Re: The "B" Campaign
For those GMs who plan extensively because it's your thing: Remember that just because your players didn't follow the well-crafted plot you created, doesn't mean that planning was wasted.
Cut up the plot, file off NPC serial numbers and reuse them in the future. It's only a waste if you throw it all away.
The best way to avoid wasting a lot of work is to talk to your players, find out what they want to do, and plan around that. Don't just make stuff blindly and assume that they'll follow it. Find out what they want, and do that.
You don't, solely, own the game. It's a collaborative product. So, collaborate.
If your players are going off the map to spite you, have a long talk with them. Going off because they're following a different story is fine, going off because they want to be contrary is not.
For players: playing your character is important, but, when your character is [a butt], no one wants to play with that character. Being contrary because "it's what my character would do" isn't a valid answer, and you know it. Do better. RPGs are, as I said before, collaborative.
Going off the map because the GM made Y sound much more interesting, to you, than X is one thing. Wanting to do Z because everyone else wants to do X is not cool.
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