Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!jagardner
From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Generic vs. Personal Scenarios
Message-ID: <741@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 10:53:46 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.741
Posted: Thu Jan  9 10:53:46 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jan-86 00:43:35 EST
References: <688@ihlts.UUCP> <369@mcc-db2.UUCP>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 78

[...]

All this talk about multiple characters leads me to wonder a
bit about role-playing styles out there in Netland.  A lot of
what people have been saying is very different from my experience
in role-playing.

Every campaign I have been in has been "Personal" in that scenarios
arose from who the characters were.

	Example 1: In our most recent Champions session,
	the group was framed on a murder rap by an old
	enemy out for vengeance.  The enemy made use of
	known habits of the characters.

	Example 2: Our most recent Justice Inc. session
	was aimed at covering our tracks after an industrial
	espionage attempt went bad.

	Example 3: Our most recent Fantasy Hero session saw
	my character trying to arrange the construction of
	a large number of crossbows in secret, preparing for
	a bid to become the power behind the local throne.

These scenarios simply could not happen to people "off the steet".
They grew out of the personalities of the characters and the things
that have happened in the past.  In the campaign I GM, I usually
try to aim each session at the personality/life/problems of a single
character so that the character has a chance to shine and develop.
This doesn't mean that other characters are left out in the cold;
it just means that the scenario is very personal to at least one
member of the party.

On the other hand, much of discussion about multiple characters
seems to imply that many RPGs run on a more "generic" basis.  The
classic example is a published dungeon module: it describes a
scenario that any party could walk through.  The players may
impress their personalities on the proceedings during the course
of play, but the initial set-up is impersonal.

I infer that people who like to play multiple characters all play
in Generic campaigns.  For example, they say things like, "What if
one of your players dies?"  In a personal campaign, player characters
have a really hard time dying.  The GM has _plans_ for your character;
(s)he doesn't want to see the character die any more than you do.  If
my power-behind-the-throne Fantasy Hero character died, for example,
everything that the GM has been building towards would go up in smoke.
I may be captured by enemies, discredited, wounded, kidnapped,
incapacitated, bewitched, transformed, and so on, but the Gods of
Fate are not going to let me off with something as easy as death.
If I jumped into an active volcano, I would be saved by a Duke of
Chaos to be his personal slave and the rest of our group would have
to mount a major quest to get me back, but I would not die.  (I would
likely create a new character to be part of the questing group until
my original character was rescued.)

As a GM, I have enough trouble coming up with personalized adventures
for groups of only four player characters.  Having people play more
than one character just makes it that much harder to give everyone
a fair shake.  Furthermore, we can argue whether a particular player
is able to give equal treatment to multiple characters, but it is
impossible to conceive that both the player AND the GM will be able
to give multiple characters equal consideration.  The GM will find
one character more interesting than the other and the discrepancy
will show.  This is true, even when every player has only one character.
The GM will find some characters easier to use as starting points for
adventure and will have to work hard to keep the others involved.

So I suppose my question is, am I right?  Are multiple character
campaigns Generic to a large extent?  Are most campaigns Generic?
Which RPG systems tend towards Generic campaigns, and which encourage
Personal ones?  What style do people prefer?

If people send answers to me, I can make a summary, but people may
also prefer to discuss this on the open Net.

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo