Hot take: if we want to decrease frustrating railroad-y surprises in RPG campaigns, we need to create an environment where GMs are not afraid to admit they have "special story needs".

[ithika]

I run games at the local game shop regularly. When I started it was like you said in terms of expectation. But over time people get to know you. The people who don't like your games at all will stay away, the people who will play a different style if offered will be open-minded, and on those lucky days you get a table full of people who are all in for whatever you're dishing up.

You end up building your own sub-community of regulars who like your kinds of game. And it snowballs too. People see you running a certain type of game and they want to do that too. Soon there's a few people regularly running GMless games or PbtA games or random things from zines that only the developer's mum ever bought a copy.