In this episode of Play on Target we talk about pitching
campaigns. While we start with big-scale games, we eventually move to one-shots
and con games. More than most of our discussions these approaches depend
heavily on your audience. I’ve been lucky enough to have fairly stable groups
over the years- who generally trust what I suggest to them. They do have some
things they don’t care for: Kenny hates Rolemaster,
Dave’s not a fan of Superheroes, and Scott recoils from Horror. That’s part of
the consideration before I even get to the point of pitching campaigns. You have to filter out otherwise awesome ideas in favor of other, more awesomest ideas that your players will love.
THE MANY GAMES OF
GAMEMASTERS
In the episode I mention a couple of times I put forward
pitches for the players to consider. I’ve written those up as posts:
- Next Campaign Survey (and the results)
- Campaign Frames 2012 Part One and Part Two
- Campaigns I’d Like to Run
- 23 Campaign Concepts
Narrowing down to ideas you’ll actually get to the table can
be the hardest part. Each campaign choice closes off other ones. Do you run
more? Do you go for shorter games? Do you move entirely to one-shots?
Right now I’m in the position of having two major campaign
slots wrapped up. In both cases I’m planning to run mini-series campaigns to
bridge the gap. On one night I’m going to finish off an earlier game which we
put on hiatus. On the other I’m going to do a short campaign I promised a
player a few years ago. After that I’m less certain. I want to shift to a
longer game in each case, but I’m not sure what. I have some ideas…
Wait, that’s what got me into trouble last time. This time
when we go to the next bigger game I will make an effort to narrow it down to
the 3-5 games I really dig and want to run. I’ll have to kill off some of my
darlings, but that’s the price to be paid.
If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check out Play
on Target. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each
episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes or follow the podcast's page
at www.playontarget.com.
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