Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4722887" data-attributes="member: 4937">To stretch your metaphor, I've seen both 'warriors in the horse' and 'horse in the warriors'.In one version, you grab the players with a huge early hook to get the campaign rolling and to get the action and intrigue started right away.  But eventually, as the story unfolds it reaches a point where what the players have done thus far trumps any preconcieved narrative.  The DM writes the first few chapters, but leaves it up to the PC's to provide the narrative focus of the rest of the story.  As an example of when such a technique might be useful, I suggest the 1st edition 'Dragonlance' campaign.  For the campaign to be really successful, at some point you need to let the players jump off the rails and take the story in their own direction, using the information in the many modules for inspiration to create a sandbox environment.  By all accounts, if you force the PC's to stay on the rails the whole way through the story arc, it becomes stale and unfun.Another place such a technique is useful is what I call 'The Grand Tour' introduction, where some initial arm twisting hook forces the characters to undergo a long journey somewhat predictable journey in which you introduce the peculiar features of the setting to a new group.  After 'The Grand Tour' is finished, you leave the players to investigate anything that they found interesting along the way and to pursue their own goals.The other technique, of introducing a sandbox where there is some underlying mystery that gradually becomes apparant is pretty interesting as well.  I think every good campaign has deep secrets to it.  The risk here - at least based on my experience - is that when you decide on this approach, you really need to be assured of a group that is going to meet regularly for years.  If you take a true sandbox approach, it may take a very long time for the metaplot to perculate up the surface if it ever does at all.  On the other hand, if you force the metaplot on the characters too quickly, you run the risk of giving the players too little time in the sandbox to feel like they have had true freedom.  On the other hand, don't get stuck too far in an ideology.  If what you really want to do is run that metaplot, to heck with the ideology and throw in the invasion of dragons or whatever it is that is the campaigns great conflict.</blockquote>

Verification