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Sure you can. You just need to layout the different kind of gaming scenarios first, and worry about what kind of labels to assign them much later. But if the purpose of the topic is to get collective agreement on the exact boundaries of a particular use of terminology (like "railroad"), then...

Assuming a sandbox is going to have an embedded narrative is a pretty large leap. Basically, you're saying that Disney World and an African safari are the same thing as long as you never get out of the jeep.

I don't know, that could just one of those low-energy "Casual DMs" (tm). :)

Feel free to qualify if you disagree, of course. I feel like my posts are aggravating you for some reason, but I'm not sure why.

I mean, I think they're useful distinctions because they speak to a GM's mindset and design practices, much more so than specific rules implementations. If a GM wants a game to end up somewhere and be a railroad, it can very hard to avoid unless the game's resolution method has very hard...

I just think the length of the game is generally a good proxy for the amount of overall decision space and branching that the system allows. For a game with a relatively low amount of branching (like in a short game), the impact of knowing the destination is lessened because we started play...

Yea, I just don't think the term "railroad" has a lot of salience for those "short blast" games, or something like Honey Heist and other one-pagers. It's like, you could technically define a tree as an invertebrate, but it's so unnecessary it's just pretty much incorrect. Same kind of deal...

I would probably need to see the game setup to be sure. I'm not saying it's impossible (at least in how I visualize the term), but anything pre-determined to be an end scene at game start makes me lean hard in that direction. Also, if the players feel like they've demonstrated a strong amount...

The "I have certain scenes prepped, and I will introduce massive friction if the players attempt to go in any other direction" is definitely one of the worst kinds of illusionistic practices.

I don't consider that railroading. Lots of games have limited premises that require buy-in by the group. An expected, planned finale would indicate to me that this is a railroad. Nope, that falls in with the earlier point about limited premise buy-in. It's why I think it's important to...

I mean, you can determine your personal usage of the term in whatever manner you prefer. (As I am!) I don't think a game needs to allow the player maximal freedom, such that they can setting or genre hop, to not be a railroad. A "non-railroad game" simply needs to have a non-defined endgame.

But that's why I don't like that usage; it camouflages the fact that having choices as a player doesn't mean the overall game doesn't have an expected endpoint (i.e. a railroad). There's lots of choices on a railroad! There are dozens of cars and hundreds of seats. I can sit by myself or try...

No. Notice I said that the DM knows what's going to happen in the end, like an adventure path. The DM framing a new complication in the next scene is just how to play standard RPGs! If the DM knows the game is going to go from 1st to 10th level, and that the PCs are going to track down the...

I'm always in favor of concise, recognizable terminology. Getting there, though.... :) My personal definitions: 1) "Railroad" is a game designed around reaching a certain endpoint. It goes from A -> Z. The fact that the route might bypass some points, or have a decision point in the...

Have you never played a game where you simply start the characters in a situation and just see what happens?

I would generalize further and say that any campaign that starts with the GM having an endpoint in mind (barring a TPK) is a railroad. Lots of games are railroads. Pretty much every adventure path you purchase is a railroad. Baldur's Gate 3, for all of its rightfully vaunted freedom (within a...

Yes, but isn't erroneous to point out that the conventional wisdom in the 1990s, which the Forge theories were written to rebut, was that the DM should be in complete control of the story. RPG design was pretty ossified around the turn of the century; the Forge was just one of the many...

This point is salient. Generally, the narrative that a peaceful healer can also one-shot an ogre just because they're in paragon tier may not be one you want to present. When I ran 4e a second time, I modified minions to have a shared health pool. 4 minions would have hit points equivalent to...

1) You pick a playbook, such as Devout Acolyte, Fae Foundling, or New Guardsman. Each playbook specifies a specific class for your character (either Warrior, Rogue, Mage, or a multiclass). The playbook will also specify a starting array of stats, usually 8s and some 10s or a 12. 2) The...

I mean, part of the point of being young is to ignore restraints and push boundaries. If you're in the position of thinking "actually, some constraint and restriction would be good here", you might just be too old (or in a more adult state of mind) to play with young people. In my experience...