I was just wondering, how do you manage your campaigns do you let it be player driven, and supply them with what they want, or do you have a central plot in which the players become entangled?

For my part I like if possible to run my campaign in phases, for example my current campaign (under construction),phase 1 will invole the party being contacted at Trobridge inn and one of there number being recalled to Orbaal, by his farthers old friend to help him fight "a 'hate' from olden times"
the journey should give the characters plenty of opportunity to learn the system and improve their skills with a lot of encounters and a couple of asides along the way. once there, they will deal with the 'hate' and hopefully the intrigue that is going on thereas well, it should (all going well) leave one of the party heir to the Manor...

Phase 2 will take the party off on some quest to....not sure where yet but probably something to do with the Morsinda following info they will find in phase 1

phase 3 will be the the death of the Lord and the inheiritance of the manor, if however they have not dealt with the intrigue from phase 1 this will come back to cause all kinds of hassle....

phase 4 I see moving into a more strategic game with first the running of the manor then an expansion of politcal aims and power leading to war?

so how do you do it?
do tell

_________________
"Ah no want curly hair!"
Brinn the Bujoc

Once a campaign is started, the details provided in the background material pretty much allow the campaign to run itself. I throw in some hooks now and again to spice things up, but its often no loss if the hooks are refused.

I like your idea with the progressive timeline.

_________________
"Rules are GOOD. Rules help control the fun!" -Monica Geller, Friends

I have started my campaign (more than 12 years ago...) with a plot where I have manipulated the PCs - I mean I have placed very dirty politics traps in which they have fallen (only supermsart player could have evade them anayway) - so they have been renegade for 4 PCs years.

That was on political and social level. I have also loaed the PCs with a terrible quest with scarring propheties about them.

The result was that my players feeled crushed by their double status regenade/savers_of_the_world. I have feel myself to let them play some "grab adventure" they wanted. This kind of adventure was a necessary for them - you know, when your PC is running away restless and always fighting against the darkest evil, some simple and fun adventure is welcome to let you breath.

So in short, I have a very strong plot for my campaign but I accept and even propose to my players many side adventures without consequence.

hehe fear thee not Patrick S&S, for I too shall be ordering and using HM3 which I shall order next weekuth, but I am still enjoying reading HMG and getting a heads up into the game mechanics which I believe arn't that different from HM3...
anyway back to the plot.....

_________________
"Ah no want curly hair!"
Brinn the Bujoc

Nice one! "I saw the glowvurm, though, long as a hundred sheeps."

I'm used to a much looser structure in my campaigns. I have a main story arc, and I begin the campaign with an adventure very much related to it.

After the opening sequence, players are left very much to their own devices, they think. Actually, what happens is that I put three or four hooks down, and it's their choice which they bite. One of the hooks may be related to the main story arc, but it doesn't really matter if they don;t choose it. We have fun anyway.

Every once in a while, I'll introduce something related to the main story arc -- perhaps the opponent they've chosen to tackle turns out to be linked with their opponent in the main arc, or somwething like that.

Eventually things reach a crescendo.

Naturally, this technique doesn't really work with short, tightly-focused campaigns. I've no real experience of running this kind of game. One-offs or long, sprawling, play-all-day-Saturday-for-a-year games. Them's the ones I run.

_________________
http://www.penultimateharn.com

and don't think that quote wont be in it...none of them have seen the film

I still plan on the campaign being pretty free flow, just that the opening phase will lead them to the north and the ...well you know what

BTW if you ever decide to run a session at a convention over here let me know I would like to play

_________________
"Ah no want curly hair!"
Brinn the Bujoc

My campaigns tend to vanry with the group, though they are becoming more free-form as I get older (and more familiar with Hârn).

As a general rule, I've got a story-arc that the players may or may not be arsed to get involved in. They generally do latch on to it at some time or other, though. The PCs are free to do whatever they want and basically putter around the setting if they like. Once they get their fill of lost pigs and barley harvests, they get on with more exciting things.

I'm finding my TROS-Hârn campaign is more free-form since the mechanics encourage it. My HMG campaign is more structured. I like them both.

-Mark

_________________
Putting the "Ho" in Hodiri since 1998.
The Forge: Western Martial Arts

I run mine similar to the way Andy and Patrick run theirs.

I come up with an overall story arc. The overall arc has a timeline and direction, but they're loose enough that if the pcs do something that would affect it, the plot won't go down like that train in The Fugitive. Depending how they play it, it might wind up being Abaddon's redemption, as well.

Then I look at the PC's backstories (making suggestions if they ask for them) and goals, plus the game world's backstories and npcs' goals, and start coming up with plot threads weaving them together. The first adventure is almost always the hardest (but also the most inspiring for me -- has anyone else experienced this?). Ideally, it's something that will bring together a group of strangers with different long-term goals, and give them a shared short-term goal ... while showing them the advantages of teamwork and dropping some hooks for future adventures. Some of those adventures will contain hooks for other adventures, possibly including the overall plot. Some will just be one-offs (though when you've got a good group, one-offs can spawn entire plot threads of their own).

YMMV. I've been with groups that pretty much needed to be led around by the nose, and had GMs who were so paranoid about pcs straying from the script that I had the feeling I should wipe my unworthy feet lest I track mud on the pristine rug of the game world (but I'm not bitter ). My current group, which I've collected from all over the world, is a half-dozen excellent, mature rpers. They're there to tell stories. All I have to do is give them good quality straw, and they'll spin it into gold.

_________________
When you fight with a pig, you both get dirty ... but only the pig enjoys it.

Yes, very much so! Crafting the opening adventure is sort of like trying to design a catapult that will propel the characters, as a coherent and bonded group, into the gameworld with incentive to interact with it. Doing it well is a very difficult but very rewarding process. One of my weaknesses is that I focus on it to the extent that, if it goes really well, I'm not sure what to do next!

