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I suck at "smart" play both as player and GM. It's why I'm not a very good GM of classic D&D dungeon-esque stuff. And why I loved 4e D&D.

In my view, if the bulk of play in some episode of RPGing involves the players solving a puzzle or "issue" that the GM has more-or-less unilaterally put in front of them, the play is probably pretty railroad-y. It can depend a bit on what the puzzle or issue is - if the players are mostly...

Here's my report of setting up and running a LotR/MERP game: Middle Earth/LotR RPGing using Cortex+ Heroic. One result of doing it as a RPG was that Gandalf was not as resistant to temptation/corruption as in JRRT's version.

Well, that last sentence probably points in a few interesting directions . . .

It's tricky, because it combines both an "observer" element - similar to reading or viewing - with a "participant" element - playing a character who does stuff in Middle Earth. I think this underpins some of the features of "setting"-oriented module design. Also probably "story"-oriented design...

GM presents and players interact is pretty fundamental to RPGing (except at the avant garde cutting edge). But that doesn't mean that all RPGing has to involve the GM dictating what happens. Just as a really simple example, the GM can take suggestions from the players as to what they present to...

You made me think of these two blogs: https://playsorcerer.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-interactive-toolkit-part-two-why-do-modules-suck/ https://www.arkenstonepublishing.net/isabout/2020/05/14/observations-on-gns-simulationism/#9-gm-story-hour But I also think it is possible to have a fair...

Assuming you're meaning the old White Dwarf scenario, it's a nice module, and I've converted it to Torchbearer 2e although haven't yet actually used it. But if someone (say) reads LotR, and then wants a FRPGing experience that would make them feel like they're in LotR or something similar, that...

In the version of Cortex+ that I know - Marvel Heroic RP - "plot points" don't work like you describe. They are used, primarily and in my experience overwhelmingly, as part of dice pool building and manipulating the results of a roll. Not to reroll checks or step back consequences (those require...

I've done it in 4e D&D and AD&D. In the latter case, it involves somewhat disregarding, in play, the resource-management aspects of the system (or at least downplaying them). My AD&D play in this style was with two multi-classed thief PCs.

My point is that there "pre-plotted" and "sandbox" don't exhaust the possibilities in RPGing. It's possible to have surprises, twists, arcs, story and the like without pre-plotting. Without an "established narrative" in the sense of a pre-plotted one.

Apart from anything else, it will shape the ratings that then factor into the endgame. From pp 37-38: Endgame Endgame is a climactic series of scenes that culminates with the dramatic death of the Master at the hands of a minion. It is triggered when a minion successfully resists a command from...

There are ways to get surprises, twists, endgames, meaning and story in RPGing, without pre-plotting. Maybe the person complaining about the sandbox is yearning for that possibility!

I can see what you have in mind with your last scene point. I think, though, that the same sort of reasoning can create counter-examples to your replaceable PCs point. For instance, a given group of players might play through (say) White Plume Mountain pretty much the same regardless of party...

Why not just start play with the PCs at the docks?

Good post, sensible conclusion.

My own take (and it's not really mine - it's pretty influenced by Robin Laws) is that RPGing pretty quickly expanded to include a whole lot of participants who weren't really looking for a problem-solving/wargaming experience. This was encouraged by the single-character focus, the tropes and...

Early D&D didn't advocate for railroading, though. Here is how I describe the sort of play that Gygax advocates in the "Successful Adventures" section of his PHB: it is map-and-key play where the players can (a) learn the map, and at least important bits of the key, via "exploration" (ie...

I think there is an element of this, definitely! I'm not sure what would make any candidate age a "Golden Age" for RPGing. If it's the variety of games available, then that seems like it will always be coming in the future, given (i) more and more games keep being designed and...

To me, "linear adventure" seems like a description of the way a pre-written scenario is presented: as a sequence of "scenes" or "events" that the GM hopes to present, more-or-less in order, to culminate in some intended climax. Whereas "railroad" seems like a description of an episode of actual...