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How Do You Get Your Players To Stay On An Adventure Path?
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<blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 6725281" data-attributes="member: 913"><p>It's not a drive-by. While I may not have as much time to participate in this discussion as other people, I'm still here. And it's not a straw man, it's an observation. I've seen a scenario where a vengeful pirate tracks down the party described as a railroad. In fact, I've seen just about every scenario where actions come and find the PCs described as a railroad. Therefore, the only way to have a not-railroad is to not let anything effect the PCs except things under their direct sphere of influence, hence, the logical conclusion is that some sort of stasis warp prevents things outside that sphere from actually doing anything.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure. But at the same time the DM could certainly create a PnP game with several ongoing plots that have real impacts on the PCs without it becoming a railroad. For a completely contrived and trite example, say Kingdom A and Kingdom B are close to war and provocateurs of Kingdom C are rabble-rousing in Kingdom A trying to get the war started. No matter where the players go in Kingdom A, they have the potential to see the effects of Kingdom C's agents. If they ignore it, the effects get worse, until eventually Kingdom A and B are at war and if the players have any interest in preventing war they will become embroiled in the "plot". Is that a railroad? It seems like a dynamic world to me, not a railroad, but from reading some of the replies here, I get the feeling people believe it is.</p><p></p><p>The only reason this even matters is because people seem to have some sort of aversion to railroading. Like it's a big deal that the DM might participate in the game by providing interesting options for the players. Here's a question... if the players aren't trying to avoid something, does it really matter if they don't avoid it? In one of the hypothetical scenarios here, if the players don't know if a tower is down the left or right path, does it really matter if the DM decides to place a tower in their way regardless of which path they choose? </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The only meaningful choice is an informed choice. Why does it matter if the PC's discover a plot by randomly happening upon it at the right time and right place, as opposed to having the DM place the discovery in their path? I don't think it does, and I think the distinction is pointless.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Schmoe, post: 6725281, member: 913"] It's not a drive-by. While I may not have as much time to participate in this discussion as other people, I'm still here. And it's not a straw man, it's an observation. I've seen a scenario where a vengeful pirate tracks down the party described as a railroad. In fact, I've seen just about every scenario where actions come and find the PCs described as a railroad. Therefore, the only way to have a not-railroad is to not let anything effect the PCs except things under their direct sphere of influence, hence, the logical conclusion is that some sort of stasis warp prevents things outside that sphere from actually doing anything. Sure. But at the same time the DM could certainly create a PnP game with several ongoing plots that have real impacts on the PCs without it becoming a railroad. For a completely contrived and trite example, say Kingdom A and Kingdom B are close to war and provocateurs of Kingdom C are rabble-rousing in Kingdom A trying to get the war started. No matter where the players go in Kingdom A, they have the potential to see the effects of Kingdom C's agents. If they ignore it, the effects get worse, until eventually Kingdom A and B are at war and if the players have any interest in preventing war they will become embroiled in the "plot". Is that a railroad? It seems like a dynamic world to me, not a railroad, but from reading some of the replies here, I get the feeling people believe it is. The only reason this even matters is because people seem to have some sort of aversion to railroading. Like it's a big deal that the DM might participate in the game by providing interesting options for the players. Here's a question... if the players aren't trying to avoid something, does it really matter if they don't avoid it? In one of the hypothetical scenarios here, if the players don't know if a tower is down the left or right path, does it really matter if the DM decides to place a tower in their way regardless of which path they choose? The only meaningful choice is an informed choice. Why does it matter if the PC's discover a plot by randomly happening upon it at the right time and right place, as opposed to having the DM place the discovery in their path? I don't think it does, and I think the distinction is pointless. [/QUOTE]
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How Do You Get Your Players To Stay On An Adventure Path?
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