Comments on: When a Campaign Drifts, Return to Dock http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/08/when-a-campaign-drifts-return-to-dock Game mastering advice, ideas & resources • Dedicated to helping GMs Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:46:31 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Martin http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/08/when-a-campaign-drifts-return-to-dock/comment-page-1#comment-12587 Martin Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:21:03 +0000 http://www.treasuretables.org/?p=834#comment-12587 gospog: Good point -- rescuing a drifting campaign is definitely a team effort. I guess what I was going for is that if I as the GM feel I screwed something up to set it adrift, it's primarily my responsibility to get it back on course. John: That sounds like a good solution -- you're lucky to have a large enough group to make it viable. stupidranger: Another takeaway, at least for me, is that just because a campaign drifts, that doesn't mean you're a bad GM. gospog: Good point — rescuing a drifting campaign is definitely a team effort. I guess what I was going for is that if I as the GM feel I screwed something up to set it adrift, it’s primarily my responsibility to get it back on course.

John: That sounds like a good solution — you’re lucky to have a large enough group to make it viable.

stupidranger: Another takeaway, at least for me, is that just because a campaign drifts, that doesn’t mean you’re a bad GM.

]]> By: stupidranger http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/08/when-a-campaign-drifts-return-to-dock/comment-page-1#comment-12584 stupidranger Tue, 21 Aug 2007 02:52:54 +0000 http://www.treasuretables.org/?p=834#comment-12584 Not only is it hard to be the DM in a drifted campaign, it's hard to be a player. I've been involved in one campaign that drifted; we were all lost and confused and did not understand what goal we were trying to achieve. Fortunately, our DM realized the trouble and we ended things on a good note. I think the important thing is to remember that just because the campaign didn't turn out the way you wanted, it doesn't mean it was a bad story line. Not only is it hard to be the DM in a drifted campaign, it’s hard to be a player. I’ve been involved in one campaign that drifted; we were all lost and confused and did not understand what goal we were trying to achieve. Fortunately, our DM realized the trouble and we ended things on a good note.

I think the important thing is to remember that just because the campaign didn’t turn out the way you wanted, it doesn’t mean it was a bad story line.

]]> By: John Arcadian http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/08/when-a-campaign-drifts-return-to-dock/comment-page-1#comment-12581 John Arcadian Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:58:42 +0000 http://www.treasuretables.org/?p=834#comment-12581 My current game is drifting like this due to an influx of players and other commitments for time. I'm trying to run a fairly tight fantasy military theme game. Kind of like the A-team/special ops in the warring states era. It went pretty good for a while, but there are problems with players attitudes towards it, issues with having too many people in the group, and issues with time commitments. It has kind of morphed to a different type of game, still fun but not what I was aiming for. My solution is to split the group based on who wants what from the game. Some of the players are more interested in following the story and keeping to the theme that we set out in the social contract. Others are just interested in dungeon crawl, chaos filled, being the heroes/anti-heroes type of fun. Since I want to preserve what we originally set out to do I am going to get the key players in their own group, and then start up another whenever we have free whoever shows up plays gaming night that is just for having fun for the other group. My current game is drifting like this due to an influx of players and other commitments for time. I’m trying to run a fairly tight fantasy military theme game. Kind of like the A-team/special ops in the warring states era. It went pretty good for a while, but there are problems with players attitudes towards it, issues with having too many people in the group, and issues with time commitments. It has kind of morphed to a different type of game, still fun but not what I was aiming for.

My solution is to split the group based on who wants what from the game. Some of the players are more interested in following the story and keeping to the theme that we set out in the social contract. Others are just interested in dungeon crawl, chaos filled, being the heroes/anti-heroes type of fun. Since I want to preserve what we originally set out to do I am going to get the key players in their own group, and then start up another whenever we have free whoever shows up plays gaming night that is just for having fun for the other group.

]]> By: gospog http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/08/when-a-campaign-drifts-return-to-dock/comment-page-1#comment-12579 gospog Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:36:05 +0000 http://www.treasuretables.org/?p=834#comment-12579 "If it’s still no good, we’ll call it — but if you’re up for another session or two, I’d like to see if I can pull it out.” If I may offer an alternate way to phrase this: "I’d like to see if WE can pull it out.” It's not a crime to ask for help, even for the GM. If the game is going well, it's easy to congratulate the group. But when a game goes bad, it's all too easy to heap the lion's share of blame on the GM. RPGs are a team sport. ;) -Tom “If it’s still no good, we’ll call it — but if you’re up for another session or two, I’d like to see if I can pull it out.”

If I may offer an alternate way to phrase this:
“I’d like to see if WE can pull it out.”

It’s not a crime to ask for help, even for the GM. If the game is going well, it’s easy to congratulate the group. But when a game goes bad, it’s all too easy to heap the lion’s share of blame on the GM.

RPGs are a team sport. ;)

-Tom

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