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

[siranui.livejournal.com]

would it work to have some people embrace even 'kill everything and end the world evil'... It would be an end to suffering, after all! Some followers may have nothing more to loose, while others perhaps see the world as a corrupted place that needs wiping out.

My Monday gang are quietly exploring 'We're the Imperium, die xenos scum' Evil with great gusto.