The Questionaire

[Vknight]

I know lots of people ask there players what they want to do next.
I do that myself and it works for the most part. But they constantly choose D&D and recently I've grown tired of D&D so we are not going to do that anymore.
And when I gave them the questions of what type of game etc I didn't get a response from anybody.
Now they know no D&D but I think because none of them have played anything else they don't know what to try.

And I'm having some trouble thinking of a good list of questions to ask them.
For which of the games they want to play.

Here are the games based off of the ones that were in the running after D&D in no specific order(Cause most of the time 2 or 3 of them would tie)
Deadlands, Exalted, Monsters & Other Childish Things, Shadowrun, Wild Talents, and occasionally World of Darkness

I have ideas for each and a few questions. The standard stuff
But I came to the playground for other ideas on what to ask the party so I can help them when it comes to character creation(So they can make what they want)

The Questions I have so far are
How Dark are you willing for the game to be?
Any problems with moral ambiguity?
Want a more Railroady game or more Sandboxy? (This one is there just to see even though they mostly go Sandbox with rails they have to get to at some point)


Why this is not a question?
-How powerful do you want to be?
because they flip flop on that. They say they want to be weak and grow strong but if they go and find a strong guy well there weak they get upset if he says he's not interested and joining them.
At which point they follow them around. Some of these NPC's have the patience for that, some don't

So any other suggestions for questions and ideas?

And thanks for spending the time to read this mess.

[00dlez]

My group is starting a side campaign due to our DM's new work schedule (amazing for him, not so much for our RP). So before we even touched 3d6 to roll up some new characters, our DM handed out a 10 question form for us to fill out that took about 20 minutes about what we wanted from the campaign, anything specific we wanted to see, what sort of story arcs (campaign long story vs. individual, not really related story arcs) etc etc. It was very helpful getting started, helped to gel characters backstories together, etc etc.

If they flip-flop on the power aspect, Exalted might be perfect. Many will site it as a 20th level DnD game on steroids, and while that may be true, the characters themselves are quite weak in a world sense. A group of exalted can level a city, but in a world of dragonblooded armies, are they really all that powerful?

I think with the right amount of "world threat" you could balance their sense of power and sense of fragility nicely.... Also it's a really fun game to play... And I'm jealous...

[Anxe]

I'd like to suggest trying out Hackmaster if you're tired of D&D. It's similar and for the same genre, but all the small differences add up to make it feel completely different. The power level scales slower than D&D as well.

As for questions... Do you want your characters to be forward-driven or history-driven? A forward-driven mage wants to find the ancient secrets of the world and unlock vast eldritch power. A history-driven mage is fleeing a dark past where he accidentally magic missiled his fiancee during a training session.

Do you want many fantasy races or just a few? 4th edition is overflowing with fantasy races. d20 Modern has pretty much only human (or it should anyways).

What kind of narrative structure do you want? A bunch of interconnected dungeons with little plot behind them? Numerous outposts of evil that are loosely connected? A morally ambiguous world? This one can be hard to answer.
My players didn't really know when I asked them. I started going with whatever worked. The stuff my players like best is an overarching plot with choices in how to achieve the goal.
For example, they have to get into a castle. They can attack the front gate. They can scale the walls at night. They can try to find a way in through the sewer. They can disguise themselves as guards coming back from patrol. They can go on a separate mission to earn a teleport scroll and just poof in. I'll plan out each of those options and they'll take one or make up their own. I plan out a lot of different adventure paths to the goal. That way I have enough info to cover an option they pursue, even if its one that I hadn't considered.

Your other questions are pretty good. Also, its okay if you change your mind later on in the campaign. Maybe they're doing a sandboxy thing and then you can introduce a big railroady plot. Maybe they'll pursue it and maybe they won't. It's good to let your players choose after you've already created the options. Although, you definitely need to pick a system first. Like I said, you should pick Hackmaster. Link's in my signature.

[Vknight]

I actually want them to be driven depending on the game.
History Driven; Monsters
Forward Driven; Deadlands, Wild Talents
Mix; Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Exalted

As for races well given the options few.

Probably more moral ambiguity. They can have connections to one another, for example that mercenary they let go reports to his boss his unit got destroyed and they plan something that comes back later.
I'm thinking actions have consequences so you have to make a decisions.

My players if asked to do that would fail.
For example I gave them a simple challenge. They need to get across a small sea to the other side.
There is a pirate ship in the current cities dock that will take passengers & will not rob them but may ask for them to help in fights.
A local merchant wants the pirates dead and will give the party a ship across if they take care of the crew.
A knight the party knows will leave in a week or so but until then they would have to wait on him.
They could also seek to sail on one of the Merchants ships and defend it against any threat.
Or rent a small magitech runner.
Once they made a decision the next session the pirates had become suspicious of the Walrus watching them on the docks...

As I'm tired with that stuff maybe; Pathfinder, but I'm thinking of trying one of those other games I listed.
As the group is big into Steampunk and Cyperpunk but we never play any

[Jay R]

The question I usually ask is "I'm thinking of running a Flashing Blades campaign. Anyone want to play?" It might be D&D, or Champions, or something else.

Then I send out a description of the proposed campaign, detailing character generation and the starting situations.

They can say they want to play it, or not. If not, I may come up with another idea, or somebody else might propose one.

But I won't run a game unless it fits my own ideas, so I don't ask the players for input; I ask them to approve or not.

(Most often I throw out ideas for the next game while we're playing under some other DM. I may throw out several ideas, and see which one people bite on. A few years ago, I suggested I would run a game of original D&D, and the response was overwhelming, and the size of the group doubled. I was running 12 players at once.)

[eggs]

It sounds like you're trying to run a campaign by committee in systems your players aren't super enthusiastic about... good luck, I guess.

On the big decisions about campaign design, it's usually just:
One-off or Campaign
"Serious" (schedule weekly times, plan sessions in detail, play with a straight face) or "Casual" (grab anyone that's free, hazy plans and impromptu scenes, a bit more goofy)
Freeform (let's tell a story and maybe open our rulebooks every now and then) or Tactical (let's tell a story punctuated with whatever minigames the system provides)

Then jump off into play with an easy plot hook. That way your players and you can both get a feel for the tone you're setting and see how inspired the players are to take things in their own direction without speculating or grilling the players for details on the game you're going to run ahead of time.

[Alejandro]

Have you asked them if they just want to play D&D? maybe one of them would like to GM instead?

[Vknight]

Have you asked them if they just want to play D&D? maybe one of them would like to GM instead?

There is a reason I don't play games in which they Dm.

T; Does not want to Dm
E; Does not want to Dm, and J won't play if she does
G; Is an idiot. He can never have anything planned nor does he understand how to build encounters etc.
J; Makes DMPC's one for each party member that is often a build he thinks is cool that he wanted that player to do that follows the party boasting about how he's so great and failing hard
D; Wants to run horror but plays CoC like Paranoia

[Jay R]

There is a reason I don't play games in which they Dm.

T; Does not want to Dm
E; Does not want to Dm, and J won't play if she does
G; Is an idiot. He can never have anything planned nor does he understand how to build encounters etc.
J; Makes DMPC's one for each party member that is often a build he thinks is cool that he wanted that player to do that follows the party boasting about how he's so great and failing hard
D; Wants to run horror but plays CoC like Paranoia

OK, you don't like how they DM.

So why are you asking them how to DM?