My DMing philosophy is to make the game an unspoken compromise.
(My players, do not look below, moderate spoilers)
I pay a great deal of attention to what the players say and do, how they react to the game world itself, and sometimes I ask little questions; the other day I asked them to give me a single word each, and the words I got, aside from a crude joke response I turned into a young werebear, was "Expensive Samurai Apocalypses Mjolnir"
So I put together a samurai death knight in golden armor and her werebear son by way of a mighty berserker, who will be giving a Thunderburst Throwing Hammer after a successful quest, and they will be seeking to doom the world in a different way from the primary antagonist.
I also noticed that the party rogue has a heart attack any time he takes damage. So along with the Thunderburst Throwing Hammer, there will be a Lifedrinker Short Sword coming from the expensive samurai.
However, the adventure itself is based around a sound-hating adversary, so the first magic weapon the party got was a Thundering Longsword, given to them by a grateful Whale King they unbeached.
As the campaign goes on, I'll keep figuring out what they would find interesting or useful, while also putting things in which simply make sense for the story. If I miss anything especially vital to their personal vision, they can make it, so there's no moping to worry about.
