I partially work as an admin on a kid’s forum. A number of the kids often talk about their D&D campaigns, and I've noticed something interesting about it: they almost universally talk about how nervous they are to run a game because they “don’t have a story.”

These are kids who have for the significant part of their adolescence/childhood had gaming podcasts/web shows as their primary exposure to gaming. And all of those shows emphasize a capital-S Story that drives the campaign.

The “murder hobo” norm is mostly gone, for better or for worse, from these kids’ view of the hobby. The lens of games has shifted to grand, story-oriented campaigns; and there seems to be a legitimate feeling of inadequacy when they want to start their own campaign.

I’m not saying this is an inherent flaw with the current state of the hobby—I think that every GM and player hopes that they can run/play a big, world-spanning campaign with a Story

But I think it’s worth thinking about that young players (at least in my view) are essentially seeing these campaigns as the only form of #ttrpg, and it seems to be intimidating for them!

To be honest I’m not quite sure what my end point is—should I say that we need more outreach to young players? Or more examples of “small” games/campaigns in media? I don’t know.