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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8996696" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>"Railroading" first showed up as a term to attempt to describe poor GMing styles where the players were given little agency. "PTSD" from players being on the receiving end of bad GMs tends to lead to the players having very firm opinions about what would make a good GM and a high degree of sensitivity to anything that might offend their preferences. </p><p></p><p>It's hard to get a better take on this IMO than is provided by 'Knights of the Dinner Table'. Artistic GMs are all the time trying to obtain what for them will be a more emotionally satisfying narrative experience than what typically prevails at the table. Narcistic GMs are all the time trying to get validation from the players by doing things that they think are cool and would impress them. Either tends to end up employing various railroading techniques to get what they want, leading to frustrating play experiences for the players (who to be fair, often have their own hangups and limits). BA for example wants to play a game that ends up having what he thinks will be an amazing literary transcript of play. His players on the other hand keep thwarting his intentions by being dysfunctional, and the more he tries to railroad them into what he thinks is the fun the more rebellious they become. Ironically, the stories that work best for both sides often end up starting from something spontaneous and unplanned that BA riffs on without employing his normal railroading tactics. </p><p></p><p>Dysfunctional sandboxes ("Rowboat Worlds" as I call them) do exist and they are probably even less fun than dysfunctional adventure paths ("Railroads"), and as such tables with dysfunctional sandboxes tend to just fizzle. I can think of three of them in my time as a player, and I absolutely hated them, but two only lasted like 1.5 sessions each and then no one ever wanted to play them again, and the only multi-session one I didn't realize was a sandbox until quite long into it and when I realized what the problem was I did in fact get super irritated (but mainly because by this point I had theories on why games worked or didn't and diagnosed the reason the game had not been fun as it being a dysfunctional sandbox). The thing about a Railroad is that you can enjoy it for quite some time before the limitations on your agency start to wear on you, and then typically you get angry and there is a period of animosity between the player and the GM. By this time you are already invested in the character and the game, and well, trauma happens not just boredom. Or else you go along with for a long time, and then you look back on it and remember all the DM pet NPCs and the fact that you were often observers while the DM pet NPCs did the cool stuff and rescued your pathetic characters from other DM pet NPCs and how so many of your choices were negated and you get upset about the game in hindsight (I have this trauma with 1e AD&D thieves). </p><p></p><p>With dysfunctional sandboxes I suspect the problem is people can't often put a finger on what is wrong with the game.</p><p></p><p>However, the mere fact that I have given a name to dysfunctional sandbox play just shows that there are people out there just as annoyed by it, and I think my strong distaste for highly extemporaneous GMing with low prep is also well known by this point. "Sadboxes" might even be a better name for them than "Rowboat Worlds", at least in the sense of being catchy and easy to explain.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8996696, member: 4937"] "Railroading" first showed up as a term to attempt to describe poor GMing styles where the players were given little agency. "PTSD" from players being on the receiving end of bad GMs tends to lead to the players having very firm opinions about what would make a good GM and a high degree of sensitivity to anything that might offend their preferences. It's hard to get a better take on this IMO than is provided by 'Knights of the Dinner Table'. Artistic GMs are all the time trying to obtain what for them will be a more emotionally satisfying narrative experience than what typically prevails at the table. Narcistic GMs are all the time trying to get validation from the players by doing things that they think are cool and would impress them. Either tends to end up employing various railroading techniques to get what they want, leading to frustrating play experiences for the players (who to be fair, often have their own hangups and limits). BA for example wants to play a game that ends up having what he thinks will be an amazing literary transcript of play. His players on the other hand keep thwarting his intentions by being dysfunctional, and the more he tries to railroad them into what he thinks is the fun the more rebellious they become. Ironically, the stories that work best for both sides often end up starting from something spontaneous and unplanned that BA riffs on without employing his normal railroading tactics. Dysfunctional sandboxes ("Rowboat Worlds" as I call them) do exist and they are probably even less fun than dysfunctional adventure paths ("Railroads"), and as such tables with dysfunctional sandboxes tend to just fizzle. I can think of three of them in my time as a player, and I absolutely hated them, but two only lasted like 1.5 sessions each and then no one ever wanted to play them again, and the only multi-session one I didn't realize was a sandbox until quite long into it and when I realized what the problem was I did in fact get super irritated (but mainly because by this point I had theories on why games worked or didn't and diagnosed the reason the game had not been fun as it being a dysfunctional sandbox). The thing about a Railroad is that you can enjoy it for quite some time before the limitations on your agency start to wear on you, and then typically you get angry and there is a period of animosity between the player and the GM. By this time you are already invested in the character and the game, and well, trauma happens not just boredom. Or else you go along with for a long time, and then you look back on it and remember all the DM pet NPCs and the fact that you were often observers while the DM pet NPCs did the cool stuff and rescued your pathetic characters from other DM pet NPCs and how so many of your choices were negated and you get upset about the game in hindsight (I have this trauma with 1e AD&D thieves). With dysfunctional sandboxes I suspect the problem is people can't often put a finger on what is wrong with the game. However, the mere fact that I have given a name to dysfunctional sandbox play just shows that there are people out there just as annoyed by it, and I think my strong distaste for highly extemporaneous GMing with low prep is also well known by this point. "Sadboxes" might even be a better name for them than "Rowboat Worlds", at least in the sense of being catchy and easy to explain. [/QUOTE]
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