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all aboard, i lost track of my line of thought and therefore ended up here dazed and confused, i want to sit here and do nothing, loop de loop
In other words, improvising on the fly as the GM.
My earliest impressions of RPGs had me thinking that they were tightly controlled beasts, where the GM is required to follow the books to the letter and to ‘lead’ the players through the story as written in the adventure. Players who wanted to ‘stray’ from the path were blocked off using ‘invisible walls’ or ‘cutscenes’. The various adventure books give off such an impression, especially those with a mystery or progression. After all, you don’t expect the players to fight a dragon in the very first scene do you? Do they have the option to run? How about if they wanted to stand and fight? What if they all died? What if they killed the dragon (through dumb luck or extremely clever tactics or both)? Will the deus ex machina come into play? As a result, I thought that being a GM was one of the most difficult things to do.
First impressions do lie. While player railroading is a viable technique, I’ve learnt that there are plenty of alternatives in the way one can GM. Apocalypse World has an excellent section on MC-ing (GM-ing, basically) that encourages an improv style, one where the results of a certain situation is unknown to both the players and the GM. ‘Play to find out’ is the motto of AW, and pre-planning is strictly forbidden by the game’s rules. In fact, for the very first session, the GM should not prepare anything. At all. The world and the characters will be built by both the players and the GM during the initial character creation and subsequent ‘first session’.
Another method I have learned about is ‘sandboxing’. This technique requires GM preparation but gives players the freedom to do anything they want within the context of the game, kinda like Grand Theft Auto or Deus Ex. The GM is required to prepare locations, NPCs, clues, events, missions, etc. before the game, though a rough outline should be sufficient. Things can still be made up, but to a lesser extent.
You may be wondering, is there a ‘best’ method? Is freeform (improv) better than sandboxing, which is better than railroading, which is better than the GM telling the whole story with zero input from the players? In my opinion, no.
Passive players (you know, those who don’t like to think) may prefer a roller coaster ride, where the track is laid before them, and they can just let go and enjoy the ride. A thrilling ride, no less. They can experience the sights and the sounds, do what they are supposed to do, and have fun.
Players who want the freedom to role play may prefer the sandbox style, where their characters have multiple paths to choose from. Kinda like a backpacking trip, where the players may choose to visit different things at their own leisure (or not, since the world SHOULD be ending [Link goes fishing, Link chases after chickens, Link bottles fairies, Link completes side quests). They may take the story in an unplanned direction, but the leads are all there.
On the other hand, there are players who want to create the elements of the game as they play. These players want to share power with the GM in building the world and their environment. These players want to make things up as they go along. These players want to play to find out.
The Tilt Table 