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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9420585" data-attributes="member: 6785785">How so? I mean, by the larger trappings of the setting? Sure. I don't think anyone is saying that players have unlimited authority to do whatever they want. But that depends on a lot of things. In my experience, when a GM runs a game like this, they're the kind of GMs who have left plenty of room for things to be added to the setting without it causing a major issue. I'm playing in a PBP here on the forums, run by [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and the other players are [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] and [USER=7028554]@Grendel_Khan[/USER]. One of the things [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] asked us for was a short list of quests we'd like for our characters. One major quest and two minor ones. My character is a kind of Batman-like vigilante character, so my quests are all going to be something suitable to that. Some criminals to track down. I selected a figure from within the setting as the focus of my major quest. He's a shady lord who seems connected to lots of crime in the area. My other quests will be similar, but I'll be creating them largely whole cloth... NPCs, factions, and so on.   In my experience, as both player and GM, this is often not the case. Very often, the players are expected to engage with the GM's material. You don't have to look far to find plenty of examples of this. All of WotC's published adventures rely on this. Many GMs craft their own versions of this type of game. I mean, I've played in these games plenty of times. I've run these games plenty of times. And there's nothing wrong with them. They produce a perfectly fun type of play. So if a GM buys Tomb of Annihilation and reads through it enough to run it competently, and then in, say, session two, the players decide they're not interested in exploring the jungles of Chult to find the Tomb and try and solve the death curse plaguing the land... that GM is just going to shrug and say "oh, okay... what do you guys want to do?" Now, I'm not saying that can't be possible... but I would say that it definitely is not going to be the common response. Some folks are going to be annoyed by the time, effort, and money they put into preparing that game only to have the players not engage. And rightfully so. So what examples do you have from play? What anecdotes can you share of players generating fiction in your games and how did it go? You seem to almost be challenging the premise while also claiming that it's true for you or even for every game.</blockquote>

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