[quote=“Jon Ball”]I had a bit of a discussion on a similar thread on my Livejournal.
I prefer campaigns, more from the perspective that you can make your own character. In one-off’s you are normally given a GM created character. I generally find these characters to not quite mesh with what I want to play.
Jon[/quote]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…
[quote=“Adrexia”]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…[/quote]
That would be a really interesting challenge 
While I prefer one-offs for variety and experimentation, I’ve had the opposite experience with emotional intensity. I can’t get enough intensity in the one-offs and for that I prefer the weekender campaigns. I like the long-term character development campaigns give me, and the emotional investment I have from weekend games.
Yeah. It kind of means that the story would need to be relatively generic (i.e. no plot specific to a character), and inter-character plot would be limited (did I say limited? I think I mean non-existent). I have considered it as a launch for the W40k LARP I’m planning.
Jon
[quote=“Adrexia”][quote=“Jon Ball”]I had a bit of a discussion on a similar thread on my Livejournal.
I prefer campaigns, more from the perspective that you can make your own character. In one-off’s you are normally given a GM created character. I generally find these characters to not quite mesh with what I want to play.
Jon[/quote]
It would be interesting to experiment with 3hr one-offs where people supply their own characters, and the GMs write them into a story…[/quote]
That essentially is the premise of Mythos… Although not one offs, but separate day games
Yeah. It kind of means that the story would need to be relatively generic (i.e. no plot specific to a character), and inter-character plot would be limited (did I say limited? I think I mean non-existent). I have considered it as a launch for the W40k LARP I’m planning.
Jon[/quote]
Or, you put people in groups once characters have been received and either a. get them to make their own connections, or b. write connections between the characters, but leave the feelings up to the players. Alternatively, get people to sign up in groups and submit characters who are already part of a group.
What would be harder would be dealing with surprises. It could be done, but would take a bit of working with people if you want the surprises to come from PCs rather than an external source.
You can write plot specific to characters too. Again, it would take some work, and players would need to be okay with their character’s background being messed around with (but their personality staying intact).
Getting a bit off topic but…
One of the things I have in the rules I’ve currently written is factions. So that sort of fits what you’re talking about with “groups”. Although it’s entirely possible that you could end up with only one person having chosen a specific faction.
Similarly there are “Careers” and “Origins”. You can target specific plto to specific Careers or Origins (e.g. Have something in an enclsoed space where all characters with the Feral World origin feel claustrophobic; Religious plot which would appeal to all characters with the Cleric class). But I guess you take the risk that there might not be anyone who has selected those particular Factions/Origins/Careers.
Anyway…
[quote=“Jon Ball”]Getting a bit off topic but…
One of the things I have in the rules I’ve currently written is factions. So that sort of fits what you’re talking about with “groups”. Although it’s entirely possible that you could end up with only one person having chosen a specific faction.
Similarly there are “Careers” and “Origins”. You can target specific plto to specific Careers or Origins (e.g. Have something in an enclsoed space where all characters with the Feral World origin feel claustrophobic; Religious plot which would appeal to all characters with the Cleric class). But I guess you take the risk that there might not be anyone who has selected those particular Factions/Origins/Careers.
Anyway…[/quote]
You’d need to get the characters far enough in advance for that not to happen. If there aren’t characters, you ignore the plot that would target them.
This is how Kingdom worked. And it was good.
Like Ryan, I’d enjoy a campaign of evening games every couple of months, maybe. Bearing in mind that the commute is always abominable.
This is how Kingdom worked. And it was good.
[/quote]
Not quite. Apart from the timeframe being different (3hrs, rather than half a day + an evening), I think I’m thinking of something more theatre-form than adventure style. Though Jon is thinking adventure style, right Jon? Adventure style would likely be easier, as it almost doesn’t matter how the characters are connected. Theatre form relies on inter-personal links to create the drama (and the entire story really).
Yeah. It kind of means that the story would need to be relatively generic (i.e. no plot specific to a character), and inter-character plot would be limited (did I say limited? I think I mean non-existent). I have considered it as a launch for the W40k LARP I’m planning.
Jon[/quote]
I think interactions could be done, though you’d need to have a fairly specific idea of setting and circumstance.
I’ve been toying with the idea of a pure roleplay mini-campiagn based on the interactions of a large family where people could essentially write their own characters within certain parameters.
(hrmm…maybe I should put this in the ‘game ideas’ section)
It’s been interesting reading this and another discussion about the differences between the two. I haven’t had any experience yet with an ongoing LARP campaign but the discussion is making me consider signing up for 33AR as a player to give it a go. At the very least it’ll give me the frame of reference to vote in this poll!
Having never been a player in a weekend game before, I don’t think I can really comment with respect to LARP, but I will comment on my experiences with tabletop.
In tabletop, I definitely prefer a campaign, I think the same reasons that people have mentioned above, such as the greater chance for character development. Personally, I also like that you can have recurring NPCs and locations that your characters will already have experienced in-game (and recurring jokes too). What’s more, I tend to be someone who has to spend a little time working themself into something (e.g. who my character really is, and what they are like), and one-offs generally don’t allow for that, but most campaigns will, assuming the character survives for long enough. Although I do agree with the comment above that a one-off tends to let most people feel more free to do everything and anything, because they’re not so attached to their character.
With regards to LARP, I’d also say that I tend not to be the biggest fan of one-offs, simply because many of them are large social games, and I’m not great with crowds and even worse at en masse socialising, so I tend to be the person who ends up in the corner not doing anything for 3 hours - people who have run big one-offs I’ve played in might remember that I tend to request characters who other characters will have a reason to approach (which worked fairly well for me at the run of Hindenburg last year). Smaller one-offs are a different story though.
Give it a go. If you dont like it then chalk it up to experience.
The other thing with weekend games is the chance for a bit of downtime. You can chose to be as busy or not as it suits and be assured there is almost always a reason to be involved at some stage… even if that means the zombies are bearing down on you and it is either fight or flee!
[quote=“Adrexia”]
Not quite. Apart from the timeframe being different (3hrs, rather than half a day + an evening), I think I’m thinking of something more theatre-form than adventure style. Though Jon is thinking adventure style, right Jon? Adventure style would likely be easier, as it almost doesn’t matter how the characters are connected. Theatre form relies on inter-personal links to create the drama (and the entire story really).[/quote]
Yeah, I was thinking adventure style. But there’s definitely scope to build something more theatre form. Have hand outs ot people on the day with goals or information that all interlink. So someone is givne a secret and someone else needs to find out that secret.
Anyway,
Jon
This is how Kingdom worked. And it was good.
[/quote]
Not quite. Apart from the timeframe being different (3hrs, rather than half a day + an evening), I think I’m thinking of something more theatre-form than adventure style. Though Jon is thinking adventure style, right Jon? Adventure style would likely be easier, as it almost doesn’t matter how the characters are connected. Theatre form relies on inter-personal links to create the drama (and the entire story really).[/quote]
I’m playing around with this very idea right now, though leveraging off Tomb of the Mad Goddess.