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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5015481" data-attributes="member: 80487">I'm playing in a campaign right now that is way too linear for my taste. It's almost as if I had gone back to RPGA 4e, except it's more coherent.&quot;Lo, yon passage down which the MacGuffin's twail yet leads -- to fay-you hence is not foe you but foe me!&quot; So quoth the allegedly mighty mage we third-level adventurers had just rescued. At least we did not end up twiddling our thumbs while playing audience to a Mary Sue's exploits. &quot;Go west, young men, but wetune to my woom tonight! Then tune back east, whence ye came. Seek ye the Plot Coupon of Humbuggewee in The City beyond The Mountain, along The Wive-ah, just past The Foe-west, left at The Shwubbewee ... Ah, you can find yo-ah way, then?&quot;Not that this group has ever been all serious business, but I think we're spending more time on cross-talk during encounters. &lt;cough, cough&gt; &quot;Oh, yeah, the game ...&quot;.The thing is, the fight after fight may as well be a bunch of wandering monsters when they're just served up by the DM as &quot;what's next on the program&quot;. Being reactive feels a lot more like being passive than does being proactive.&quot;There's not enough buy-in, then.&quot; No kidding -- but I think that's why there's not enough buy-in. Someone else wanted to do Champions, but that got shot down and I don't think &quot;It's too complicated&quot; was the only issue. The complication that's really interesting in a superhero shtick is not in combat but in soap opera. (IMO, YMMV)The set pieces are fine enough, but we don't turn to D&amp;D to be an audience. (I think one new player got stuck on the sidelines far too long in his first session.) We want to instigate, not just investigate. So we instigate a lot of silly incidental stuff that does not take us &quot;off stage&quot; but ends up being rather a distraction from the DM's saga.And that's the fundamental problem: It's the DM's story.Sheer lack of skill or poor preparation can get in the way a bit, but I think the biggest DM problem is too much egotism. That can manifest in any style, but the rub is that the DM-as-novelist style depends somewhat more on the &quot;Author's&quot; egotism in the first place just to be successful.The social gathering is still enjoyable in its own right, and even if we end up having more fun playing a board game afterward -- or just in holding up the combat round with palaver -- then we've still had fun.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5015481, member: 80487"] I'm playing in a campaign right now that is way too linear for my taste. It's almost as if I had gone back to RPGA 4e, except it's more coherent. "Lo, yon passage down which the MacGuffin's twail yet leads -- to fay-you hence is not foe you but foe me!" So quoth the allegedly mighty mage we third-level adventurers had just rescued. At least we did not end up twiddling our thumbs while playing audience to a Mary Sue's exploits. "Go west, young men, but wetune to my woom tonight! Then tune back east, whence ye came. Seek ye the Plot Coupon of Humbuggewee in The City beyond The Mountain, along The Wive-ah, just past The Foe-west, left at The Shwubbewee ... Ah, you can find yo-ah way, then?" Not that this group has ever been all serious business, but I think we're spending more time on cross-talk during encounters. <cough, cough> "Oh, yeah, the game ...". The thing is, the fight after fight may as well be a bunch of wandering monsters when they're just served up by the DM as "what's next on the program". Being reactive feels a lot more like being [I]passive[/I] than does being proactive. "There's not enough buy-in, then." No kidding -- but I think that's [B]why[/B] there's not enough buy-in. Someone else wanted to do [I]Champions[/I], but that got shot down and I don't think "It's too complicated" was the only issue. The complication that's really interesting in a superhero shtick is not in combat but in soap opera. (IMO, YMMV) The set pieces are fine enough, but we don't turn to D&D to be an audience. (I think one new player got stuck on the sidelines far too long in his first session.) We want to instigate, not just investigate. So we instigate a lot of silly incidental stuff that does not take us "off stage" but ends up being rather a distraction from the DM's saga. And that's the fundamental problem: It's [I]the DM's[/I] story. Sheer lack of skill or poor preparation can get in the way a bit, but I think the biggest DM problem is too much egotism. That can manifest in any style, but the rub is that the DM-as-novelist style depends somewhat more on the "Author's" egotism in the first place just to be successful. The social gathering is still enjoyable in its own right, and even if we end up having more fun playing a board game afterward -- or just in holding up the combat round with palaver -- then we've still had fun. [/QUOTE]

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