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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 4736099" data-attributes="member: 15538">Exactly. I think people are conflating railroading with at least other things that are not railroading:1. Scenario design - The GM is in charge of this. The PCs are allowed, although not necessarily encouraged, to do whatever they want. But the GM is allowed, though not necessarily encouraged, to set up the initial scenario in whatever way the GM wants. World design, events already in motion, attributes of various characters, all of those things, the GM decides. Not railroading, however much it might contrain the PCs' reasonable choices. It's only railroading if the GM constrains the PCs' actual choices.2. Carrot-and-Stick - Ordinary carrot-and-stick attempts to guide the players are not railroading. Considering the game world as though it were the GM's character, the GM can have the world behave in any reasonable fashion. if it is sensible for terrible monsters to lurk in the Spooky Woods, there is no good crying foul when terrible monsters attack you in the Spooky Woods. See #1, scenario design, above. Even some elements of deus ex machine have their place, as long as they logically follow, though of course the GM should, from an artistic standpoint, make sure the PCs still have a useful role to play in events. Railroading departs from both expectations. There is no actual scenario design; there may appear to be at first, but as time goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that there is no life outside the game map, and events are transpiring on a moment to moment basis because of the GM's inclination, not because of a coherent back story. In a railroaded game, the scenario design is a cardboard cutout thinly disguising the fact that the entire game takes place in a box.Second, there is no carrot-and-stick. Instead, you have Aladdin's treasures and the A-bomb. The GM may attempt to bribe you, but of course taking the bribe is going to almost certainly cause you to play into a trap. The A-bomb option is always present, because there is no proportionality to the GM's actions, no cause, only the unlimited desire to constrain the PC's choices.</blockquote>

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