselves what they want to get invested in. If it is part of the premise of the campaign that the PCs will be heroes for a specific cause, then the players know that walking away is not actually a real option that they could go with and continue the campiagn. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Player-driven campaigns and developing strong stories
Top