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How different PC motivations support sandbox and campaign play
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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7440165" data-attributes="member: 45197"><p>Hiya!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ahh...yes. I have encountered this once I think. It wasn't really the DM's fault though...it was a Ravenloft adventure he was DM'ing. The problems were with the module more or less expecting that the PC's would be from Ravenloft I guess? Maybe it was just very poorly written, I'm not sure (I never DM'ed it). The other factor was that there were, iirc, 7 or 8 players. The horror of desperation kinda starts to nose dive after about 4 people (oh, all 1e, btw...this is way back when). It was BLATANTLY obvious where and what we were supposed to do, to the point of "You are on a dirt road, up ahead, you can make out the dark shapes and silhouettes of a fog-shrouded town. Only a handful of orange, dim glowing lights can be seen indicating that someone inhabits the structures."..."Ok...should we go around this place?" ... "...you suddenly hear the howl of wolves to your right, coming from withing the pitch black pine forest...and to the left you see a myriad of glowing red eyes blinking in and out of existence, watching you..." ... "Ahhh...got it. So we are supposed to go to the town. Ok. To the town!".</p><p></p><p>Pretty much anytime we considered doing something "unexpected", the DM would throw up "walls" to heard us down the "correct" path. We never finished that adventure. We rebelled at some point, asking what the point of an adventure is if all it really is, is a pre-determined set of encounters leading to some specific localised showdown (hmmm...that structure sounds familiar...like you're play an adventure set on some sort of path... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> [ok, newer ones aren't THAT bad...but still not my cup o' joe for a 'normal campaign adventure']). Anyway, the DM then gave up and we all talked about it, and me and a friend showed him our "map". It was a line map, with capital letters. I think we got up to H. Each letter we has a 'prediction'...and it was true every single time. "A: NPC tells us where to go? - Correct! // B: Location is under attack? - Correct! // C: NPC of prominence, or beautiful woman, pleads for 'help'? - Correct (woman) // D: ...", we would 'predict' the next letter as soon as we got to the letter before it. H. We got all the way to H with 100% accuracy.</p><p></p><p>So, yeah. I have encountered "hard-core railroading". In fact, I can think of one more, but it was in a Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set game (FASERIP) by a new'ish player who wanted to GM a game. It was...bad. Like...REALLY bad. Some people, no matter how hard they try or how hard they want to be a GM, are just <em>not</em> cut out for it.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I have been sitting primarily in the DM's side of the screen for a good 33 to 35 of my 38 years of RPG'ing. I prefer it. So I don't get to "encounter heavy railroading" very often. When I do, it's usually a one or two session 'one-off' that a player wants to do because the DM-bug bit them or something. After the adventure they go back to being a Player because "Being a DM is too much damn work. And you guys always screw things up!", as one of my players said (maybe not verbatim, it was a while ago, but I got a chuckle out of it!).</p><p></p><p></p><p>^_^</p><p></p><p>Paul L. Ming</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pming, post: 7440165, member: 45197"] Hiya! Ahh...yes. I have encountered this once I think. It wasn't really the DM's fault though...it was a Ravenloft adventure he was DM'ing. The problems were with the module more or less expecting that the PC's would be from Ravenloft I guess? Maybe it was just very poorly written, I'm not sure (I never DM'ed it). The other factor was that there were, iirc, 7 or 8 players. The horror of desperation kinda starts to nose dive after about 4 people (oh, all 1e, btw...this is way back when). It was BLATANTLY obvious where and what we were supposed to do, to the point of "You are on a dirt road, up ahead, you can make out the dark shapes and silhouettes of a fog-shrouded town. Only a handful of orange, dim glowing lights can be seen indicating that someone inhabits the structures."..."Ok...should we go around this place?" ... "...you suddenly hear the howl of wolves to your right, coming from withing the pitch black pine forest...and to the left you see a myriad of glowing red eyes blinking in and out of existence, watching you..." ... "Ahhh...got it. So we are supposed to go to the town. Ok. To the town!". Pretty much anytime we considered doing something "unexpected", the DM would throw up "walls" to heard us down the "correct" path. We never finished that adventure. We rebelled at some point, asking what the point of an adventure is if all it really is, is a pre-determined set of encounters leading to some specific localised showdown (hmmm...that structure sounds familiar...like you're play an adventure set on some sort of path... ;) [ok, newer ones aren't THAT bad...but still not my cup o' joe for a 'normal campaign adventure']). Anyway, the DM then gave up and we all talked about it, and me and a friend showed him our "map". It was a line map, with capital letters. I think we got up to H. Each letter we has a 'prediction'...and it was true every single time. "A: NPC tells us where to go? - Correct! // B: Location is under attack? - Correct! // C: NPC of prominence, or beautiful woman, pleads for 'help'? - Correct (woman) // D: ...", we would 'predict' the next letter as soon as we got to the letter before it. H. We got all the way to H with 100% accuracy. So, yeah. I have encountered "hard-core railroading". In fact, I can think of one more, but it was in a Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set game (FASERIP) by a new'ish player who wanted to GM a game. It was...bad. Like...REALLY bad. Some people, no matter how hard they try or how hard they want to be a GM, are just [I]not[/I] cut out for it. Anyway, I have been sitting primarily in the DM's side of the screen for a good 33 to 35 of my 38 years of RPG'ing. I prefer it. So I don't get to "encounter heavy railroading" very often. When I do, it's usually a one or two session 'one-off' that a player wants to do because the DM-bug bit them or something. After the adventure they go back to being a Player because "Being a DM is too much damn work. And you guys always screw things up!", as one of my players said (maybe not verbatim, it was a while ago, but I got a chuckle out of it!). ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]
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