Of course, with good players, if you have done it really well you won't need to worry - the PCs will take off of their own accord and all you have to do is (try to) keep up!

_________________
Balesir
___________________
- Eschew Obfuscation!

Well, in my current campaign I've started with baby steps: Set up a credible group of talented young PCs, gave them day jobs (all are employed by the baron of Geda in Chybisa: two as tutors, one as a soldier and the last as a hunter). Started throwing relatively simple scenarios at them, of the "occult mystery / ghost story / weird monster" variant. Now a year has passed in-game (and about six sessions), the players have developed some sense of what's what, and their characters have gained quite a bit of respect and favor among the local powers that be as well as some half-way decent material resources, and are starting to gain a deeper commitment to the place (since one of them is about to marry a local peasant lass). Meanwhile I've planted a few plot seeds for future reference (involving among other things Navehan theology, the Crown Prince of Chybisa, unusual gargun activity, and tensions between Ivinian immigrants and the local natives). My long-term plans are still somewhat vague, but I'll be happy if I can some day maneuver the players into having to make some tough decisions about conflicting loyalties (to god, liege, and/or family). There will be blood before the end.

For me it depends on the game and the players.

Some groups seem to prefer grand design games, where the saga evolves into a major situation. For those, I work on getting the group together, and coming up with the major villains grand design - often something that the players won't reach for two real years of gaming!

Some groups like mysteries and puzzles - the ongoing saga is less grandiose. Fro those I come up with something more aking to a tv season of a US drama. Some season story arcs, but the main focus is on the lesser adventure rather than the grand plan.

Others like an active game - they want to experience the "thrill" of accomplishing the situation.. For them, I try to design a game with a lot of situations to either puzzle through or bulldoze through. Die rolls are a feature I guess.

Most games tend to be an amalgam of these I guess. What I would say though is that I tend to run a "cinema" game. I like the idea of the RPG being escapist as opposed to overly mundane.

That's me I guess.

rgds nick

_________________
Nick Lowson
nick@nlowson.demon.co.uk

I have a set storyline for what will happen in the world and then I try to make the players interested in the events by throwing in hooks every now and then. It works quite well, because I know my players and what interests their characters.

Along with the general plot, I also create some rather generic adventures, which may take place anywhere and at just about any time, which may or may not involve plot-specific things. I throw in hooks for these one-off adventures time and time again, and hope that they will bite. If they don't, well, I save the adventure for later use, tweak it a bit according to the time and place, and push them into it on a later date. This way I can keep the players entertained and create the illusion that they have complete freedom of movement in the campaign world and the events that surround it.

I also have a number of special things in my world (I'm sure you all know those hidden artefacts, lost cities, forgotten valleys, thrice-cursed catacombs, ruined temples and whatnot) for the players to explore IF they find it worthwhile. If they pick up these quests, they find their way full of peril, but these expeditions are usually very rewarding for those who survive. Naturally these things are tough to find but again I throw in clues for the players to search and hooks for them to get involved. And of course nothing comes for free: they really have to get involved and work for it if they're going to find these special artefacts etc. - there's no way I'm throwing away the mysteries of my world on a side quest! Still, they serve as good objectives for some characters in my world (like this guy called Indy who would like to find the Holy Grail, an artefact of... No, wait, that's another world, that!).

Also, I ask players, both in the creation phase and later in the game, if they have any grand goals or objectives that they want they're characters to reach These may be completely made up ("I want to find the family heirloom, which my grandfather lost in the battle of Hammond in 950, and - they tell - is a sword of magical quality") or one of the things that I have created beforehand ("my character wants to find the entrance to the legendary dwarf-city of Karaz-Kiraz - I know it's there somewhere"). This way I encourage my players to take part in the creation of the world as well.

Still, I do not give away things for free. For example, if the family heirloom above would really possess magical abilities it would not be found in the cellar of the family mansion! I would hide it really well, create some clues and an adventure that would be challenging for the whole group. Still, I would not make it impossible for the character to find it - it is his personal quest after all. Of course, it's not all about items or places to be found. If the objective was of a more abstract nature ("I want to become the lord of the family mansion") I would create intrigue and family strife - not some grandiose dungeon-hack.

Oh, of course I also allow my player characters to just build their lives if they want to try settling down for a few years (game time!). But not everything comes as expected. The world is a dangerous place and peace is very hard to find for an adventurer.

_________________
"The greatest sport ever: the Biathlon - cross-country skiing interspersed with rounds of shooting Russians." - HierophantX on Finnish winter sports

My current campaign is quite strictly controlled and somewhat scripted; starting from the pre-generated characters (tied to the plot) with some NPC's and plots (which most probably happen, regardless of PC actions). The tight pre-planning might not be obvious to players, but it's quite obvious to me.

Usually, my campaigns are nore that strict, but I suppose I'm sort of a control freak and a story-oriented GM. I usually have quite a clear vision where the game goes - sometimes players disagree, which calls for improvisation. Sometimes (though not usually), at that point, campaign goes permanently to a new direction.

I'm currently dabbling with a fully player-controlled non-Harn campaign, with multiple PC groups, where one group (being hunted) sets the pace and road, while others pursue them. It has, so far, worked quite well. (For those intrested, it's Aberrant).

_________________
Merten at iki dot fi
Currently on hiatus of unknown length.

Big huge overall plot.

A series of adventures that usually, but not necessarily, tie in to the big huge overall plot in some way.

An individual subplot for each PC.

_________________
Keith Mann
I really must get around to changing my .sig