Now granted it should always seem as if you are in control of the proceedings, but the more prepared you are to ad lib, the more fun you'll have.
Having a good supply of soft drugs (e.g. alcoholic drinks - why? What did you think we meant?) is always conducive to a fun session, and probably the only thing more useful is a good group of players.
On this page are The Emergency Gamesmaster Instructions, designed to help you out when you get stuck. Of course, if you decide to use them, you don't have to go with what is here - these are just suggestions.
That's pretty much the way you should see the whole of this rule book: as suggestions. We want you to have fun playing Shifter, and if that means you have to throw away half (or all) of the rules - go ahead! There is only one rule here: Enjoy yourselves. Everything else is optional.
Back to the text.