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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 5087765" data-attributes="member: 2303">My first projects in a new setting or with a new group are not very ambitious. I begin with fairly simple tasks and situations, using them to introduce the setting and the themes I want to present in it. As the players and I get to know each other and the setting, I add more complex elements. If there are a campaign restart in the same setting, the story can start out much more involved from the start by introducing elements the players (but not their new characters) know from the start.Example: Currently playing Savage Tide in Greyhawk. The players are now quite familiar with the setting, some history, pantheons. My next campaign looks like it will use Curse of the Crimson Throne as the core. The main villain might well be Rowyn Kellani, a character from Savage Tide. There will be many more political angles and less pure heroics. Because the players know more, the game can start out more involved.My players generally do not take the initiative. They are content to accept what I throw at them. At the same time, they clearly enjoy different themes differently, and have some side projects of their own that they invest a lot in. Tyhey tell their own stories in the context of the greater story happening around them. Even if the game is mostly reactive, i take great care to use what ideas they have and let them be proactive when they want to be.A mix. We have sessions now and then were we discuss the direction of the plot both in and out of character. I often essay during play, giving the players information their characters would have. My players have learned to rely on their characters lore skills and try to base their actions on what passes for conventional wisdom in the world - something they cannot know about until they ask. I like to point out that what I say is just one view of things, not the absolute truth. Sometimes they debate with me on whether my interpretation of the world is the best one, and occasionally even win those debates. Even a storytelling world must make sense, and if a player shows me my arrangement did not make sense, I am willing to change the world to make it fit our common expectations.I generally comply. The game is about having fun - I don't pay my players to play, after all. But in the end, I can't satisfy everyone. If the group as a whole wants something, they generally get it. If one player wants something, I expand on any existing plots that relate to that interest, but I rarely make completely new plots.</blockquote>

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