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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Siuis" data-source="post: 5408053" data-attributes="member: 51622">Commenting for the Subscription mostlyEDIT: here's the thing. Sandbox is a noun (game type) and railroad is a verb (method of play). Apples and oranges, and lots of misplaced vitriol. The same goes with the word plot- y'all should specify whether you mean a villains plot (plan to be executed) or Story plot (predetermined course of events, like in a play or book), so no one is up in arms over a simple misunderstanding. We're all friends here, right?EDIT again: just noticed you wanted specifics. I'll have to come back and put some of those down. Examples and general advice I can do, bur concerted and sleep dep don't mix.emphasis mine.This struck a chord with me. I went to my current DM and asked him what was in store next session (we camped for the night and were told there was going to be a ruckus). I'm playing a character sufficiently different from myself that too much of surprise will revert me to tactical kill-bot, instead of Threnoiðia, 300 year old tiefling Law incarnate. We went over the likely course of events, and I went over my likely responses (with a hearty "we're screwed"). We are working together, and that's what's important. While being on a very, VERY narrow path with few options, we as PCs and people are shaping the results. I'm not being told I'm going to get captured by slavers, I'm told they tracked us with hounds (and a tracking falcon! Neat!) and as a player I know from experience they'll beat me. But I get to try and make a difference.My last DM decided on something, and executed it without possibility for change; there was literally no action I could take or refrain from taking that would alter the game's course. And not in a believable way, either. Even if something came up randomly (he'd roll out an NPC, who happened to be a female gnome thief) he would immediately plan out the result (the thief tries to make PC #3 fall in love, and takes #2s wallet) and it would have to happen. All the way down to scoring higher than 70 on sleight of hand so she wouldn't get caught, to having charm as an SLA to force the romance.That's where I can contribute; when to stop planning! I'm very detailed in my notes. Did a war campaign that started with three months of doing finances on a kingdom level, for example. But the end result was always up in the air. By all means, NPCs should have a plan, you as DM should have a story. That story is "this is what happens if the PCs don't interfere". But once the PCs do interfere, the story changes. It has to or you're not playing a game anymore. If the story would be the same no matter what the PCs do, then they may as well do anything, because none of it matters. I've literally killed the princess of a kingdom and then we got married and had kids as my reward for beating the quest. I want no part in that, and will get upset after "the king demands you marry his daughter" becomes "you marry his daughter". In the former, I can still refuse (even if doing so is bad).</blockquote>

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