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Worlds of Design: The Great Dichotomies of RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8796342" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>At the individual-adventure level I get this; and it's largely because in most cases once a party take on a mission or equivalent and get nicely stuck in, they tend to want to see it through for any variety of reasons. If tasked with recovering Blackrazor out of White Plume, for example, or with guarding a caravan as it progresses from place A to place B, the party will (in most cases) do what they need to do in order to fulfill that mission and in so doing probably expose themselves to whatever hazards the module (or DM, if it's a homebrew or designed-on-the-fly module) has for them. That said, players/PCs sometimes can and will deviate from the module, deciding for example to keep Blackrazor for themselves or to abandon (or even rob!) the caravan; and I've DMed situations very analagous to both of these.</p><p></p><p>Contrast all the above, though with a party wandering the countryside, seeing a ruined castle (narrated as a random bit of colour), and saying "Hey, let's check that place out". Here we're all in improv territory - the players are improv'ing their next actions and I-as-DM am improv'ing what comes next.</p><p></p><p>Also, when one steps back a degree it's not always predictable which module or adventure will come after which; even if it's just not knowing which (if any) adventure hooks they'll bite. IME while storyboarding within an adventure isn't often difficult, storyboarding the sequence of adventures is often little more than a guessing game.</p><p></p><p>Last night, for example, I threw my DM a pretty good curveball. Very short summary: there's some interplanar gates that it would very much be in our better interest to close or destroy. We don't have the means on hand unless we spend years building a specific structure to power a bespoke spell. So, on a whim my high-level Cleric gets on the phone with his deity and asks, in effect, "We can't do this quickly, can you?". Answer: yes. Next question: "What sacrifice will you require of us for this to happen?" Answer: a quest. "Make it happen!" says I.</p><p></p><p>So out of the blue the DM now has to come up with an unexpected quest for me/us for next session, as we-as-players have decided that quest (and shutting down the gates) takes priority over the other dozen or so things we already had on our plate.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8796342, member: 29398"] At the individual-adventure level I get this; and it's largely because in most cases once a party take on a mission or equivalent and get nicely stuck in, they tend to want to see it through for any variety of reasons. If tasked with recovering Blackrazor out of White Plume, for example, or with guarding a caravan as it progresses from place A to place B, the party will (in most cases) do what they need to do in order to fulfill that mission and in so doing probably expose themselves to whatever hazards the module (or DM, if it's a homebrew or designed-on-the-fly module) has for them. That said, players/PCs sometimes can and will deviate from the module, deciding for example to keep Blackrazor for themselves or to abandon (or even rob!) the caravan; and I've DMed situations very analagous to both of these. Contrast all the above, though with a party wandering the countryside, seeing a ruined castle (narrated as a random bit of colour), and saying "Hey, let's check that place out". Here we're all in improv territory - the players are improv'ing their next actions and I-as-DM am improv'ing what comes next. Also, when one steps back a degree it's not always predictable which module or adventure will come after which; even if it's just not knowing which (if any) adventure hooks they'll bite. IME while storyboarding within an adventure isn't often difficult, storyboarding the sequence of adventures is often little more than a guessing game. Last night, for example, I threw my DM a pretty good curveball. Very short summary: there's some interplanar gates that it would very much be in our better interest to close or destroy. We don't have the means on hand unless we spend years building a specific structure to power a bespoke spell. So, on a whim my high-level Cleric gets on the phone with his deity and asks, in effect, "We can't do this quickly, can you?". Answer: yes. Next question: "What sacrifice will you require of us for this to happen?" Answer: a quest. "Make it happen!" says I. So out of the blue the DM now has to come up with an unexpected quest for me/us for next session, as we-as-players have decided that quest (and shutting down the gates) takes priority over the other dozen or so things we already had on our plate. [/QUOTE]
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