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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herpes Cineplex" data-source="post: 1446656" data-attributes="member: 16936">It's most common when the game starts off with "here's the world, now what are you guys going to do?", I think.  Especially if all of the players aren't so thoroughly familiar with the game setting that they could basically run their own game in it, that kind of opening generally gives you a roomful of players staring blankly at you or nervously fidgeting with their character sheets.  (And a lot of the time if they do jump right into doing their own thing without waiting for the GM to give them a plot, you run the risk of having to run a separate game for each PC and his own character-driven plot, unless you can convince them to collaborate during character creation and come up with similar and compatible interests for all their characters.)Basically, I'm with Gothmog on this; I've also found that what works best for me is to have the first few things in each plot arc be very directed and designed to give the PCs something they can really react to.  Then once they're invested in the plot and they know what their characters really want, you let them start pushing on their own.  Think of it like training wheels or booster jets or a tugboat...starting off very focused and giving everyone things they can react to is a way of getting things moving in a particular direction, and once those things are moving at the right speed with the right balance, you can leave them behind and watch the players steer.And from a player's perspective, I'll say that I've always had a much easier time determining what my characters want to do and aggressively pursuing those goals once I have a better feel for where they live and what kinds of NPCs are around them.  You know, getting in there and seeing who my character likes, who he dislikes, and what kinds of things he's really most effective at; none of which are at all easy for me to do until I've played it for at least a little bit and had a chance to see the setting in play.Once I've got that, I feel more secure about pushing character-driven plots on the GM and the other players, and I find those plots to be more satisfying than I would have if we'd just been dropped in on day one and asked to come up with character-driven plots right away.--context is everything, i guessryan</blockquote>

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