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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 7051338" data-attributes="member: 6802765"><p>There are other metrics for making decisions besides "impartial adjudication" that aren't railroading. Here are some examples:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would be more fun?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would interest the particular players who are losing focus?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would tie this detail to a dangling plot thread?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would tie this detail more firmly into the game world?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would adjust the energy level at the table in the preferred direction?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would set the desired tone of the scene?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would tie this detail to a PC's backstory?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would help distribute spotlight time more evenly?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would prompt an under-used skill check?</li> </ul><p>None of these are impartial, and all of them involve personal preference (or at least, personal style). And yet none of them involve railroading.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There is the important caveat that the choice in question had to be a significant one. If the party chose a particular fork in the hope of avoiding the witch, then having them encounter her regardless could be railroading. But if the choice of path was utterly arbitrary in the first place, placing the witch on the chosen path doesn't frustrate the party's choice. In other words, if the players weren't <em>trying</em> to have an "impact on the next step of the adventure" at that moment then it isn't railroading to prevent them from having one.</p><p></p><p>For example, if a party is exploring a dungeon they haven't scouted and have no knowledge of, and are thus deciding which hallway to take at random, it isn't railroading to use a mirror image layout of dungeon instead of the original, since which way the party went was chance anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xetheral, post: 7051338, member: 6802765"] There are other metrics for making decisions besides "impartial adjudication" that aren't railroading. Here are some examples: [List][*]What would be more fun? [*]What would interest the particular players who are losing focus? [*]What would tie this detail to a dangling plot thread? [*]What would tie this detail more firmly into the game world?[*]What would adjust the energy level at the table in the preferred direction? [*]What would set the desired tone of the scene?[*]What would tie this detail to a PC's backstory? [*]What would help distribute spotlight time more evenly? [*]What would prompt an under-used skill check?[/list] None of these are impartial, and all of them involve personal preference (or at least, personal style). And yet none of them involve railroading. There is the important caveat that the choice in question had to be a significant one. If the party chose a particular fork in the hope of avoiding the witch, then having them encounter her regardless could be railroading. But if the choice of path was utterly arbitrary in the first place, placing the witch on the chosen path doesn't frustrate the party's choice. In other words, if the players weren't [i]trying[/i] to have an "impact on the next step of the adventure" at that moment then it isn't railroading to prevent them from having one. For example, if a party is exploring a dungeon they haven't scouted and have no knowledge of, and are thus deciding which hallway to take at random, it isn't railroading to use a mirror image layout of dungeon instead of the original, since which way the party went was chance anyway. [/QUOTE]
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