"Railroading" is just a pejorative term for...

Walking Paradox · Dec 9, 2010

I was listening to a podcast today and I heard one of the guest hosts utter something that nigh made my blood boil: '"Railroading" is just a pejorative term for "a game in which the group actually accomplishes something!"' He went on to say "at least they're on the train" and not "stuck in the station."

This was in reference to a popular investigative RPG in which the GM is required to emplace solid, definable "core clues" in each and every scene, one that has on occasion been criticized for essentially institutionalizing railroading.

Is this a cop-out? I personally think that the PCs should be given all the freedom in the world to rund own blind alleys and chase red herrings; indeed, interesting roleplaying situations can pop up when this happens and it can end up leading to more interesting RPG experiences than the GM had originally intended.

On the other hand, are GMs missing out on something by not railroading? Is all this "the PCs must be free!" chatter robbing us of our right to tell a good story?

Lanefan · Dec 9, 2010

Walking Paradox said:
I was listening to a podcast today and I heard one of the guest hosts utter something that nigh made my blood boil: '"Railroading" is just a pejorative term for "a game in which the group actually accomplishes something!"' He went on to say "at least they're on the train" and not "stuck in the station."

This was in reference to a popular investigative RPG in which the GM is required to emplace solid, definable "core clues" in each and every scene, one that has on occasion been criticized for essentially institutionalizing railroading.

Is this a cop-out? I personally think that the PCs should be given all the freedom in the world to rund own blind alleys and chase red herrings; indeed, interesting roleplaying situations can pop up when this happens and it can end up leading to more interesting RPG experiences than the GM had originally intended.

On the other hand, are GMs missing out on something by not railroading? Is all this "the PCs must be free!" chatter robbing us of our right to tell a good story?

All this tells me is that, were I to have listened to said podcast, it would be the last podcast from that source I'd bother with.

That said, if play in the system being referred to is based on railroading then fair enough...as long as it stays in that system. But to take that experience and expand it as a generalization to all RPG systems is - bluntly put - a mistake.

Lan-"when trains collide"-efan

Incendax · Dec 9, 2010

My players hate it when I do not railroad them. Any time the game even remotely starts to resemble a sandbox style of game, my players inform me that they felt like they didn't get much accomplished and that the game was directionless. The closest I can get to not railroading them and still keep them happy is to present them with multiple choice plots.

Jan van Leyden · Dec 9, 2010

Well, the first question is whether the group wants to emphasize a/the story or the complete freedom given to each PC and hence the players. This style question has no wrong answer, but the group should try to reach an agreement.

With the emphasis placed on story, there are still different way to realize this.

The GM may distill the story down to two, three sentences and give the players lots of free reign, steering the action only by placing subtle clues. She can modify the story according to the players' ideas and actions. Think of the murder mystery with only the victim, the crime scene, and some idea of the murderer and different possible motviations are defined at first.

The PCs can freely investigate, and the GM modifiy the story and set the free parameters according to the players' ideas. Is this a railroad?

Personally I prefer the string of pearls model. The thread which organizes the pearls, is well defined. The junctions between the pearls are pretty much fixed, maybe even unavoidable. But within each pearl, the PCs can act however the players want. If one takes care to design the pearls large enough, the players will hardly notice being on a railroad.

To generalize, the calssical dungeon adventures like "go, retrieve the Chalice of Malice from the Dungeon of Alice" or "free the fair princess from the clutches of the dragon" can be described as pearls in this sense. The junction to the next pearl is clear and not even concealed in any way, though within the pearl the players are their characters faith' smith.

Railroading is a highly subjective term. When the players complain about it, the GM should discuss this feeling with them and the group should try to find their solution.

wedgeski · Dec 9, 2010

Walking Paradox said:
This was in reference to a popular investigative RPG in which the GM is required to emplace solid, definable "core clues" in each and every scene, one that has on occasion been criticized for essentially institutionalizing railroading.

Clues?! In an investigative RPG?! The very idea!

The term "railroading", when brought up in any thread, will over the course of many posts expand its definition from the very reasonable to the very ridiculous. Let's see how far we get in this one.

The Human Target · Dec 9, 2010

Railroading is telling a player no to anything you didn't plan for ahead of time or want them to do.

Having a basic plot the PCs are expected to sorta follow is not in my mind railroading.

Starfox · Dec 9, 2010

There is a spectrum of almost everything. In this case, from extreme railroading to extreme sandbox. Lets make a hypotetical scale of 0-100, where 0 is zero freedom and 100 is no direction at all and complete freedom. Each player/DM has a part of this spectrum where they are comfortable. Things enough outside the comfort zone on the high end is railroading, things enough out of the comfort zone on the low end is... some other pejorative term.

A word like "railroading" has little absolute meaning. For most of us it simply means "too much plot structure". And anything "too much" is by definition not good. But as always with pejoratives, some people will identify with them and feel a need to defend them. This guy had probably been in some unstructured games and didn't like it; in opposition to that he defends railroading. This means his comfort zone is a bit higher on the spectrum, maybe he had some bad sandbox experiences. He choose to identify with railroading, a controversial term, as a means to get attention. It seems to have worked too.

Notice that the 0-100 spectrum of values are of course completely arbitrary. For any proposed value of zero, you can always make up some even more "free" and unstructured game. The same goes for the complete railroad, there is no "absolute 100".

Canor Morum · Dec 9, 2010

I agree with the above definition, telling the players "no, you can't do that" is railroading.

The players are the main characters of the story. They should have free reign to make decisions that change the course of events.

At the same time, some players need direction. Branching paths is one way to do it. Another is to just throw out the hook and hope they bite. If they don't, you just gotta roll with it.

I think doing a lot of prep work before a game and planning out the story in advance makes for a boring game. Creative, collaborative storytelling is where it's at.

PaulofCthulhu · Dec 9, 2010

Walking Paradox said:
I was listening to a podcast today and I heard one of the guest hosts utter something that nigh made my blood boil: '"Railroading" is just a pejorative term for "a game in which the group actually accomplishes something!"' He went on to say "at least they're on the train" and not "stuck in the station."

Source?

Original likely this one: http://www.yog-sothoth.com/content/960-Investigative-Gaming-Seminar-at-Dragonmeet-2010

Not Guest Host. Ken Hite.

Jon_Dahl · Dec 9, 2010

Canor Morum said:
I agree with the above definition, telling the players "no, you can't do that" is railroading.

I agree, but how about this:
The game itself is limited in-game. For instance, the players want to have lot of freedom to do things like, but they're unable to find solution in-game to do them. In the end they are attempting to do lots of things, but they fail most of the time.

I remember the last time I was being accused of railroading, and it did hurt me a lot... I was running Dark Sun, and I told my players that they need to make notes during the game. They reacted with silence... Then a NPC gave one of the PC's a password, which was crucial to continue the adventure. However, when the password was needed, he didn't remember and he didn't have it written down. I called for a INT-check, and it failed. They were unable to continue the adventure, and their attemps to otherwise circumvent the situation were unsuccessful. The password was simply necessary. So I abandoned the adventure, and started a new one. However, later on I was accused of railroading because of this... And the game ended too, with lot of hurt feelings.