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<blockquote data-quote="eris404" data-source="post: 1228355" data-attributes="member: 5338">Every game I have played in the DM did have a &quot;big story behind it all. &quot; However, there was always enough room for the characters to go do what they wanted to do or to fit in little side plots, especially when it was based on a character's background and/or personal goals. The best DMs were able to put in tantalizing little clues in the &quot;side quests&quot; that tied back into the major storyline in some way. Did they railroad us players by doing this? I didn't feel like they did and the story was usually so interesting that we couldn't resist investigating it anyway. When I run a game, I do have an overall story, but I create three or four threads (plot points or side quests, locations, NPCs, etc.) and let the characters investigate them as they want. If they go in a different direction then I have planned, I either make something up on the spot (and take good notes so that I can keep track of what happened) or use a stall tactic until the next session so that I can plan something in the direction they are taking. Books like En Route are good for this. Most of the time, the players wrote the story without even realizing it. They would discuss among themselves what they thought the Big Bad was up to and usually would come up with something much worse than I had planned and so I would simply go with their idea(s).&nbsp; <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> In Dragon magazine about a year back or so there was an article about planning a campaign like a TV show, such as The X Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both of those shows had a &quot;big story&quot; and rich mythology, but not every episode was a &quot;mythology&quot; episode. Those were spaced out in between &quot;one shot&quot; episodes that were more or less &quot;monster of the week&quot; type episodes. I like this style of campaign, because although it's structured, it gives the players room to do other things besides chase the big bad evil behind it all, whether it's time to make that special staff or to investigate that tomb they passed two weeks ago. It takes a little more planning in some ways, but it makes for a great game.So I don't think what you're proposing is a bad idea at all as long as you are open to the wishes of the players.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="eris404, post: 1228355, member: 5338"] Every game I have played in the DM did have a "big story behind it all. " However, there was always enough room for the characters to go do what they wanted to do or to fit in little side plots, especially when it was based on a character's background and/or personal goals. The best DMs were able to put in tantalizing little clues in the "side quests" that tied back into the major storyline in some way. Did they railroad us players by doing this? I didn't feel like they did and the story was usually so interesting that we couldn't resist investigating it anyway. When I run a game, I do have an overall story, but I create three or four threads (plot points or side quests, locations, NPCs, etc.) and let the characters investigate them as they want. If they go in a different direction then I have planned, I either make something up on the spot (and take good notes so that I can keep track of what happened) or use a stall tactic until the next session so that I can plan something in the direction they are taking. Books like [I]En Route [/I] are good for this. Most of the time, the players wrote the story without even realizing it. They would discuss among themselves what they thought the Big Bad was up to and usually would come up with something much worse than I had planned and so I would simply go with their idea(s). :) In [I]Dragon[/I] magazine about a year back or so there was an article about planning a campaign like a TV show, such as [I]The X Files [/I] or [I]Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[/I] Both of those shows had a "big story" and rich mythology, but not every episode was a "mythology" episode. Those were spaced out in between "one shot" episodes that were more or less "monster of the week" type episodes. I like this style of campaign, because although it's structured, it gives the players room to do other things besides chase the big bad evil behind it all, whether it's time to make that special staff or to investigate that tomb they passed two weeks ago. It takes a little more planning in some ways, but it makes for a great game. So I don't think what you're proposing is a bad idea at all as long as you are open to the wishes of the players. [/QUOTE]

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