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<blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 8695388" data-attributes="member: 23751">Choice is the key, not whether something matters or not.&nbsp; The players had the choice to chat up the NPC or not. If the NPCs doesn't have any information for them to go on and it ends with nothing mattering, their choice was still honored.&nbsp; They had agency.Now, if while talking to the insignificant NPCs they discover that he's a farrier and one of the PCs has an aha! moment and says, &quot;I need some horseshoes made of fairy steel for a magic item I'm going to have made, would you introduce me to the blacksmith?&quot; and the DM says no in order to force the players back towards the plot that the DM wants them to engage with, THAT would be railroading.&nbsp; He's shutting down agency in order to see his own agenda done.&nbsp; If on the other hand he knows that the farrier really doesn't do favors for people and a diplomacy check fails and he says no, then it's not railroading for him to refuse that connection.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Maxperson, post: 8695388, member: 23751"] Choice is the key, not whether something matters or not. The players had the choice to chat up the NPC or not. If the NPCs doesn't have any information for them to go on and it ends with nothing mattering, their choice was still honored. They had agency. Now, if while talking to the insignificant NPCs they discover that he's a farrier and one of the PCs has an aha! moment and says, "I need some horseshoes made of fairy steel for a magic item I'm going to have made, would you introduce me to the blacksmith?" and the DM says no in order to force the players back towards the plot that the DM wants them to engage with, THAT would be railroading. He's shutting down agency in order to see his own agenda done. If on the other hand he knows that the farrier really doesn't do favors for people and a diplomacy check fails and he says no, then it's not railroading for him to refuse that connection. [/QUOTE]

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