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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merkuri" data-source="post: 5292363" data-attributes="member: 41321">There have been studies that show that people in general say they want more choices, but once they have those extra choices they have a harder time making a decision than when they had fewer choices.  Example: You're picking out a couch.  Your couch comes in 3 colors.  It will probably take you a few minutes to make a decision.  Now you're picking out wallpaper.  You have over 2,000 wallpapers to choose from.  You will probably take days, if not weeks, to pick your wallpaper.  (This is all assuming "you" care about decorating, of course.)Putting me in a bar with no direction at all, just "You're in a bar," is like giving me an infinite number of wallpapers to choose from.Perhaps if I were used to playing in such games I would learn where to look for plot hooks, but in the games I play the DMs don't make me go looking for hooks, they're right there in front of me.  They could be as obvious as a girl running shrieking into the bar or as subtle as a man in the corner staring at the party, but they tend to appear in the description of the place we're in or they're events that happen while we're there.As a player, I'm assuming there are hooks somewhere.  I want to bite on your hooks.  I know DMs put a lot of time into prep for the game (at least, my DMs have done so) and I don't want that prep to go to waste.  The DM spent all that time to put together a fun adventure, dungeon, or scenario for me, and I'd be a rude little player if I don't play along.  I like playing along, just like I like saying "yes and" when doing improv.Maybe my "there are hooks" assumption doesn't apply to your games, Shaman.  Are you a DM that like to improv the whole session?  If so, that's awesome, and a rare talent in a DM.  In my experience, though, these DMs are rare, and most of them have some sort of situation (perhaps one of many) they want the players to get to in this session, and they place hooks around in a way that's not that hard to find.Also, I like grand plots.  I like campaigns where I find out that strange beggar we met in the first session is actually the evil wizard who's been harassing the PCs throughout their entire career.  I like when the PCs have been looking the entire campaign for the McGuffin, each adventure taking them closer.  If you want to call that a railroad, then I like railroads.I think the term "railroad" suggests other things that I do not like, such as a lack of PC free will, so perhaps I should say that I like linear or branching campaigns (I think one person upthread referred to this as an "interchange").  I like a plot, but if the DM expected me to go left and I jerk right I expect him to roll with it and not try to yank me back on the rails.Does that help you understand the "I don't know what do do in a bar" mentality? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Not trying to convince you that my way is the "right" way (there is no single right way to play), just trying to help you grok why some gamers might not know how to look for plot hooks the way you want them to.</blockquote>

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