Comments on: My Favourite PC Travel Game: Campfire Chats

By: dW

dW — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:14:56 +0000

GRRREAT!
I’ve had some trouble getting my players to think on their own but I think this would be a great tool for getting them to use their brain cells. As well as a way to recap essential stuff from the past without shouting out “This is important!”. Furthermore, fastforwarding travelling sucks so this should help with that too.

thumbs up dude!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:23:44 +0000

@Mike & Johnn – Sweet, both of those are excellent ideas! I will have to try some hybrid of both. If it doesn’t work out and they don’t want to do it, my Dungeon Delve book will be seeing some good use at least!

By: Johnn

Johnn — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:04:47 +0000

@Robert – another idea is to make a list of the questions you want to use and then ensure NPCs cover them off during roleplaying scenes before they get asked at a campfire chat.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:53:51 +0000

@ Robert – why not get all the other players to make up answers to the questions out of whole cloth and let the player whose character is “supposed” to be answering the question pick the one he likes best, or even mix and match?

By: Matthew Arcilla

Matthew Arcilla — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:00:28 +0000

I’m totally going to incorporate this into my next campaign. My players tend to be a little self-absorbed, so I think this would be a great way for them to become more involved in one another. Great idea!
Matthew Arcilla´s last blog ..Review: Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn

By: thomax

thomax — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:58:48 +0000

I also dislike the formal quiz-like approach to roleplaying. Reminds me a bit of the skillchallenge in 4e, somehow.

However, I think it’s a very good idea to let players carve out some more personality about themselves while the other players are listening. Maybe once in a while tell everyone else to shut up and let a single player tell some story from his past. Nice way to guarantee everyone some solo-time in the spotlight.

Anyway; thanks for the inspiring article! I have to think more about this topic :-)

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-01-22

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-01-22 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:29:22 +0000

[...] My Favourite PC Travel Game: Campfire Chats I’ve always hated hand waving travel time because it robs the players of a chance to earn more XP for their characters. I’ve equally hated the random encounters that serve no purpose other than to pad the XP box on the PCs character sheets. The campfire chats idea over at Campaign Mastery is one of the better ideas I’ve ever heard of for passing the time without forcing the PCs into a fight every third day of travel. var addthis_pub = ''; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more'; [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:44:37 +0000

As always, the best-laid plans of GMs need to bow before the most important question: What sort of gaming do your players want? If hack& slash floats their boat and roleplaying in character is a necessary anchor, then this technique may not be what’s best for your campaign. The question to be asked, of course, is how much did the other players in this Werewolf game get out of it? Sometimes you have to compromise so that other people can have their fun, too. Perhaps the key is for you always to play characters who also don’t like sharing their pasts, are not “people” persons, as you put it?

On the other side of the coin, while games are not a therapy session, this was a safe opportunity to walk the other side of the street for a while and explore. It might not work in Werewolf, which is a bit more live-action by my understanding, but in D&D, a skill roll could be used to do the actual personal interaction if the player isn’t as good at it as the character.

By: Geek.Flip

Geek.Flip — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:16:34 +0000

I had a GM who did this in a Werewolf game I played in, and I hated it. The whole “quiz” aspect didn’t sit well with me. Then again, I am not precisely a “people” person and can’t even tell you facts about my sibling who is all of 2 years younger than me. So… maybe this approach works best with people who are not borderline sociopaths/hermits?

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:04:17 +0000

I am going to have to start doing this. Though when you got a group of mostly new players that have been playing the game as a hack&slash, how do you get them to reveal enough information to make the questions in the first campfire chat answerable in the first place?