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View Full Version : Want do you want out of a campaign?



Thoughtbot360
2009-08-10, 01:22 AM
I know this is a very specific (and perhaps personal) question, but really, what is it that you seek out of any long-term campaign aside from actually being able to cast "9th-level Spell x."

I mean, let's assume that the GM has actually fleshed out his world further than "all that's necessary" for his precious little plot, and you actually have a chance to influence that world.


So, what do you do? Invent Gunpowder? Talk a king out of his kingdom? Side with disinherited prince who is leading a coup de'tat against the stupid bard for talking his father out of the kingdom? Cast Bless Water on the entire Elemental plane of Water before merging said elemental plane with every layer of the Abyss?

Xenogears
2009-08-10, 01:27 AM
Go Fable on the world and buy every piece of property, become all-powerful, and get every NPC in existence to love me.

Mystic Muse
2009-08-10, 01:29 AM
save something or somebody with a +125 vorpal lightning acid blade of holy critical wounds

(completely made that item up.)

JonestheSpy
2009-08-10, 01:31 AM
Be part of a good story, see it to its conclusion.

Sanguine
2009-08-10, 01:32 AM
Be part of a good story, see it to its conclusion.

Ditto, although that last part has eluded me so far.

JonestheSpy
2009-08-10, 01:33 AM
Yeah that "Live out a good story" thing is harder than it sounds...

If it really is freeform, claim a piece of the hwoling wilds, beat it into submission, and form the kingdom of Jonestopia.

Thoughtbot360
2009-08-10, 03:20 AM
Good suggestions everyone, but one thing that might be interesting is to fight an army out of a city.

DM: Okay, you settle down for sleep in the dockside inn, expecting a full night's sleep, but you are suddenly awaken at dawn as a cannonball busts through the wall! Looking out the window reveals the ocean filled with battleships firing upon all the docked boats. As the Inn starts to burn down while the cannonfire resumes and you are forced to retreat and take refuge elsewhere, but later on, you learn the awful truth: the city has surrendered to the Shurtie empire, made up of Gnome/Elf half-breeds! They've put the city under martial law, have crazy weapon with large caches of black powder along with them, and they've taken over the town hall, and they've docked their ships here. So, got a plan?
Me: Awwwwwwww yeah.....

Don the Bastard
2009-08-10, 03:37 AM
To sacrifice my character hreoically to stop the BBEG from destroying the world and have my character go down in legend by being written into the game world as a great saviour and referred to in later campaigns.

That is all I ask.

elliott20
2009-08-10, 03:52 AM
Answer to OP: depends entirely on my character choice.

I try to make sure each character I play has a clear sense of narrative purpose that I work out with the GM.

although, the precise scale I try to keep it small since I don't have that much time to game now a days, I'd like to have bigger pay offs a little quicker.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-08-10, 07:44 AM
Well, obviously my goal would depend on the particular campaign, but I always find going out with a bang to be fun. Whether the thing going out is me, the BBEG, a city, half the planet...(and yes, I've managed to kill all of those in a spectacular fashion, and that's with my good characters).

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-10, 07:45 AM
To sacrifice my character hreoically to stop the BBEG from destroying the world and have my character go down in legend by being written into the game world as a great saviour and referred to in later campaigns.

That is all I ask.

Every time? :smalltongue:

Last_resort_33
2009-08-10, 08:06 AM
To sacrifice my character hreoically to stop the BBEG from destroying the world and have my character go down in legend by being written into the game world as a great saviour and referred to in later campaigns.

That is all I ask.

Agreed.

I like to have a good story that I, as my character can manipulate through my actions to affect the outcome. I don't like being railroaded, but I like the DM to provide the story and hooks for me, but it's my decision what to do with them.

I like to plot and scheme and then do something awesome. I like to be able to use story points to be able to win battles that are otherwise "against all odds" I would much rather have a BBEG that I am no match whatsoever for, and beat them in some way other than a fair fight by roleplaying, thinking or completing some quest for an artifact that makes the end fight a dead cert.

Combat is boring. NPCs, scenarios and non combative challenges are interesting, and you can get more done... I tend to find that a decent combat will take the best part of an hour to resolve less than 2 minutes of game time.

thegurullamen
2009-08-10, 03:51 PM
To slowly embed myself into the world until I can walk into a tavern and someone in my profession's circles will notice me on sight. I've tried doing it as a lawyer, business mogul, holy warrior, cult leader and orc politician but nothing ever lasted long enough for me to make a dent.

