He writes plots for his campaigns

>he posts reaction images

>indeed he does

...

Eh, how else am I going to do test runs for my future books?

How long have you said you'll eventually write those books, user?

Well I...
Don't rush my creative mind user!

>he try’s to tie in the backstory of your character to random items and npcs
Is this normal? I’m still really new to roll playing but this shit is so fucking annoying.

If GM asked permission from player beforehand, than it's completely normal. Otherwise you should discuss your issue with GM.

>you should discuss your issue with GM.
Yeah but this is Veeky Forums and we don't do that.

>doing what Veeky Forums does when interacting with other people

>He doesn't do a secret Veeky Forums handshake

I did some discussion with my GM way back and he said that he’s been DMing for years (which i know is true) and that most good GMs do this

I do this too, but if I want to introduce something new related to one of the PCs, I warn player beforehand without spoiling anything, ask if he's okay with it, and maybe ask to clarify some details about the PC. 99% of time they agree without any problems, but not communicating with your players properly may generate some trust issues.

He just wants to give you a reason to be involved, user. By tying your backstory to things that are currently relevant in-game, it's supposed to give you a reason to take initiative in roleplaying.
>Oh, this (thing) is relevant to (thing that happened in PC's past), that means (PC's action/reaction)
Basically
>That signet ring belonged to my great-grandfather and is really influential. Maybe I can negotiate to get it as a quest reward.
>This wandering cleric is looking for work and could help my village. I'll give him directions there.
>Holy shit that chick is hot, and better yet, a competent adventurer. If my king wants me to get married, I'd prefer it be to her.
>That guy killed my parents! I'm going to skullfuck that bastard!
He generally ought to tell you 'hey can I do thing' though, if it's not a major spoiler. If it is a major spoiler, it shouldn't derail your desired character development too hard.

>Not planning West Marches beforehand
This is literally equal to group suicidal. Never understood fags running WM without any prep and just making shit up on the fly. Unless you are savant, it's going to collapse within less than 5 hexes.

>roll playing
You can already quit the hobby, before you turn into cancer

It depends on several things. If he makes fitting references to your backstory, that's great, but if he's pulling shit out of nowhere tell him he's misunderstanding your backstory.

What's wrong with that? And more importantly - why are you annoyed by your GM providing hooks for you?
What were you expecting? Get into old basement and kill few rats?

I do both. I plot out the general course of events that are going to be happening in a region on a given timescale, faction interactions and all that. I adjust for PC actions, but things also happen outside of what they do, too.

>He plays traditional games.

You know, I tried the whole "react to the players" thing. Want to know what happened? Long awkward silences and quick generalized statements when I asked the players what they were doing. We spent 3 days in game sitting in a town getting breakfast, lunch, dinner, and going to bed. Otherwise just... sitting there. Doing nothing.
Players don't want options, they want a story they can fuck up.

>he thinks the quality of content does not depend significantly on the time spent working on it
Ayyo, let me just quickly finish writing the official sequel to LOTR before responding to your bullshit post, lmao.

>He actually reward his players recommend by the charts in the DM Manuel.

I have to because my players completely lack any semblance of initiative and creativity and need to be dragged by the nose to ever do anything.

Pretty much this.
Give your player a sandbox and they will stare at you.
Give them a sandbox with a sandcastle and they will collapse the castle.
Sandbox games only work if your group is either stellar with roleplay and has characters made for a sandbox (very precise motives and/or subplot they can follow) or for a very small group (2 tops, probably), at least that's what I've seen from my experiences.
In all the other cases you're better of with a plot that allows for some fucking around but that doesn't rely on players actively doing shit by their own initiative.

Wha... what's a west march?

An episodic and ad hoc style of play that allows for a large group of people to participate by having their characters drop in and out. Kind of like passing controllers to other players in a multiplayer video game.
The better question is what pop culture garbage recently brought "West Marches" into the vocabulary of Veeky Forums. I've only ever seen the phrase pop up recently after browsing this stupid board for the better part of a decade.
My bet is that it's something Critical Role did so now it's the best thing since sliced bread.

man, so much unnecessary salt goes from people using words wrong

"Players go into the forest, stumble upon Sidhe king's feast, tell fomorian the dream and go home with rich gifts the next morning" plot

"If players make the fomorian go away from the feast, Sidhe lord likes them more; if they tell Fomorian the dream of a sphinx, it runs away to warn his buddies and owes a debt; if they slay the fomorian, Sidhe lord tells players to fuck off because fighting in king's hall spoiled the mood and is against the ettiquette" not really plot

It sounds fucking retarded. Episodic stories have no real rising action, no denouement, no meat behind them. It's literally 'and then X happened' drivel.

I mean, how the fuck do you roleplay or even maintain a decent rapport of character development in that situation?

Matt Colville did a video on it a few months back, that's probably where everyone heard about it recently