Comments on: My Biggest Mistakes: Defying Expectations in the Zenith-3 Campaign http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/defying-expectations-in-z3/ Expert tips and how-to's on every aspect of creating and running exceptional campaigns. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:01:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=585 hourly 1 By: Friday Links for October 2, 2009 | Moebius Adventures http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/defying-expectations-in-z3/comment-page-1/#comment-1125 Friday Links for October 2, 2009 | Moebius Adventures Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:08:13 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1043#comment-1125 [...] My Biggest Mistakes: Defying Expectations in the Zenith-3 Campaign from Campaign Mastery (campaignmastery.com) [...] [...] My Biggest Mistakes: Defying Expectations in the Zenith-3 Campaign from Campaign Mastery (campaignmastery.com) [...]

]]> By: Mike http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/defying-expectations-in-z3/comment-page-1/#comment-1078 Mike Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:29:28 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1043#comment-1078 There wouldn't have been a problem if my players hadn't built up false hopes of a certain style of campaign. But when you're expecting apples and you're given avocados, there's likely to be a bit of dissapointment - especially if you really like apples. Or perhaps a better comparison would be Lovecraft when you're looking forward to Young Framkenstein! But we're all still friends, and still game together. It sounds like your group knows what to expect, even if that's to be surprised; and that's the difference in circumstances. As for chaotic stupid, one of my original players has only recently learned not to go for the carrots that I so playfully dangle in front of his character... after 28 years of gaming together! So don't abandon hope! There wouldn’t have been a problem if my players hadn’t built up false hopes of a certain style of campaign. But when you’re expecting apples and you’re given avocados, there’s likely to be a bit of dissapointment – especially if you really like apples. Or perhaps a better comparison would be Lovecraft when you’re looking forward to Young Framkenstein! But we’re all still friends, and still game together.

It sounds like your group knows what to expect, even if that’s to be surprised; and that’s the difference in circumstances.

As for chaotic stupid, one of my original players has only recently learned not to go for the carrots that I so playfully dangle in front of his character… after 28 years of gaming together! So don’t abandon hope!

]]> By: Robert http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/defying-expectations-in-z3/comment-page-1/#comment-1077 Robert Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:05:45 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1043#comment-1077 I guess I am really lucky to have the gaming group that I do. While they do annoy me at times (2 of them have the tendancy to create Chaotic Stupid characters CONSTANTLY) there would not be any problem doing what you did to them. Part of the fun we have in our group is that, just like real life, we in fact DONT know what to expect. We got an idea for a character, and we make that character, and then the DM accomodates for our character choices. All the campaigns we play in are in homebrew worlds, and the only information we are given is things our characters would know, no more. The DM of our current game basically just gave us all the info we could have logically gotten from the places we have been on our travels thus far (in our backstory) if we had rolled 20 on Gather Information checks. So while we may know a bit about the local pantheon and high level NPC's, we have no knowledge of foreign gods, Orc culture, homebrew spells/classes we would not have encountered, etc. Part of the fun of the game is not knowing what to expect and adapting to it. That being said, our DM alternates from being unusually vicious (our first encounter as 5 lvl 1 chars was CR4) to holding our hands, just so we never know what to expect. Honestly I would not have it any other way, but I have definitely met people who would throw a fit over our style, especially the types that plan out all 20 levels of their character progression based on OOC knowledge. I guess I am really lucky to have the gaming group that I do. While they do annoy me at times (2 of them have the tendancy to create Chaotic Stupid characters CONSTANTLY) there would not be any problem doing what you did to them. Part of the fun we have in our group is that, just like real life, we in fact DONT know what to expect. We got an idea for a character, and we make that character, and then the DM accomodates for our character choices.

All the campaigns we play in are in homebrew worlds, and the only information we are given is things our characters would know, no more. The DM of our current game basically just gave us all the info we could have logically gotten from the places we have been on our travels thus far (in our backstory) if we had rolled 20 on Gather Information checks. So while we may know a bit about the local pantheon and high level NPC’s, we have no knowledge of foreign gods, Orc culture, homebrew spells/classes we would not have encountered, etc. Part of the fun of the game is not knowing what to expect and adapting to it.

That being said, our DM alternates from being unusually vicious (our first encounter as 5 lvl 1 chars was CR4) to holding our hands, just so we never know what to expect. Honestly I would not have it any other way, but I have definitely met people who would throw a fit over our style, especially the types that plan out all 20 levels of their character progression based on OOC knowledge.

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