When Player Driven Adventures Don't Pan Out

[zakael19]

Okay… but all (or maybe most) of the hooks are GM created content. Choosing from a menu of options certainly gives players choices of what to do, but I’m not sure if that’s player-driven. Or not as player- driven as it could be.

What are the motivations for the characters to get involved in any of these hooks? I mean I have no doubt that some can be interesting in their own right… but is there anything other than that to help motivate the players or their characters?

Ok, we did this for 700+ pages in that Sandbox thread last year. This is why I've been trying to say there's different styles of player-driven games, and the classic "treasure seeking adventurers" wandering off into a sandbox is certainly the oldest one, but isn't character driven in the same way as our newer styles imho.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Okay… but all (or maybe most) of the hooks are GM created content. Choosing from a menu of options certainly gives players choices of what to do, but I’m not sure if that’s player-driven. Or not as player- driven as it could be.

What are the motivations for the characters to get involved in any of these hooks? I mean I have no doubt that some can be interesting in their own right… but is there anything other than that to help motivate the players or their characters?

You and I mean different things by "player-driven". I mean that the players choose what their PCs do in the game. It doesn't necessarily mean they invented the thing they decide to do, and it definitely doesn't necessarily mean that they created the part of the world they decide to engage with. None of that is needed for a player-driven game. They just have to choose what they want to do in the world. I don't lead them down a path. I provide options to make choosing easier and to reinforce the setting as independently existing, but they can do whatever they want to do, including something I didn't think of, with the world their PCs live in. The kind of player-driven campaign you seem to be talking about doesn't appeal to me. You do you though.

As far as motivation goes, that depends on the PCs they make. I encourage my players to create characters with personal goals, and before we begin active play I find out what those goals are so I can make sure the setting has what would be needed for the PCs to potentially achieve those goals, but whether or not they try to do so is up to player choices and the rules of the game. And once the first active session starts, the players's power over the world is limited to what their PC is capable of.