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!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6725753" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Lots of stuff rolling around in this thread.  Just a couple of thoughts.  1)  Railroading involves a family of techniques whereby a player's autonomy to make meaningful decisions (which in turn affect the trajectory of current and future play; eg "agency") are subordinated by an external force.  This external force might be (a) the will of the GM or (b) the constraints/boundaries of a metaplot/module.  In either case (a) or (b), if the group has overtly agreed to this dynamic, then play will proceed functionally (even though it is still a Railroad).  If they have not, then the social contract is likely broken (presupposing the antithesis is the default) and one should expect dysfunctional play and meta-conflict to emerge at the table (with some regularity).2)  "No myth" or "low resolution setting" play, which primarily zooms in on "scene/situation", isn't inherently "Railroady".  In fact, as  [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] depicted upthread, systems that support such play typically have built-in GM constraints and transparency in play procedures which make either overt or covert subordination of player agency (the former being GM Force and the latter being Illusionism) extraordinarily difficult if not all-out impossible.For instance.  After checking on an unresponsive, isolated settlement high in a frozen mountain range, a pair of player characters uncover a Far Realm invasion in the remains of the now-ruined settlement.  The settlers and all the animals for miles and miles are turning into mutated horrors.  Why?  How?  What?  Whether or not the rest of the world is intensely fleshed out does not diminish their abilities to investigate, form a theory, come up with a plan of action, and respond.  They investigate the ruins and find various leads to pursue.  They discover that a few refugee families left (which would put them dead in the frozen wasteland or in one of the few "civilized" places in the frozen mountain realm; the Barbarians of The Coldlands and the Hobgoblins of Earthmaw).  In the course of play, further lore about this place is generated via various player rolls.  A powerful ancient blizzard dragon claims this domain from his glacial lair.  Perhaps an appeal to his hobgoblin servitors would earn them an audience?  Despite his intrinsic nature, perhaps they could convince him of the alien threat to his realm and gain temporary alliance (or get eaten...or slay him and take his treasure)?Point being, a low resolution, abstract setting (whereby further details/nuance or filled out during play) in no way inhibits the prospects of player agency.  You don't need to intimately know the ethoi of 17 various offscreen Gods, the cash-crop of offscreen city-state A, or the power-brokers of offscreen mercantile guild B in order for players to make meaningful, informed decisions which drive play.  And having tight, focused thematics baked into characters (where the level of zoom becomes very relevant) certainly doesn't inhibit a GM's ability to create situations that appeal to/conflicts with those thematics!</blockquote>

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