Drifting along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds . . .

[Solarblast]

A lot depend on whether the adventure you are running is very linear or open-ended. I ran Trail of the Golden Spike and even though it is a written adventure it gives you a background, character motivations and some events that could happen but leave to rest to the GM.

When you have however, an adventure that requires certain things to happen and if they don't happen then the adventure doesn't happen then that game is usually going to suck.

I believe that all groups are different in what they enjoy playing and how they enjoy playing. The only wrong way is the way of nofun.

[doktorelektron]

I tend to think of supers as being one of the most railroady gaming genres. Supers games often have mechanics to allow for direct GM intervention. In BASH! players are awarded hero points if they go along with a Plot Twist.

Supers gaming, I think, works best when there are clear goals and motivations. Not to say that PCs shouldn't be free to tackle any challenges in the way that they see fit - that's where the fun comes in - but I feel that there needs to be a well-defined underlying structure.

Taking it to the other extreme, I've considered the possibility of running a sandbox-style supers game. Basically set up a city as a free-roaming environment and let the heroes go where they will, without any scripted plot elements.

After some thought, I decided that this would be a very dissatisfying way to play a supers game. It wouldn't be good genre emulation. It wouldn't feel right.

Superheroes need to have things constantly thrown in their way. They need to faced with constant jeopardy. Trouble needs to find them, not vice versa.

[fairytalejedi]

RL variables probably have as much to do with GM style as anything. If you're playing twice a week, chances are you wing it more than someone who plays once a month.

In my own experience, several Future Force adventures were one on one, when the whole gang couldn't get together but one person really wanted to play, more or less spur of the moment. Those kind of adventures might be blah compared to when you can put more time into it. But at least you're able to play a game you like. What are you gonna do, turn down the opportunity to play, just to uphold the standards of ideal adventure design? I'm not willing to fall on that sword.

[CauldronOfEvil]

I am not saying that, I am simply saying that the adventure should be about the players not the story. I prefer a character driven game as opposed to one that all about the story and If are interested in the story then you are out of luck.

That’s sound contradictory to me. An ‘adventure seed’ is the RPG equivalent of a friend who says ‘I have a great idea for a film!’. Your supposed to roll your eyes because you know it’s NEVER about character. It’s just some half-baked idea. I’ve NEVER seen an ‘adventure seed’ that every had anything to do with the player. An ‘adventure seed’ (that by definition can be used in any campaign) is by definition never about the player.

Sometime a GM will over prepare and get so lost in his story that the players feel like they have little say in what they do.

And I’ve seen a lot of movies that never should have been made. And books that shouldn’t have been written. But that doesn’t really cause me to abandon movies and books (well okay, maybe it does with movies).

I have been in very good games where the GM is literally running the game completely off the cuff and GMs who really prepare but the best ones are the games where the players move the story as opposed to the players being moved along by the story.

I guess I just feel like you see all fully prepared adventures as if they were “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” books with only one choice at each paragraph. That’s not been my experience.

The overall story arc is very detailed and convoluted and designed to progress over a number of years of the characters lives. Within this framework I am also interweaving stories that revolve around the individual characters, their backgrounds, and their ambitions.

Sounds like exactly as the best games are.

I can run Death Duel with the Destroyers & Island of Doctor Apocalypse over and over for different groups because they are well written adventures. But those are (imho) exceptions, not the rule.

And for me, they’ve been different every time precisely because of the characters and the campaign. I’ll definitely bet the V&V adventures are exceptionally good, but since that’s what I started with, that’s what I always think of as a ‘prepared adventure’.

When you have however, an adventure that requires certain things to happen and if they don't happen then the adventure doesn't happen then that game is usually going to suck.

Well, I never said that ALL adventures are good!

Just that a fully detailed adventure is MUCH more fun to play and run than an ‘adventure seed’ can ever be.

Because in order for an ‘adventure seed’ to be fun, someone would have to turn it into a fully prepared adventure!

I tend to think of supers as being one of the most railroady gaming genres.

Wow! I feel the exact opposite! Supers gaming is the most fun precisely because it’s the least predictable game (anything can happen) with the most variety in player options! (players have an infinite amount of options and abilities).

Taking it to the other extreme, I've considered the possibility of running a sandbox-style supers game. Basically set up a city as a free-roaming environment and let the heroes go where they will, without any scripted plot elements.

That’s exactly what I call an ‘adventure seed’.

I’ve got my own ‘home’ city, that is pretty fully prepared (and has lots of stolen elements) so that when an adventure occurs there not only can I run the story of the adventure but can easily insert elements from the players personal lives, past experiences, former villains, lovers, and locations they have been to, etc.

When you involve the players, but also make it feel like ‘real life’ is going on around them, and a plot that they can't figure out (because it's more detailed than any adventure seed ever is) that’s when it gets REALLY good IMHO.

I’ve just plain never seen that happen with ‘adventure seeds’.

RL variables probably have as much to do with GM style as anything. If you're playing twice a week, chances are you wing it more than someone who plays once a month.

Absolutely, which is why prepared adventures and city modules are a great deal of help. But while Megopolis is just waiting to be investigated further, we don’t have a lot of really detailed, plotted out BASH! adventures.

But at least you're able to play a game you like. What are you gonna do, turn down the opportunity to play, just to uphold the standards of ideal adventure design? I'm not willing to fall on that sword.

Well, that kind of goes back to what was mentioned before. After all, I know plenty of 20 year veteran GM’s who still run lousy games. No one complains, not necessarily because they’re good, but because if their friends, you give them a break, knowing that GMing is a lousy, thankless job, and if they are not friends, you just don’t show up very often!

As long as you have fun, to each his own, etc.

I'm just saying I'll take one good adventure I can run again and again over a thousand 'seeds'.