D&D 5E Would you play or run a game if the party's members are not the protagonists?

[Ranthalan]

One of the best writing analogies I've heard is: A novel (or campaign for RPG purposes) is like a game of chess with the pieces being characters. If you ask the king what the story is, he'll say "It's a story about a clash of mighty kings." If you ask one of the pawns what the story is, he'll reply "It's a story of a pawn who was sent into battle."

Assuming the power pieces are the heroes, your PCs would be the pawns. They are still the protagonist of their story, and there's no reason that story can't be more compelling than the stories of any of the other pieces.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

If you ask one of the pawns what the story is, he'll reply "It's a story of a pawn who was sent into battle."

Or just "It's a short story".

 

[Ezequielramone]

- Yes, you're right, I should have used " big heroes " instead of protagonists. Their history must be theirs. I was writing as things came to my head, maybe I was not so clear. I don't want to spend a lot of time in the big things, just enough to make clear that more powerful things than the PCs exist.

- The outcome of their action should be spoken, that is right. The idea is big things are happening that affect the world and the campaign but don't consume lot of time on the table.

- Having the group falling even when the party success is a limited resource to create atmosphere. Maybe to emphasise the idea of "small" and big things. I'm not evil, I'd probably use that victory much later in the adventure. Like: you could advise the village about the ride, still villagers did not scape and everything burned down. Much later they can find survivors that could hide thanks to them and now they can bring precious support. Idk just an idea.

- I'm not aware of how "living" campaigns work. So not so much to say about them.

- If the character reach lvl 10 or so, in 5th Ed standards, they should be the big heroes at the time. Brainstorming: this campaign end at 6/7 lvl with the PCs having a renown of veterans or great spies/scouts/wherever. Next campaign will continue in the world they built. Lvl for me in 5th Ed is something really rare.

Thanks all of you for your time and comments.

 

[Satyrn]

This is really the normal thing for war movies. The war is the background while the story focuses on the protagonist's story, whether that's Captain Marlowe sailing upriver to retrieve Kurtz, Captain Miller abandoning the DDay invasion to retrieve Private Ryan, or whatever other little missions you want to give out.

 

[Iry]

I've tried all kinds of artsy games. Since the players knew what they were signing up for ahead of time, I ran this and it went well. Another thing that went well was having the players roll up a party of villains who went on nefarious adventures and tried to take over the world. Then they rolled up heroes and tried to stop themselves

 

[Ovinomancer]

- Yes, you're right, I should have used " big heroes " instead of protagonists. Their history must be theirs. I was writing as things came to my head, maybe I was not so clear. I don't want to spend a lot of time in the big things, just enough to make clear that more powerful things than the PCs exist.

- The outcome of their action should be spoken, that is right. The idea is big things are happening that affect the world and the campaign but don't consume lot of time on the table.

- Having the group falling even when the party success is a limited resource to create atmosphere. Maybe to emphasise the idea of "small" and big things. I'm not evil, I'd probably use that victory much later in the adventure. Like: you could advise the village about the ride, still villagers did not scape and everything burned down. Much later they can find survivors that could hide thanks to them and now they can bring precious support. Idk just an idea.

- I'm not aware of how "living" campaigns work. So not so much to say about them.

- If the character reach lvl 10 or so, in 5th Ed standards, they should be the big heroes at the time. Brainstorming: this campaign end at 6/7 lvl with the PCs having a renown of veterans or great spies/scouts/wherever. Next campaign will continue in the world they built. Lvl for me in 5th Ed is something really rare.

Thanks all of you for your time and comments.

One of the most memorable game I've ever played in was one in which the PCs were literally unwitting lackeys in a continent spanning scheme. Although, we weren't very good at being unwitting lackeys. We stole and lost two massive treasures, my PC was turned into an ape for half the campaign (which helped with the lack of a hand that I had blown off even earlier in the game... got a sweet hook, though), and, at the end, we accidentally started the apocalypse. The whole time, we never even understood the schemes that moved us (or tried to, most often we'd careen headlong into failure). The DM was great -- he realized early on that the PCs were going to be far more involved in their petty schemes to try to figure out the big picture, recognized that this was mayhem gold, and ran it for all that it was worth. I don't think the set of circumstances, players, DM, and character concepts will ever occur again, but, for a bit more than a year, it was awesome.

 

[Sunseeker]

I've run games where there are multiple heroes and when starting the game off at low levels, there are much more powerful "good guys" out there than the party who are also out there fighting evil, looting dungeons, and to a degree the party competes with them to accomplish their tasks. (You really thought the King only hired one group of level 3 adventurers to save the Princess? HA!)

But you're basically asking if the players would want to play Merry and Pippin, or Faramir or Eowyn. The story isn't about them but the game at the table IS. So, you're more asking the party to watch a movie of you playing a game, and occasionally get a line in the side.

Personally, I wouldn't be interested. I certainly don't mind if the game doesn't start out focused on the party's deeds, you're level 1, nobody knows about you! But as we progress in level, I do expect the events of the world to start becoming more party-centric as we go from splashing in puddles to causing tsunamis.

 

[Nytmare]

At some point after Cloverfield had left the theaters, I stole someone else's idea and ran a two shot D&D game where the players were a bunch of petty criminals trying to escape a Waterdeep prison while the Tarrasque and a bunch of heroes duked it out and laid waste to the city above.

I've tried all kinds of artsy games. Since the players knew what they were signing up for ahead of time, I ran this and it went well. Another thing that went well was having the players roll up a party of villains who went on nefarious adventures and tried to take over the world. Then they rolled up heroes and tried to stop themselves

Tangentially, I also had a old homebrewed, scifi one shot where the party was a group of cyborg prison guards hunting down a bunch of escaped psychics. Once (if) they caught them, they woke up in the prison on the morning of the escape as the psychics emerging from a prophetic dream. The mechanics were built off a Zener Deck of playing cards that never got reshuffled and a bunch of abilities that had the players trying to memorize/remember/predict what the next card was.

 

[Ezequielramone]

But you're basically asking if the players would want to play Merry and Pippin, or Faramir or Eowyn. The story isn't about them but the game at the table IS. So, you're more asking the party to watch a movie of you playing a game, and occasionally get a line in the side.

You get me wrong. Sorry if I'm not clear. The could play Merry and Pippin, but the camera will be on them. And they will learn about the things happening around from time to time.

Thank you all for the feedback.

 

[Jester David]

This could actually work and be a hell of a lot of fun with one big caveat and change: it needs to be a side game.

Seeing the everymen in the backgrounds work and doing small missions is fun when you care about the larger conflict and when you can focus on their small problems while understanding the plot. People on the ground often don't get to see the larger scale unfolding, so the players miss all that drama and feel removed. It's fine when you're just starting out as you know you'll learn the story, but it makes for a poor campaign or minigame. Similarly, meeting or seeing the big damn heroes lacks emotional depth and resonance. They're just NPCs.
Rosencrats and Guildenstern are dead only works if you know Hamlet.

However, if you're doing it as a side game everything changes.

Imagine if you're running a campaign in a war. There's a couple missions that could be done, so you start the PCs on one and end the session. The next session, you're playing the mooks doing the other quest.
Suddenly, you know the story, you know the Name heroes, and you know what's going on. And your success matters as it will affect your main characters when they return.