World of Warcraft taught me how to DM again.

[HelloChristian]

I've definitely had more fun with episodic '60s tv serial' type campaigns than with grand-plot, fantasy-trilogy type campaigns. I think the structure of D&D makes it poorly suited to the latter. It's based much more in the pulp short-story tradition of Leiber, Vance, Howard and early Moorcock.

I agree. In campaigns with a grand plot, I feel as if my character's role is set from the beginning. There's little for me to do other than to fulfill my predetermined task. I prefer sandbox/episodic style games because they offer me more latitude.

 

[pawsplay]

I'm kind of compulsively epic. I've learned to start with smaller stories and let the epic happen on its own, though. In theory, I like aimless games about amoral mercenaries, but in practice, I like to make my players happy, and most people are pretty happy uniting the Four Happy Shiny Crystals and defeating Lord Draculon. Plus, it's a good excuse to use the stats for powerful demons and devils, and I have a sadistic fondness for heavy hitters with spell-like abilities.

 

[Shades of Green]

There's also the Morrowind model, which has a big epic plot - which you are free to ignore if you want or take in your own pace. The big disadvantage of such an approach is that you have to prep quite a lot of material which won't necessarily be used in actual play.

 

[S'mon]

I In theory, I like aimless games about amoral mercenaries, but in practice...

An episodic campaign can be about good guys doing good deeds though, like eg original Star Trek.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I tend to fall prone to, "Well if this is such a big problem, then why aren't the high level NPCs taking care of this,"-idus

This alone made me give up the Forgotten Realms setting. There are/were SO MANY powerful NPCs that I always felt that they were a safety net in case the PCs failed. I was afraid that the players might get the attitude of "We've been captured by the evil overlord but don't be alarmed... Elminster or Khelben will be along shortly to save the day".

 

[Mournblade94]

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP and I am a realms fan. Even as far back as Pools of Radiance for the commodore 64, I wanted to see video games that were just adventuring. Almost every Video game out there for FOrgotten Realms would of destroyed the realms if you were not successful.

I much prefer the smaller adventures.

 

[Baron Opal]

There are/were SO MANY powerful NPCs that I always felt that they were a safety net in case the PCs failed. I was afraid that the players might get the attitude of "We've been captured by the evil overlord but don't be alarmed... Elminster or Khelben will be along shortly to save the day".

A group I was in started to get that attitude. They reversed it when they realized that while Elminster would save the day, he would also get the treasure and the chicks while the PC would be in an unmarked grave. The party then came to the decision that failure wasn't an option.

Still, I agree that having the save the world plot should be rare, too.

 

[Corinth]

High-level NPCs were never a problem for me. I used them as if they were PCs, which meant that they too were Always On The Move, and thus part of a dynamic world where the PCs were but players on the state of history--sometimes the protagonists, sometimes the chorus--but never alone. They weren't dealing with this problem because they were already tied up with that problem; at most they tried to keep this problem at bay until they could get around to it, but now that the PCs appeared they would gladly let them do the job instead. Not out or malice, or laziness, but out of the simple factor of logistics--specifically, the one always-scarce resource: time (can't be everywhere you need to be at once)--would there always be room for the PCs to do what they're there for.

 

[nightwyrm]

I think one factor that hasn't been discussed yet is the length and frequency of your gaming sessions. Our group is running RHoD, but we only meet once every other week for about 3 hours each time. It gets difficult to keep track of what the overarching plot is when we're doing it in such tiny chunks over a long time. At times I think a more episodic campaign would fit our playing schedule better.

 

[Jack99]

I think one factor that hasn't been discussed yet is the length and frequency of your gaming sessions. Our group is running RHoD, but we only meet once every other week for about 3 hours each time. It gets difficult to keep track of what the overarching plot is when we're doing it in such tiny chunks over a long time. At times I think a more episodic campaign would fit our playing schedule better.

I think this is spot on. Long involved epic campaigns are best suited (IMO) if you play a lot and often. Some groups might be able to hold focus even if they do not play often, but I suspect that will be a minority. Groups that do not play often will probably have more fun if the DM runs short to the point adventures and dungeon crawls.