Campaign Style (CSC)

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There are three easily definable styles of campaign play. Each one incorporates the story elements that have been discussed thus far, and offers both benefits and headaches for the DM who chooses to run his campaign along those lines.
==The Linear Campaign==
This type of game advances the story through a predetermined sequence of encounters. The PCs must handle the encounters as they arise and are given no choice where to go between encounters.
For these highly-structured adventures to work the DM must be able to logically channel the PCs through his world. While this is easy to do for low-level PCs in dungeon-style adventures, it can be difficult in the wilderness where there is little to restrict movement.
==The Open Campaign==
This style of game plays down the story aspect and relies on the players to choose where play will go. Obviously this creates an incredible burden on the DM, since he must prepare an enormous amount of material, "just in case." If the players like random encounters with monsters, the Open Campaign can work quite well, but if the DM must constantly prepare more than he needs, then DM burnout is a likely result.
==The Matrix Campaign==
This is best suited to the story aspect of play. It allows the DM to create a detailed plot, set out a limited number of encounters, and yet still offers the players freedom of choice as to where they will go and how to deal with encounters.
With the matrix campaign, the DM places his major encounters then feeds clues to his players as to how they might find them. By using character motivations or NPCs, the DM can gently steer his players back towards the goals of the adventure, without the attendant feelings of DM manipulation.