"That'll be $60, thanks" - WotC

Isn't making shit up the whole point? Otherwise it'd be a board game.

An advanced technique: ask your players to make shit up. Like, the players decided to go to the wizard university the wizard PC graduated from. So I ask him, "what's their entrance hall like?" and let him just riff on it for a while. Players feel more engaged with the world, and it's a little less work for me. Warlock is trying to commune with his patron. I ask, "what is your patron usually like?" and the player is delighted to describe "the great sculpin" in detail. This then inspires me further. Note that some players are very much "just tell me a story" and don't want any input, and won't like this. Some players are also shy and don't think well on their feet. And some players are just really bad at staying on theme. But if you know your players , this can be a powerful technique.

Shhhhhhhhhhh If *I* don't know my master plan, then THEY certainly don't either! Also I do intentionally leave some things a bit more vague, with *ideas* of what I want to do, but I'm hoping the players will start theorizing amongst themselves so I can incorporate their stuff into the game. It gives them a nice sense of accomplishment to have "predicted" something, and I think they feel more engaged in the campaign. Or maybe I'm just a bad DM...

And yet... people buy modules all the time. I always thought that turned into a board game.

My kids still haven't realized the reason for the starter-citys name, Shole. Shithole

The aspect of "board game" we care about here is the way they have a set path that you follow, as opposed to an RPG where the players and GM create the path