What Motivates You To Join A Campaign?

[Odhanan]

What is it that motivates you to join a campaign? Is the options the DM allows you in character building (e.g. getting to play that crusader you've wanted)? Is it the campaign setting? Is it the style of the campaign (e.g. dungeonpunk, horror, or swashbuckling)?

All these things matter to me, but most importantly that's the people around the table themselves that will make me want to play or not play. If they're friends, if I like their personalities... first and foremost, I have to get along with the people I play with. If I get along, all the other components will fall into place.

 

[wayne62682]

In order:

1) The presence of a PLOT. I cannot state this enough... I have seen too many "campaigns" that are basically completely open-ended with no driving story. That might be good for a few people, but I like a plot as it lets me tailor my character and my history to the campaign.

2) The character options available to me. If I cannot create the type of character I want to play, then I can't play in the campaign.

3) The theme. Since I like nearly all genres this one isn't hard to do, but it's still a big factor for me. I have to be able to "get into" the campaign if I'm going to enjoy it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

When a member of the group I'm in wants to run a game, we all sit down and hammer out what everyone wants to play and can agree on. As an example, the last campaign that started up, a player expressed his desire to DM. Since I am also running a long campaign (7 years or so) focusing on evil PCs in Sigil, we thought it would be interesting to run a good game on the other side of Sigil, being the Harmonium and Guvners. Everyone thought it would be interesting.

Now, what motivates me to stay in a campaign? That's much trickier. I like things like my decisions having wide ranging effects, recurring NPCs (both ally and enemy), consistent rulings both in terms of rules adjudication and how NPCs are played. I like a game that has lots of options, where the DM can work with ideas in order to keep things believable instead of saying no to everything that doesn't mesh with his own desires for the campaign over the players'. I like a game where you can die and worse, and while the DM is rooting for the players, won't actively try to help them when things go bad.

 

[Dykstrav]

Sorry, I know this is hopelessly vague... But what makes me really want to play a game is if it's fun. Different campaigns can be fun in different ways, especially under different DMs. I'm usually willing to try any campaign for a session or two, and if I like it, I'll keep playing.

Now if someone was to give me a wish-list of what I want to see in a campaign, the first thing would be some big dungeons. An overarching plot is a nice thing to have too, but honestly, I love the exploration aspect of the game. I actually enjoy being the mapper. I like seeing the puzzles and dangers the DM can throw at us.

The second big thing is internal consistency, although this is largely a player thing when we actually sit down at the table. While any character concept in and of itself is fine, it's completely anti-immersive to play Jozan the human cleric in a party with Brassnuts the dwarf fighter with a +1 codpiece, Anistrianna Shadowraven the elf dread necromancer, and Bob the half-celestial orc ninja/warblade. I guess I'm saying that I also want a party that works well together both in game terms and in their overall concept.

 

[pawsplay]

I'm motivated to join a campaign when there's one I'm not running.

 

[Crothian]

My friends are running it.

 

[Asmo]

The possibility to have fun with good old friends. And as blargney the second puts it -toss some dice

Asmo

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Opportunity is the big one. There aren't many DnD DMs, and frankly some of the ones I know aren't any good.

However it's definitely possible to go overboard and have a silly setting where one person is a mystical traveller who only speaks in riddles and someone else is a half dragon/half raptoran and the third person is a ninja but knows absolutely nothing about them and has chosen a class called "Random X Ninja" that they think is cool but doesn't seem cool to them once played for a few sessions and since the DM has never seen the class in play but has only read about it in some random splatbook they can't figure out how to make it fun for the player...

 

[DreadArchon]

Opportunity, pretty much. Beggers can't be choosers.

Aye...

Edit: But if I had the choice, I'd say mechanics are a big deal. The only games in town besides the one I run are a DnD game with UA Generic Classes (*gag*) and a Feng Shui game (settings resembling or based off of the modern-day world confuse me). I don't really mind playing either of them (I'd stop if I did), but they're far from being my preference.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Reputation of the GM goes a long way. If people vouch for the GM, its a lock for me. One of the best campaigns I was ever in was back in the late 80's/early 90's with someone who would go on to be the infamous Squirrel Nutkin.