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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StalkingBlue" data-source="post: 1616597" data-attributes="member: 645">Hm, I've never had a writer DM.  I know people who have though, some have been happy with it, while others have experienced the most stifling railroading 'in the interest of the story arc'.  Speaking as a DM who also writes: Dunno whether I'm any good as a storyteller or writer, that's for others to say.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  All I know is that when I write a scene or story, I often get better results when I let the characters have free rein for a bit than when I press them into my plot.  (I agree with you that King's On Writing is a very useful book btw, although it still doesn't make me want his actual stories.)  But I also know that in the final analysis I'm the one who decides where the plot goes.  I decide on which cool scenes to include or to throw out, I decide which of all my possible endings I'll be using, heck, I decide what character's POV to tell the story from!  When I run a game, I think differently.  The story isn't for me to tell, it's for all of us to create together.  I guess I do use similar techniques for presenting a location or encounter as in writing, for fleshing out NPCs and giving them quirks and motivations of their own insofar as their potential for the game warrants that, and although I tend to run fairly combat-heavy games I get dissatisfied and bored unless the combats I run make sense to me, at least behind the scenes.  But Whether my players ever find out about any meaning I give things is another matter.  Sometimes PCs investigate in-game, sometimes players ask me to find answers.  If not, I live with it.  I'm not 'telling' a story, I'm presenting an environment for my players and me to create one together.  I also don't aim at forging a plot arc (through planning, guiding play or whatever) that would hold up to scrutiny as dramatic development in the sense of a story.  I hate playing under DMs who do that (and I've encountered them, although the ones I've experienced weren't even good at telling a story) - so I try to not do it to my players either.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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