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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Croesus" data-source="post: 4657275" data-attributes="member: 35019">This one's easy - trust. Authority is not the same thing as power - think of it this way:Power - Do X or I will do Y. Do X and I will do Y. (I control if Y happens)Influence - If you do X, Y will (will not) happen. (Someone/something else controls if Y happens)Authority - Do X.When using Power, you attempt to have someone do what you want via punishments and rewards. When using Influence, you don't control the punishment or reward, but you use their existence to influence behavior. When using Authority, you simply command.But why would anyone simply do as you say? If they're doing it out of fear, or to gain something, that's Power or, more rarely, Influence. If they do it just because you say so, it's because they trust you not to abuse the situation. And as contradictory as it may seem, the more you involve people in decisions, the more authority they are usually willing to give you. This happens in the workplace, in social groups, and at the game table.This one is trickier. For myself, what I've done is asked players to design elements of a campaign, but I have final say, and always change something about their design, if only cosmetically. For example, one player had in her background that her father was a pirate. So I asked her to design a band of pirates - personalities, operating methods, rivalries, etc. I then used some of that as a plot hook for the character, but I changed enough that the player couldn't be certain what was happening. It actually added a nice bit of realism, as the character thought she "knew" certain facts, which turned out to be different.Find something that a player is interested in, whether due to special knowledge (music, poetry, history) or because it's tied to their character. If they have a rough idea of the type of campaign you are running, they'll likely stay close enough to that idea to come up with useful material. If not, review it, discuss why it doesn't fit, and have another go at it.Another less overt method is to listen the the players and steal their ideas. If they suspect the local thieves' guild is behind a series of disappearances, make it so. Who cares if your original idea was that it was the work of some wandering dopplegangers - the thieves' guild works just as well, and it allows the players to shape the world. Don't do this every time, of course - you still want to keep the players on their toes.</blockquote>

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