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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5499509" data-attributes="member: 82106">OK, lets just blow the doors off this joint! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Actually I doubt we're really all that far off from each other in terms of what we do at the table. I just don't look at it in terms of hard and fast rules.Lets take this building example. Now, suppose you'd defined when you added this element to your game that the building was really heavily guarded. Is that 'railroading'? I don't think anyone would consider that to be the case. Now, suppose that in the story line the people associated with that building became aware that the PCs might try to go there, and they buffed up its defenses to make it impregnable. Is that railroading? Suppose the people who own the building are clever and you have them spread a rumor that the building is really heavily guarded. Is that railroading? I mean basically ALL INFORMATION you give to the players is going to influence their decisions. There's no line you can draw between influencing the players and simply describing the game world, unless you're going to establish every detail of the world ahead of time without any reference to the players at all, which is obviously impossible. So there is no such thing as "DM A nudges/railroads his players" and "DM B is totally objective and never influences them". Thus this is only an argument about technique and degree, nothing else.As for steering the players to one adventure vs another. Again this is a matter of understanding your players and their needs and wants. What I was suggesting in terms of how information can be presented to the players is that you can establish a harmony between the needs and wants of the DM and the players by doing it right. Sure, there's the possibility that a DM can go from impresario to puppet master by being too heavy-handed. Heck some groups actually like it that way, so to simply say one way is right and another is wrong is itself too narrow a view. Beyond that as DM I also have an interest in having fun. Players can easily become butt-headed and make things less fun for the DM too. Everyone needs to have fun and there's no bad way to do that if it works.</blockquote>

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