Story styles (roleplaying)

[robinbloke]

When designing campaigns/storylines and adventures for players I very rarely pre-write solutions for what I expect to happen or where the story "should" go; as in my mind the players are the focus of any story and where it goes and what is read as the pages turn should be focused primarily (in most games at least) on what they are doing.
This usually results in me running games where I am about thirty seconds ahead of whatever players are doing and this is when I run games best, with a vague overview of what is going on and sponenatity filling in the cracks as the players choose their paths.
My current campaign (now running for about 14 years) has reached a point where I can see what and where it is going to go, that the players are unlikely to have that much input into it. This is contary to my usual way of writing games because, as I mentioned, I like the focus to be on the players.
My question is this; if a game is set to follow a path or story that is unlikely to involve players much, how can you get the players attention, keep it rolling and most importantly not just write off an epic campaign resolution in half an hour with "Npc X does this, Npc Y does that, all finished."

I'm thinking out loud here, but ideas and suggestions are very welcome.

Comments

[ragnvaeig.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm such a control freak I have flow-charts organising all possible situations my characters might come up with, and what to do when they make certain decisions. Of course, it all goes to hell the second I let them loose in my world, but so it goes (sic semper tyrannis?).

I tend to be spiritualism-heavy in my games, but in a situation extraordinarily like the one you mentioned, I had my PCs attempt to interpret and follow prophecy, where they eventually had to follow one preordained path. They got it horribly, horribly wrong, but then they just had a "surprise ending." ;o)

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I tried flow charts and lines of connections, but it's hard for me to generate more than a little at a time; I'm at my best when just ahead of the characters as I say.

Prophecies I should have thought to include... would have helped when you can control reality!

[siranui.livejournal.com]

Never really works with my lot. They pitch out of left field a lot. Still, I try to anticipate and plan 'obvious' solutions.