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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 7915118" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Some of each.The GM can lead it, provided the players give a small number of elements about which they and their character care, and they and the GM agree to have that be a functional element in the ongoing story.The thing is, the players also need to be on board, and no one should have a clear answer to "where is it going?" That answer needs to evolve.Most genres can support a party mentality; a few absolutely demand it in ways even D&D doesn't. (EG: military and paramilitary settings, including Star Trek, Police, Leverage, Alien). This doesn't preclude immersive character drama, even tho' there is a GM mission... It just means the missions have to allow for a "B" plot. (Think how DS9 or Babylon 5, or even Xena always had elements of ongoing coupled with "problem of the week."  And that B plot needs to be relevant overall.Not entirely. He just has to be willing to let characters have meaningful encounters with meaningful choices in them that help define/redefine the character and their beliefs. Part of this can be player established backstory characters, but it works best if they aren't overly detailed, so the GM has wiggle room to add backstory.There can even be a campaign <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin" target="_blank">Macguffin</a> (tvtropes link). Ideally, the Macguffin only gets found when the campaign has had a good run, and people are satisfied that their characters have reached some state...  one last struggle/battle/social-confrontation, and then a narration of their retirement... or funerals... and bragging rights. The thing the GM can't be doing is dictating how the character feels, nor boxing them into "one correct choice"...It also helps if recurrent NPCs have more than one agenda item each - in one Traveller campaign, I kept foreshadowing the helpful SNCO's agenda — getting his family out of the Concordat — and when they finally did get to a habitable world, he stole the ship's boat and the missiles for the missile launcher.... I've never so surprised a group... but they also realized that it had been foreshadowed. It wasn't a "fixed element"; it was a "when this situation happens unless"... the unless being the PC's having realized he wanted out and willingly letting him and his family off... but they hadn't paid attention. That same campaign had an NPC-PC love affair... with a "not unhappy" ending, involving a couple of retirement salaries and a sailboat...  It wasn't something I set out as a GM, but a response to a player deciding to engage with a (previously) minor NPC command grade officer.... the player played it for a romance story with lots of fade to black.The reasons for this being pointed out is that there was a kind of "timer" on that campaign. The PC's were on a scientific expedition to test, refine, and rebuild a particular tech item (a J2 drive). I set some science breakpoints, and each tweak in the field was potential to each some; after enough, they had to return to build the new revision, and each revision was closer to reliable.. Other than that, there was no set plot.  It was all player driven, and all the players selected character goals, and played them, and we all knew each other's main plot goals... but each player had a second goal, shared only with me. To allow those character driven elements, I merely needed to introduce suitable obstacles relevant to it. Such as how do you prepare for a 6 month deployment with the new GF? (Answer I expected was trading momentos... answer chosen by the player was to see if the GF would like to be transferred aboard. I made a suitable reaction roll, and  she joined the crew...)The most important element is creating encounters, not outcomes.</blockquote>

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