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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8772172" data-attributes="member: 6801845">When I DM I set up the world, the factions, put obstacles and goals out there for the PCs to pursue.  As the game progresses, the players make decisions and help shape the campaign.  The players and the decisions and actions of the PCs are big drivers of the ongoing narrative.There are limitations to what the PCs can do.  By and large they have to abide by the rules of the game.  I don't run strictly by the book, but you do have to color between the lines.  More or less.  There are other limitations such as clerics can't just pop up to Valhalla to have lunch with their buddy Odin.  They can't just announce that because they have a noble background they summon an army to solve their problems.The only way the PCs can alter the world around them to a large degree is by their words, actions or inactions.  They can, and are encouraged to, fill in details about their background and relationships but I get veto power and let them know the constraints that make sense for the world.  Ideally we have background and an outline of who the PC is and where they came from before the campaign even starts, but even then I have final control over any NPC they create.  A player can tell me how a parent might be likely to respond, but I'm the one that runs the NPC, not the player. So can it happen?  Sure.  If the DM and group want, the players can help build the world.  I take input and suggestions all the time, but I'm the final arbiter.  I don't see either approach as being good or bad, I just have my style because I have a persistent campaign world and I want it to make sense not only in context of the current campaign but also in context with past and potential future campaigns.  Collaborative fiction/world building to me would work better if the campaign world was created specifically for a campaign.</blockquote>

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