Greetings all,   

Just stumbled across this site, and figured this would be the best way to introduce myself.

Basic layout of game :    Home brew campaign.  About 500 square miles is "known" to the pc's. 

Major Factions:  Orange Cloaks ( LE wizards guild )
                        Order of Holy Light ( LG  paldin order)
                        Branoks Mercs (LN  mecernarys )

*oops hit the enter button*... continueing.

The PC's started out as level 1s,    From the get go I made sure each had a Char Backround with at least one of the factions.    Our Barbarian was healed by the order of light, our wizard was a current member of the orange cloaks, and our ranger was a member of the Mercs.   

I was using the rules in Players Handbook 2. for Affiliations.  Made the story interesting as each char had an agenda to pursue to raise in rank in the Affiliation. 

I am a firm believer of Setting first.  So i made numerous NPCs, and decided that monsters would be exactly that.  Most of the encounters the party had were against agents for other factions, or other adventuring parties.   

This had 2 advantages: 

1.  The players were able to see their own tactics used against them,  had to face new tactics and then they turned around and used the new tactics.    This lead to them forming their own Affiliation which then competed with or allied with other factions.      All of which promoted a great deal of good role playing. 

2.  I did away with orcs and goblins and such except as a few lone bands or hired thugs,  and focus on single monsters such as :

a skeleton covered with brown mold ( horrible challenge considering its bones were adamantine)  It was intellgent and bound to a single ruin.  It hunted them for about 9 hours of game time til they ran into almost every trap. Then trapped them and killed one of the pcs in front of the others before it was "killed" by a rival group.      The rival group was controlled by it. It faked its death.  So it could possess one of the pc's.  There was a great  deal of fun with this.  the player took full advantage of playing a  sneaky evil serial killer type. 

So i got a lot of play out of simple monsters, With small templates or just really playing up the ugly.    After dealing with hunting wild elfs to their home one gets used to a certain kind of opponent.  Suddenly running into oh... a Ghost treant  who protects those elves  had my players nearly diving for the dice to have their charecters run away faster than everyone else.

So. 

in sum -  Setting first.    Easiest way to give players a since of being part of the world is to include them in its politics.    Monsters are supposed to be MONSTERS.  and lastly.    Story is more important than who kills the most kobolds.

Thoughts?

What happened when you sat down and played?

Did the players link to the affiliations help?

How did the monsters fit into the setting?  That wasn't clear to me.

But mostly, who were you playing with, how long has the group been together and what kind of reactions did you get from the play?

Well. the players  really got into their charecters.    Once they got used to the setting and who did what and what the obvious plot hooks were they hunkered down, picked their fights, and when they weren't enough for the job, called on one or more of the affliations to lend a hand. 

Ias for monsters.  The wizard affiliations both summoned up some big nasties.  and one of the summoned creatures broke loose went on a rampage,  players had to take it down. it was a 4 levels hight than the players. 

groups been together 4 years now,    I got named called, told i was a BLEEP and a bleeping devious bleeb of a bleeping bleeper.    Which for my group, is tantamount to singing  my praises from the rooftop. they loved it. 

One area i've been lacking in is realistic NPC's,  the organization game me a reasont to make the npcs and make them unique.     
as for who i was playing with.    my fiance, a college buddy, a guy from work, and our 3 cats ( don't ask... long story)

Yes.  When the players take your name in vain and call curses upon your head, you are doing your job right in D&D.  Assuming they are doing that and then sticking around to play. 

I noticed the part where the players were comfortable when they found the obvious plot hooks.  Is this the norm with your group?  Do the players ever throw out ideas of their own to pursue?  In other words, do they ever bring their own plot hooks to the table?

I'm infamous among my players for haveing someing obvious as a  very blantant plot hook.  Basically i know what most of the players like doing and i like to leave the option open for future adventures, basically static side quests to give them  exp and loot. 

So, once they realized that part of my dming had not changed the came out of their shells, and brought a lot of their own plots to bear.    One of them married an elven noble ( she'd been courting a dwarf blacksmith but hated his soot marks on her check)  she saved.  The procedded to get involved in elvish politics ( all done by players choice  and actions . ) created a mini civil war that tore an elvish community apart.  Lots of drama. 

So, short answer.  yes.