Author: rhyme (---.csiro.au)
Date: 03-25-2003 16:09
The rigidity of your description of "predetermined play" hardly seems the norm to me - I have only seen games like that when modules are being used, which seems mostly the province of beginning GMs. Yet most people do have more of an idea of what may happen than what you describe as "protagonsit play". Because you know your NPCs and their motivations and conflicts, you can work out in advance what will happen if they are left to their own devices and consider some of the ways in which the PCs might change that. So you can build tools such as flowcharts to help you GM. Why wouldn't you? Of course, the players might surprise you and take you away from the possibilities that you have thought through, but having a flowchart or plan doesn't mean that the game won't depart from that in play. When it does, you're back to winging it, but at least having thought through some of the possibilities, you're better off than you would be winging it right from the start.
(You've not convinced me that your "protagonist play" is any different from winging everything - the NPCs and their motivations are simply the basis on which you do that).
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