Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Let's talk of things that go bump in the night. Stuff that makes your skin crawl. Creatures that are Beyond the Supernatural™. Also checkout the in-character site - Lazlo Society™

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

User avatar
auyl
Megaversal® Ambassador
Posts: 312
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 1:27 pm

Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by auyl »

I've been thinking lately of what kind of campaigns and plots BTS fans prefer.

What I mean is, do you prefer a campaign that just affects a family, town or individual or a mass world inclusive campaign where if you don't succeed the world could possibly end?

For instance: helping a family exorcise a demon from a child or stopping a lord of hell from infiltrating the federal government?

What do you faithful BTS fans prefer to see?
User avatar
Natasha
Champion
Posts: 3161
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:26 pm
Comment: Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication.

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by Natasha »

Originally I really liked the small scope stuff. Lately I do not recognise any real preference one way or another.
User avatar
mrloucifer
Palladium Books® Freelance Writer
Posts: 1606
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:29 pm
Comment: "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there... wondering, fearing, doubting" - Edgar Allen Poe
Location: Currently residing in the state of Denial
Contact:

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by mrloucifer »

I'm all about going smaller when it comes to BTS.
"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places."
–H.P. Lovecraft

By night I'm known as Steven Dawes, that "BTS" guy, and the Host of the House of BTS!
Image
User avatar
Dlanaan
D-Bee
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:18 am

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by Dlanaan »

I go for both. Lot of creepy stuff happening at home. Turns out the cause of it is some nutjob thinks the good old days (Old Ones) were really just that good, so keeps opening 'doors'.
User avatar
Aku-Arkaine
Wanderer
Posts: 83
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:32 am
Location: Columbus, Ohio

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by Aku-Arkaine »

I tend to go for large scale, world ending campaigns. I tend to start small and work up into something that is way over the players heads. Usually my players take this as a challenge to be creative.
Sir Orin Neville Smythe: Blade with whom I have lived, blade with whom I now die, serve right and justice one last time, seek one last heart of evil, still one last life of pain, cut well old friend, and then farewell -- The Flight of the Dragons
User avatar
The Dark Elf
Rifter® Contributer
Posts: 3074
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:04 am
Comment: "So gentlemen, are you prepared to open your minds and travel to worlds hitherto undreamed of?"
Location: UK

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by The Dark Elf »

Start small and intimate, then build up to epic. Whether horror, sci-fi or fantasy this is the way to go. It'll make the players personally involved and they will feel personally responsible as the people to stop the epic ending.

Epic can also be intimate if its not publicly known. You might be stopping a world-shattering demon from being summoned to Earth (epic) but it's happening in the back of an old antiques shop with an occult priest (your former boss) and a gremlin (little ****) (intimate)...
Rifter 52 Cannibal Magic
Rifter 55 The Ancestral Mystic P.C.C.
Rifter 59 The Lopanic Games adventure "The Lion, the Ditch & the Warlock". Illustrations to this adventure can be found here.
Rifter 71 & 72 Double Issue Ninjas & Superspies adventure "On a Wing & a Prayer"
Rifter 80 Masters Unlimited
User avatar
auyl
Megaversal® Ambassador
Posts: 312
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 1:27 pm

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by auyl »

The Dark Elf wrote:Start small and intimate, then build up to epic. Whether horror, sci-fi or fantasy this is the way to go. It'll make the players personally involved and they will feel personally responsible as the people to stop the epic ending.

Epic can also be intimate if its not publicly known. You might be stopping a world-shattering demon from being summoned to Earth (epic) but it's happening in the back of an old antiques shop with an occult priest (your former boss) and a gremlin (little ****) (intimate)...


I agree that intimate campaigns can have an epic effect if not dealt with but unless I intended to turn it into an epic campaign, I might personally avoid that.
User avatar
Sir Neil
Adventurer
Posts: 413
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2001 1:01 am
Location: The land of the free and the home of the brave.

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by Sir Neil »

I really dislike epic BtS games. I won't even play. It stretches my sense of disbelief to the breaking point. Intimate scale all the way.

I think one reason I like smaller stakes is it feels like you can fail at them without the game ending, so the risk of failure is greater.
User avatar
Antimony
D-Bee
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:51 pm

I like intimacy.

Unread post by Antimony »

Sir Neil wrote:I really dislike epic BtS games. I won't even play. It stretches my sense of disbelief to the breaking point. Intimate scale all the way.

I think one reason I like smaller stakes is it feels like you can fail at them without the game ending, so the risk of failure is greater.

Almost my thoughts exactly. I prefer small towns and families being affected, rather than the earth being gorily devoured by a Cthulhu-massive beast.

Though I enjoy Nightbane, too--monsters that creep, hide, and utterly masticate victims from behind with whispering, slithering, slimy tentacles. :)
:rose:
User avatar
pblackcrow
Champion
Posts: 2541
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 1:01 am
Location: On Earth
Contact:

Re: Personal and Intimate campaigns or more epic?

Unread post by pblackcrow »

Both...Though, lately I have tried to keep it close to home. Very close to home...The last game was a solo. The mage's acolyte/roommate/lover (who the arcanst saved the life of in a few game back.) sees a fight, and records it from the roof top thinking it is some kind of gang thing or just some guys going at it with swords in the treelines in the neighbors orchard...then some guy with a white hooded cloak and 2 crosssbows and bolts shows up and says something in a strange language and kills them both with a shot to the heard, and then slices their heads off with effectively a saw wire, casts globe of day light, and the bodies and heads turns into ash within a minute. and the guy disappeared. Btw, this is England. And of course it was raining at the time.

Shows the video to the arcanist, who was in the shower the whole time. Once the arcanist sees the video he goes to investigate. Finds 2 swords with silver on them. One with a bat carved into the handle. He casts impressions...both were evil, both were not human at they last held the swords but had once been, very old, males, not living and hurt, yes both were of value to the owners.

I will finish this post later. need sleep.
Ankh, udja, seneb.
Locked

Return to “Beyond the Supernatural™”