NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6724256" data-attributes="member: 6801286">Oh definitely. I admire the honesty. If you are a beginner DM, then its good to be up front about it. It prevents an awkward situation where the DM feels the need to force his hand, which is arguably worse. Forcing them to go to the dragon by artificial means is bad, but simply telling the players what the limits of the module are, is perfectly fair.I think the worst type of scenario, is one where for example the players must be captured by the villains. What if they do a really good job to avoid capture? What if they don't surrender, but fight to the death? These are the sort of choices that I think most players want to have the freedom to make. You don't want to be told by your DM "This is what happens, because my script says so".This doesn't mean that all railroading is bad. In my campaign, the ruler of a local city was assassinated, and he was always going to die in that attack. There was no way to avoid it really. What mattered more, was the after math of this plot point. I wrote it in such a way, that it really caught them by surprise, and there for it was unavoidable. Yes, it is a railroad, but a minor one. It was a plot point that I felt had to happen, in order for the story to progress. Because it created a lot of interesting conflict for the players to resolve. Who would be the new ruler? Would the daughter of the ruler (now one of their npc crew members) take his place, and abandon their crew? Would they organize a retaliation, to bring the perpetrators to justice? How would they convince all of the important nobles whom the new ruler should be? What would this do the security of the region? Would the privateer contract, under which the players operated, still be valid under a new ruler?I don't railroad often. But sometimes you can't let a great Game of Thrones moment go to waste. If I feel the players are getting a bit to comfy, then I'll hit them with an unexpected turn of events. The plot needs to stay exciting and unpredictable.</blockquote>

Verification