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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8774759" data-attributes="member: 20564">My method literally can't have this problem, because a lot of the campaign building is based on player interest.  I at most have some ideas for a 2nd Act so I can start to foreshadow and lay foundations, but all of that is Schrodinger's Plot that isn't true until it hits the table.I start with very broad strokes, view from 50K feet sort of thing. What I want is things made of plot hooks and awesome. I want players to hear about this without being overwhelmed, and be able to go "I want my character to be from there" or "I want to adventure there". Just enough of a framework for them to hang ideas on. Details are my enemy at this stage.Then session 0 with the players. Where we discuss the world, what they are interested in, and make characters. I give my players a lot of narrative control around their characters and other things that don't impact the foundational ideas of the setting.  But can add them - last campaign I had players ask if the Dwarves could have been genocided, if Drow and Halflings can be created races, and if the planet itself could be the body of a murdered god with the skull as a moon.  None of these impacted other ideas I had so I said yes to all of them.  Having engaged players is a blessing.As part of that I'm thinking about what types of questions the uniqueness of this setting is good to answer, stories that fit better here then a generic world, especially giving the nature of our protagonists.  This gives me big vision ideas about the direction the campaign can go.  I make sure to tie in what the players suggest, as well as specific character arcs.From there I start, and campaign direction is very much influenced by player interest and character actions.  My last three completed campaigns were 4.5 years, 7 years, and 4 years.  None of them ended anywhere I would have imagined when I started.I'm not afraid to discard plans for better plans, to kill my darlings - discard plots, NPCs, scenes and the like that I envision but don't serve where we (the players and I) end up going.  Again, nothing is true until it hits the table, but once it hits the table anything new I introduce needs to be consistent without retcon.Different groups of players I've run for have had varying levels of comfort with "grabbing the reins" about what they want to do.  The most common is the majority of the time picking among hooks I dangle before them, though often going about them in ways I never envisioned.  I love getting surprised by players, it's one of my joys as DM.Late game there's more that's already been set by play, so less room to adjust things while still avoiding any retcons.  So the goals of the last act of play are usually firmer set by the time we get up to them, even if there are undefined at the start of play.</blockquote>

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