I’d like to see as many small-scale stories as possible… I get tired of games where we’re saving the world, or stopping the evil menace that plagues our city… Perhaps some hunting missions, a few assassinations, some piracy, and a pinch of political intrigue… and a good several opportunities to use our non-combat skills. Mostly, I’d really just like to see the character creator up and running before all this goes down.

I like the Idea. I think it would be cool if GM’s got different adventures in an overall story. IE GM A gets a handler who is loyal to the Seraph. They have a mission that will promote the Seraph agenda.  Meanwhile a different GM is running a handler who is working for the Orphanum and they have a mission promoting the orphanum agenda.  At cons you could bring these 2 GMs together to run a session where potentially the 2 parties could meet and have opposing goals.  Every success on either side moves that side closer to their goal. This could lead into the Evolutionary war where depending on the success of the adventurers decides which side in a better position and might even help decide the war.

You could have handlers promoting the different citystates, the Orphanum, Seraph, Secret Societies, Corporations, Free Cities, etc.

Things I would not want to see are 2 groups doing the exact same adventure. like happens in the living campaigns.

Well, from the standpoint of an AO fan and a current and former living campaign player for the D&D game worlds the main thing I can suggest for the managed campaigns are:

1: Don’t design modules around the players being heroes. This is happening a lot lately in current modularized games and is causing general unrest in my current gaming group. About 15 players out of 20 dislike the story hooks dependent on the players being good.

2: Good play testing; it’s not something that players normally think about but some of the releases seen recently from other companies have been play tested and still show glaring inconsistencies in the module itself. My current gaming crew runs through game modules an average of 3 times (due to multiple characters) over the course of about 2 months. Of all the modules I have played for any game I have to say I like the design and detail of the Milk Run module over everything else, that really is a great mod.

Well that’s about all I can think to comment on currently.

Alex

[quote="kolixela":4c746]1: Don’t design modules around the players being heroes. This is happening a lot lately in current modularized games and is causing general unrest in my current gaming group. About 15 players out of 20 dislike the story hooks dependent on the players being good.[/quote:4c746]

think more along the lines of a protagonist or "anti-hero"...more along the greys of RPGs from the cyberpunk genre, certain aspects of Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green, or even from the Fallout computer game line…there should always be multiple ways to successfully complete an adventure, not just through combat, but through other methods as well, and many are going to require quasi-legal activites….in fact, the second adventure in the managed campaign story line will be Beta Challenge, which involves smuggling something illegal into New York City for the Syndicate - how you get "it" into the city is your problem, as long as "it" isn’t damaged….

[quote="kolixela":4c746]2: Good play testing;...[/quote:4c746]
we’ll try - i have my own group that i playtest with prior to editing to test the overall pace and playability of the adventure and look for any glaring holes, and my players are very good about giving feedback on any problems they see.  in addition, if time permits, the adventure will also be posted for the Wardens to dig into and do the same thing - eventually there should be enough eyes to work out any rough spots.  however, keep in mind that players are ALWAYS going to find a way to "break" an adventure, no matter how cleverly written.  especially those designed to fit within a standard 4-hour convention slot (which is quickly becoming a 3-hour slot).  Another thing I’m trying to do is get the writers to design around a simple story line that can fit in that short convention slot, yet also design optional encounters in for those that are running the events at game days, game stores, or other special locations where time is less of a factor.  the optional encounters will help to flesh things out and provide more options depending on the abilities of the players (and their characters) and how quickly/slowly they are progressing through things.  Also, I try to uphold a standard of a matrix adventure rather than the typical D&D "lead by the nose" style.  You won’t have to go from A to B to C to D…you might have to start with A, but you can certainly then go straight to D, or maybe go to E first and swing back around….  then again, how would you know???!!?!  <!—s:twisted:—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif<!—s:twisted:—>

Will the Managed Campaign Modules be available to the general public, so that GMs can fit them into their own campaigns, or modify them for their players, or just use the material to get a better sense of the world? While I highly doubt I will be able to participate in the Managed Campaign due to constraints, I still really want to know what’s going on!

