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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 5080289" data-attributes="member: 2">I'm not sure I agree with the initial quote that a GM need merely create an interesting environment and then be impartial. That's because this is classic "top-down" sandbox design, figuring out everything and then plunking down your characters, and I suck at it. The downside of this is that my campaign has a lot of details that only get filled in right before the PCs need to know them. The upside is that I keep myself amused and there's never any delay because I haven't designed part of the campaign world; I just make stuff up on the fly and write it down later.So, how do you create a storytelling approach that doesn't feel like you're dictating the players' actions or choices? For me the best way has been to drop buttloads of different hints, clues and hooks that don't have anything more than a nebulous plot behind them. I then end up developing the ones they seem to be most interested in, and later on I consider whether any of the plots they ignored are continuing to echo and ripple through the world. The PCs' choices make a difference in the campaign, both positively and negatively, and they end up accomplishing the types of adventures they like best.Both 3e and 4e have tremendously flexible mechanics that you can bend to almost any purpose. Take advantage of that. Figure out what skills, feats and class features the PCs possess and make sure you give them a reason to use every one. Some of the best advice I've gotten is that a cool PC feature that they never get to use is worse than not having it in the first place -- so build in opportunities for your PCs to use their cool toys, and have the story react to their actions.A classic example for this is the cleric's ability to channel positive energy/radiant damage. Yeah, it's good for smiting undead, but what else? So in a dungeon under a temple you put in a door that only opens when positive energy is channelled into it. Then you add a mystery-based complication; the door actually stores the energy from the last person to open it (or uses it for some mysterious purpose to power a dungeon feature? Hmm. No, wait, don't get distracted.) and the new opener can sense who and when it was. Tell the cleric opening the door that it was last opened by a very famous, long-dead saint of their religion... four days ago. Now the player has a new mystery to consider, even though it doesn't have any direct impact on them immediately. Replace "positive energy" with "a whispered secret" for an old temple of Vecna, and "saint" with "arch-lich", and you have a very different sort of plot hook and adventure with almost precisely the same set-up.</blockquote>

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