Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What is your Game About?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 4887522" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Fair enough. But, let's say we're going to do a Sandbox exploration style game. What's it about? Is it about being hopelessly lost, challenged by the elements and frequently failing - in other words a very realistic depiction of exploration? Or, is it more about evocative settings with lots of sensawunda?</p><p></p><p>That decision is going to drastically impact how you design the campaign.</p><p></p><p>In the first, you are going to track every ounce of food, every gallon of water. The weather is going to be bad, very often. Disease is going to be a major feature in the campaign. Starvation, descriptions of isolation and perhaps even madness.</p><p></p><p>So, you pick a system that reflects this. If a given system glosses over tracking food and ammunition like 4e does, then I wouldn't use 4e to do this. It just gets in the way. I also wouldn't use Savage World's for this either, since it doesn't really work well. OTOH, I wouldn't use Basic/Expert D&D for this either. No disease rules to speak of, and very little in the way of mechanical support for the themes of the campaign. 1e or 3e (presuming I'm doing it as a D&D campaign) would be my systems of choice for this.</p><p></p><p>In the second example though, I'd go the opposite. I don't want to track every arrow and every gallon of water. That's not what the campaign is about. It's Indiana Jones, not Master and Commander or Perry's expedition to the Pole. So, 4e would work better, as would Savage Worlds. </p><p></p><p>That's my point. By ignoring the theme of a campaign, as Korgoth suggests, you are actually dictating the theme. He insists that he simply presents scenarios, but, those scenarios are driven by his views of what makes a good game. I'm going to presume for a second here that tracking food and water and ammunition would feature heavily, based on his prior posts.</p><p></p><p>By default, his game would be about survival and not sensawunda simply because of the choices he makes about system.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 4887522, member: 22779"] Fair enough. But, let's say we're going to do a Sandbox exploration style game. What's it about? Is it about being hopelessly lost, challenged by the elements and frequently failing - in other words a very realistic depiction of exploration? Or, is it more about evocative settings with lots of sensawunda? That decision is going to drastically impact how you design the campaign. In the first, you are going to track every ounce of food, every gallon of water. The weather is going to be bad, very often. Disease is going to be a major feature in the campaign. Starvation, descriptions of isolation and perhaps even madness. So, you pick a system that reflects this. If a given system glosses over tracking food and ammunition like 4e does, then I wouldn't use 4e to do this. It just gets in the way. I also wouldn't use Savage World's for this either, since it doesn't really work well. OTOH, I wouldn't use Basic/Expert D&D for this either. No disease rules to speak of, and very little in the way of mechanical support for the themes of the campaign. 1e or 3e (presuming I'm doing it as a D&D campaign) would be my systems of choice for this. In the second example though, I'd go the opposite. I don't want to track every arrow and every gallon of water. That's not what the campaign is about. It's Indiana Jones, not Master and Commander or Perry's expedition to the Pole. So, 4e would work better, as would Savage Worlds. That's my point. By ignoring the theme of a campaign, as Korgoth suggests, you are actually dictating the theme. He insists that he simply presents scenarios, but, those scenarios are driven by his views of what makes a good game. I'm going to presume for a second here that tracking food and water and ammunition would feature heavily, based on his prior posts. By default, his game would be about survival and not sensawunda simply because of the choices he makes about system. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What is your Game About?
Top