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Avoiding Railroading - Forked Thread: Do you play more for the story or the combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4587093" data-attributes="member: 386"><p>What I'm saying is that if the players decide that their PCs don't want to go into the Tomb of the Ancient Lich King and decide to head to the Haunted Forest to deal with the ogre threat, putting the Tomb of the Ancient Lich King in the Haunted Forest is taking that choice they made and ignoring it.</p><p></p><p>Illusionism enters the picture when you pretend that the choice the players made had an impact on the game when it didn't. It wouldn't be Illusionism if you said, "Hey guys, I don't feel like making another dungeon. I'm going to run this one for you no matter where you go."</p><p></p><p>edit: Let's use an example from my game.</p><p></p><p>We're playing Thunderspire Labyrinth and I drew up a little dungeon in it. It's dangerous but high reward. It's an old minotaur crypt dedicated to Baphomet in the Shadowfell.</p><p></p><p>The PCs encountered the gate and the players decided that the PCs wanted to pass by. They did not want to go in there - not yet, at any rate.</p><p></p><p>In prep for the last game, I drew up a lair - three encounters - and inserted it on the Random Encounter table. When that lair came up on the random encounter roll, I started running it. The players had the choice to just walk on by, though their quarry was within, so they chose to engage it. (The random encounter was the result of a failed tracking check.)</p><p></p><p>If I had put the tomb there, despite the fact that the players decided they did not want to go into the tomb, and I didn't tell them that I was going to run the tomb no matter what, that's Illusionism. (It wouldn't be if I told them that I wrote up the tomb and I was going to use it no matter what.)</p><p></p><p>I think Illusionism is bad and I think it makes you a bad DM if you use that technique. It might not be bad if the players know that you are using illusionist techniques and are okay with it, but I don't know if I'd call that Illusionism.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LostSoul, post: 4587093, member: 386"] What I'm saying is that if the players decide that their PCs don't want to go into the Tomb of the Ancient Lich King and decide to head to the Haunted Forest to deal with the ogre threat, putting the Tomb of the Ancient Lich King in the Haunted Forest is taking that choice they made and ignoring it. Illusionism enters the picture when you pretend that the choice the players made had an impact on the game when it didn't. It wouldn't be Illusionism if you said, "Hey guys, I don't feel like making another dungeon. I'm going to run this one for you no matter where you go." edit: Let's use an example from my game. We're playing Thunderspire Labyrinth and I drew up a little dungeon in it. It's dangerous but high reward. It's an old minotaur crypt dedicated to Baphomet in the Shadowfell. The PCs encountered the gate and the players decided that the PCs wanted to pass by. They did not want to go in there - not yet, at any rate. In prep for the last game, I drew up a lair - three encounters - and inserted it on the Random Encounter table. When that lair came up on the random encounter roll, I started running it. The players had the choice to just walk on by, though their quarry was within, so they chose to engage it. (The random encounter was the result of a failed tracking check.) If I had put the tomb there, despite the fact that the players decided they did not want to go into the tomb, and I didn't tell them that I was going to run the tomb no matter what, that's Illusionism. (It wouldn't be if I told them that I wrote up the tomb and I was going to use it no matter what.) I think Illusionism is bad and I think it makes you a bad DM if you use that technique. It might not be bad if the players know that you are using illusionist techniques and are okay with it, but I don't know if I'd call that Illusionism. [/QUOTE]
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