Lofgeornost
Feeling Martian!
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Since there has been a lot of useful discussion of how to do sandbox campaigns, I thought it might be worthwhile to have a similar thread focused on scenario-driven ones. By that I mean simply games where a session will typically focus on a mission, adventure, or mystery created by the GM.
I want to be clear that, in my opinion at least, this is not the same thing as a railroad. Players may have a variety of different adventure hooks presented to them, to choose the one they wish, and they can have nearly complete freedom (within the limits of the game-world and premise) as to how they deal with the scenario. But in these games, the GM is creating puzzles for the players to solve or challenges for them to overcome or avoid, and the players are reacting to them.
While this does not offer the same freedom for players that a sandbox does, scenario-based games do have some compensating characteristics, I think:
I want to be clear that, in my opinion at least, this is not the same thing as a railroad. Players may have a variety of different adventure hooks presented to them, to choose the one they wish, and they can have nearly complete freedom (within the limits of the game-world and premise) as to how they deal with the scenario. But in these games, the GM is creating puzzles for the players to solve or challenges for them to overcome or avoid, and the players are reacting to them.
While this does not offer the same freedom for players that a sandbox does, scenario-based games do have some compensating characteristics, I think:
- They can make preparation easier for the GM, since he or she will have a basic idea of what the players will be dealing with in a given session. Some types of high-preparation gaming I personally prefer only to do in a scenario format, like complex mysteries which require lots of planning of the underlying conundrum and its clues. I don’t want to do all the work only to see it never used.
- They fit well with certain premises or genres, especially those where the players are part of some sort of organization (like Star Fleet) or in a profession where they take on assignments (like private eyes, gunslingers for hire, etc.).
- More casual players, who may have little interest in taking the initiative or defining their own character’s goals, often find scenario-based play more attractive. They can relax and react to whatever the challenge of the session is, rather than charting their own course.