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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7883282" data-attributes="member: 177">This is not in any way contradicting what I said.If you care about how it appears as a whole, but you have no plan... well, then it is kid of a crap shoot.  Without a plan, you don't get a lot of say in the overall result.Sure.  If that's what you like, that's fine.  Maybe you'll get a Seinfeld, and maybe you won't.In theory, that can happen.  But pareidolia is also a thing.  As is some retrospective cherry-picking.  Not a believer in that.  Sorry.I think you are setting yourself up to miss understanding by starting with the word "scripted" - this is a preconceived notion about implementation.I can create a sandbox, and populate it (in full or only partial detail).  No scripting, right?Well, if the players say they want to play characters that are like X, Y, and Z, and I make sure my sandbox has some bad guys (either big to start, or growing over time) that are very, very likely to be involved in X, Y, and Z spaces, such that the chance of conflict with the PC is nigh inevitable... is that scripting?  I am not pre-choosing what adventures the PCs will do - I am merely choosing who in the world there is that is creating situations worthy of adventure.You talk about characters that live a life with no real plot.  That isn't actually much of a statement about the characters, but about the world in which the characters are adventuring.If your world is basically static, with a bunch of set pieces in it that don't meaningfully interact and change over time, if nothing in the world is happening then the PCs world can be about nothing in particular.  If your world is dynamic, with major movements and changes that impact life in that world, then PCs lives will be about those movements and changes.  If there's a war, for example, then the PCs lives will be about war, whether they like it or not, because there it is surrounding them.The static world without notable events of its own is the world of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.  They wander around until something happens- they pick up a thread or plot hook, which is pretty short, and follow it to a conclusion.  Then, they find another thread, which isn't really related to the first.  Their world is... felt.  There is no directionality.There is, in fact, another way to get the world of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, that is totally a railroad.  This is the old school 1e "the GM has bought a module, and we play it," campaign that many of us likely cut out teeth upon.  Each adventure is unrelated to the one before or maybe there's a short series.  But no attempt is made to link them together in plot.  The PCs have no real say what they are doing next, so it is a railroad, but without any notable directionality.Meanwhile, I can get a campaign with a theme of war, for example, by setting up a war happening, and letting the players play within it as they will, or I can pick up the Dragonlance modules.Which is to say, ultimately, having themes and direction are orthogonal to railroading.</blockquote>

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