Poll: what % of sessions should be devoted to plot?

[Pants]

Perhaps I should give a counter-example.

I use those all the time just to alleviate the burden of 'massive plot syndrome.' Sometimes the PC's have some spare time in order to do something not even remotely connected with the evil horde of demons. Those types of adventures can give the players a breath of fresh air, because combating demons and insane cultists just might get a bit tiresome after a while.

I have a nice overarching plot going on in both of my campaigns, but somethings don't connect with it at all and others are only superficially connected at best.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

Plot is good as long as I still get to developemy character and whack demons with my +4 Holy Brilliant GreatSword that technicly I still need to find

 

[LizardWizard]

Most of my campaigns have an overarching plot, and most adventures deal with it. However, the PCs go on a side quest now and then, so I've chosen 75%.

 

[nopantsyet]

Plot is good as long as I still get to developemy character and whack demons with my +4 Holy Brilliant GreatSword that technicly I still need to find

Sure. That's a given. Plot, should you choose to use it, should act as the glue that binds the setting, character development, and other in-game elements, like treasure, together into a cohesive roleplaying experience.

Mind you, not every minute of every session should be devoted specifically to plot. Other events and encounters should occur and you should present a world which exists outside the PCs influence. But ever session should advance the plot, if only minimally.

However, the degree and manner in which the plot is advanced must not necessarily be overt. I've run sessions which carried the plot significantly forward, and those in which the undercurrents of the plot formed the basis of the session. In such cases, the players may not understand until later the precise significance of those events.

If the campaign is not plot-driven, then who cares. To each his own.

 

[Ourph]

The PCs are the "plot".

Absolutely agree! I would have voted 0-24% but the "where's the door, I need to kick it in" comment kind of hacks me off. In the 30 or so sessions since our new campaign began, we've had at least 5 sessions without a single combat. The game centers around the PCs trying to get ahead in the world through whatever means they can dream up. Occasionally that includes killing monsters in a musty old tomb, but more often it's all about negotiating with the locals, learning about the area through exploration and making plans for the future. Kick in the door indeed!

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

What's a plot? I thought you were supposed to be picking your nose, pull out a Hill Giant, and then end the session with your sword in mid-swing. Next session, you pick up and you're suddenly on a Mind Spider eating jelly beans with a used car salesman from Texas.

 

[random user]

Absolutely agree! I would have voted 0-24% but the "where's the door, I need to kick it in" comment kind of hacks me off. In the 30 or so sessions since our new campaign began, we've had at least 5 sessions without a single combat. The game centers around the PCs trying to get ahead in the world through whatever means they can dream up. Occasionally that includes killing monsters in a musty old tomb, but more often it's all about negotiating with the locals, learning about the area through exploration and making plans for the future. Kick in the door indeed!

Sorry, I apologize for my choice of words. Somehow it had slipped my mind that one might have single session plots which don't thread together (which is a perfectly fine way to play), or other methods to play in which there is no overarching plot.

Which, I'm not sure why it did since I've played in those before even. Again, sorry about that.

 

[Lokishadow]

How many of your sessions didn't relate to the main plot, but your players did something in it that allowed you to tie it all together? Would your players realize that initially that session wasn't part of the main plot?

I'd say that a good 40-50% did not relate to the plot, but I was able to tie about 90% into the plot, or at least as aspects of the primary plot.

No, the players didn't always do something that let me make it part of the plot. Rather, they said something, out-of-character. So, like a good DM, I let them speculate, then capitalized on their paranoia. Did they realize it wasn't part of the plot? Honestly, I don't know. But they sure seemed to think that the goblin invasion from the west had something to do with the evil devil-god resurrectionist cult. Don't ask me how they came to that conclusion, but by adding the half-devil or fiendish template to a few goblin leaders, it tied in just fine. Heh heh. My players tend to be paranoid.

 

[The Baron]

sometimes you need a good treasure hunt

About 9 out of 10 of the adventures I run advance the plot, plot being defined as an ongoing storyline for one or more of the adventurers. Sometimes, though, the characters just want to go on treasure hunt and find some good loot. And they do get the choice on what to do, barring some strong DM "pushing":

PC: but we'd really just like to check out that crypt.
DM: the crypt is... gone
PC: Huh?
DM: It's underwater.
PC: It was on a mountain!
DM: there was one hell of an earthquake... a "magical" earthquake.

And I think it's important to have that sort of break every once in a while. Both for the PCs and the DM.