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Answer 3: Don't trust the necromancer and use other means to verify if he has the information or not. Answer 4: Gather allies to capture the necromancer and force him to talk. Answer 5: Give a fake artifact and and try to get the info out of the necromancer before he discovers that he was...

It's not the only difference. The players can leave a linear adventure layout, override it with something else, finish the adventure in a way the DM didn't think of, etc. With linear adventures, only the adventure prep is linear, the game play doesn't have to be.

A different adventure. It's pretty easy to improvise the start of something and then prep for what you started after the everyone goes home.

Right! What if I want to go with 1+3 or 0+4? Why force me down 2+2?!

There can be 12 smart solutions to something, only 8 of which are thought of by the module writer, and 1 of which is chosen as the next step in the linear process. I agree with you that linear isn't a railroad, but I balk at the idea that the module writer is writing THE smart way to proceed...

I'm getting caught up!

Dragonlance did it as well with the super ancient and senile red dragon who thought the human refugees were her dead(I think) children. Blanking on her name at the moment.

Linear refers to the adventure, not the characters. When the DM sets up a linear adventure, the way he writes down to get from A to Z is a line. That doesn't mean that is the only way to reach the end, or that the end even has to be reached. The characters might find or forge a different...

Take out the world "feel." It doesn't matter what the players feel. It matters what is. If they players feel like they only have the one thing to do, but there are several other things that they don't think of, it doesn't become a railroad just because they feel that way. There have been...

Sure you can. A plot is like a battle strategy. It only lasts intact until contact with the enemy. Breaking the plot doesn't mean abandoning it completely. It just means the DM has to flow with the agency displayed by the player and adapt the adventure to react to player decisions, not force...

100%. In a linear adventure I can walk off of the line, create new lines, or overwrite the existing line with lines of my own. With a railroad I can do none of that.

What I do with a published adventure(not adventure path) is I plug into my already running campaign. That automatically gives the players allies, resources, etc. in the game that can be brought to bear to figure things out or lend aid in the adventure, creating new avenues that the adventure...

Speaking from experience, it doesn't matter how the DM frames things. I'm always thinking of other ways to accomplish goals. The DM can't really frame an entire adventure such that there is just one sensible thing to do, at least not without being completely ham fisted like setting up a dungeon...

There can be deviation. The plot is set up in a line, but there are other ways for you to go. You can create your own lines if you think of things the DM didn't(quite common). You can walk away from the line completely. You can push the plot in directions the DM didn't consider. You can...

Right. I have an example that shows why the DM simply having a specific end goal in mind isn't a railroad. Decades ago a buddy and I had only LARPED Vampire the Masquerade. We hadn't played the sit down version. One of the three Los Angeles game conventions arrived and we decided to enter...

That's just simply untrue. As the DM, I'm responding to the player's vision, not my own. I have no vision for how things should turn out. I just have the world respond to the things that they do and their vision runs the game.

There's no illusionism going on there. It's clear that the group has no choice and is being forced down a path, so no illusion of choice is happening. The illusion of choice would be something instead of the rioter blocking the path, the DM has the players roll for various things until they...

What if after getting one orb the players decide not to get the other two?

What is or is not a railroad doesn't change with preferred playstyle. @pemerton may feel more constrained by a traditional playstyle than with his preferred style, but more constrained =/= forced down a single path that the DM wants you on with no way to change anything or get off the rail. We...

It's not true.