Swordgleam
2010-06-15, 05:00 PM
The SVU marathon is on, and it made me think about what I like in a show. I realized that I want a show that has the following plots:
Overarching storyline: Slight
Episodic storyline: Every or nearly every episode
Character-driven side-stories: Moderate amount
That is, shows like SVU have a self-contained plot nearly every episode, plus a few episodes dedicated to the character-driven side-stories, which are nearly always present in the background to some extent. Shows like Burn Notice are similar, but have an overarching storyline that sometimes takes precedence over the episodic stories.
Then I realized that that is not what I want in a campaign. In a tv series, I'm more than happy to watch an episode that's totally self-contained, and get frustrated with too many episodes that depend on the overarching story. In a game, I'm satisfied spending an entire session or more laying the groundwork for some kind of epic payoff. Sidequests are fun, but I wouldn't want the majority of sessions to be unrelated dungeon crawls.
My preference for campaigns is more like:
Overarching story: Major
Episodic: Only occasionally
Character-driven subplots: Small to moderate amount (depending on the quality/interest of the players' roleplaying)
How about you? Do you like the same kind of plots in games and shows?
Overarching storyline: Slight
Episodic storyline: Every or nearly every episode
Character-driven side-stories: Moderate amount
That is, shows like SVU have a self-contained plot nearly every episode, plus a few episodes dedicated to the character-driven side-stories, which are nearly always present in the background to some extent. Shows like Burn Notice are similar, but have an overarching storyline that sometimes takes precedence over the episodic stories.
Then I realized that that is not what I want in a campaign. In a tv series, I'm more than happy to watch an episode that's totally self-contained, and get frustrated with too many episodes that depend on the overarching story. In a game, I'm satisfied spending an entire session or more laying the groundwork for some kind of epic payoff. Sidequests are fun, but I wouldn't want the majority of sessions to be unrelated dungeon crawls.
My preference for campaigns is more like:
Overarching story: Major
Episodic: Only occasionally
Character-driven subplots: Small to moderate amount (depending on the quality/interest of the players' roleplaying)
How about you? Do you like the same kind of plots in games and shows?