Hey, I just wanted to open this up for discussion. It's not meant to be an indictment against anyone, but I'm a little furstrated with the campaign right now and wanted to see how other people felt. I really enjoy playing DND with this group and really want to continue on, but have some concerns, and wanted to hear your guy's thoughts about them so we can work towards having an awesome play environment.
I really enjoyed the first half of the campaign. I was excited to have the quest of stopping the gold crest army, and we were able to explore that narrative from a couple of different directions. I felt like we had a clear goal, and were able to work towards that as players and while we were not ultimately successful, our actions had a clear impact on the storyline and the outcomes of the story(forest fires and goblin faux pas, and goldcrest invasions). Additionally, the resulting fight with the assassins, and the last minute save of the king, were very cool story branches and helped really expand on Martin's role playing.
In juxtaposition to the first half of the story, I've felt very lost in this latest chapter. While we initially set out to discover the root of the assassination attempt on the king, I felt like rather then answer that question, or clarify the problem involved we have instead made the situation more gray.
As a player, I've felt like my actions have had very little impact on the story line past leaving the king the first time. While we made a mistake at the tower, it wasn't very clear how we could have done a better job there, what information we really gained, or the role of anyone involved. Additionally, while we moved onto another city to find a mysterious unexplained zombie apocalypse with the assassins instead acting as heroes/ insisting on their righteousness. I feel like I currently have no understanding of who the enemy is, and am filled with some serious questions like:
Who is the enemy?
How is the enemy connected to the war?
What are their motivations and goals, and why are they attempting to assassinate the king?
Are they in fact attempting to assassinate the king?
Are they actually evil, as they saved a city?
How can I effect a plan, if there is a plan, when I don't know where it begins, ends or what it relates to?
Who has hired this fleet?
What power induced the zombie apocalypse on the city?
Other than being refugees, why should I help them, and why do they favor silverkeep over goldcrest?
While it appears that other armies are making actions, why has silver keep officially done nothing ever in this war?
Who is the snake empire, and what role does their sword play in this, and to what end was it stolen?
Who was the abomination that made Jamros unable to talk, and why was it there, and what impact does it have on the story?
As you can see, I have several questions about the plot line and fundamentally don't understand what is going on. While we have gone over some of these before, I feel like I am really missing out on the bigger picture in this game and as such, I have no understanding of how my character can take actions that effect the world other then be screwed by the litany of mysterious forces that seemed to be arrayed against him.
Let's look at this new intrigue in the market as an example. While it is a cool player encounter, and I like it, I'm having trouble understanding it's place in the broader picture. I actually have no way of knowing who these people represent. Goldcrest, Carron, The snake empire, Milea, or are they in fact who they claim to be? Are these in fact all representing one larger force? If so, again to what end? As such, the meaning of the interaction is really lost on me, other than reminding me once again that I don't understand what is happening in the game. Should I have thrown him in jail? Should I have killed him on the spot? Did I win by not resolving the situation violently? I don't really understand whats at stake and how my choices impacted the campaign, other than vaguely knowing that Silverkeep would probably not fair well in a riot situation. On the otherhand, if these were war criminals, maybe I should have arrested them. Again, I don't really know.
They also make a reference to some recent killings. Ok, sounds interesting. As a player what connection should I be making with this? I know that we are at war, so is this connected to a plot as indicated by Martin's speech to the people? Well, they are guards though, so does this have to do with the recent King's paranoia? But I know that Milea is capable of holding people, and therefore also probably dominating people, so is this a continued plot of the assassins? In a normal dnd game, this would be an adventure hook to start a quest looking for a murderer within the guards, which maybe this is relating to, and if so Martin would be very interested because it would have to do with his back story, but this in turn raises more questions about the war. Because Martin is now part of the war effort, can he take time to investigate these murders? While all of these are possibilities, I don't really have a good way of discerning which is more plausible as I don't understand any of the forces at play and as a result will probably ignore the comment unless forced/asked to do otherwise.
In short, I'm very confused right now. While this isn't a problem in and of itself ( I can see the benefit of keeping players in the dark), I don't really know what my character can do to even begin to clear up this confusion, nor do I understand the impact of my character's actions on the game world. As a result, I really feel like I lack any form of efficacy in this campaign right now, and as such am not finding it to be the most enjoyable of experiences. I officially have no understanding of how my character can improve the world state in any capacity, even in the slightest, and ultimately that is what it comes down to. I don't feel like I have any form of positive impact on the game right now, and that's really what is frustrating rather than the lack of knowledge.
BUT THERE IS HOPE! We are at the start of what looks like a new story arc, and have a chance to really improve on this lack of knowledge! I don't know if the other players are feeling this way, but we have the opportunity right now to reshape the campaign such that our characters can actually have a role in the story! Ultimately this is what I'm looking for in the campaign. I'm really excited to see this story unfold, and to find out how the campaign pans out, but I just wanted to voice my opinion on where I am with the game right now, and let air some of my frustrations. I think this campaign can be really great, and I know it started that way, but I think we've really lost track.
I'm really interested in hearing what you guys think, and how you feel about the campaign/ the play group dynamics.
