Game play style.

[Tyrant]

Think this will be the best forum for this...

What style do people play their games in?

Until just now I have always thought/played in a simular way to how I play 40K - One off games with a mission. (although multiple games may have a simular thread, envolving the same characters under the title of a campaign)

I was looking at Fallout 3 and I thought that could be a very good pre made campaign.

Then it occured to me that it could be played in a simular way.
With GM introducing random attacks/weapon finds, sub missions to gain money/respect and player control on where he goes/what he does.

Is this how everyone else thinks?

Nathan

[InquisitorHeidfeld]

I see little point in isolated "missions".

Such one-off games offer little (if any) oppertunity for character development and that is always going to by one of the primary driving forces in a narrative game.

I've always played more akin to a pen and paper RPG campaign, the story being pushed this way and that by the influence of various interested individuals.

[Tullio]

One of the reasons I tend to play Dark Heresy more than Inquisitor is because Inquisitor rules tend to get in the way of telling the story - particularly the frustratingly complex modifiers for combat and the general timeline of a given game. When I do play Inquisitor, it's usually as a one-off game as an excuse to use shiny models. Unfortunately, although they can be organised with whatever models happen to be on hand, they're rarely as compelling as the ongoing story played out in Dark Heresy

Tullio

[precinctomega]

One-off INQ missions is my normal way of playing, but I have to say that they are greatly enhanced when there's a sense of story injected.  This can be created by linked campaigns, but I have found that character development is inevitable when you play unrelated scenarios with the same characters over a long period.

The best example I ever encountered was the on-going backstory of Kang-Ju Ki and Richard Nemesov which evolved from Nemesov being Ki's underling, via Nemesov going off as an Inquisitor in his own right, through Ki's dramatic rescue of her former protege, his rapid subsequent moral decline and the climax of their confrontation that ended with Ki having her brains blown out by the one man she once trusted above all others.

It was the sort of confrontation that even Dark Heresy just can't equal.

R.

[Adlan]

One off Games between me and Kaled has also resulted in a sort of back story between Hanja and his Magos, each time Hanja is after the magos for his use of Xeno tech, and every time, the wiley tech priest escapes, leaving Hanja grasping at straws as the evidence runs off the board.

[Kaled]

Yep, most of my games could be describes as 'one-off' missions or short (i.e. one day) campaigns - I'd say that such games offer plenty of scope for character development and on-going narrative.

On that subject, I've had an idea kicking around in the back of my head for a 'campaign' to kind of link all these one-off games.  Basically we'd have thread (or whatever) where every time people play a game, they write a brief in-character report about their exploits, objectives, their characters attitude to opposing characters, any exciting events etc.  These collected reports as a whole then chronicle the stories and relationships between all of our characters and provide a record of a character's exploits as well as a resource for planning future scenarios.  Events such as the Spring Conclave can then be woven into this narrative.  Thus although most stories will usually only involve characters from a small group of players, a few times a year all these different stories will collide and the tapestry will grow ever larger.  There are all these stories that are being told every time people play games, so it'd be great if some of them were written down.

So for example, Adlan and I could write up the confrontations between Hanja and Magos Kryzak, then Necris could write up what happened when his characters came up against Kryzak - this might mean that in the next game Necris and Adlan's characters decide to gang up against mine because they realise they have a common objective - to prosecute Kryzak.  Then, perhaps if I bring Kryzak's warband to the IGT, there'd be characters who had heard of his exploits and either wanted to join with him or side against him and more characters would be drawn into his story; while at the same time Adlan would be using Hanja in games and his story would expand and collide with that of other characters.  Of course, there'd inevitably be contractions and inconsistencies in the stories, but then EYHBTIAL after all.

[Adlan]

That Sounds Awesome.

[Tyrant]

That probably needs a new thread...because that sounds good.

What would you use to tie everything together? Keep it all connected to one city/District/planet?
Would you have a scenario where nothing anyone did would change that fate. Like the planet has been quaratined due to a disease/nids/destruction order? how are people going to react? etc etc
Or would everyone be working towards the final ending?

Im very entrigued.

[Kaled]

What would you use to tie everything together?

Nothing much.  People would be free to do pretty much whatever they want.  I had drafted up a bit of a description of a sector or sub-sector or something to give people a starting point but if they want to set their games elsewhere then that'd be fine too.

would everyone be working towards the final ending?

There wouldn't be a final ending - campaign is the wrong word really, I'm really suggesting that we collect together the exploits of everyone's characters in one place as we play games.  I know that there are people out there playing Inquisitor, but we hardly every hear from them other than the odd battle report.  Plenty of people post background for their characters when they first create them, this would be a way to encourage them to continue posting the story of their characters as they use them in games.

[RobSkib]

This is a great idea kaled, one which I hope sees fruition. It definitely needs a new thread on the subject to prevent further thread hi-jackery though.

[Heroka Vendile]

not intended as critisism, more as observation, but isn't this rather like what one of Nexues Hives objectives was? all be it tied into a very specific location in that instance.

[Simeon Blackstar]

Sounds pretty similar, yes.  Brings back memories - it's a shame Nexus Hive never really transferred fully onto the new site, as there was some interesting stuff on there.  I've certainly got some fond memories.

[Adlan]

Or those that remember way back when, Dodge City.

[Kaled]

Yeah, I didn't say the idea was original, but it'd be great to have an archive of stories about all of our characters.  If people are interested I'll dig out the introduction I wrote and you guys can add to it.

[Myriad]

I've generally mostly played one off games due to circumstance, and as far as they go they can have good narrative to them, but obviously it's hard to develop running threads of narrative.

I certainly like the idea of a kind of meta-campaign we can try to fit our one off games into.  Apart from anything else, the chance to write reports in a narrative style appeals to me.