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<blockquote data-quote="Mort" data-source="post: 8697040" data-attributes="member: 762">Railroading is the elimination of player choice. Generally added to the definition is that it is the unwilling or unknowing elimination of that choice (though not everyone, even in this thread, is adding the second bit).It's bad because players like their choices, to the extent available, to matter. If their choices don't matter, why are they pretending to make them? They may as well sit back and allow the DM to narrate the story to them from beginning to end.Now, pretty much all players accept SOME level of choice limitation. If you're playing a module/or published adventure the players generally agree to stay within the confines of the module. If the players are playing a pirate game/adventure they generally agree to stay within that genre.Given that, many players expect that the choices they ARE given are real choices and that they can affect the outcome of the game in some meaningful way. Railroading means the players are not actually doing that. That, however it may appear, the DM has the story pre-planned and the player's choice doesn't factor in. The most extreme being, the DM has essentially written the entire story and the PCs are just being pushed through it with no agency whatever.For many people, the point of gaming is to have the story EMERGE (be created) during play. The extreme end of railroading is that the story is set/fixed and the DM is merely REVEALING the story during play.The later is anathema to players who want to shape the story, doubly so when they think they are helping shape it only to discover that it was, in fact, fixed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mort, post: 8697040, member: 762"] Railroading is the elimination of player choice. Generally added to the definition is that it is the unwilling or unknowing elimination of that choice (though not everyone, even in this thread, is adding the second bit). It's bad because players like their choices, to the extent available, to matter. If their choices don't matter, why are they pretending to make them? They may as well sit back and allow the DM to narrate the story to them from beginning to end. Now, pretty much all players accept SOME level of choice limitation. If you're playing a module/or published adventure the players generally agree to stay within the confines of the module. If the players are playing a pirate game/adventure they generally agree to stay within that genre. Given that, many players expect that the choices they ARE given are real choices and that they can affect the outcome of the game in some meaningful way. Railroading means the players are not actually doing that. That, however it may appear, the DM has the story pre-planned and the player's choice doesn't factor in. The most extreme being, the DM has essentially written the entire story and the PCs are just being pushed through it with no agency whatever. For many people, the point of gaming is to have the story EMERGE (be created) during play. The extreme end of railroading is that the story is set/fixed and the DM is merely REVEALING the story during play. The later is anathema to players who want to shape the story, doubly so when they think they are helping shape it only to discover that it was, in fact, fixed. [/QUOTE]

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