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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Woas" data-source="post: 4172026" data-attributes="member: 16317">I've had the same problems and over the past 3 or 4 months have recently come to the same conclusions as you Rechan. The games I have run over the past 6-7 years as I sat down and thought about them several weeks ago all fell apart because the players just did not know what their characters were doing. What the big picture was.As I thought about it I realized the best times gaming we had was when the players (and their associated characters) had a clear, concise goal. Certain side-adventure or small story arcs always were the most satisfying and memorable but the overall games those were part of ended up being duds.The problem I believe is that the games were "traditional" in the sense that, as the DM I would come up with some masterful end game scenario.... Kill Orcus! Save the World! Gather the McGuffins! and hope the game, like an origami plot, would unfold perfectly to the characters and players and through dropped hits and their own intuition understand it all. But it never worked like that. The players did the best thing players do, go in the complete opposed direct that you need them to. And soon enough I was being asked, "Why are we even here again? Why are we on this quest?" because the players just saw it as the next adventure. The didn't know what the big picture was anymore and to be honest after a couple side treks even I wasn't sure how to work my masterful end-game back together. Soon enough I found myself building up a lot of "story debt", to take a tern from our own Eric Noah. As the characters kept going down the next rabbit hole, the story soon spiraled out of my control and basically broke down in a series of vaguely connected adventures with no end, as the original end did not apply to the new circumstances and trying to re-introduce it just confused the players.So what I think you have there in your OP is a great list. IMHO, the only thing I would add/change is a Rule 2b: Decide on the End/Goal. I can see where some people might not like this idea, but hear me out.This does not mean everyone has to agree that the party, at exactly Level 18 will fight Orcus is room 16 of the Temple of Unspeakable Terror. But actually sort of ties in to Step 1. I think it is important for everyone at the table to understand what the purpose, or scenario for this particular game. Maybe the imaginary people that exist on the paper, the characters, don't need to understand it fully, but the In Real Life people, the players, need to realize that in this particular game we're going to... unite a divided kingdom, stop a demon from entering the world, protect this caravan across the dangerous countryside, whatever.</blockquote>

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