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4e's system was the bomb. It worked great! I had a much easier time building close encounters, either with the system or by gut. It was awesome!

I think we all know how you feel about 5e's encounter and CR system. ;) But you have had some god-awful luck with DMs. I have had many DMs that can scale those encounters (the day prior once they know how many players are joining, which players are joining, etc.) without difficulty. When I...

Oh, my bad. Sorry for not reading more closely. And wow, that is even more cause to see it as odd. I get it, many campaigns fail to end. We had a fantastic 5e campaign one time, and that just fizzled out. It was sad, as the group was great, we all still wanted to play, and the DM and world were...

That is odd. I've seen both, but most of the ones I've seen start at level 1. Just goes to show how we all have different experiences.

I agree. One of my favorite campaigns was one we were TPKed. Our new characters were set 50 years into the future - and man, was it grim. The DM showed us that failing had consequences. Our old characters and any related NPC in their backstories were all tragically seen through the new...

I am going to argue against this because two hours in movie time in twenty hours in story-telling time. Think, book to movie. Hundreds of pages can sometimes equal one section or episode. Again, sorry to disagree, but this is not modern. The reaction to the of the GM to the players has been in...

Oh wow! That is rough and a bummer. Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, your gaming group now is more fun! And yes, it is interesting how powerful non-examples can be to our learning process - especially for GMing.

This was always the thing for me - no plot. I always tried to tie some of the locales together, this way something would be over-arching. It's that, or you lean really heavily into the character's story arc. So, I agree, but kind of disagree. I really don't know to tell you the truth.

I am confused. That is the definition of an RPG. Players make choices, and then the GM reacts to those choices. The DM's Guide and PHB literally state this. I am sorry, but I don't share the negative cinema viewpoint that many do. Yes, there are always plot holes, and yes, there are always...

I was responding to the definition I was given. And in that definition, there is no railroad or linear that I have seen. Per your example, did that DM let you sneak by the guards as opposed to fighting them? That could "impact the course of events," Particularly if he had the guards hear a...

I agree with you whole-heartedly. That is how it should work. But in my experience, it never is. Yes, improv is always needed for RPGs, especially the likes of D&D. And yes, sometimes it leads to fun moments. That said, it is merely happenstance that helped create that moment. It is almost never...

Do you see how you already set the pretense that not all gnolls are evil. They had a relationship, albeit strained, but it wasn't one of only "razed buildings, gnawed corpses, and befouled land." So right away, as GM, you have given yourself an out. My argument was why an exclusively evil...

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I am not saying your experience was this, but whenever I have seen something like that, it was because it was a GM that played improv style. Loved putting details in that didn't matter because it's just what they were thinking of in the moment. Used red herrings because they hadn't thought...

You obviously misread what I said. I stated all of those are decision making points by the players. Hence, they can choose to keep the gem. Now, they are the ones hunted by the mummy. They may ditch the gem then to some shady dealer. Great, the mummy still wants them dead or the GM decides...

I hear and agree, but what that really means is we need to eliminate the term all together. Because if that is the case, I have never ever played in a game, out of my 30+ years, that met the definition of linear or railroad according to you. In fact, no one has, unless you are playing with the...

I like and really appreciate this way of thinking. As someone who played Middle Earth Role Playing waaaay back in the day, and ran a campaign that had a Uruk-hai as one of the PCs, it resonates. But, and it is a BIG BUT, it doesn't work if it is not a player. If even 1/10th of your NPCs are...

The answer in the modern campaign is no. Many won't even be scared of the illithid, thinking them as more like Zoidberg from Futurama.

I feel like the reason no one can agree on the definition is because playing an RPG is not A to B to C. If it were, then there would be a lot more agreement. For example, a group found a long-lost ancient tomb through the aid of a church. Thet recovered a rare gem. They return to the city and...

So, in a railroad, if there is a path that runs through five sessions, but then depending on the choices you made in session three and five, there are two or three possible endings. That is not a railroad to you?