jmucchiello wrote:smathis wrote:What I've been driven to with TA/TG is formulating tools to promote emergent play between adventures. "What's next" is defined by where the players are at the end of their last adventure and what happens to them on their way to the next one. There's also some work to be done fleshing out the player's view of the world such that they can participate in the regional power struggles. They have to have a way to put skin in the game and also be dragged kicking and screaming into it.
I think even episodic play can have long term elements. Just because you have BBEG setup in the campaign doesn't mean the players (initially) know about him or even work against him. You can have a series of episodic adventures with clues to a bigger story as long as you don't force the players to find those clues. Consider a TV show like Babylon 5. The first session had a mix of one-off shows and shows that pointed toward a deeper story (arc show). It wasn't until the later seasons that almost every episode progressed the greater story.
The real "problem" here is motivation. DCC PCs are not Heroes. So they aren't expected to stop the BBEG. Heck, let them work both for and against him unknowingly several times before they realize he exists. (Heck, I like to do that to Heroes all the time. Yes, Mr. Paladin, you were hired by dark forces to acquire the Artifact of Goodness so they could sacrifice it to a dark god. No alignment shift but you do get a healthy dose of soul searching. Enjoy.) Then they can choose sides or go their own way.
Howdy j. I agree on episodic play having long term elements. It's one of the things I think a long term episodic campaign can benefit from -- be it a BBEG, story arc or over-arcing quest.
In this regard, TA/TG is easier to mold towards an episodic campaign. Because there are several BBEG's to choose from. And there are several different story arcs that can be mixed, matched or ignored as the case may be. But that's down the road. Right now, it's very much in the mold of a game in active playtest. Hence the same issue I had with DCC playtesting and TA/TG playtesting -- that "What Now" moment.
To a lesser degree TA/TG characters have that, "You're No Hero" element and can take it or leave it as well.
And that's where the "in between" adventures stuff comes into play. Anyone familiar with jrients' tables for what happens "Back at Town" has a good idea already about where I'm headed. Only the tables will be a little less goofy and there will be more options and more varieties of tables. This is also where a party's adversaries can take a cheap shot at them and where the party can learn more about who wants them dead and why.
In TA/TG, the party can have a BBEG, a cult or even a Patron(ish) thing that wants them dead. And the more successful they are at killing monsters, the more the monsters want them eliminated. So things can morph and change over time. The party might also find themselves in conflict with another sect of "good guys". Think of how Vampire Hunter D runs afoul of the Markus Brothers. Or how things get shaken up when the Pegasus shows up in BSG.
The idea is that we can capture some of that on some random tables to help DMs with emergent play that can help them and the group define the direction of play. The "What do we do now?" moment.
When the dust has settled, I think those TA/TG tables would be really useful for DCC. Because the "we're Reavers" meme gives DCC characters greater latitude to tell Thulsa Doom to go off himself and head back to Zamoria. I feel they're pretty necessary for TA/TG too. For when a DM has a dry spell and wants some help figuring out what's next as well.
And the inspiration for these tables came from using jrients' Back in Town tables in a C&C game and having the realization that we'd spent easily one-half of a session resolving complications that arose from those tables and that, in fact, doing just that was way more fun than what I'd planned on us doing anyway.
I don't necessarily think emergent play is a panacea. But it definitely helps to have more options in that area, IMO, than less options. Especially when it comes to episodic play.