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I'm down with railroading when everyone's in agreement on it. Typically, the term is utilized as a pejorative, and I've never seen someone describe a wonderful GM as a railroader. Anecdotes to the contrary may exist. For what it's worth, my husband doesn't even like steak. He prefers...

Daily do I mourn Blackleaf the thief's passing by cruel GM dictates. I have long studied the dark arts to obtain the True Power, and now that I have advanced to name level, it is within my grasp. Blackleaf shall not have died in vain!

Railroading is nonetheless a pejorative, and it nonetheless rests upon denial of player agency through forcing outcomes. I suppose there's no accounting for taste. Given the nature of the Internet, a steak could have the taste and texture of cowhide and someone would come along to tell me how...

It's A) and B) simultaneously: Railroading is a practice that negates player agency. Forcing a preferred outcome negates player agency. Railroading describes the practice of forcing an outcome that thereby negates player agency. Player agency is as real as the GM permits in D&D, and yes, there...

I too have witnessed the rare and wondrous Chick Tract in real life. Chick Tract Wondrous item, uncommon This small pamphlet is filled with goofy artwork and religious scripture. Upon reading it, the viewer must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or believe that niche games that involve dice and...

If being flogged is unpleasant, why do some men pay good money to suffer the cat o' nine tails? :sneaky: Participationism is not the same as railroading, as laid out in the initial post.

@Scott Christian, when you say that: Railroading negates player agency, which is precisely the point. @pemerton laid out an excellent analysis on how railroads function: the negation and manipulation of the game (mechanically and fictionally) to ensure a specific outcome. DMs have been...

Look, I get that players exhibit negative behaviors at the table, but it's not railroading. Railroading refers to GMing behavior, not player behavior. It's like saying that a referee plays the game. Referees officiate the game. Players play.

No, because railroading refers to a campaign being "on rails," as in, you're on a train and it's on the tracks, and the intracontinental express running from New York to California is fixed, unchangeable, choo-choo, all-aboard. A loud player can't "railroad" others because it's the GM who sets...

Tradition defines things. Without tradition, there is only a collection of individual elements that happen to coexist. D&D sans tradition is just an RPG that rolls a d20 for task resolution.

Railroading describes GM behavior, not player behavior. This is a misappropriates of terminology. Players cannot "railroad" because they lack the power to do so. They can be disruptive, they can be jerks, they can derail the game, but they cannot railroad. Dogs bark. Cats meow. GMs railroad...

Until the campus closes down and the high score is wiped for all time. (HOLES! I NEED HOLES.)

I've imagined force damage as magical bludgeoning damage. If it is "pure magical energy," I think viewing it as "magic damage" or "arcane damage" would be more accurate. It is damage that transcends the material form.

Mouseguard would be right up your alley, I think. Repurposing the exhaustion track in 5e might do as you desire. I'm buying what you're selling, oft pondering this myself, but I've never settled on a satisfactory answer. You're ultimately rewriting the D&D system from scratch, and I think...

@Ovinomancer, the rest schedule is a matter of mechanical definition: we are resting for 60 minutes to gain the benefits of a short rest. It doesn't rely on gaming the GM in the way that verbalizing an idea so that the GM perceives it favorably. Likewise, my point with the Inspiration example is...

I'm not interested in "arguing" anything, but I'm even less interested in arguing something that is entirely subjective and determined by the GM's whimsy. Manipulating a rest schedule to maximize resources before a battle uses the game's system. Doing a funny bit, making the GM laugh, and...

I would say that skilled play in 5e can include the elements you have discussed, but it's a "ymmv" territory.

I agree with @Ovinomancer that the assumption that 4e can only be played in one way whereas older editions were fun, freewheeling adventure games is disingenuous. 4e is certainly more structured and directed around a certain style of play, but the rules of older editions created their own...

Yes, leveraging the fiction is an example of skillful play, one that coincides with the OSR notion of player skill. This is something I didn't consider. I suppose you are correct. I retract my earlier statements.

I played D&D 3e. I loved it. I also hate it for its innumerable flaws, but I'm the kind of weirdo who loves something hard enough to want it not to suck. 3e is like a drug to me. I'm sober and clean for many years now, but boy, do I get a hankering every so often to return to that grimey back...