Thanks for the welcome! It’s a joy to join such a great group of people.

I’ve run a few games where I’ve intentionally shared the narrative with the players. I once ran a 2nd Edition AD&D game set in Fritz Lieber’s Lankhmar. I never showed up to the game with anything prepped (except for my deep knowledge of the city, locations and published NPCs). I’d sit down at the table, and ask, “So, what are you going to do this fine day?” It was one of the best campaigns I ever ran because the players controlled the narrative about their characters. They were deeply involved, and we had a hoot with it!

I’ve also been in one game (Vampire, the Masquerade) where there were 10 (or so) PCs (which is a large group for Vampire) and about an equal number of NPCs in a room at a cocktail party. I managed to keep my PC out of the party on purpose (wasn’t his thing and he was busy at the time). There were a few other “absent” characters, so the Storyteller handed those of us without characters an index card that described the NPC’s motivations and goals. We spread about the apartment and half-LARPed the cocktail party with some of the players running NPCs. We all had a good time. It’s one of the highlights of my gaming in the World of Darkness.

While it may appear that the GM controls the game since he’s in charge of pretty much everything, I’ve had many of my GM-driven plans thrown out the window by a simple choice of one of the players at the table. The best response from the GM is to roll with it and keep the flow of the story going.

And of course there are games where players share narrative control, or if there is rotating control, or even no GM at all…