I am struggling with how to approach setting up a game. I keep vacillating between trying to set it up to railroad the players and taking a more reactive approach.

Scripting everything has the benefit of allowing me to guide the players down a pre-set path where I can set up all the encounters in advance and supply a clearer overarching story. The encounters will be more balanced, the narrative will be clearer, and I'll be able react faster because I know what's coming.

On the other hand, The game seems to want players to come up with novel approaches and give them the freedom to do what they want, so a more improvisational approach seems to fit the spirit of the game. Additionally, there is more risk of real death if the players aren't seat-belted into a balanced and campaign with a beginning, middle, and end. Plus -from a practical standpoint- this approach is probably just just less work for me.

I'm leaning towards scripting the first encounter or two, then just having GM goals (like "get them out of the car") and some canned encounters on a rough timeline that I can throw at the wherever (Like "beginning:stopped by the cops for having so many weapons" or "middle:search a house to find owner hung himself, is now dangling zombie" or "long-term:join up with a group in a fortified location. Leader is feeding the weak to the zombies to pull them away from the hunting parties).

What do you guys think?:

1 - Where do you come out on the risk/reward of giving your players free(ish) rein?

2 - How did/will you set it up? Why?
3 - If you've run a game already, what worked? What didn't?

I'm going to let the players drive the narrative occasionally droping tasty morsels for them to gobble up. I'm comfortable flying by the seat of my pants.

You can have an overall script in mind. But not so detailed it has to be followed to the T.

Go with the flow when the players improvise at times or go a direction you didn't anticipate; it's more fun for them when it isn't a choose-your-page reading book (if you do A, turn to page 17, if B then go to page 39).

And then you can reel them back in with an NPC who redirects them (maybe a cop who directs them to a certain location), a piece of paper with a clue, a wind-blown map with a circled destination, a radio station broadcast urging all within listening distance to do something, etc.