Ongoing Campaign and Radio Play

So, I've been working up an idea that I think is pretty neat, but I wanted to see what the SotM community thought of it. I've noted over the years that gamers keep hoping for a campaign-driven experience for SotM, but the guys from GtG have made it pretty clear that the story is within each game we play (they even went so far as to say that every game of Sentinels is canon since it all takes place within a multiverse). The upcoming RPG also somewhat scratches the same itch, though in a different way.

However, I know there are plenty of folks still looking for that campaign experience. With that in mind, I wrote up a full-on campaign that I've converted into a radio play for podcasting that I think would be pretty cool. A central aspect of this is to have community involvement within the campaign. I have a branching storyline that could veer out along various paths depending on the decisions of the community and the results of various battles that the community collectively plays through.

So, how would this work? We'll release the first episode of the radio play setting up the scenario and ask players to either make a decision or play a scenario of Sentinels and report the results via online poll. We would take the collective inputed of the community and use that to shape the direction of the story. We would then record the next episode. Wash, rinse, repeat until the final conclusion of the campaign.

Quick disclaimer: I have no intention of making any momey off of this. It would be released as a podcast free-of-charge. The podcast radio play will not feature any ads whatsoever. It is purely for fun.

Back to my original purpose this forum post, I want to gauge the community's opinion. Would any of you enjoy something like this? Enough to participate?

I'm open to any questions and/or suggestions.

Thanks.

Having been in enough online radio plays, the first thing I can say is you've got a lot of work ahead of you.

That said, I'm definitely interested in the idea and would totally audition for roles. :D

Having the games have some level of actual meaning to a story-line that then gets played out?! Dude(ette), i would be SO in for that! been playing this game to death, like I'm pretty sure the Steam version's decks are getting worn, it would be quite the entertainning thing to get in on.

Also, any form of brain-picking I would be willing to offer knowledges or concepts at your descretion. 

Sounds interesting! The commujity out together a radio play and more would be great!

We have done some “Living Campaigns” in the past, although it was text nased not a radio play. Some were hits, some not so much. Though, that was before the video game and the Stram forums. Not really sure what made some have more involvement than others. I guess this doesn’t really help much then.

I'd definitely do what I could to audition, if the plan were to call for people to play the roles versus having a narrator. An ongoing story that changes based on listener input is pretty intriguing a concept, though weak to the whims of the many. By it's very nature a success!

Thanks for all the comments, folks. I'm glad to see it generating interest already.

Pydro
We have done some "Living Campaigns" in the past, although it was text nased not a radio play. Some were hits, some not so much. Though, that was before the video game and the Stram forums. Not really sure what made some have more involvement than others. I guess this doesn't really help much then.

I've seen some of those. While I never participated myself, they got me thinking about the concept and how I would do one myself. The radio play idea came about one day while I was cruising a wiki page of public domain superheros.

TakeWalker
Having been in enough online radio plays, the first thing I can say is you've got a lot of work ahead of you.

I am definitely already seeing that. We have a pretty decent demo of the first episode underway. It isn't that long, but it's already a good amount of work. Fun work though!

TakeWalker
That said, I'm definitely interested in the idea and would totally audition for roles. :D

Blossercubbles
I'd definitely do what I could to audition, if the plan were to call for people to play the roles versus having a narrator.

As the character list grows, it's highly likely we'll have some slots for guest roles here and there. We have a core set of three folks right now, but that could certainly expand as well. We do plan to have a narrator in the spirit of the old school superhero radio plays from the 40s and 50s, but we'll try not to overuse it.

Right now, the best help we can get is word-of-mouth. Letting other players know about the campaign will help us get better results for the path the story takes and, as they say, the more the merrier. And we're hoping for input from players across all variants of SotM, whether digital or tabletop.

Blossercubbles
An ongoing story that changes based on listener input is pretty intriguing a concept, though weak to the whims of the many. By it's very nature a success!

Hopefully, we won't have too many problems with the whims of the community. Having been more in corporate meetings than I ever care to admit, I tend to dislike the "story-by-committee" approach. They have a tendency to derail from their original vision and leave everyone involved with a bad taste in their mouth.

The story is already laid out until near its conclusion. I'd call it linear with branching elements. There are still some kinks to work out, but basically the variations in the story will come in two ways: 1) community results when playing the episode's scenario and 2) choices presented. Both will be gathered via an online poll. By having the branching story structure established ahead of time, it's less susceptible to those whims.

The biggest weakness I see is that we're on the honor system concerning the results of gameplays. We have some pretty difficult scenarios planned, but people can still lie and report a win where one didn't happen. But, I'd like to give the community the benefit of the doubt on this one.

For the polls, we may or may not use a weighting scale. As in, where an option to play the advanced version exists, wins and losses on the advanced mode carry more weight. That may get more complicated though than I can to make it.

jesse_garcia_87
Also, any form of brain-picking I would be willing to offer knowledges or concepts at your descretion. 

Thanks! While I do want to avoid a "story-by-committee" as mentioned above, I am still open to suggestions and critique. For example, if there's a fight everyone really wants to see played out, we might find a way to work it in.

jesse_garcia_87
Dude(ette), i would be SO in for that!

Straight up dude over here. And glad to hear it!

Thanks again for the comments, everyone. We're really excited to share this with the SotM player base. Hopefully, we'll have something ready to go within the next few weeks (crosses fingers).

In meantime, as I said above, spreading the word would really help us get a good community around this and make it even more fun.

All right, folks. The first episode has been posted! Go here to check it out:

http://www.cardboardcarnage.com/campaigns/fragments-reality-issue-0-termi-nated-pt-1/

Fun episode! Characters don't sound exactly how I think they would sound, but that's all head-cannon, I guess. :)

Already played the game, and put in my vote!

I actually really like the way Unity sounds. :D

Thanks, guys! We're pretty excited about finally launching it. Be sure to spread the word around. The more game play sessions we get, the more exciting the campaign becomes.