"What type of Story are you looking for?" Topic

Vague, I know. I found myself wondering this today as I sketch out a few details for an encounter in my campaign.

As a player of RPGs, I am very bored of the "Save the World" storyline. I've been in too many "You must do this to save the world" mumbo jumbo campaigns to even bat an eye at such a story anymore. We've saved the world three times, can I retire now?

As a DM, I find myself resisting the urge to fall into this trap. I mean, high stakes means high fun right? Coming up with campaign plots outside of this stereotype is kind of difficult, much more so one that is long enough to be a campaign.

How do you guys feel? What kind of campaigns do you run/participate in where the story really shines? Do you like playing the world saver? Would you prefer something else?

The best campaign I ever played in was an all Thief campaign. We were all part of The Thieves Guild, naturally, and bad juju was going down. Thieves turning up dead, going missing, being locked up.
Someone was cleaning house in the Thieves Guild, and a power vacuum was being created. Naturally, we all suspected each other because the DM told everyone something different, always through discreet notes.
We'd pull a job with all four of us watching for that dagger to the back, expecting it even, while coming up with our own plots to kill each other. Turns out it wasn't one of us at all, which was funny after all our attempts to kill each other.

So what's your favorite kind of campaign/story? What's your goal in a campaign?

I much prefer the low end stuff… traveling magistrates trying to solve crimes and right wrongs, delivery duty (legal or illegal), working as arms for hire or as thugs for some city noble. Lots of room for getting off track, stumbling around in the sandbox.
The big 'Save The World!' stuff seems harder to pull off and often ends up feeling anti-climactic/railroady. When I've run Call of Cthulhu it was hardly ever a plot to destroy the world or wake up any Old Ones… mostly just cultists and lesser monsters committing smaller scale crimes against humanity.

The most fun I've had lately with our Pathfinder group was a simple bear hunt… which went horribly wrong.

I'm also of the 'small scale story' camp; my players have just as much fun trying to carve a niche for themselves in the misbegotten Border Marches as they would trying to throw the ring into Mount Doom. It's all about the interactions, inventive encounters, and the feeling of making some headway in the world, not about the 'epicness' of the plot.

The last time I ran a Star Wars nearly the entire campaign was spent on one planet; the players were low-ranking agents who got dropped there to support the local Rebel cells. No, they didn't destroy the Death Star, but they made life hell for the Empire on that planet, and that was enough; they made a difference to the people they were trying to help.

-Will

I find myself much preferring lower power campaigns where the focus is on more immediate things than universe destroying super villains.

I like to take the save the world story, then reduce the size of the world. Say, a village. They play villagers that have to save their village, which is pretty much their world, but it is all low power, low end. To be honest, I like low magic campaigns too, as a GM. I find high magic often thwarts the parts of storytelling I really like to use to grip them.

Now, that said, the older I get the less combat shows up in my games. It has been three sessions now without a fight, and they are as happy as I am. One of them is a prince, trying to use as much diplomacy as he can during winter months to gather allies for a coming war in the spring, a war which his kingdom will surely lose if he does not gather allies.

So, saving the world, but not against some magical threat.

I also really like themed, sandbox campaigns, in which you give the players a basis to start from, for instance, you are the remaining members of a mercenary company that was wiped out during a great battle, there are only the three of you left, but you have the seal of the company, guaranteeing your charter. Then throw the ball in their court.

I also like tying one campaign into the next, or sometimes making it a prequel. The idea I just mentioned is going to be the basis of my next campaign, the mercenary company will be fighting in the climactic battle of the prince campaign, but for the other side. Players will know this, obviously, and it ties them to my world (homebrew). I have been weaving these stories now in the same world with the same players since 1992, when it all started with the typical save the world campaign.

There is an old keep out on the Marches. The keep was once an important border fort, but it has become infested with goblins, who have driven away the local tenants. For whatever reasons, the adventurers need to enter the keep (to retrieve a book of lore, rescue a princess, to seek treasure, etc.) Once they have killed or routed the creatures within, they now have a lot of treasure, and fixer-up castle to which they have no clear right (other than the ability to hold it). they also have opened up the surrounding territory, so the tenants might slowly come back. Since it is on a disputed border, they might offer to hold it in the name of the Crown (for a knighthood, perhaps?) They could cross the border for raids (or to get a better offer from the neighboring kingdom), or they could declare independence…

Ron

For anything more than a one-shot game, "story" = the world and how the characters choose to interact with it. I avoid meta plots now like the plague. They generally only lead you to make (IMO) poor decisions as a GM. You get tempted to fudge die rolls, pull punches, etc, in order to serve "the story".

I deliberately and proudly fudge dice rolls in order facilitate a story or a plotline. Hell, I even make up rules and throw rule books away for the sake of the story. Nothing sucks more than a silly dice roll ruining a great story that's been developed with a player for a long time. the story is everything. To hell with random dice rolls.

As to story / plot, well we usualy go with a group determined story that's appropriate to the setting. for campaigns it'll usually be heaviliy influenced by character background and goals. So, anything from redepmtion of a past crime, up to and including saving the world.