Do Plot-Based Adventures Necessarily Involve 'Railroading'?

[Mark CMG]

Do Plot-Based Adventures Necessarily Involve 'Railroading'?

Unless a game setting is one-hundred percent complete or entirely randomized (or some combination of the two), so that no matter where PCs go they are exploring what exists before they determine to go there or is randomized from infinite possibilities on the spot, there will always be some of what certain people term as "Railroading".

 

[wedgeski]

Much of the fun of running a game, for me, comes from the unanticipated course the campaign can take as a consequence of the players' decisions.

Different strokes and all that. Honestly, there are plenty of 'unanticipated' changes of direction even in campaigns I have run which have epitomised what I'm saying. But I just don't want a campaign, which I have built to have a certain style and, yes, to have certain over-arching themes and villains, to veer off into territory that I'm not at all prepared for, or worse, which I don't feel suits the game I'm trying to run. For me, this necessitates a certain control at the table. Achieving that with transparency and finesse is the ultimate goal (for me at least).

The opposite of this style of campaign, which is where a world is built as little more than a sandbox for the whims of the players, is unsatisfying for me. The difference here may be that I tend to run relatively 'short' campaigns (say, 1-2 years of real time) with a definitive beginning and end. It's the middle bit where the players get to enjoy the most freedom, and can choose any number of goals from the selection on offer. If they want to make their own goals, of course they can, but I'll prepare scenarios around those goals which mesh with the world and, if I can help it, mesh with the campaign arc. It's an unspoken rule and quickly becomes clear in my own games that the story hooks will tend to come from the DM, not from the players. And you know, they seem to have a pretty good time.

I've made my games sound a lot more egocentric than they actually are, but this is just the way that roleplaying has evolved over the 20-some years I've been doing it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

It's perfectly possible to run a plot based game without railroading. The "plot" consists of what will happen without the PCs doing anything. The actual gameplay consists of what the PCs do to change this "plot" into something else. The DM has to know the NPCs extremely well and he has to have good improvational skills.

See, you get your nice linear plotline that will never actually happen. The PCs can do anything they want. Everyone gets a nice story to unfold around them. And, there's no railroading.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I railroad pretty hardcore, but the players desire it. They want to be told a story about the characters they create, they want to have a chain of events happen in the world, they don't just want to explore a site. They want to be motivated, and it's my job as DM to motivate them.

The best way to satisfy them, I've found, is to only plan a week or two in advance, and just have general ideas about what you want to happen by the end. Every week, there are big, plot-altering descisions they can make, but if I only work a few steps ahead of them, they are, in effect, determining where the plot goes. I have a vague idea for an ending, but if the PC's provide a better one, I go with that.

 

[Mark CMG]

It's perfectly possible to run a plot based game without railroading. The "plot" consists of what will happen without the PCs doing anything. The actual gameplay consists of what the PCs do to change this "plot" into something else. The DM has to know the NPCs extremely well and he has to have good improvational skills.

See, you get your nice linear plotline that will never actually happen. The PCs can do anything they want. Everyone gets a nice story to unfold around them. And, there's no railroading.

Of course, there is. It's reactive but it is still a form of railroading (funneling, channeling, whatever name you use) since during any improvisation individual decisions are made what information to convey and thus, subtly or otherwise, how to guide the plot/game.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Of course, there is. It's reactive but it is still a form of railroading (funneling, channeling, whatever name you use) since during any improvisation individual decisions are made what information to convey and thus, subtly or otherwise, how to guide the plot/game.

By that definition it is railroading for me to choose NPC actions period.

Just what are you trying to say? That every decision a DM makes is railroading? If that's your position, then I think we are at considerable odds in how we look at the game and what railroading is.

I don't funnel. I don't channel. Unless you define funneling as deciding an NPC is hungry without rolling on a table to find out.

EDIT: I define railroading as the DM limiting PC actions (in a metagaming sense). A DM deciding on NPC actions can never be railroading in my book.

 

[Mark CMG]

By that definition it is railroading for me to . . .

Like I said above, and by the strictest of definitions, all gaming has elements of what some people will call "Railroading".

EDIT: I define railroading as the DM limiting PC actions (in a metagaming sense). A DM deciding on NPC actions can never be railroading in my book.

As I also said, call things what you will but ultimately the options available to the players are those the DM is either conveying initially or is presenting by way of selective reactions and as such are limited.

Personally, I don't like the term "Railroading" and, especially since, people use it to describe a wide, wide range of DMing styles.

 

[ThirdWizard]

By making the term railroading an all-inclusive term, you are effectively making it a useless statement.

 

[Mark CMG]

By making the term railroading an all-inclusive term, you are effectively making it a useless statement.

Or, it was a useless statement from the start and I am merely drawing attention to the fact. Either way, one can only hope.

 

[DarkMaster]

What I do,
1 create the plot
2 create the actor and their relation to the plot
3 participate to the creation of the PC linking them right from the start with 1 and/or 2
4 Play the NPC like if they were your PC.

makes totally unpredictable game. Given that the PC do a certain action how does it affect all your NPC and how do they changed their initial plan. It's a lot of work but it make DMing extremely interesting.