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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Silverbane" data-source="post: 4572885" data-attributes="member: 38016">There's a couple of ways that I go about avoiding railroads (or making them less onerous to the players).The first thing that I do is to ask the players what sorts of things they want to do.  If the players are getting the kind of play that they want out of a campaign, they will be more willing to step on those tracks for you.  Then you can hit 'em with the train and they'll never complain once.The second thing that I do is that I try to avoid 'storytelling'.  Rather than a grand plot arc that has to progress in a certain way...  I come up with NPCs and power groups that have their own agendas.  Usually, the PCs will end up getting in the way of those power groups.  This creates conflict, which is what drives the story.The third thing that I do is to try to tailor my 'plot hooks' toward both my players and their characters.  If my player Fred puts some fantastic story elements into his background, you can be dang sure that I'm going to mine that background for things to get that character interested in the adventures to come.  Or if I know that Bob the player cannot resist rescuing a damsel in distress, regardless of the character type that he's playing, you can bet that I'm going to put some damsels in distress for him to rescue.And finally, when I just can't avoid doing some railroading to get the characters into a position that I think will make for a cool scene, I use my words to ask the players if they will go along with it.  "Guys,"  I'll say, "I know that everyone hates to be captured, but I've got this cool pirate thing that requires you to be...  You know... captured.  Can I do that?"  And, often times, we'll skip the railroady bit and just go straight to the cool...</blockquote>

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