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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr_Ruminahui" data-source="post: 5747869" data-attributes="member: 81104">It should be noted that different groups like different things - for example, myself and my group aren't not very fond of sand boxing and get frustrated when we don't know which direction to go/what to do.  So, imagine we are much less resistant to rails than the Jester. For a group like mine, having an overaching plot that the PCs fit into may well work.  That said, you still need to be flexible enought to allow the PCs to make their own choices and have those choices matter - both for the better, and the worse.  Importantly, you can't have the PCs feel that they are being smacked down everytime they think outside the box - rather than have such attempts fail because the don't fit in with the way you viewed things, better to let them succeed and have longer term consequences.So, for a group like mine, your starting point with the gangs are the queen is fine, so long as you are flexible to letting the PCs do things thier own way.  Though, personally, I would wait to plan the first adventure until you know who/what your PCs are - that allows you incorporate WHY they are together and allow them to work on the stuff that motivates their own characters.As a final note, again for people like myself and my group, its the illusion of choice that matters.  For example, you have to sneak around a goblin camp, and you have planned a skill challenge (focused around stealth) and an encounter with a patrol planned.  However, the PCs instead chose to climb the mountain to get around the camp.  In such a case, feel free to modify the skill challenge and then run the encounter with the patrol anyway (it was in the mountains) - just telling the PCs that oppositin would have been "much worse" if they've gone the original way, and perhaps giving the PCs surprise.The thing about the illusion of choice is that you must keep that illusion - never let slip them see behind the curtain.  And, this also means that the illusion must sometimes become the reality - for example, if the PCs decide to fight instead of talk (or vice versa), you can't railroad them into doing what you wanted all along.As for having the campaign centered around some guy - yeah, it really only works if that guy is not part of the group (either as a PC or an NPC) as the PCs don't want to feel like they are just incidental to the plot (no one wants to be a hobbit in the party with Gandalf in it).</blockquote>

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