Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Confusion567 04-15-08, 07:58 PM	DM with mild experience here (one campaign lasting a year under my belt) preparing for a new adventure. Based on the first post of Oakspar77777's "Lessons from DMing with my GF (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=471897)" (an excellent thread overall), I've decided to let the players tell me what they want through a short survey, and I'm looking for suggestions on questions to add or remove. THE BASICS - Getting it started Role Playing / Mixed / Roll Playing High/Med/Low Fantasy (Narnia, with talking animals and stuff / normal D&D / King Arthur or Robin Hood) High/Med/Low Magic High/Med/Low Power Preferred party alignment? Dark/Average/Light Tone and Mood G/PG/R-rated descriptions and content COMBAT - What and how do you wanna fight? (All are High/Med/Low occurence) Brawls (straight fights) Tactical (find the trick) Stealth (sneaking up and being strategeric) Even matches (4v4) Boss fights (4v1) Hordes (4v20) Batallions (20v20) Armies (100+ v 100+) MISCELLANEOUS (All are High/Med/Low levels) Resource Management (High is watching every arrow, point of encumbrance, and slice of bread, low is "you buy food") Personal rank in the world (Strongly considering removing this question, cause they gotta earn it, right?) Ally number (are you pals with an army and all the NPCs, or are they all out to get you?) Ally strength (is the Wizard Emperor watchin' your back, or do you hang out with the bums on the corner?) Mission picking (Freedom to choose what you do, and when) Linearity (Related to above, likelihood of story following a set path or sweeping you up in it compared to you controlling your own destiny) Moral dilemmas (Related to tone and role/roll playing, do you want to have to choose between the orders you were given or the life of a child... Or would you rather go along your merry way, slashing and hacking?) So there you have my first draft of a campaign creation survey. Too many? Too few? Anything I need and don't have? Anything I have and don't need? Or should I just scrap it entirely and surprise them?
Etarnon 04-16-08, 07:32 AM	Your survey is a bit complicated, and in my experience would turn most people off. The typical player, unless they have a great amount of rpg experience, doesn't really know what they want, until they see it. I'd go with suggest a few sketches of campaigns, and have them vote yea or nay as a group. Otherwise you'll have your survey, all these answers which people think will end up in a game tailored for them, and nobody will be happy. Maybe. Anyway the spirit and intent is good, I think you're just gonna get a bunch of answers that will be hard to implement.. kind of like designing a campaign by committee.
StSteven 04-16-08, 08:10 AM	I'd just ask the basics, for the reasons stated above.
steenan 04-16-08, 08:20 AM	I think there are a few questions that would be good to add: How challenging the game should be? - Some players like risking their PC's lifes every day and weighting every word in social encounters, while others prefer a more casual game. Should the characters be defeated sometimes? - Some players will rather have their PCs die than run, surrender or be laughed at. Others see an occasional defeat as necessary for verisimilitude or just fun to roleplay. How fast should the action proceed? - Some players like to have time to roleplay everyday activities, to gather information, to talk (in character) about unimportant things. Others want action after action, where they have to decide in seconds which parts of plot to follow, who to fight and who to trust. How strongly should the game depend on player initiative? - That is, should the DM present all the ways the heroes may go or should he only judge the solutions the players come up with? Should characters' backgrounds be static or dynamic? - Some players want the places and NPCs described as a part of character background to stay the same during the campaign. Others like to be surprised, with friends turning enemies, enemies becoming friends and some past events being really something totaly different than they described.
Confusion567 04-16-08, 03:36 PM	All very good points. I should note that my current playgroup, the ones to whom I will be giving the survey, are fairly experienced, and also that I administered this individually, a question at a time, rather than saying "Here, fill out this page of stuff". Nevertheless, I will take out some of them. Steenan: Excellent ideas, I'll ask those as well.