Episode/Series versus Adventure/Campaign

[JonA]

Hello,

Just asking for everyone's opinion on something.

I realise its all down to personal preference of the Narrator/GM and the PCs but who runs their games in the suggested televisual style.

Our group has been roleplaying for about six hours every week for over 12 years with various systems and we are used to the format of ongoing campaigns that aren't divided into clearly set adventures. I can certainly appreciate the approach by the games designers that it's fun to try and recreate the star trek show in roleplay but personally I prefer the idea of having one long campaign with twists, turns, surprises, revelations etc.

Basically we don't do roleplay in adventures any more. We have ongoing campaigns where every session links in to the other directly. No side line adventures in the middle of a campaign. Some of these last a few weeks to one campaign (in another system) which has been ongoing for nearly two years!!

Sometimes the characters are carried over at the end of one campaign to a new one. Sometimes they're not. Occasionally one player will decide his character wants out and replaces it with a new character whilst the other players continue with their existing characters.

I suppose what I'm asking is which format do you all prefer? Unlinked adventures that happen to be set in a particular place or a chain of adventures or my preferred epic campaign style (which I freely admit are just single adventures of epic proportions and extended length).

Peace

[KillerWhale]

Something in-between, resembling much the modern format of TV series.

In my campaign, that we play each week, I usually have a big story arc (and other little ones). I organize the campaign in "episodes", with an identified beginning, middle and end. These eps may be completely in the thick of the story arc, have some elements in common, or none at all. That allows me to do some surprises to the players.

It also depends on the campaign time at which we are playing. If we are beginning the story arc, there will be much filler eps, or some eps revealing only a little about what's going on. As we draw near to the conclusion, generally eps are just one ongoing story about the end of the arc.

That allows much character development in a variety of situations, and sometimes, some "relief" from the story arc.

[JonA]

It also depends on the campaign time at which we are playing. If we are beginning the story arc, there will be much filler eps, or some eps revealing only a little about what's going on. As we draw near to the conclusion, generally eps are just one ongoing story about the end of the arc.


So you subscribe to the Joe Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5 creator) approach to plotting?

Makes sense.I can see how that would make for a highly enjoyable campaign.

I just think it's better and more exciting for my players to be like the main characters in a book. As such our campaigns always take that linear structure. I also think it's easier on my players too. Throwing in short side plots at random and then going back to the main plot can be confusing when trying to figure out whats occuring, where you were and what you've done and need to do to complete the campaign.

[Ineti]

I prefer to run long-term campaigns that consist of individual episodes, like the TV shows. There are often subplots and metaplots woven into the seasons, but the episodic format allows me to diversify the stories. Rather than have one long diplomatic mission that takes several sessions, I'll spread it out over the course of a season and touch on it in a handful of shows.

However, since it's harder to get together and game on a consistent basis, I find myself moving more and more toward a "movie of the week" approach, where an adventure could take 4-5 sessions to complete, then we go on to some other game.

[KillerWhale]

JonA: Exactly, my approach to storytelling very much mirrors JMS' (and Whedon's)

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

It varies depending upon what it is that is the main focus of that particular campaign/series. What I consider to be my mini-campaigns tend to be a very short series of linked adventures ranging maybe eight to twelve parts/adventures/episodes in length. They tend to be quite focused and allow for very little drift beyond the main story arc and a few character growth subplots.

My campaigns vary all over the map from having an actual overarcing storyline to having none at all beyond the occassional sequel to something that has gone before either in that campaign or in one before it.

I find that Star Trek tends to be less oriented toward focused and linked events that lead to a linear game unless you limit it in scope to say a specific sector in space or place the PCs on a starbase. Even then, it is far too easy to jump off the linear track.

I have found for myself that linear games tend to become too focused at times and the players can actually lose sight of the objective by concentrating on the minutiae so shaking things up with a subplot or something totally unrelated can really freshen things up and bring everyone back to the path. But linear path games tend to work better for games such as DnD and SR then for games with a really high TL.

Regards,
CKV.