Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8694512" data-attributes="member: 5889">I can answer this for you as a longtime DM.There are two main reasons:1) Older players with Real Lives: So one of the things I have noticed in my games as the years have gone on, as my players have gotten older, gotten jobs and families.... they just don't have the mental energy they once did. I have done &quot;open sandbox&quot; games with them, and what I find is that giving them a bevy of choices tends to create decision paralysis, infighting, and slows down the game. What normally happens is one player just makes a choice and everyone goes along with it.conversely my most successful campaigns have been my &quot;mission focused&quot; ones. Ie the players are a part of some organization, they have a boss that goes &quot;alright team, your mission is....&quot;. Aka I put them on a railroad, here is where you are going and what you are doing. And they love it, it removes any infighting, any debating, they just get right into the roleplaying and the action.2) Limited DM time: Likewise as I've gotten older, my time and mental energy are limited as well. Now I can spend that time crafting a dozen options to try and account for player choices....each of which only get a small portion of my time and creativity, or I can focus my energies on 2-3 encounters I know they will encounter (because of the railroad), each of which will be much more involved and interesting because I've put my full mind to their creation.Now the key here is the matter of degrees. There is railroading and there is RAILROADING. I may be forcing some of the plot points, but that doesn't mean I don't have an NPC pivot due to my player's roleplaying, or change up a dungeon if my players take 3 days to do the job instead of 1. My players still have agency, they just don't have TOTAL agency. The covenant is effectively....I will be limiting some of your agency, and in return, we will get more time in for gaming (rather than debating), and the encounters you have will be more interesting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8694512, member: 5889"] I can answer this for you as a longtime DM. There are two main reasons: 1) Older players with Real Lives: So one of the things I have noticed in my games as the years have gone on, as my players have gotten older, gotten jobs and families.... they just don't have the mental energy they once did. I have done "open sandbox" games with them, and what I find is that giving them a bevy of choices tends to create decision paralysis, infighting, and slows down the game. What normally happens is one player just makes a choice and everyone goes along with it. conversely my most successful campaigns have been my "mission focused" ones. Ie the players are a part of some organization, they have a boss that goes "alright team, your mission is....". Aka I put them on a railroad, here is where you are going and what you are doing. And they love it, it removes any infighting, any debating, they just get right into the roleplaying and the action. 2) Limited DM time: Likewise as I've gotten older, my time and mental energy are limited as well. Now I can spend that time crafting a dozen options to try and account for player choices....each of which only get a small portion of my time and creativity, or I can focus my energies on 2-3 encounters I know they will encounter (because of the railroad), each of which will be much more involved and interesting because I've put my full mind to their creation. Now the key here is the matter of degrees. There is railroading and there is RAILROADING. I may be forcing some of the plot points, but that doesn't mean I don't have an NPC pivot due to my player's roleplaying, or change up a dungeon if my players take 3 days to do the job instead of 1. My players still have agency, they just don't have TOTAL agency. The covenant is effectively....I will be limiting some of your agency, and in return, we will get more time in for gaming (rather than debating), and the encounters you have will be more interesting. [/QUOTE]

Verification