How Much of a Railroader Are You?

[eyebeams]

Here's how I railroad things. I tell my players something like, "You guys are kind of spinning your wheels here. How about we go here instead?" If the story isn't moving them, then I don't mind taking it out of the game to see how we can get some forward motion back into the narrative.

 

[arscott]

In my regularly running campaign, my players work for an agency that assigns them tasks. The agency also provides guidelines about what methods they consider inappropriate (i.e. "and no grenades!").

There's a certain amount of railroading in that, but it's very upfront. It's part of the basic player buy in--in the same category as what system you're using, what house rules you have, and so forth.

I rely too much on preparation to be completely Freeform. I can (and usually do) handle players going in very different directions than I expected, but I still have to have some kind of planned story progress for the characters to deviate from.

 

[shilsen]

I never railroad. My players know that they're free to do just about anything they want and take the game in any direction. All of their choices have repercussions, but I never push them to make a particular one. It requires a lot more flexibility on my part, since they do things like suddenly leave for a different continent because things got hot for them, right as we were in the middle of half a dozen plotlines where they were located, but it's a lot more satisfying for me.

 

[C.W.Richeson]

I disagree with the poll in that I don't find a complete lack of railroading to ever lead to disaster. I throw out a bunch of plot hooks and we see where that goes, it always leads somewhere interesting.

 

[Dyir]

I railroad all the time, but the tracks are invisible. My players generally willingly follow the "hook of the week" but after that they railroad themselves. See, I've been playing with pretty much the same group for almost a decade (since high school) and they're by best friends, and I've gotten pretty good at predicting their actions in real-life...so i just extend that into the game. If I want the players to do X, i just set it up in such a way that i know that so-and-so's personality will compel them to do just that. It's taken years to get to this point, but now it's fun for me to watch them behave consistently in a manner that (without their knowledge) propels the plot forward.

 

[kensanata]

I have an overarching plot (Kitsunemori has an old evil God being resurrected by evil clerics all over the place), but from session to session, there's are always the current main plot (currently: figure out what's controlling Onishi castle) and several subplots (currently: find the mage Morioka, join or fight the rebellion, join or fight the bandits, find out what the necromancer Manabu is up to, find out how the Kawa merchants came by so much of Hitoshi's poultice, allowing them to expand their logging operations).

At the end of the last session, when they had defeated the bandit Musashi for the second time, I asked them whether they wanted to focus on the stronghold they had conquered, or whether they wanted to return to the nearest city, and I prepared accordingly.

The key is to not prepare too much ahead of time. A lot of that will go to waste.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

What do you call it when the players board the train, sit down, look at the DM, and ask, "Where are we going today?"

That happens a lot in my group.

Heh. Yup. Me too.

For my last game, They were freelancers who took odd jobs. I gave them loose situations and let them deal with it. That's my preferred GMing style.

For this game, when we were figuring out what to play, my players had a couple demands.

1. We need to be controlled. There must be a organization (government, company, military, etc) that we are all a part of (to cut down on the murdering each other), who gives us orders and missions (to make our plots very easy to find).

2. We need a clear and obvious enemy. Something we can all agree must die. Preferably so we can take it's stuff (aliens, zombies, etc).

 

[Seeker95]

Flawed Poll

This poll is a three-choice poll inappropriately split into four choices. The choices for Sometimes and Rarely are identical in content.

Sometimes: If I put effort into a plot, I expect the players to go for it.
Rarely: If the players are going way in the wrong direction, I'll prod them.

These are not mutually exclusive choices. They essentially say the same thing:
If I put effort into a plot, and the players are going way in the wrong direction, I expect the players to go for it, and I will prod them.

That more folks have chosen "Rarely" over "Sometimes" is more a reflection of the view of the word "railroading" than a difference in these choices. More players view "railroading" as negative, and the "rarely" choice gives the impression that I am doing it less than the person who chooses "sometimes".

At the time I write this, your poll results are:
Always: 5 (8%)
When Necessary: 40 (77%)
Never: 10 (15%)

Conclusion: People "railroad" when it is necessary.

 

[Gilladian]

Last week, my PCs had failed to bite on a lead I was offering them. They were afraid the adventure would be too tough for them, as there are only 2 PCs and two lower level NPCs. I finally stepped out of the game and said "Look, I don't want to kill you pointlessly - this adventure is not going to be too tough for you just by its very exisitence." So they stopped fretting and decided that yes, their characters were interested in finding out what the Firelord and his minions had behind the mysterious blue door.

And the first real fight nearly toasted them! But they're having a blast. If they'd refused the adventure, the rest of the night would have been random encounters and a fairly bland arrival in a village where the next story arc will be offered to them. Now they have a chance to arrive in the village as heroes, or maybe they'll choose to leave the dungeon in their current wounded state and forget about the rest of the fire demons. I don't mind either way...

 

[Black Spiral Dancer]

Is there an "Other" option?

I usually am willing to discuss outside of the game what the players want to do. If there is a particular creature they want to encounter, I'll make sure it happens in some way. I've recently asked my players if the are willing to go along if I run Expedition to Ravenloft... and everyone is really excited. I don't give away everything, but I let them know where I'm going with a particular plot. They have yet to refuse a plot hook.