Writing Every Day 11: Goals

During a campaign there can be several different sorts of goals. The first, often most obvious goal is what the party is trying to achieve. Sometimes this is dictated by the story; if the characters live in a region plagued by an undead army directed by an evil lich, a goal of the party might amount to "stop the lich and destroy his army." Other times the goals have little to do with the Game Master's story and more with the party's desires, like, "we want to gather enough resources to buy a sweet-ass boat."

I tend to think of those as major goals. I often present the players with a handful of larger obstacles or situations, with the unspoken understanding that overcoming them or navigating them are their goals, from my perspective. They also present me with major goals, often expressed as, "We want to [achieve some kind of task]." Working the major goals together, theirs and mine, is one of the things I strive to do over the course of the campaign.

There are also minor goals, both from me and from the players. Minor goals run the gamut from acquiring a new weapon or making a new contact, to exploring a new region or trying to earn some finances. The interesting thing about those minor goals is that they help to inform and evolve a PC. By pursuing and achieving them I learn more about how the player views his or her character, what they're interested in doing with the character, and the place the character has in the story, the group, and the world.

To me, major goals are the skeleton of the campaign, while minor goals are the tissue that bulks it out. A minor goal can be the basis of a good night's game within the campaign(provided you can manage the spotlight while doing so). A major goal can be the campaign.

That said I don't think that one type of goal is more valuable to the game, their names notwithstanding. A PC's minor goals have the potential to be just as dramatic and revealing as any major goal. I think of it like a bottle episode in a longer-running series that provides insight into the motivation of a character or two; while it doesn't seem to advance the overall metaplot, it does give the audience a deeper understanding and connection to a particular character.

When we're playing a roleplaying game, we're both the audience and the creators. Sometimes a creator's goal is to provide a big set piece moment full of thrilling action. Sometimes it is to tell a smaller, more intimate story to make the audience engage more with the characters. In any game, I like it when both can occur, sometimes even in the same session.