Tight focus versus a sprawling playground

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Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

For my group (me included as primary GM), we tend to be the world-building type. While the GM may roughly direct the scenario from session to session, many times the end of a session becomes "what do you plan to do next (as a group) so I (the GM) can be ready for it."

We have a long-standing world (Arnur Soghal), in which we have had numerous campaigns with various foci. . .some of them GM designed and some of them player inspired. It is not unknown for a player and the GM to kabitz out-of-game to direct the focus of the next session(s). Player-generated goals are often more important than GM (or pre-generated module) "railroading;" hence, we like a large world to rattle around in.

But how do you prefer to play? Do you say "This is a strictly political game with mechanics that work so, so X, Y and Z skills are very important, and you shouldn't bother with A, B and C?" or do the players generally have free reign to take what they please, within the confines of the concepts of the world?