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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ace32" data-source="post: 3635345" data-attributes="member: 391">I toyed with the idea of playing a Living campaign before my group fell apart. I do not have any direct experience with the process, but I can give you some general thoughts. The biggest draw to a Living campaign is clearly the sense of growth inherent in the game. Obviously, all DMs interested in an organic setting attempt to evolve it alongside their players to make it feel less empty. However, knowing that there are other heroes actively doing things and accomplishing great tasks can be quite a draw. Particularly when the repercussions of somebody's game can be felt in your own. If somebody plays up the castle two towns over, you can bet my players will be interested in finding out why. However, this sort of brings up the biggest problem in Living gaming (from my experience): the restrained nature and duplicity of the adventures. In any scenario where canned adventures are being distributed and expected to be played, one feels relatively small. After all, if everybody's group has the opportunity to save Xtown from Ydragon, what is the incentive to be the one to do so? Particularly, in a large setting - your individual character is still faceless. I think it'd be worthwhile to toy with a small, tightly knit Living world that focuses on tying together various games without mass-marketing it. It should feel like a cooperative game with many groups instead of an MMORPG. That way, when a player in group A asks about a major hero, he can actually learn a bit of the reputation of a player in group B. Of course, there are so many problems that could arise here. For starters, DM abuse is always a possibility. Heroes with too many magic items or too much fudging tend to overpower those who play for 'by the book' and 'dice fall where they fall' type DMs. Plus, there are always the troublemaker grief-type players who kill peasants and nobles for outrageous or poorly justified reasons. Some sort of 'quality control' is a must. Still, I think a cooperative game could work with a tight-knit community like you seem to want. If everybody is playing for the benefit of the world and not just to haul off a pile of loot and 'win' - you may just have a lot of fun.</blockquote>

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