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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7082227" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I probably didn't word that very well, but here's what I said:"Certainly, as a DM, improvisation is always part of the game. But by having a thorough understanding of the NPCs and their goals, the events that are occurring in the region, the lay of the land, and things like that. Even the typical behavior of monsters, etc., means that I can also focus on the creation of the story during the game, reacting to the characters and their actions."And my clarification is that I can focus on my part of the story. It also means that I can focus on the player's creation of the story during the game. The bulk of the story is written by the players through the actions of their PCs. I provide, as I stated there, the NPCs and their goals, the events, lay of the land, behavior of monsters, etc., and react as them, or within those parts of the fiction. I don't get to write the stories of the characters. That's what the players do. And in general, we share the fiction of their history, but that's handled in our games outside of the game session itself.The only real exception I can think of is something from character history, like running into an NPC they "know" but has never been in play before, and we might have to address the relationship they have with the NPC and potential shared history. Most of the time that's glossed over, "Hey, Mornagan, long time, no see...and you spend a few moments reminiscing about old times...so what brings you to Loudwater?" I might give them a fair amount of leeway on the development of those types of relationships, but it's still usually built on a back-and-forth, and usually outside of the session if we're going deeper. Basically I know the goals and rough personality of the NPC and based on whether we decide there is any history of note, we develop some back history.The PCs are essentially the pointy stick of the world, and they are looking to me to let them know what happens when they poke something.Just like us, in our world, they are the characters and only the characters. They don't decide what happens when they poke something, they only make the decision to poke it or not and how they react to what happens. So I think [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] is onto something when he considers it reactive.</blockquote>

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