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<blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 4420435" data-attributes="member: 7737">I am somewhat schizophrenic on this topic. In theory, I believe that the players/PCs should make the plot (if they want to -- more on that later), and the DM should never thwart them from following whatever path they wish.In practice, however, I can't seem to resist coming up with grand metaplots, so... take whatever I say here with a dose of &quot;do as I say, not as I do.&quot; <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&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />An important factor to consider: what is it that the players want out of the game? Some of them may want to pursue their own agendas, while others may be longing for you, the DM, to provide them with a ready-made plot; some players enjoy following the railroad.Now, if your group is a mix of players with different desires (as most groups are), it may be better to let the players who want to invent their own stories drive most of the gaming -- as long as the other players, and you, are happy with this. (In the case of players who don't care about any plot at all -- the so-called hack'n'slashers or buttkickers -- they're not going to care whether it's the DM or a fellow player doing the plotting; they just want to kill stuff, and that's fine.) By letting the players who want to drive the plot do so, you make them happy; the buttkickers are still happy; and the players who are desperate for a railroad can at least follow the one provided by their fellow players.That's my opinion, but as with all discussions like this, the best thing you can do is discuss this explicitly with your players. Now, don't expect all of them to be able to articulate what they want; you'll get a lot of responses like, &quot;I don't care, man, whatever you want to do.&quot; But at least you will find out who does feel strongly, one way or the other, about plotting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Joshua Randall, post: 4420435, member: 7737"] I am somewhat schizophrenic on this topic. In theory, I believe that the players/PCs should make the plot (if they want to -- more on that later), and the DM should never thwart them from following whatever path they wish. In practice, however, I can't seem to resist coming up with grand metaplots, so... take whatever I say here with a dose of "do as I say, not as I do." ;) An important factor to consider: what is it that the players want out of the game? Some of them may want to pursue their own agendas, while others may be longing for you, the DM, to provide them with a ready-made plot; some players [I]enjoy[/I] following the railroad. Now, if your group is a mix of players with different desires (as most groups are), it may be better to let the players who want to invent their own stories drive most of the gaming -- as long as the other players, and you, are happy with this. (In the case of players who don't care about any plot at all -- the so-called hack'n'slashers or buttkickers -- they're not going to care whether it's the DM or a fellow player doing the plotting; they just want to kill stuff, and that's fine.) By letting the players who want to drive the plot do so, you make them happy; the buttkickers are still happy; and the players who are desperate for a railroad can at least follow the one provided by their fellow players. That's my opinion, but as with all discussions like this, the best thing you can do is discuss this explicitly with your players. Now, don't expect all of them to be able to articulate what they want; you'll get a lot of responses like, "I don't care, man, whatever you want to do." But at least you will find out who [I]does[/I] feel strongly, one way or the other, about plotting. [/QUOTE]

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