Quote from: VBWyrdeOk, I see.  Well, I'm almost thinking that when you say "Story-Driven" you mean that the GM has a plot already in mind, as seems indicated by the title of the game you're referring to.   As a GM I don't prefabricate a plot for the Player-Characters.  What I do is establish a lot of BackStory in terms of what NPCs are up to, histories, political movements, etc.   Since the PCs are the Protagonists in my world, what they actually wind up doing is the main focus of the plot of any story that occurs in-game.   I use a Player-Driven-Story methodology, and I do not try to get the Players to "fit into" my prefabricated idea of what I think the Plot should be.  It's just that dancing around, behind, above and below the PCs is a World that is moving and changing in accordance with the motives and activities of NPCs whom I track via dice periodically.

Quote from: Old GeezerRight; we are, in essence, saying the same thing.

That's part of what makes Lord of the Rings so cool; you get to Weathertop, and then the Argonath, and it becomes apparent that there is a HELL of a lot more to Middle Earth than just the current story.

Agree, completely.  That's what made playing on Tekumel with its creator so compelling; he had thirty thousand years of backstory.

Quote"The question remains... How do we create BackStory of sufficient
Quality to merit the phrase "Literary Quality" for our RPGs? While
Old Geezer and I are in agreement that the goal is laudable, the
fact remains that the task itself can be daunting. 30,000 years of
BackStory is not only hard to create, it must be a bit of a bear to
remember all that amazing information in-Game - when counts. Hehe.
The point being that the more BackStory you have, the more you have
to remember. It's a blessing and a curse. What happens when you
Forgot some key historical point in-Game, tell the Players the WRONG
history, and then are like... OMG, wtf did I do?!?!

How do you handle that?"