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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7613471" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>I have to disagree with a core of your approach. You're giving YOUR story to the players rather than building one WITH the players.</p><p></p><p>In this scenario, you dictated everything. The players walked through YOUR story hooks, followed YOUR script and felt what YOU dictated. You're playing with yourself, and the PCs are essentially just watching. That is ... awkward.</p><p></p><p>I've done this. I started a campaign with the Tarrasque waking up and killing everyone - including the PCs - in a true Godzilla style rampage. The heroes were raised by a cleric following a prophesy... and it was one of the least successfuly campaigns I ran over the years. The players were never invested. They wanted to ignore the Tarrasque rampaging across the land. The entire reason for the game that I'd set up became this annoying burden they'd have to deal with sometime, but for the meantime they wanted to ignore it and do other things. I had far more interest from the same players in the campaigns where I considered the characters, the character motivations, and the stories the players enjoyed.... and built for those.</p><p></p><p>You're better off working with the players to craft the storylines and adventures. Look to their character origins for THEIR story hooks. Look for ways to cross THEIR hooks in interesting ways. Is the mentor of character A secretly the nemesis of character B's father? Let them help you craft the personal stakes for their PCs. </p><p></p><p>Does this mean that you can't start with a tragedy (either at the start of a campaign or a chapter of one)? No. The goal of your article works. I'm just noting that the underlying approach can be improved. In fact, there is a great example of how to use a tragedy to advance a story in the first Critical Role campaign. However, it uses the established connections rather than forcing new connections and hoping the players feel about it the way you want them to feel. It uses what the PCs and players gave the DM rather than Mercer dictating it all to the players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 7613471, member: 2629"] I have to disagree with a core of your approach. You're giving YOUR story to the players rather than building one WITH the players. In this scenario, you dictated everything. The players walked through YOUR story hooks, followed YOUR script and felt what YOU dictated. You're playing with yourself, and the PCs are essentially just watching. That is ... awkward. I've done this. I started a campaign with the Tarrasque waking up and killing everyone - including the PCs - in a true Godzilla style rampage. The heroes were raised by a cleric following a prophesy... and it was one of the least successfuly campaigns I ran over the years. The players were never invested. They wanted to ignore the Tarrasque rampaging across the land. The entire reason for the game that I'd set up became this annoying burden they'd have to deal with sometime, but for the meantime they wanted to ignore it and do other things. I had far more interest from the same players in the campaigns where I considered the characters, the character motivations, and the stories the players enjoyed.... and built for those. You're better off working with the players to craft the storylines and adventures. Look to their character origins for THEIR story hooks. Look for ways to cross THEIR hooks in interesting ways. Is the mentor of character A secretly the nemesis of character B's father? Let them help you craft the personal stakes for their PCs. Does this mean that you can't start with a tragedy (either at the start of a campaign or a chapter of one)? No. The goal of your article works. I'm just noting that the underlying approach can be improved. In fact, there is a great example of how to use a tragedy to advance a story in the first Critical Role campaign. However, it uses the established connections rather than forcing new connections and hoping the players feel about it the way you want them to feel. It uses what the PCs and players gave the DM rather than Mercer dictating it all to the players. [/QUOTE]
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