Omnitheon
Unlucky Member
Howdy. I'm Theo.
Of the played-to-completion Roleplays I've done, I'm often left with a sense of awe and wonder. "What a journey I got to be a part of!" I think to myself. But another thought quickly follows: How do I make that happen again? How does one align all the stars just right so that your campaigns always last for months and years and finish spectacularly? It really seems like what you're doing is hit-and-miss, with so many factors involved. There are the players, the system, the story, the presentation, the pitch, the attitudes, flexibility, scheduling, patience, and on and on and on.
I would like to share some of my experiences with you. The goal of this discussion is to see what we think went right, and how to integrate these guidelines into our future games.
Here are some factors I think impact the most.
- Player attitudes.
- Contribution.
- Out-of-Combat.
Player Attitudes.
Attitude has everything to do with a game's long-term success - that being taking the initiative to have fun "at the table" with your fellow players. There's also a bit of empathy exercised in this; players should be working to understand what the leader is hoping to make happen. The keyword should be synchronization. Of all the long-term RP's I've hosted, all of them included players who proved willing and able to attend sessions whenever possible. Right now I'm in a game that's been going on for little over a year with roughly the same three players. Despite my down sessions, they keep coming back for more.
Contribution.
There is a deep human desire to contribute to the construction of something big. It's like building a tower, where just so long as you've laid one brick, a bit of your soul now resides within that tower. People love being apart of the process. Likewise at the table, when players get to contribute in a meaningful way to the outcome of a battle, a quest, or a campaign, they'll tend to stay around in hopes that they can contribute again.
Out-of-Combat.
You wouldn't believe it, but I've had plenty of sessions in games like D&D where absolutely no checks were made. It was all sessions about venturing around town, meeting colorful characters, and progressing the simpler parts of the plot forward. During these sessions, the philosophy of contribution comes into play the strongest. Instead of being important for your scores, players become important for how they play their characters. It's also during these non-combat sessions that the most amount of world-development has happened, where players (through their characters) get to experience the finer things in life in this world.
There's also another thing I'd like to bring up now that we're at this point: Magic Circle.
It's a term you've probably heard before, but basically it's the part of the roleplay that tricks your brain into thinking it's actually there. Yes, you're aware this is a roleplay, but there's a part of your brain that takes in the words, turns it into imagination, and treats the simulation like a real thing. I guess this might be an appendage to the first rule, Player Attitudes.
What are your thoughts? Anything you'd like to add as to what makes a game fun and long-lasting?
