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Railroading is bad?
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<blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 2343348" data-attributes="member: 8944"><p>See, many players would consider that railroading. Many will even consider it railroading if you merely enforce the logical consequences of their in-game decisions. Fortunately, that "many" is not "most." </p><p></p><p>Railroading can be a lot of things... </p><p></p><p>In my experience, in a "high stakes game" (setting doesn't particularly matter, but I consider "high stakes" to be any game where the characters actions, decisions, successes, and failures affect the fate of the known world) "railroading" has to become a great deal more common. If your characters inadvertently let the King or President (or whatever) die/get kidnapped, the chances of getting aid from that person's allies are essentially nil for the rest of the game. It's like like approaching a fork in the railroad. Purposefully or not, the train has taken a left turn, and it can't just jump back onto the right track. It's heading in that direction, and there's very little that the characters can do to go back to their previous "track." </p><p></p><p>Now, the above is just one example, but it illustrates that *my* experience with "railroading" has most often been a complaint about the consequences of poor/unlucky decisions, rather than any malicious story-sticklerism by the DM. If you dump the woman who turns out to be the Queen in the first adventure (or tell her she's ugly, or get caught with a different girl), perhaps one should not be surprised when (no matter what you do) she's not all that thrilled about marrying you when it turns out you're the most suitable dynastic match. </p><p></p><p>Now, I'd consider those things railroading. Certainly, they don't give the players unlimited ability to affect the path of the story. However, despite hyperbole to the contrary, it doesn't take it away either. The fact is, if you plan to emphasize *story* in any way in an RPG, some reasonable limit has to be made as to when and how the players can "change direction." Railroads are always on track, but tracks can and *do* split.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The_Universe, post: 2343348, member: 8944"] See, many players would consider that railroading. Many will even consider it railroading if you merely enforce the logical consequences of their in-game decisions. Fortunately, that "many" is not "most." Railroading can be a lot of things... In my experience, in a "high stakes game" (setting doesn't particularly matter, but I consider "high stakes" to be any game where the characters actions, decisions, successes, and failures affect the fate of the known world) "railroading" has to become a great deal more common. If your characters inadvertently let the King or President (or whatever) die/get kidnapped, the chances of getting aid from that person's allies are essentially nil for the rest of the game. It's like like approaching a fork in the railroad. Purposefully or not, the train has taken a left turn, and it can't just jump back onto the right track. It's heading in that direction, and there's very little that the characters can do to go back to their previous "track." Now, the above is just one example, but it illustrates that *my* experience with "railroading" has most often been a complaint about the consequences of poor/unlucky decisions, rather than any malicious story-sticklerism by the DM. If you dump the woman who turns out to be the Queen in the first adventure (or tell her she's ugly, or get caught with a different girl), perhaps one should not be surprised when (no matter what you do) she's not all that thrilled about marrying you when it turns out you're the most suitable dynastic match. Now, I'd consider those things railroading. Certainly, they don't give the players unlimited ability to affect the path of the story. However, despite hyperbole to the contrary, it doesn't take it away either. The fact is, if you plan to emphasize *story* in any way in an RPG, some reasonable limit has to be made as to when and how the players can "change direction." Railroads are always on track, but tracks can and *do* split. [/QUOTE]
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