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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 5302929" data-attributes="member: 151">Pish-Tosh, I say!  Railroad != "bad" automatically.  It most certainly CAN be not fun for some, but it's all in the execution.  There have been threads where we've debated this topic, but it should be noted that there is railroading...and then there is RAILROADING.Case in point:  in the classic AD&D modules, Scourge of the Slave Lords, the players are RAILROADED.  In this case, at the end of module A3, the players are (regardless of preparedness or specific action) taken prisoner by the Slave Lords.  They thus begin A4, the final module, as prisoners without any equipment.  While the DM can alter the modules to avoid this, the core plot is that they are captured and nothing they do will prevent this result, no matter how far-fetched it may or may not be.  The players are on the rails and are going the module takes them.  For most gamers, this is mildly to very unsatisfying, depending on your preference.  But with some decent skill, railroading can be presented as an enjoyable option, often without the players really knowing that they've been railroaded.  If you have a party of paladins, for example, and their deity appears to them and says "You must go forth to Kalimdor and slay the Red Dragon, so that the people need no longer fear", then that's a railroad of sorts (especially if you know that the paladins would never refuse this request).  Anything short of a sandbox is probably a railroad to some degree.  And that's OK.The trick is to give players some degree of agency, even when driving them to a point.  My characters in my current game are members of an elite guard...and thus are sent on assignments.  Their ability to choose their path is fairly limited and they are literally given their adventure as orders.  But they don't feel constrained or railroaded.  Why?   Several reasons.1) They are given lots of leeway to accomplish their assignments.2) Once they are 'off-base', so to speak, they are expected to improvise and handle whatever is thrown at them, using their respective skills to do so.3) Their orders are often vague enough or broad enough that they can make specific decisions 'in the field' and then deal with the consequences of those decisions.Remember: most players want or even EXPECT a degree of railroading.  The DM normally needs to put an adventure in front of the party in whatever capacity they function.  Unless you are playing a true 'sandbox' campaign, where the players have total freedom, it's most likely that you've dropped things in front of them to grab.  Choosing from one of three plot threads is still railroading, in a fashion.For a different game I had that was set in Feudal Japan, I maintained a lengthy list of POSSIBLE adventures and then would drop 'gateways' in front of the players.  It was up to them to grab the shiny hook or to swim on by.  IF the players chose to sleep in the haunted in, they would have an adventure.  If they avoided it, they might encounter the old Tea Master in the forest.Railroading is not a sin and if that's your individual DM style, then embrace it.  Use it to your advantage.  You can be a railroading DM and still give your players freedom and choice.</blockquote>

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