I tend to have an idea of who my character is; where my character is in life; and where I want her to end up. I don't think I really "GM" it so much, but I definitely direct it through how I tell the story.
Recently I ran a little Arc that was supposed to set her up a little, affirm her reasons for staying with the company she is at and introduce some of the conflict in her life.Â
 And because I love it if people pick up on a hook and add to the story; this ended up including medical roleplay, interpersonal drama and just so much character development.
I suppose this mostly works if you have characters surrounding you whose players love to jump at ideas and take it their own way; and there's a certain level of trust required. But it was so much fun!
Suddenly Lekka has relationships to a lot of characters in ways I could have never predicted; some she feels indebted to, others she dislikes. And all of that happened rather organically because people found hooks in my story that fit their characters.
Recently I ran a little Arc that was supposed to set her up a little, affirm her reasons for staying with the company she is at and introduce some of the conflict in her life.Â
 And because I love it if people pick up on a hook and add to the story; this ended up including medical roleplay, interpersonal drama and just so much character development.
I suppose this mostly works if you have characters surrounding you whose players love to jump at ideas and take it their own way; and there's a certain level of trust required. But it was so much fun!
Suddenly Lekka has relationships to a lot of characters in ways I could have never predicted; some she feels indebted to, others she dislikes. And all of that happened rather organically because people found hooks in my story that fit their characters.