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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zak S" data-source="post: 6724207" data-attributes="member: 90370">A "quantum ogre" (ie: an obstacle or feature that appears no matter which choice the players make) is a choker. That is: it is a technique that, if used a lot or if used in a way that the players start to notice or if used in a way that makes the players start to think their choices don't matter will register to them as unpleasant railroading.If you say "Do you wanna play D&D?" and the adventure is a dungeon and only a dungeon even though theoretically the players could go anywhere else and the players just head in that's "participationism" (like railroading but the players know what they're into and agree). If you say "Left is the bridge, right is a desert" and you are going to stick the same dungeon in either path, you've just created a choice that didn't matter that's "illusionism". Buried in the game, it's no biggie, but if it happens a lot, player may begin to realize many of their choices don't matter and, for some playstyles, this is disastrous because it means the  players pay less attention.So I wouldn't say a quantum dungeon is always automatically railroading in every possible circumstance, but its one of the techniques that can lead to that sinking feeling in players--and that feeling is what defines railroading.</blockquote>