Melodramatic title aside , would you ever run/play in a campaign where you knew that ultimately your players/your characters would lose the final battle whatever that may be?

It could be in any genre, and it really does not have to be epic in nature. Just that ultimately, your characters/players would fail in whatever it was they set out to do. I suppose this is a kind of "it's all about the journey" campaign....

Regards,
David R

Yes.  As long as the GM is upfront about it.

Sure. A well-run campaign with direction and a goal is always fun.

No, I would not.

I'll put up with it from a video game, not from roleplaying.

Sure.  I'm a fan of Call of Cthulhu after all.

There's also Polaris, which is billed as a tragedy, or Pendragon, which, as we all know, ends with the death of the Arthurian dream.

Yes. David Johansen's among the beautiful creatures was one of the first games to do this by default (if not the first game). I understand that Polaris has something similar built-in. Personally, I love the idea as both a player and a GM -- it makes the actual play less about getting to the end of a story arc than it does about how you get there.

In other words, it's about the journey, not the destination -- something also true of most popular fantasy fiction (in said fiction, the destination is often a simple plot device that provides a reason for the characters to act, but is actually a very small part of the story otherwise).

Well, in the end the original WoD world setting ended up going boom, and WW even did campaign books where the point was to hold on to the end, so I guess some gamers like that.

As for me, I wouldn't be too big on it, but it it were well done and well ran I could try it.

Oh yes.
But, I'm an existentialist.

Quote from: jrientsSure.  I'm a fan of Call of Cthulhu after all.

Took my answer, dammit. :rant:

Quote from: jrientsSure.  I'm a fan of Call of Cthulhu after all.

Ditto, plus Stormbringer and WFRP.

Yes, as long as the road to that conclusion is set by the players.

Nope.   Chance to loose? Difficult, nearly but not quite impossible odds? I'm there.  Pre-written 'you are a loser'... not wasting my time.  Tells me my character's actions will ulitmately have no impact, so why bother.

Fuck Cthulu. I got a van filled with dynamite I'll drive down his ugly maw. Choke on that, squid-boy!

Quote from: SpikeTells me my character's actions will ulitmately have no impact. . .

This is only true if your character is trying to save the world. For some folks, saving the world is incredibly passe -- it's more about exploring character relationships or intrigue on a local level, neither of which is rendered impossible or meaningless in a "doomed" campaign. To wit, disaster movies have always been very popular at the box office

Quote from: jdrakehThis is only true if your character is trying to save the world. For some folks, saving the world is incredibly passe -- it's more about exploring character relationships or intrigue on a local level, neither of which is rendered impossible or meaningless in a "doomed" campaign. To wit, disaster movies have always been very popular at the box office

Overgeneralization, J.

Perhaps I just want to stop the villian, whatever his goal is.  KNOWING I'm doomed to fail from the start removes all purpose from the game for me. Hell, knowing I'm gonna win removes all purpose, but at least that one could still catch me on account of being all protagonistic and stuff.  

Nah. I'd get frustrated at the ease of garaunteed victory as fast as I would the doomed senselessness of the game. Sorry, but we use dice for a reason, and most of us reject the railroad for the same point: Uncertainty and the thrill of a hard won victory or the agony of defeat against the odds.

Prescripting the ending removes the point of play for me.  The Journey is important, but the real ending is part of that journey.  To avoid clumsy reinterpretation of my piss poor metaphor: telling me the ending reduces the journey to a sideshow for your lovely preconfigured 'scene'.