Character-driven campaigns

Among the popular campaigns many of them like Transcend, Sync and Blue Planet might be referred to as character-driven campaigns, in which characters are extremely important in terms of plot development and immersion.

Typical features of CDC campaigns

• The player sends messages, unlike in any other genre of campaigns;
• Briefings, Command Briefings and Debriefings sometimes feature the player's thoughts. In normal campaigns, there simply are references to tactical situations;

Analysis

Required skills

A good character-driven campaign often requires well-planned cutscenes and, more critically, the creation of vast amounts of scripts. Some character-driven campaigns focus less heavily on tactical gameplay and more on complex FREDding (such as Transcend or Sync), while others, such as 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 CDC?

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).