Lord Loss
2009-08-10, 04:08 PM
Make my charcter look friggen ________, without him getting too high a level. Charcters get boring after level fifteen. Level 3-10 are the prime of charcter life, when they fall into the traps with any real chance of dying. I want my charcters to feel the sense of epic when they leap through the battlefield, slicing head after head, narrowly dodging the Pit trap that would have impaled, killed and in all ways destroyed my beautiful character with his twelve page backstory. In short, I love great characters with loads of story, who get into bad situations and pull themselves out, laughing. That's why I love rogues. And Sneak Attack. That's Fun too.

Epic deaths are fun too. Believe me, destroying a whole CITY of Undead kinda makes up for the fact that Renedel of the Slippery Skin (Halfling Rogue/Bards FTW!) died. In a campaign setting where ressurection DOES NOT EXIST (Unless you're a Mind Flayer, that is... but that's another tale). May Dalla Thaun bless his merry soul...

Fax Celestis
2009-08-10, 04:16 PM
I've always wanted to found a city.

Darcand
2009-08-10, 04:45 PM
I dislike the traditional campaign, rather I prefer a series of loosely connected adventures in the same area without any over laying story arch.

I also find myself torn between wanting to level quickly, and loving the lower levels, like someone mentioned 3-10 are D&D's sweetest spots and they make for the best interaction with the world around you.

sofawall
2009-08-10, 04:56 PM
I'm starting to find at level 9-10 things are scaling poorly, and CR is breaking down. I like low levels :D

Berserk Monk
2009-08-10, 04:59 PM
I want to be able to make a character that starts at level one, go on a crap load of adventures that could be turned into tales and epics, and by the end be epic level.

Umael
2009-08-10, 05:41 PM
For the story, my character shall be cut and shall bleed,
The blood needs to be the sorrow and the joy,
Let these form words, words phrases, phrases stanzas,
Until the very oceans of this world curn and gurgle.

From the primordial story will hail the epic most grand,
That others will take on nights by the fire,
This fire! Here! Telling the tale over and again,
Making new dreams that become characters once more.

Rixx
2009-08-10, 05:48 PM
I want to be a part of a story that makes unexpected twists and turns that neither the DM nor the players forsee, based solely on the personalities of the characters and the NPCs that populate the world.

Example: The party in one of my ongoing games have settled down in a small coastal hamlet and opened up a carpentry shop, in order to lay low and have somewhere to stay while they plot to defeat a lich they inadvertently helped create. I had no idea we'd ever actually settle down somewhere and set up a base of operations - all of our characters are outcasts by definition (a drow above ground, a satyr out of the forest, and me, the human who refuses to leave them behind). The idea that we even could settle down somewhere never even occurred to me - but it makes sense in context of the characters. They all wanted a place to stay where people would accept them (and having saved the town noble's daughter from a kidnapping, they were all considered heroes) - and as soon as such an opportunity came, our characters leaped on it. It's that kind of stuff I really love in a campaign - when your characters take you in weird directions. It's kind of weird not being in control of your own characters sometimes.

(Speaking of which, another one of my characters has developed a mild crush on a fellow party member, whose player happens to be male. Curses.)

Susano-wo
2009-08-10, 06:19 PM
RE: things I like to do, it really depends on the character and story
What I want out of campaigns in general? 1. A world that feels "realistic," where the consequences of things like magic, players actions, governing decisions, etc are dealt with. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the more thought is put into such things, the better.
:Edit: 1b: Also, GM adaptiblilty. PLay actions matter, even if it means having to change up he story (or waking up the evil vampires/demons/not-sure-100%- what-they-are(who were sealed up because that was all the people at the time could do with them) waaaaay earlier than we were supposed to...>.<
2. to play a character. Not just numbers with a gimmick thrown in, who uses the best strategy I can think of, etc. I mean a real character with a personality, and dispositions that might not cause him to do the 'best' thing. Hell, he might just question why we are rushing in to slay the gnolls/kobolds/etc? Or he might not care. Depends on the character ^ ^