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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5403744" data-attributes="member: 80487">Different people mean different things by it, but I reckon most of us are interested chiefly in drawing a distinction from the heavily scripted type of scenario that gets published a lot.The big problem with that approach from my own perspective -- especially when it comes to "D & D" -- is that part of what attracted me to the hobby was the scope of game play.For some people who see the game less as a game and more as interactive fiction, the big problem may be that the pre-plotted action does not arise out of the character of the player-characters. One way to deal with that is to do biographical and psychological profiles of PCs prior to the game. This often involves either reading a briefing on expected world knowledge, or -- at the very start of a new game -- participating in a "world building" process. That's fun to some folks, but work rather than play to others.Many, many computer games have borrowed the basic premises of the original D & D game. People of a certain age may recall Ultima by "Lord British". The underworlds were pretty shabby, but the basic concept of free movement among them and towns and castles across the wilderness map was the same. There is a world of difference between a game like that and something like a Lone Wolf "pick your path" book.Regardless of the scope of a game, whether the same four PCs meeting just because it's a scheduled "game night" or a full-fledged campaign of a dozen or more players with Wizards, Lords and Patriarchs (as well as lower levels and hench-creatures) pursuing their own ends, what I have found most useful as Referee are*** Well Developed Important/Ambitious Non Player Characters ***Villains may come first to mind, but an NPC need not be villainous to have objectives that oppose or otherwise interact with the PCs' in interesting ways. One need not even know in advance precisely what motivations players will bring to the table in order to set up an engaging situation.I think this really "clicked" for me when I got Chaosium's Griffin Mountain book for RuneQuest. Even places can be "characters" in a sense, but the key here is that NPCs are up to things on their own. Griffin Mountain did not include a time-line of events, but I will always have some such schedule prepared on the basis of what happens if the PCs do not interfere.This ties in with something Gygax emphasized in his Dungeon Masters Guide: keeping track of time. If players do nothing to change the course of events, then it proceeds day by day and week by week.Players at loose ends are this presented with one or more obvious avenues for interaction. The dynamic environment offers a changing range of opportunities, and that can involve incentives to choose some course of action rather than just lie about.Players with other interests are free to pursue those instead, and every choice has consequences. A good sketch of an NPC's desires and attitudes can make it very easy to assess responses to whatever players do, so that they arise quite naturally.This kind of development work tends to be part of the fun for those of us who enjoy the job of GM, more I think than for players in general. There is nothing to keep a player who wants to write an essay about his or her character from doing so, and the Ref from using that information. At the same time, it's not a necessary imposition on the player who just wants to blow off steam with a not terribly demanding or serious pastime as a few hours' diversion from labor.</blockquote>

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