u/Arcane_Robo_Brain

I run games for lots of different people and I noticed that some of them bring their own rituals from other tables. The one that stands out is to hold a hand to their head when talking out of character. I've never said anyone needs to do this, and have never done it myself. I guess it's just habit with them. To be clear, I have no problem with it and actually find it kind of endearing.

What are things your table does, or other players do, that are unique?

Are there viable character builds that focus on dealing stress? Since giving opponents stress is a less direct way of taking them down vs direct damage, do they end up filling more support type roles?

I have a group of players where some are really into the epic heroic fantasy experience and others want more of a... I'm not sure what term to use, more story-driven intimate experience.

I know it's possible to combine the two and give each group a degree of what they're craving, but I was thinking, as an experiment, of approaching the challenge in a different way. What if, assuming everyone is up for it, I split the campaign into two groups and run each seperately, focused on the type of play each one wants.

This is very much inspired by the Lord of the Rings saga where at some point it splits into two different stories, more or less, with one group traveling back and forth across the land, engaging with kings and fighting armies while the other takes a quieter route and the story focuses more on the characters than on the larger events of the world stage. But in the end both are just as impactful to the overall story.

So just as in LotR, the campaign would start with everyone together, at one table, with a common goal, but then at some point split to play through their own stories in their own unique play styles. There could still be occassional points where they meet up and we join tables again, as well as ways in which the events of each table influences the other, and we'd still want to finish together.

I know this sounds a lot like a West Marches campaign, and there are takeaways from that style of game that could be used here for sure, but the big difference is that this would be the same group of players for the whole campaign, telling a single overarching story, with the specific intent of each table having a different type of play experience.

Most systems could support this dual play style game, I think, but do any stand out us especially well suited? I was thinking fantasy, but this could be any genre really.