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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 4717758" data-attributes="member: 8835">KM's point is valid.  If you run a game without considing the 3 act structure, looking back at it, it's probably a mess of a story.  Using a 3 act structure gives you something that makes sense when you're done.  Which is why story-telling uses it.The problem, as we all know as GM's is trying to avoid a railroad.  Because books, TV and Movies are all planned out before the audience sees it.  Whereas an RPG is supposed to feel like the audience (i.e. the players) have created it, and a pre-planned script goes against that feel.This is where KM's point comes in.  Pre-game, the GM creates a rough 3 act outline of what the heck is going on.  In game, the players mess it all up, but that's OK, the GM has a checklist, and marks off where the party is within the outline, and brings up the next encounter.The idea is, that basically, the GM is the director and changing the script as he films, based on the actors feedback as they go through each scene.  He's using his knowledge of the original plot outline, and story crafting, to make sure he has a believable and enjoyable story, based on the new input from his players.It's kinda like filming Alien, and right after the chest-burster scene, the actors say, "no way in heck would our characters to try to hunt this thing.  Let's lock our selves in, suck out the air of the rest of the ship, wait an hour, and re-fill it.  That ought to kill it."  And the director decides to change the script and film the new scene, which leads to them thinking it's dead, and simply looking for the body, only to get ambushed by the bigger version.In a way, that's the whole point of DMing.  What most of us didn't know, is how to craft a story.It's part of why I hate the idea of "sandbox" gaming.  There's no such thing.  The GM creates every object and entity in the game.  The GM creates every action and motivation, and reaction for every entity in the game.  There may be tables to randomly create things, and some tables to set NPC reactions, bu the GM decides whether to use them, or make it up with no tables.  There is no real sandbox, it's not a simulation, and rocks fall when the DM says so.Because of this, the real duty of a DM is to provide an environment that the players enjoy interacting with.  And since ultimately anything you do in an environment can be retold as a story, you will likely get a better experience if you try to create a story, than if you try to have a series of random events.</blockquote>

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