I tell them that I aim to create what some call “Grand Argument Stories.”
Granted, doing so simply as an author is severe enough. Doing so with random variables, including human behavior, makes ending an RPG “campaign” or series of sessions resolve into a coherent story, even a bad one, improbable.
It’s not quite as “bad” as the universe coming from an ex nihilo explosion, but it’s up there.
In the interests of transparency, of late, my forays into the “GM” world have been few. Not many people want to do stories or, more to the point, they want to do stories and whatever they want in a game.
Can’t do both, and most players read that as “railroading,” when all but perhaps the most chaotic sandbox that permits almost anything could face the same charges for the same causes.
This isn’t a bad thing, however. You want your gun to fail at the gate, not in sector, and there’s no point in anyone joining that doesn’t want, or doesn’t get, what you’re trying to do.
“Win/win, or no deal.”
Expectations are a bear. Best to kill them young and small, unless they serve, or at least don’t obstruct, everyone’s purposes for playing.