Sunday 10 March 2019

Need for a Home Base

Just musing to myself that all my successful long term campaigns have had the following format:

1. PCs start out in a safe and relatively familiar location, eg "You all meet at the Inn"; though it can be a castle or Pathfinder lodge, etc.
2. PCs hear the "call to adventure" - whether the greybeard in the corner with Quest to Save World, or just rumours of treasure
3. PCs go to adventure site, do stuff, then come back.

So, basically the "Hero's Journey".

Now, sometimes - often - the PCs eventually relocate their Home Base, eg they might move to a new Inn, or gain their own Castle. But the safe & familiar starting point seems to be very important for long term play. If I start the game as GM/am started as player with PCs on the run, looking for safety, or crashed on an unfamiliar & dangerous planet/island, it never works out. All player energy goes into establishing safety - creating that safe home base, or reaching a safe place - at which point the game feels 'done'. The energy dissipates.

Anyone else had this experience? Is it just me?

2 comments:

  1. Given Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's perfectly logical that adventuring for fame and treasure is a lower priority than safe shelter, and not surprising that players would focus on that. In an "on-the-run" situation it's probably best to provide them with a secret hideout (or in a crash landing setup, make the crashed vessel relatively intact) if you don't want them to get distracted.

    Part of why the Home Base they start in ends up becoming so important is likely because of their limited knowledge of the game world from their perspective. At the beginning of the campaign everything is essentially behind a fog of war so a lot of effort is going to be put into what they have uncovered already before they start to reveal more.

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    1. Yup, I agree on both points. Re fog-of-war, I try to provide easy access to knowledge with area maps, rumours, and other easily-grokable player material, so they're not left struggling to orient themselves. Even with that I think most players IME prioritise establishing a safe haven before venturing out into the world. So for long term play I always find that starting off in a reasonably safe home base works best. As opposed to something like Lost Mine of Phandelver, which starts with PCs ambushed on the road and segues into village occupied by hostile forces. If I tried to run that again I think I'd start the PCs off already arrived in Phandalin.

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