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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1869950" data-attributes="member: 812">What? Look, obviously you and I have VERY different definitions of &quot;power&quot;.Railroading, let me restate, is a style of DMing in which players are discouraged from following courses of action other than the one the DM wishes them to follow.Maybe you disagree with that definition. If so, that's fine, but let's talk about that rather than this, in that case.The identity of the huge form does not signify as far as the question of railroading goes. Okay, so the Nameless Tyrant has forged an alliance with the Frost Giants. Now the players feel smart for having figured that out. Or perhaps the Nameless Tyrant seeks their deaths so badly he's willing to send minions into Frost Giant lands to whack them. Maybe the party, realising this, will decide to get the Frost Giants to join them against the Nameless Tyrant. Whatever. Not railroading.Maybe you're under the impression that by saying &quot;invent things to happen to them REGARDLESS of what they do&quot; I meant &quot;ignore whatever they do and just force them to have the experiences you want them to have.&quot; I did not, and I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. But it's certainly NOT railroading or disempowering to, for example, have the king send them a letter. Whether or not they do what he asks in the letter, read it or even be somewhere where they could reasonably receive it is a different question. But I can have the king send the letter pretty much REGARDLESS of what they do. That's what I'm talking about.And finally, let's remember that there's nothing wrong with railroading. If everybody's having fun, who cares? My point is only that railroading as a DM choice is a risky one, and you and your players will in most cases be better served by a more flexible approach.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 1869950, member: 812"] What? Look, obviously you and I have VERY different definitions of "power". Railroading, let me restate, is a style of DMing in which players are discouraged from following courses of action other than the one the DM wishes them to follow. Maybe you disagree with that definition. If so, that's fine, but let's talk about that rather than this, in that case. The identity of the huge form does not signify as far as the question of railroading goes. Okay, so the Nameless Tyrant has forged an alliance with the Frost Giants. Now the players feel smart for having figured that out. Or perhaps the Nameless Tyrant seeks their deaths so badly he's willing to send minions into Frost Giant lands to whack them. Maybe the party, realising this, will decide to get the Frost Giants to join them against the Nameless Tyrant. Whatever. Not railroading. Maybe you're under the impression that by saying "invent things to happen to them REGARDLESS of what they do" I meant "ignore whatever they do and just force them to have the experiences you want them to have." I did not, and I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. But it's certainly NOT railroading or disempowering to, for example, have the king send them a letter. Whether or not they do what he asks in the letter, read it or even be somewhere where they could reasonably receive it is a different question. But I can have the king send the letter pretty much REGARDLESS of what they do. That's what I'm talking about. And finally, let's remember that there's nothing wrong with railroading. If everybody's having fun, who cares? My point is only that railroading as a DM choice is a risky one, and you and your players will in most cases be better served by a more flexible approach. [/QUOTE]

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