How does you campaign flow?

[tedcahill2]

When you design a campaign storyline do you do it like a movie of a TV show? Note that this question is specific to non-sandbox games. It is for games where the DM has a particular story they want to tell.

Movie: a singular major storyline with some character driven side stories, nothing (planned) that takes too much away from the main story.

TV: episodic adventures where each session (assuming enough time) will start and finish a side mission that usually has a piece that ties into the major storyline.

Every time I'm in a game with a specific storyline it generally feels like a movie, and it never really works because their isn't enough engagement in a single session to keep everyone interested. Using a TV approach, and having a smaller, more engaging story that's happening along the way to the bigger story seems like a better approach.

I'm asking because I have a storyline for a campaign that I'm really excited about, and I can't decide how I should try and write it out.

One idea is to have a few different milestones; each milestone would have a starting point and a specific end point, but what happens in between is more sandbox style and player controlled. My role as DM would be to create events that steer the group toward my milestones.

Alternatively I could approach each session as an TV episode, where I have a significantly smaller scaled start and end point, so that the players constantly feel like they're accomplishing something.

Love to hear some tips and opinions.

Thanks!

[Mike Miller]

I never really thought about my campaigns like that, but I suppose they are more like your TV description. I usually have a flow chart of events that I can alter depending on what the characters do. You can never guess what those crazy PCs will do!

[Bebbit]

I never really thought about my campaigns like that, but I suppose they are more like your TV description. I usually have a flow chart of events that I can alter depending on what the characters do. You can never guess what those crazy PCs will do!

That's pretty much how I do it with mine too. I have specific plot points that I eventually want them to reach, but I leave them floating. It all depends on what the PCs do.
Sometimes the plot points occur right after the other if they're feeling particularly driven that session, other times they go off on tangents and forget the main plot until later.

I try to integrate the story into what they're having their characters doing, that way they have free reign, but I can still subtlety move the plot along at the same time.

[Waker]

When I create a campaign, I generally don't have an overarching plot-line. Instead I tend to create multiple potential plots that the party can come across depending on their decisions and preferences. This does mean that at the end I have several stories that went unseen by the party, but it does make it easier to not get completely caught with my pants down when the party might do something unexpected.
While I do have some story arcs shorter than others, I don't make a habit of running many short, episodic adventures that take a session to finish except near the start of the game. In the early portions of the campaign I keep it short and sweet so that the players have an opportunity to settle into their characters as well as letting my gauge their approximate strengths.