D&D General Why defend railroading?

[Cadence]

It isn't about them having time to prepare and think about it. It is about whether I am railroading them to them inn.

So so your parties find dungeons in ways other than: (a) happening to trigger pre-planned conditions to give them information about the dungeon, (b) having sought out information about places of interest, or (c) bumbling across them in there preset location on the map?

What is the biggest difference between having (a) and having a DM not an where the dungeons.fo.in advance and putting it in a he's the party is travelling through but allowing them to bypass it if desires.

Changing them by party level is a preference issue. I personally don't. I like having threats that can be all over the map in terms of power levels. I never cared for dungeon levels being keyed in that way either.

Following up with (c) above as well as random.encounters, how do you avoid a lot of low level TPKs? Do the dungeons appropriate for the high level characters always telegraph they're going to be high level, not have traps appropriate for high level parties, and not have monsters that pursue flee-ers? Do the high level random tables not include predators that would just eat a low level party?

 

[Cadence]

I don’t follow your meaning

Is it different if there is a reason the door you open seems to be the one the DM might want you to pick? (Like the dungeon has a giant hallway switching device, or has a mind of its own)

 

[Fenris-77]

Players are who should avoid TPKs, not DMs.

 

[Cadence]

The poster has stated this is what he is doing in the hypothetical

I went back and didn't find where the GM told the players that the GM was altering locations... or is that not what you meant?

In any case, assuming the DM didn:t say so and that the chance if random encounters was reasonably large, how would the players know the DM dropped in an ogre or haunted hut that was preplanned on whatever path the party was taking instead of randomly rolling it?

 

[Cadence]

Players are who should avoid TPKs, not DMs.

The context was (in part) not having random encounter tables segregated by level.

How does the low level party avoid a TPK when the DM randomly rolls adult red dragon, or 1d6 frost giants, or purple worm, or demon lord (or whatever else might challenge a high level party).

 

[Bedrockgames]

Following up with (c) above as well as random.encounters, how do you avoid a lot of low level TPKs? Do the dungeons appropriate for the high level characters always telegraph they're going to be high level, not have traps appropriate for high level parties, and not have monsters that pursue flee-ers? Do the high level random tables not include predators that would just eat a low level party?

Cadence just an FYI: I am not going to answer a long line of questions like that for the other responses in your post.

But this one: TPKs can happen. But not every threat wants to kill them utterly. It does depend on the game. My supernatural horror campaigns tend to have more TPKs (they aren’t sandboxes though). my wuxia campaigns are human centric and even the monsters are more human like. Individual characters due but TPKs are more rare because it’s rare you have a foe bent on wiping out the party. But I am not particularly precious about keeping characters alive. I feel a lot of the excitement in play is the risk of Pc death.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I went back and didn't find where the GM told the players that the GM was altering locations... or is that not what you meant?

he told us. We know. That was my point. We know objectively he is shifting things so they happen no matter what the players choose

 

[Don Durito]

The context was (in part) not having random encounter tables segregated by level.

How does the low level party avoid a TPK when the DM randomly rolls adult red dragon, or 1d6 frost giants, or purple worm, or demon lord (or whatever else might challenge a high level party).

By segregating them by location, making clear which locations are more dangerous and finally by not having an encounter necessarily mean a combat.

 

[Bedrockgames]

In any case, assuming the DM didn:t say so and that the chance if random encounters was reasonably large, how would the players know the DM dropped in an ogre or haunted hut that was preplanned on whatever path the party was taking instead of randomly rolling it?

It just becomes obvious over time when the GM is always forcing you to face what he or she has selected. And it becomes obvious when choices like which door to go through, doesn’t matter. Maybe he is so good the players don’t notice. I tend to think they would eventually. But I still think on principle it isn’t fair to the players to let them think their choice of which door to take matters, when in actuality it doesn’t. If you are honest about it and the players are happy with it, I don’t think it is a problem. It is still railroading but it is a case of railroading the players have at least signed up for

 

[Cadence]

Cadence just an FYI: I am not going to answer a long line of questions like that for the other responses in your post.

But this one: TPKs can happen. But not every threat wants to kill them utterly. It does depend on the game. My supernatural horror campaigns tend to have more TPKs (they aren’t sandboxes though). my wuxia campaigns are human centric and even the monsters are more human like. Individual characters due but TPKs are more rare because it’s rare you have a foe bent on wiping out the party. But I am not particularly precious about keeping characters alive. I feel a lot of the excitement in play is the risk of Pc death.

One of my favorite games ever was in the 80s and had 1/3rd or so of the 1st level characters die every night. It was a blast. It wasn't a game we bothered coming up with much if any background or motivation for our character beyond alignment.

At some point too little threat of death does take a lot of the excitement out for me. To much takes out any real investment in them as characters (as opposed to something akin to trying to get a high score in a particular play of a video game).