Proactive Campaigns

By: Ahobo

In this post I want to go over some of the principles of creating and running a proactive campaign as laid out in the book The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying by Topix Media Labs. I am still reading this book and have not used these principles to create a campaign yet, but I do like the ideas discussed in this book and hope to use them in the future.

Keep reading to get my summary of the book so far!

The Big Idea

The main idea of a proactive campaign is that instead of the DM putting a set of objectives in front of the players, it is the players that set their own objectives.

Its a simple idea really. It has been explored since the beginning of the hobby with Westmarches style campaigns. What this book adds is a detailed explanation of this type of campaign and a practical approach to running these types of campaigns.

The Rules of Proactive Games

The book lays out a few rules for groups to follow for the best experience when running these games.

  1. Players must set goals for their characters that can be pursued in game. They can change in game as well.
  2. The GM facilitates the pursuit of goals by putting obstacles in the way and awarding the player for achieving their goals.

Its very simple. Everything in this type of campaign flows from the interaction of players wanting something and the GM providing a challenge for them to overcome.

Benefits of Proactive Campaigns

There are a few benefits that come from running a game in this style. One of the biggest that the book mentions is that the creative work of coming up with new things for the players to do is non existent in a campaign run this way. Players do that for the GM.

This type of campaign also lends itself to true group story telling very well. Players are setting the objectives of the campaign the whole time. This leads to a story that has a little bit of everyone’s ideas in it. The big story beats of the campaign are not solely in the hands of the GM.

One of the benefits of TTRPGs over other games is that TTRPGs give players more agency that video games. In a TTRPG a player can do literally anything a video game only has a limited number of pre programmed options. This style of campaign leans into the strength of TTRPGs and gives players as much agency as possible. Letting them not only control their moment to moment actions but also allowing them to make their own destiny.

The Cons

As with all things, there are some draw backs. This type of campaign requires that players have input. The whole campaign depends on the goals of the players. If the players dont create interesting goals that will be fun to pursue, then the campaign can fizzle very quick.

Some players also might find that having to come up with goals and backstories is annoying or they might not be interested in doing so. These types of players prefer to have a story presented to them and dont really want to make one themselves. Such players would not enjoy this type of campaign.

Some Game Masters might also not enjoy this type of campaign if they prefer to have more control over the campaign or if they derive a lot of enjoyment from crafting an interesting story for their players to interact with. While a GM still has a lot of input in this style of campaign (they are making all the obstacles the players need to overcome to achieve their goals after all), the players should be the ones making the big story beats and turning points. This type of GM might feel stifled playing in this type of campaign.

Tips for Making Goals

The book gives the GM a few tips so they can guide their players in making good goals that are fun to play out at the table.

  1. Goals should be specific and measurable. Player and GM should be able to tell when a goal is complete.
  2. Goals should have consequences for failure. These consequences should have story implications and likely lead to new goals.

The book also provides a few examples. One example of a bad goal is “become the most famous bard in the land.” The problem here is that the goal does not have a real end. How does the player and GM know that the character is now the most famous bard in the land? There is no way to know for sure. A better version of this goal would be “sing a bald in the largest theatre of the land.” This goal has an end that the GM and player can identify easily in game.

The book explains that a good goal that is specific is funner to play cause the player feels the progress they make as they play. It also is easier for the GM to make obstacles for the goal. All in all, the game runs smoother with good goals.

Conclusion

This is just the first part of the group. Stay tuned for a part two where the book begins to dive into some more specifics about how to start a proactive campaign as well as how to use goals while running the campaign.

The book has proven interesting so far and I hope to complete it soon. This method of running a campaign also sounds fun to do and perhaps sometime in the future would be worth trying.