Difference between revisions of "Character-driven campaigns"

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==What's a "Character-driven campaign"?==
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A '''character-driven campaign''' is a campaign in which characters play an important part in the development of plot and immersion, as opposed to the standard generic wingmen seen in the canon FreeSpace 2 campaigns. Notable examples include [[Transcend]] and [[Blue Planet]].
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Among the popular campaigns many of them like [[Transcend]], [[Sync]] and [[Blue Planet]] are refered to as "character-driven campaigns", in which characters are extremely important in terms of plot development and immersion.
 
  
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===Typical features of CDC campaigns:===
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==Typical features of character-driven campaigns==
  
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*The player sends messages, unlike in any other genre of campaigns;
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*Usually, character-driven campaigns contain significantly more dialogue than standard campaigns.
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*Briefings, Command Briefings and Debriefings usually feature the player's thoughts. In normal campaigns, there simply are references to tactical situations;
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*Recurring characters fly missions with the player.
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*Many of the missions serve as simple "bridges", meaning that they work as links between a mission and another. They usually consist in short chats that end up with jump sequences, red alerts, and such;
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*The player character has a defined personality and dialogue. Dialogues are featured between missions and during the missions themselves.
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*The player's party (which is various—may be formed by spacecraft and/or ships) travels a lot throughout the campaign, jumping [[Intersystem jump drive|from system to system]] and/or from certain locations of a given system to many others;
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*Briefings, Command Briefings, and Debriefings sometimes feature the player's thoughts. In non-character-driven campaigns, there are references to tactical situations.
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*The connection between the party and the main authorities (like [[Command]]) are minimal or nonexistent to boost the feeling of loneliness;
 
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*The party usually meets far larger hostile forces, like overwhelming squadrons of bombers, and survives raging battles against them;
 
  
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==Analysis==
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==Summary==
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===Required skills===
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===Prerequisites===
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Overall, without considering well-planned [[Making cutscenes (basic)|cutscenes]] and the creation of vast amounts of scripts, this kind of campaigns are relatively easy to design since they lack most of the "pure military experience".
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A good character-driven campaign often requires well-planned [[Making cutscenes (basic)|cutscenes]] and well-written dialogue. Some character-driven campaigns focus less heavily on tactical gameplay and more on complex FREDding (such as [[Transcend]] or [[Sync]]), while others, like [[Blue Planet]], feature tactically deep and complex mission scenarios. In general, character-driven campaigns require a great deal of work on the FRED level because of the sheer number of messages and events required.
  
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Good CDCs also feature mods, and managing them requires at least some basic tabling skills.
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===Why would I create a character-driven campaign?===
  
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===Why would I create a CDC?===
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Character-driven campaigns can also be used to tell basic military stories (such as those of the main FreeSpace campaigns) with a greater sense of immersion and emotional attachment. Alternatively, they can be used to present new types of stories not generally associated with FreeSpace, such as horror ([[Transcend]]).
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There are many campaigns of this kind, but their number is expected to increase giving the success of the already mentioned Blue Planet and Transcend.
 
  
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Character-driven campaigns are a good way to tell original stories and "escape" from classic military experiences in which the player has to do certain things with poor or nonexistent degrees of mystery and adventure.
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[[Category:Campaign Design]]
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Obviously, this kind of campaign would quickly become boring if they start to be developed in numbers.
 
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===What about plotline choices?===
 
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A debate about the plot of Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius clearly showed many aspects of CDC developments. If the plot goes well beyond what is expected in the FreeSpace universe, it's quite likely that some of the choices in terms of plotline development might not be shared by the community as a whole.
 
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When creating a campaign, think about the plot since the very beginning. Before adding anything that might be considered exaggerated by certain community members, think if it's the case to do so.
 
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[[Category:FRED Tips]]
 

Latest revision as of 20:26, 13 December 2023

A character-driven campaign is a campaign in which characters play an important part in the development of plot and immersion, as opposed to the standard generic wingmen seen in the canon FreeSpace 2 campaigns. Notable examples include Transcend and Blue Planet.

Typical features of character-driven campaigns

  • Usually, character-driven campaigns contain significantly more dialogue than standard campaigns.
  • Recurring characters fly missions with the player.
  • The player character has a defined personality and dialogue. Dialogues are featured between missions and during the missions themselves.
  • Briefings, Command Briefings, and Debriefings sometimes feature the player's thoughts. In non-character-driven campaigns, there are references to tactical situations.

Summary

Prerequisites

A good character-driven campaign often requires well-planned cutscenes and well-written dialogue. Some character-driven campaigns focus less heavily on tactical gameplay and more on complex FREDding (such as Transcend or Sync), while others, like Blue Planet, feature tactically deep and complex mission scenarios. In general, character-driven campaigns require a great deal of work on the FRED level because of the sheer number of messages and events required.

Why would I create a character-driven campaign?

Character-driven campaigns can also be used to tell basic military stories (such as those of the main FreeSpace campaigns) with a greater sense of immersion and emotional attachment. Alternatively, they can be used to present new types of stories not generally associated with FreeSpace, such as horror (Transcend).

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