i think something i might struggle with as a DM is balancing how i develop my world versus how i help develop my players' character stories. i really like to build this world and then throw the players in and see what they do, and if they do some whack crap then the world stays exactly the same. i try and work with my players during character creation to make sure that their character fits in with the world and has a proper purpose/role to serve in it with a good story arc and everything but man, i know that there are DMs who will reshape shit to the max just so that their players' perfect vision for their characters back story and journey comes to fruition. it's hard for me to do that in a way that doesn't feel really cheap to me. like, the players won't know any difference because they don't know the world, right? that should be what matters, but i'm really stubborn when it comes to changing stuff to guide the narrative a specific way. it feels... unnatural.

it might come down to the way i approach writing just in general, where i have a general idea for characters but i really craft the world and its lore and notable places and everything first and foremost. then, i flesh out those characters some more and i kind of just... let them make their way through things. as if they have minds of their own and i'm just writing down what they decided to do. it's not as much "what would this character do?" but rather "what did this character do?"

i think i just really like putting a situation in front of players and seeing how they react to it, and then letting their reaction naturally flow into what happens next within the way the world and the characters operate. from my perspective it makes everything feel more grounded, but i can also understand a player perspective when the outcome is just boring or feels pointless. the truth is that if i'm making a grounded world, sometimes things will just feel that way because that's kind of how life feels sometimes too. when people play a game though that's not what most people are searching for, i'm sure. i love that kind of stuff but i get the feeling most people are way more into the fantastical and grand journeys and adventures where there are always these crazy things happening. there is a balance to be struck i'm sure, i just have trouble finding it sometimes i think.