Yes, the adventures for the managed campaign will be available to everyone…however, first release is to any special conventions or events, especially big ones like Origins and Gencon where we will debut mini story arcs as much as possible.  Second release is to the Warden program for them to showcase the game to their local gamers.  Finally, they will be publically released so that any GM will be able to use them as either source material, to incorporate into their home campaigns, or to play as part of the managed campaign.

The public release of the adventures will also be timed with the public release of any source material from the adventures - any notable NPCs, locations, equipment, Encountered, Engineered, and similar items will be posted to the appropriate Wiki sites such as the NWSEC site.

So don’t worry - you’ll get to see everything - eventually!  <!—s:D—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif<!—s:D—>

I don’t know that I’ll be able to make it to GenCon this year, as my wife and I are are busy trying to sell the condo and purchase a house.  However, all of the campaign scenarios seem very interesting.  It’s cool to see that MSL is planning on releasing them to the public after the convention.

Can’t wait to see them.

There are some really excellent ideas in here.  I am lucky that I have been privy to some of the drafts and I am pretty excited about what is coming out.  I too like the idea of a lot of shorter adventures that fulfill a larger story arc rather then being lead by the nose along a linear story line.  I also like the character flaws that allow for fantastic feats that are not necessarily "heroic".  Those of you who are going to GenCon are in for a real treat.

I know that you guys will be please with what is coming.  Some of the artwork that is going with the stories is pretty awesome too.

Having gotten to GenCon this year, I was able to sit in on 3 of the 5 core modules for the managed campaign; and by sit in I mean I was one of the GM’s running Alpha, Delta and Epsilon games at Con Saturday and Sunday <!—s:)—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif<!—s:)—>

I found the entire experience to be great; the modules are well designed and have ample background information to cover anything players might ask about. The scenarios are all set up fairly nicely and almost every scenario has some way to complete it without combat if the group prefers less hack and slash, more hacking and manipulation.

I ran 4 games at Con, most tables were 5-6 random players, mostly using the pre-generated characters (that are actually designed with a purpose in mind and useful abilities to boot!) and everyone seemed to have quite a bit of fun. Combat ran a little rough for the first turn or 2 but beyond that everyone caught on fairly quickly.

I have to say I am looking forward to seeing these games in play locally (and maybe even getting a chance to PLAY in them myself lol)

And as a nice side note I think for those players who run "official" game mods you might find yourself happily surprised that these mods are set with enough freedom and optional encounters that you should be able to play any given mod 3 or 4 times and have a different experience each time!

kolixela - 18 August 2009 04:27 PM

Having gotten to GenCon this year, I was able to sit in on 3 of the 5 core modules for the managed campaign; and by sit in I mean I was one of the GM’s running Alpha, Delta and Epsilon games at Con Saturday and Sunday <!—s:)—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif<!—s:)—>

I found the entire experience to be great; the modules are well designed and have ample background information to cover anything players might ask about. The scenarios are all set up fairly nicely and almost every scenario has some way to complete it without combat if the group prefers less hack and slash, more hacking and manipulation.

I ran 4 games at Con, most tables were 5-6 random players, mostly using the pre-generated characters (that are actually designed with a purpose in mind and useful abilities to boot!) and everyone seemed to have quite a bit of fun. Combat ran a little rough for the first turn or 2 but beyond that everyone caught on fairly quickly.

I have to say I am looking forward to seeing these games in play locally (and maybe even getting a chance to PLAY in them myself lol)

And as a nice side note I think for those players who run "official" game mods you might find yourself happily surprised that these mods are set with enough freedom and optional encounters that you should be able to play any given mod 3 or 4 times and have a different experience each time!

I am actually glad to hear that some of the AO:E managed campaign was completed and used at GenCon. The board chatter dropped off and I was worried that this got lost in transition as the crew focused on the Encountered book. I need to hop on over to the Wardens area and sign up, because my group has just started with AO and I think I could expand this with the new material

BTW, props to MSL for being able to pull the modules off as well as the Encountered, that is a lot of effort is a condensed span of time.

i Digged this thread to save it for future

Regards
saiuh