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General Tabletop Discussion
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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="pdzoch" data-source="post: 7051683" data-attributes="member: 80982"><p>This is how I design my adventures. I only account for major decisions and the minor choices created by the players are ad-lib according to the story/setting at the time. For some encounters, especially combat encounters, I have several variation depending on the choices. These are not minor variation, but major changes in the encounter itself. </p><p></p><p> For example, I know my players like combat encounters. But I do not want to be so predictable that everything is going to turn into a combat encounter. I also do not want them to turn every situation to a combat encounter. The combat needs to come naturally in the story based on the decisions the characters make during the game. As part of my build, I want my characters to have an encounter that is an easy combat encounter. Depending on the "branches" in the story / decision of the players, that easy encounter will occur in different places in the adventure. The combat encounter may also not be the same encounter, but will be something that happens at the level of difficulty designed. One one branch, the party would encounter a band of bugbears in a den, in another branch the party would encounter instead a cabal of spies in the city, while another decision would cause them to encounter dire wolves in the woods. This assumes that these encounters are exclusive, meaning that encountering one would imply that the others would not be encounters because of the choice they took (such as the road to a castle - through the woods on one side of a castle, or through the hill country on the other side, or through the undercity sewers running beneath the castle). </p><p></p><p>I have designed more than a few encounters that never get used. Exchanging monsters in an encounter is one way for me to reduce workload while still creating a flexible dungeon design while STILL providing the combat encounter the players want.</p><p></p><p>I think the closest I've come to railroading a party could be in the adventure itself. I can only have one adventure in the can at a time. Once it's prepared, they either play it or we don't play at all. The creation of multiple adventure hooks allows them to choose their motivation of completion the adventure, which shapes a lot of decisions within the game. But the hooks are a bit of an illusion. Even though they may look different, they will all lead to the same adventure (it just may be a different starting point or path they will take to complete it).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pdzoch, post: 7051683, member: 80982"] This is how I design my adventures. I only account for major decisions and the minor choices created by the players are ad-lib according to the story/setting at the time. For some encounters, especially combat encounters, I have several variation depending on the choices. These are not minor variation, but major changes in the encounter itself. For example, I know my players like combat encounters. But I do not want to be so predictable that everything is going to turn into a combat encounter. I also do not want them to turn every situation to a combat encounter. The combat needs to come naturally in the story based on the decisions the characters make during the game. As part of my build, I want my characters to have an encounter that is an easy combat encounter. Depending on the "branches" in the story / decision of the players, that easy encounter will occur in different places in the adventure. The combat encounter may also not be the same encounter, but will be something that happens at the level of difficulty designed. One one branch, the party would encounter a band of bugbears in a den, in another branch the party would encounter instead a cabal of spies in the city, while another decision would cause them to encounter dire wolves in the woods. This assumes that these encounters are exclusive, meaning that encountering one would imply that the others would not be encounters because of the choice they took (such as the road to a castle - through the woods on one side of a castle, or through the hill country on the other side, or through the undercity sewers running beneath the castle). I have designed more than a few encounters that never get used. Exchanging monsters in an encounter is one way for me to reduce workload while still creating a flexible dungeon design while STILL providing the combat encounter the players want. I think the closest I've come to railroading a party could be in the adventure itself. I can only have one adventure in the can at a time. Once it's prepared, they either play it or we don't play at all. The creation of multiple adventure hooks allows them to choose their motivation of completion the adventure, which shapes a lot of decisions within the game. But the hooks are a bit of an illusion. Even though they may look different, they will all lead to the same adventure (it just may be a different starting point or path they will take to complete it). [/QUOTE]
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