finally
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 23
Preferred Game Systems: WFRPG & Skymningshem
Currently Playing: Trudvang
Currently Running: Savage Worlds
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Post by finally on Jun 18, 2015 10:57:04 GMT -8
In the premade (Swedish DoD-) campaign I'm currently playing, the rails won't break nor bend. A strong majority of characters have lain down wishing to die and players have left the game after killing of their character. Now, 20 hours in, the game have started to pick up speed. I've been defending the GM, saying that it's hard to set up a complete world with the governing powers with complex relations. I trust my GM (who lead this premade before) but how long can an introduction be before it should be reworked into a intro-monologue.
I don't think we (players) are pushing the game to far; here's an example: Group are hired to find a murderous bear in a northern village. One night we awake to cattle being attacked and a NPC is found dying. His dying word are that he wounded it. Half the group took up chase following the blood-trace. Here's where the rails kick in. We get tired, but strong will and power-naps keeps momentum high. It stop bleeding, rolls and skills don't give a shit. It crosses an icecold river, magic could actually solve that for us. Trail can't be picked up. Dead end. Meanwhile while we are off hunting, the other half of the group stayed in the village doing nothing and get so much plot and adventure shoved down their throat, that they lost their gag-reflex.
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fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
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Post by fredrix on Jun 19, 2015 11:29:43 GMT -8
Hmmmm, badly written scenario, but actually a problem that many scenarios and campaigns have had since the days RPGs first broke out of the Dungeon. Dungeons of course limit choice and this enable the illusion of player agency while still making sure the story kernels are in the right order for an emotionally engaging experience.
When we broke out into the wilderness, campaign writers go "Wah!? My players are paying for my story-telling skills, but they might fuck up the emotional arc of the story by (for example) catching the bear too soon!" (On a related note, are you story this adventure wasn't written by Stu? If it was, the bear is in fact a red herring) so they write stuff like "make sure the bear escapes.
But there's a renaissence of campaign writing going on, and if you look at the work of Gareth Ryder-Hannrahan and Ken Hite, you'll see, resource packs full of encounters and NPCs, but no instructions about what happens after what. Instead, you'll find advice about how to create a story out of a combination of the adventure's stat blocks and the players' choices. The Armitage Files (by Robin D. Laws) and the soon to be released Dracula Dossier are exemplary free-form adventures.
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