Elder-Basilisk said:
There is no such thing as a player led adventure. I'm sure that will sound shocking but there's a lot of truth to it.
If there's any point to having a DM at all then the DM has to provide the adventure. Let's take a look at some examples of adventures without the DM leading:
Paladin player: I go out and smite some evil. What evil does he smite? Why does he smite it? If he's going to create the evil vampire king who rules an adjacent empire and whose forces, led by a cruel ogre named Hulk have overrun the small village where his cousins live, he might as well kick the DM in the junk, take his dice and call himself the DM. (Especially since he can't do that if there are other players in the group--they will have their own ideas about where they are and what the village/city/inn/wilderness is like).
Rogue player: I go and steal something. What's there to steal? I go and steal some cheap wool lingerie like peasant girls wear and plant it in the greedy silk merchant's bedroom where his wife will find it. Who told him about the greedy silk merchant or his domineering wife?
Fighter player: I go and start a rebellion, kill the kings' men and proclaim myself the new king. How many men does the king have? Are they kind? How will the populace react to the rebellion? How will the king react to the rebellion? While this might seem to be the most player driven scenario of the lot, the DM is still calling all the shots--perhaps even more so because the world is going to be reacting to the player, giving the player no choice but to deal with what the DM throws at him. The paladin can say "Oh, he's really just a petty vampire count? I wanted a vampire king. I'll go find a bigger evil to fight." The rogue can say "Really? The silk merchant's place is that well guarded? I think I'll just pretend to be his agent and order flowers and an expensive dress and have the bills sent to his house. The fighter can't say "There are assassins in my bedroom?!? Forget this, I don't think I like this rebel angle after all."
Any adventure that the players come up with will need to be sparked by a situation that the DM has created. Even the most pro-active players need a world with possibilities for adventure before they can create their own. Even the players most determined to carve their own mark on the world need a well imagined world to carve a mark into. And that's what the DM provides.
That's an interesting point. I do agree that completely player led is hard to imagine, but I think it can still be quite a bit more player led than you suggest. How about looking at a more complicated example? Let's say that the DM said "create character backgrounds with strong plot hooks that will set up an entire campaign and work together to give me a good mechanism to get the characters to work together."
The players now provide their own story hooks in their character backgrounds. These don't necessarily have to be world dependent, but if they want to use stuff from the DM's homebrew, then all the better. For example, one (fallen noble) character's father was killed by the baron (DM can place this wherever they want), who's power and influence, combined with the lack of evidence, renders him untouchable. The character now seeks revenge. He works as a jailor in the city prison where he meets the second character, who was thrown in prison for life for pulling off a heist in the count's castle, so he knows alot about the place. Meanwhile, a third character is the Robin Hood sort, living in the woods fighting battles with the count's men and defending the poor.
The players have set up an obvious mechanism for the characters to meet. The jailor will spring the prisoner and they will hide out in the woods, where they will meet up with the "Robin Hood" guy, where they will eventually form the nucleus/leadership of a band of outlaws against the baron ("Robin Hood" fellow tells the DM that he plans on taking leadership feat). This was all preplanned by the players and the DM lets them do it, putting obstacles in their path to make things challenging. From there, the players can plan raids on the count's men while the DM introduces new NPCs to add complexity -- problematic love interests (on the wrong side like Maid Marion or Juliette, abducted/unwilling/reluctant like Buttercup in Princess Bride, etc.) work well here.
The players added their own NPCs in their character histories as well. The thief has underworld contacts that he fleshed out, the "Robin Hood" fellow might have peasant and/or sylvan friends, and the fallen noble would have relationships with people at court, including many people that also know the baron. The DM can take the player created NPCs and work with them, throwing out new situations for the players and the players can call on them as resources in the game, creating their own hooks.
Sure, the DM needs to interject plot hooks (including side adventures - but "Robin Hood's" help the poor mantra provided an easy feed for hooks) and new characters too, but the players set everything in motion and the players decide when, where, and how they will do things.
Now, to make things more interesting, you can work in more of a combination of DM and player led stuff. Like "Gone with the Wind," the players have their own agendas, goals, and storylines, but the DM sets them against a complicated and evolving world that makes it harder to achieve their goals and forces them to struggle and make tough decisions.
Take the story above, but part way through the campaign, after the players have built a bit of momentum, add in a foreign invasion. Now the baron that they hate is the defender of the realm and perhaps a necessary evil to prevent conquest by invaders. Does the party reluctantly join the baron to oust the foreigners? Is their spite toward the baron great enough that it will lead them to help the invaders (directly by aiding the enemy forces or indirectly by continuing to hamper the baron's ability to fend them off) regardless of the tragedy of looting and pillaging that will ravage their homeland? Are they heartless pragmatists -- waiting and watching to see who will win and then joining that side for profit? If they help the baron, will they be reconciled afterward or will they become enemies again once the invaders are repelled? If they help the invaders, will they continue to do so after the baron is defeated or will they suddenly have a new enemy in his place?
The DM doesn't drop in plot hooks that tell the players where to go. The DM also doesn't have a pre-planned story laid out for the characters. The DM drops in flexible plot twists that complicate the situation and open up new possibilities, adding more options for the players to develop their characters and show what kinds of decisions they make. It was the players though, not the DM, that decided right from the start that the game would be about righteous outlaws, rather than religious crusaders, squalid pirates, mercenaries, a noble family jockeying for power, freedom fighters, fend off demon invasion types, etc. They created the primary story arc themselves.
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