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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mandeville" data-source="post: 1271750" data-attributes="member: 11847">Sometimes, the best players need a little hand holding or gentle nudging to keep the game moving.  The illusion of free will/reign in a campaign should be just that, an illusion.  Ultimately, you really don’t want the players to do whatever they want.  You want the players to follow one of the multitudes of possible paths you have set up and prepared for.  Yet, you don’t want to feel like you are telling them what to do so you drop subtle hints in the form of rumors and seven page background note and hope that they latch on to one of them on their own.  Some players don’t take subtly very well.  I believe that the choices a party makes should be as clear as choosing a path in a dungeon.  For the party to choose a path, they first need you (the DM) to tell them what is there.  A large wooden door in the north, a cave entrance in the east and a marble hallway to the west.  The players know what their choices are.  This is how I run my current game.  I let my players wander around for a while and they were going nowhere.  I want them to stay within the confines of the story I have worked on (like the confines of a dungeon) so I present to them the path that lay before them (through an npc or two).  They could head down south to the front lines of a massive war that is brewing, they could head west and infiltrate the evil baron’s court and act like spies or they can go north and act as diplomats and find other counties to join the cause.  The players now know how the world works and what things they can do while they are in it.  It’s not railroading because they can choose whatever they want.  Every decision will have a consequence.  And what is best, the players will be letting you know what type of game they are looking to play for awhile.In time, the players may feel comfortable in your world and choose to make their own path.  Maybe they don’t like the three paths in front of them, or think that they could be of better use doing something else?  Maybe they want to tunnel through the south wall.  Maybe they want to travel to the hinterlands and form an upstart city-state to challenge the gathering evil.  Then it is up to you to allow it.  But at least it is a direction.</blockquote>

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