That's a fair point... I suppose our group back in college was a bit more rules focused than most...
HOW you keep people engaged changes. if you have a group that is very focused on rules and competition, freestyling is not the right call. If you have a group of murderhobos, then complex political stories might not be a good idea, if you have a bunch of people who groove on subtlety and style, a murderhobo campaign is the wrong thing.
It's about tailoring your approach to your audience, some players are "Role" players, and some are "Roll" players. One of these, you can afford to thumb the scales and improvise with, the other you can not.
My second piece of advice to our poster is, 'don't be Monty Haul'. whatever kind of players you've got, they need to work for their rewards or the good ones will go watch soccer instead, because they'll be bored.
The first rule of heroic fiction (and RP'ing is, at its base, telling a story set in heroic fiction-even when the players are intentionally being evil) is that it's not heroic-that is, not exciting-if it's too easy.
The corrolary to that one, is that you need to know when to make it easy, which is to say, when it really doesn't matter, is when you make it easy and let them feel that overwhelming sense of power that comes from being the main character. Call it 'mook effect' or 'trash mobs' or letting them get one over on a minor NPC so that when they try it with whatever main baddy you give 'em, it feels and seems
challenging so that when they win-if they win, there's a sense of accomplishment with the dopamine release in their brains.
Players want to be the hero-that is, the main character, not an also-ran, so your supporting cast may have higher social standing, or whatever, but you need to remember to put in the player's hands how they solve the problems you present, and adapt accordingly.
As one of my characters once said, "It's not the guy getting the medals who has power, it's the person handing those medals out, who's got the power", don't rub their faces in it unless they REALLY deserve it.
as the GM, you are the
Game's
Organizational
Designer.
yeah, put the bolded parts together, you're the creator of the scenario, or the person running it, they're the players, you're providing them with an exciting, engaging experience, that should be your focus.
