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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8266664" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Did they know this in advance, or have the opportunity to learn (even if they failed to take it)? Were they at least capable of preparing for it, even if they couldn't really stop it?If so, then it isn't cheating. Railroading, almost surely, but not cheating. Railroading is another one of those "sometimes food" DMing choices--or, rather, if used very sparingly it can do useful things, like help make sure the game actually happens instead of players faffing about and not ever doing anything. Though that gets into questions like "if you have the players endure the consequences of choosing to faff about instead of stopping the bad guys, is that railroading (because you're 'forcing' them to deal with it), or is that respecting their choices (because you took their choice and responded to it)?"I am always very concerned about whether I am railroading my players. I offer many suggestions and do my best to either take their requests directly, or find the closest match to a request among the things that make sense to me. My players have always told me they don't feel railroaded when I ask them about it, but...well, you know how anxiety is. How can I be sure they're not just humoring me, etc.</blockquote>