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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 3249273" data-attributes="member: 151">I would hazard that you're using a definition of railroading that is different than just about anyone else is using.  As others have noted, your definition is so overbroad as to apply virtually anywhere.  The DM is always going to dictate some aspect of the story....that doesn't generally qualify as railroading in most gamer's minds.Railroading isn't always a negative, but often is, especially when executed poorly or hamfistedly.  Some railroading is even necessary at times, if only for the necessity of getting a game rolling.  The classic 'you all meet in a tavern' excuse for many a game in days past is an example of this.  This isn't railroading per se, but often a party may be formed for something of the flimsiest of reasons that is never really examined in detail afterwards, because it really wasn't the focus of the game.  A DM expecting players to at least make an effort to have their player participate in an adventure isn't the same thing as the DM imposing choices and actions on a player.For example: in my last campaign, which began using the Sunless Citadel, the players were told straight-up that they had been hired individually by a wealthy merchant in the city of Greyhawk to find a magical fruit for his daughter.  It was made clear that he had hired several such groups, and the players were the least of these.  Everyone nodded, and we got one with the adventure.  Nothing from that point on was certain.It isn't considered a railroad in the general understanding that most I know have of the term that because there was a fruit at the end of the module guarded by an evil druid that they were being railroaded when they reached it and fought him.  The actual line where railroading begins and DM discretion ends may blur or be at a different location for each person...but plot elements, even linear ones, aren't railroading simply by the fact of being linear or plot elements.Case in point: the players delve the Sunless Citadel, probe it's secrets and reach the druid.  But this doesn't mean that they didn't choose how to reach the end point.  Ask any group about Meepo, and see what they say about him.  You'll find many different answers to that question.  When my group reached the druid, they negotiated with him.  They wanted the fruit, and really weren't all that concerned about whatever plans the druid had.  Had I told them "No, you don't haggle with evil druids: you draw your swords and attack.", that would be one kind of railroading.  If I told the players, "Well, yes, you do offer him power, gold and even that you'll serve him forever more in return for the fruit, but he still says 'No' because he hates the color red and you're wearing something red and OK, you do try to charm him, but umm...he has an anti-charming bracelet that only works for evil druids named Stan and his frog must be stoneskinned or something because he doesn't take any damage and roll for init and take five hit points because even though you were looking you could possibly see the rogue sneak up to you but your rogue was spotted easily by the toad because he has magic super toad eyes and....umm...roll for init!" is the more egregious kind.Saying that player being given a story that he chooses to follow because the DM presented it to him and expects, in a player-DM contract, that he will involve himself in the story is no more railroading than expecting a person playing checkers to stay on the board.</blockquote>

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