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<blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 5014530" data-attributes="member: 5265">I think we're in pretty close agreement on many of the qualities of a good GM. Note, though, that I wasn't saying the above was particularly storyish or sandboxy--I was merely supporting my point that plot does not equal railroad.I guess we might just have to disagree on this one. Certainly, there are no in-game events (other than railroading) that are unique to story style games. But a well-crafted story-based campaign can deliver experiences, I believe, that are very unlikely to occur in a sandbox environment. (Note: I concede that there may be experiences a sandbox can deliver that a story campaign can't. Don't know what those are, but I accept the concept.)Certainly, as a player I have experienced moments in campaigns that I don't believe could have happened if the GM hadn't carefully constructed his campaign outline in advance.And as a GM, I have delivered experiences that I don't think I could have successfully delivered if I hadn't been able to work from a campaign outline that made assumptions about the general course of events to come.OK, I'm going to concede this on a literal reading: It is true that one gains maximum control over story if the players have no input whatsoever. I guess I was unclear when I said &quot;to their fullest&quot;; I meant &quot;to their fullest as a practical tool within an RPG that retains a sufficient degree of player input to be fun, engaging, and rewarding for all involved.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CharlesRyan, post: 5014530, member: 5265"] I think we're in pretty close agreement on many of the qualities of a good GM. Note, though, that I wasn't saying the above was particularly storyish or sandboxy--I was merely supporting my point that plot does not equal railroad. I guess we might just have to disagree on this one. Certainly, there are no in-game events (other than railroading) that are unique to story style games. But a well-crafted story-based campaign can deliver [I]experiences[/I], I believe, that are very unlikely to occur in a sandbox environment. (Note: I concede that there may be experiences a sandbox can deliver that a story campaign can't. Don't know what those are, but I accept the concept.) Certainly, as a player I have experienced moments in campaigns that I don't believe could have happened if the GM hadn't carefully constructed his campaign outline in advance. And as a GM, I have delivered experiences that I don't think I could have successfully delivered if I hadn't been able to work from a campaign outline that made assumptions about the general course of events to come. OK, I'm going to concede this on a literal reading: It is true that one gains maximum control over story if the players have no input whatsoever. I guess I was unclear when I said "to their fullest"; I meant "to their fullest as a practical tool within an RPG that retains a sufficient degree of player input to be fun, engaging, and rewarding for all involved." [/QUOTE]

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