We had the "Don't You Hate It When" topic. How about the other side of the coin? I know I get a certain delight when my players come at things from angles I'd never considered before. My current favorite with the group now playing in my campaign is that I never have to throw out any adventure hooks. I've given them a setting and populated it with significant NPCs that have goals and motives and the group comes up with their own Endeavors. It helps that they have detailed backgrounds that already tie them into the Expanse, but they pretty well do it all on their own. And that means no wasted time with Endeavors that never happen. They tell me what they want to do, establish Objectives (that's a negotiating collaboration), and I set up the individual Achievements within each Objective. It's a beautiful system.

you have rare and intelligent players

Yeah, as a player, there is a certain amount of "hand holding" and leading I hope for out of my GM; whether a failing of mine, or not wanting to just look like I'm meta-gaming what I know with what I, as a player, know, I wouldn't mind getting to guide the campaign more, but i can be blazingly indecisive, as can many of my gaming friends. I'm glad yours decided to step up, and actually literally make their own mark in the Expanse, if you will.

I love it when my GM lets me modify my character extensively at creation to fit it's concept:

- Lets me have a free Knife at character creation to represent a Psykana Mercy Blade, but it can never be thrown and I should not be separated from it willingly.

- Says that I can get a +10 to Intimidate, Command and Rituals but a -30 to Disguise and -30 to Charm non-followers if I get extensive heretical tattoos in Black Crusade. This also caused problems with followers of other gods and the corpse-Emperor in-game, but at least I looked badass.

- I start with 5d10 insanity points, lose the ability to wear armour and the [Fellowship or Fieldcraft] aptitude as it doesn't fit the concept much, but gain 1000xp and the "Broken Mind" house rule (Whenever you succeed on a Fear test rolling doubles, gain the Fearless Talent until the end of the encounter. However, your normal personality is childlike and weak, and must make a WP test fight or when seeing particuliarly gruesome or terrifying sights. You can never purchase the Jaded [or similar] Talent to mitigate this). And then he lets me import some talents from other games to make unarmed combat a bit better, but you have a codeword that your Inquisitor and 1 other PC know to knock you unconscious (WP at -20 to resist). Does this seem to broken to you?

Those kind of mods really do make me happy, however small.

For me, is when a plan comes together.

All the hard work, prep, lore, story telling, manipulation, blood and tears are worth it when an Arch completes perfectly.

Normally completely different to how I imagined.

And then there was that time...

[Player to GM] (while generating his character) "I want my Peer Talent to be Officio Assassinorum."

[GM to himself] "Another one of those players."

[GM to player] "It's not strictly RAW, but I'll allow it."

And...nothing...until the first trip back to the Calixis Sector

[Player X to GM] "I want to make use of my Peer Talent and contact the Officio Assassinorum about using one of their agents."

[GM to himself] "and here it comes..."

[Player to GM] "I'd like someone from the Vanus Temple, an infocyte. I want them to get me all known information about Eldar activity in the Expanse."

[GM to himself] "I want this guy playing in all my games."

Isn't that a bit of a shortcut? You end up telling not showing.

On a personal note the Vanus Temple is, well, not to my taste - organic metal nanotech drones? No ta. And I'm always dubious of a Lexicanum article based entirely on one Horus Heresy novel - but that's entirely irrelevant to your game and the subject at hand.

Yeah, I rarely use such things as presented in novels. After all, I don't read them. I just loved that the player wanted an intelligence-gatherer over a sniper or slasher. I approve of the player that gathers their information before rushing in where angels fear to tread.

True say. There is something to be said for the "**** the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" mentality, especially for a Rogue Trader, but if the whole party's that reckless I do end up rolling my eyes a lot.

On the main topic, I particularly enjoy when players are so paranoid they think up their own potential pitfalls and traps - especially when they're better than the ones I had planned. Playing Into the Maw , the AM in our group quick-drew his bolt pistol and blew Pyrexia away at first sight - but then one of the players went "hang on, a cyber-bird? Don't the Inquisition often use those as familiars? Fuuu..."

That's not one I can work into the plot but they often are

Heh. Yes, I often run with plot twists the players come up with. They can be so imaginative, and when you have a whole party thinking about worst possible outcomes they'll often come up with better consequences than you ever could. Back when I taught primary school, I established my classroom rules, but I let my students decide on the punishments for rules infractions. They are more amenable to punishments they decide on themselves, and they always went for more severe sanctions than I'd have established on my own.

- Your players know what they have in their own inventory and how to operate that stuff.

- Your players have actually read something out of the books by themselves.