Discovering vs Revealing the Story (GM experience)

Damn. You have completely ruined conventional AP/module games for me.

I know you wrote about it in the book, but the difference between a GM discovering the story at the table and revealing the story at the table really set in for me this week. It has been very hard not to write plot and outlines of what might happen. It is habit. But as I think about what to do when the current 3-year campaign finishes and what kinds of players I hope to get at the table, it has really settled in. **The reason I enjoy my tuesday game and finish refreshed instead of tired is that a story I don't know is unfolding in front of me.** Not just the flavor of what happens to the characters, but how the world changes. I am no longer thinking of whether something at the table messes up other plans. I thought I got it before, but nope, I was just scratching the surface of the potential.

One such moment at a scene change: Mara is being guided out of the guardhouse with two guards and her boss Ehron (she is his bodyguard), with whom she is angry and disillusioned. "Sierra (player), I am going to ask you a question and I need you to respond immediately. As you step out of the guardhouse out into the square you spot two crossbow bolts flying at your group. Do you step in front of Ehron?" "No, I step in front of my new friend Rowan." Everything changes in the campaign and I can enjoy it becuase there is nothing written or prepared for me to rewrite or deal with. I don't need to modify any future maps or chapters in a book. The RP between Mara and the healer after he barely saved Ehron's life and learned who he was, I just got to listen and participate. Well, I might need to update a few faction goals before next session, but ...

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