It took me a few days to post the session recap for last Sunday, not because I wasn't getting around to it, no...I had come on and began to type more than a few times, but didn't. The real reason it took me so long to post was because I just didn't enjoy what I was about to post.
You see, I began my Pathfinder Wilderlands game with the stated premise that the PCs would have a base of operations and would venture outward from there, seeking fortune and adventure!
This model has collapsed the past three sessions, and with it, some of my excitement for the game.
It's disheartening to feel this way, and I'm not pulling a shroud over the game's corpse or anything just yet, but the game is just moving from the original direction that I intended, one of a Sandbox style game, to more of a story-driven direction, and it's ultimately not what I want. Not to the extent that it's going, anyway.
Of course, I want there to be a backdrop story. I want the world to be dynamic, but I also want the game to center on the things that should be important...adventuring and gathering wealth and power. Is there a compromise here? Should I just bite the bullet and play it through and see what happens? Are Sandbox play and Story-driven play mutually exclusive from each other?
I'm not sure. I'm simply a minor theorist. I leave the heavy lifting in that arena to the people who care much more than I do, but what I do want is to understand the game, and while doing so, understand my players and their wants, as well as to learn what I like and want, something I'm not sure I have a firm grasp of, despite my 15 years in the hobby.
I'm just typing out loud here, but I do have worries that if the game continues to go in this direction, that I'll lose interest in it, and on many levels I don't think that's fair to my players or myself, but I do like to hold the integrity of any game I run or play in to the original model.
No comments:
Post a Comment