Constrained universes and role playing games
John Abbe writes about constrained universes in role playing games:
My usual bias is to open-ended game settings, but I liked the tightly constrained storyline [of My Life With Master] (the game always ends with one or more of the players’ characters killing the master). It frees the game master and players to focus on the moment, because there’s no worry about the long-term plot.
(I haven’t ever played role playing games, but I guess that even when playing the open-ended games, you have to impose some constraints on the game, or it won’t be fun.)