Recently I seem to be running campaigns that seem to focus on the impact the setting has on the lives of the characters of the players. Not world changing/epic scenarios but rather the smaller stuff. This is not to say that there are no earth shattering moments, just that these moments are significant to the players characters only.

Actually this trend of running games like these seems to have lasted for some time. The last big epic(in the traditional sense) setting changing campaign I ran was The Enemy Within for WFRP. Well, there was a Star Wars campaign called Whisper of A Rebellion but that was more of a secret history kind of thing, known only to a few in which the pcs played the major/most important role in.

Now some games have various levels of campaign play. For example, Unknown Armies has various levels where one can set the campaign in, all of which have different levels as to how the players interact with world. I have always liked this option.

What kind of campaigns do you folks like to run or play in. Epic earth shattering stuff or the kind that affects the players/characters only. I'm talking about scale here. The difference between having a campaign where the players destroy a world threatening evil and a campaign where the destruction of a nemesis haunting the characters since the start of the campaign has no significant impact on the world. Off course you could like both kinds of campaign. Or you may like to play in one kind and run the other kind.

Also if you run/play in either kinds of campaigns, do you have a particular system you like to use? That is, if system is even a consideration. In my case so far this has not really been an issue. I'm pretty flexible when tailoring systems to suit my needs.Although having said that, some systems are, in my opinion, more condusive to running the games I want. Not really that big an issues with me.

So, what kind of campaigns are you folks into?

*The Big Chill -the term my crew and me use when describing the kind of campaign where the world is not in any real danger but the very existence of their characters hangs in the balance.      

Regards,
David R

Both. It depends on the what kind of campaign we (GM and players) want to play that particular time.

I prefer a combination. I want truly heroic PC's and stories, but they should also have their own life.

Besides, you don't save the world without making some personal enemies.

I always go for the Big Chill. Sometimes - since I'm a situational GM, the player pull it into a Save the Universe campaign, though.

-mice

I prefer the Big Chill because world shattering events usually come off...flat if you keep playing afterwards and many people want to.  A campaign can end with one just fine, but every campaign I've been in that has tried to continue on after the first big world shattering event has lost something.

I've seen intercontinental wars where everything went back the way it was before after.  

Re occuring Big Bad guys that never win yet have resources and information that would allow me to have conquored the world casually long ago.

Rampaging hordes of enemies that have no long term effect on the societies they shatter or burn, etc...

Epics are grossly overrated.  I am *very* picky about what fantasy I buy because most epics are lame rip-offs of better stories.

I like more reasonable stories -- save the village, the city, the kingdom.  No need to overdo things.

I also sometimes do the Big Chill thing (I really should watch that movie), but I like having the players be able to save something.  The world is just a bit much.  

Quote from: Xavier LangA campaign can end with one just fine, but every campaign I've been in that has tried to continue on after the first big world shattering event has lost something.

Interesting that you should say this. One of the things I have noticed when running Big Chill campaigns is that I can introduce changes in the campaign setting in small doses.  Not saying that there are none who can easily incorporate world changing stuff in their settings, only that I find it a little difficult to sustain player interest in said setting when they as pc have effectively changed the world. I just like them to change it(if at all) on a smaller scale - and they seem to dig this method too.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: CyberzombieI also sometimes do the Big Chill thing (I really should watch that movie)

You should check it out - one of Lawrence Kasdan's better moments(and let's be honest, he has not had that many of late) - but for something with a little more depht and in the same genre you should check out John Sayles's Return of the Senouscus (sp?) Seven

Regards,
David R