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<blockquote data-quote="TwoSix" data-source="post: 6815539" data-attributes="member: 205">That's because railroad is most commonly accepted as a pejorative term, and is so loosely defined that its use is almost meaningless for discussion.&nbsp; I'm pretty sure it was stated, not insinuated, that pre-authored games are more likely to slip into railroading.&nbsp; It's a statement I agree with.&nbsp; Games with no pre-authoring are also far more prone to inconsistencies, and can more easily fall flat if the players are not sufficiently invested or if the DM is not as adept at improv.&nbsp; There are pluses and minuses to every approach, and the best approach is almost always specific to the combination of players, DMs, AND system in question.And my statement wasn't that &quot;pre-created setting&quot; and &quot;character focus&quot; are in opposition, per se.&nbsp; It's more that bandwidth at the table is highly limited, and session time devoted to setting information unfamiliar to the characters is by definiton time not spent on information focused on the character's intent.&nbsp; Now, if you're skilled enough to always present pre-authored information in a way that both fleshes out the campaign setting and drives the characters' intents, than that's fantastic!&nbsp; I just think it's more difficult, and if the players have little interest in the setting, the gain in the overall play experience is minimal.Not exactly what I'm talking about.&nbsp; If your campaign world has a mountain range between the desert and the city they're traveling to (that the players have not encountered yet), and they roll high on whatever skill roll is required to cross the desert, do you make them stop at the mountains?&nbsp; If you do, then your pre-authored mountains impacted their intent.I'm not saying that approach doesn't work for you.&nbsp; But what your pre-authoring did was say &quot;Ok, you rolled a success on your desert crossing check, but now there's mountains, so you have to make a climbing check also.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; You increased the odds of the players failing without telling them ahead of the first roll.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TwoSix, post: 6815539, member: 205"] That's because railroad is most commonly accepted as a pejorative term, and is so loosely defined that its use is almost meaningless for discussion. I'm pretty sure it was stated, not insinuated, that pre-authored games are more likely to slip into railroading. It's a statement I agree with. Games with no pre-authoring are also far more prone to inconsistencies, and can more easily fall flat if the players are not sufficiently invested or if the DM is not as adept at improv. There are pluses and minuses to every approach, and the best approach is almost always specific to the combination of players, DMs, AND system in question. And my statement wasn't that "pre-created setting" and "character focus" are in opposition, per se. It's more that bandwidth at the table is highly limited, and session time devoted to setting information unfamiliar to the characters is by definiton time not spent on information focused on the character's intent. Now, if you're skilled enough to always present pre-authored information in a way that both fleshes out the campaign setting and drives the characters' intents, than that's fantastic! I just think it's more difficult, and if the players have little interest in the setting, the gain in the overall play experience is minimal. Not exactly what I'm talking about. If your campaign world has a mountain range between the desert and the city they're traveling to (that the players have not encountered yet), and they roll high on whatever skill roll is required to cross the desert, do you make them stop at the mountains? If you do, then your pre-authored mountains impacted their intent. I'm not saying that approach doesn't work for you. But what your pre-authoring did was say "Ok, you rolled a success on your desert crossing check, but now there's mountains, so you have to make a climbing check also." You increased the odds of the players failing without telling them ahead of the first roll. [/QUOTE]

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