Apologies in advance to the mods (for openning yet another thread on this topic) and to bwdemon (for subverting his poll) but this seems like the easiest way to clear up a debate.

No apologies needed. The more polls and definitions we get, the more we can see where the majority opinion lies...

You missed one:

a campaign where it's all story-based character development, but happens to have lots of karma/cash advancement.

Because they do exist.

Grim Shear
"Living proof that stupidity doesn't kill rapidly enough!"

No. That falls under option 3 where the two alternatives at least equally important whether it be high-karma or low-karma.

Our current online game falls under the "essentially no karma/cash-based advancement and it's all story-based character development" category. The last time we went on an actual run was sometime in early September, and that's the last time anyone was awarded Karma, too. It's mainly play-by-message-board, so we've only gone a month ahead in game time since then, but in that time, it's been entirely character development.

Given the subject matter in several posts lately, I thought this would be a good thread to bring back.

My style as GM tends to be focused more on karma/cash/gear. I incorporate story elements as much as the players want it really.

If someone puts effort into a background, roleplaying it consistently, etc, then I'll work with it. I'd much rather work a story around previous sessions than a background though.


EDIT: Necro-baited again

This is actually a pretty relevant question. Several of the last few threads I've seen have basically degenerated into bickering about just this. Play style.

1) Holy shit 8 year necro
2) That poll is an almost perfect bell curve. It's perfect.

Edit:
3) Okay so it's not a bell curve at all, and I was imagining things. Shut up.

I'd love for a good combination of the two.

Sadly...

Man this Paul guy is all about the necros.

I'm for a balance myself. I love to see numbers go up and such, but I also think that if that's all you want to do, there's videogames for that.

Character ("karma") and story advancement are not mutually exclusive. More than just that, they are supposed to work in unison, one supplementing the other. You can't say that any of them is "more important", because if you don't have either, the campaign can hardly be enjoyable.
The poll just doesn't make any sense.

I want both. Lots of Cash/Karma without Story is Monty Haul, Story without Cash/Karma is Controlfreak/Dark Eye DM.

[X] A campaign where Karma and monetary reward serve to further the storyline.

To explain: I believe in the Crunch adding to the storyline, neither replacing it nor being replaced by it. A storyline without any rules can develop to be just as annoying as rollplaying. Also, no two stories are the same. No/Low crunch turnover will really suck the life from a high-octane, action/espionage storyline. If you play Jason Bourne and never get enough money to even buy yourself a decent handgun, let alone huge amopunts of explosives and disposable equipment, Crunch and Fluff diverge as much as if you play a low-level, street-based game where everybody lives in coffin motels on their good days, eats sloppy soy that's weeks overdue or dumpster-dives, large devil rats are boss fighters, and you regularily pull in more money a month than a senior executive in a mega.

A character's stats should reflect the story said character is involved in. A character's money should reflect the environments they're in, as should, of course, their runs, adventures and modules used with them fit (a street rat is no fitting character for a ultra-high-level corp war campaign like Shockwaves).

You can't reasonably put one against the other. It's like saying there can only be gas or brakes on a car. It only works with both.

Seems like the curve of poll responses reflects this sense coming from most of us.

Necrosurrection from eight years ago... Paul, don't you have anything to do?


Anyway, I'm with most people here.. I disagree with the "choice" between crunch and story awards suggested. It's not like one side will go down if the other side goes up.

Also, it's not granular; Contacts are halfway-crunchy, and you could also split cash and karma into different scales.

What can I say? I have a lot of free time on my hands right now. Plus like I said-a lot of conversations are ending in just this sort of discussion.