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<blockquote data-quote="Bardsandsages" data-source="post: 3362092" data-attributes="member: 28771">I don't railroad. I make it a point not to.&nbsp; If the players are off doing something they aren't suppose to be doing, they need to live with the consequences.&nbsp; Nor do I pull Deus Ex Machina style antics to protect my story if the players find a shortcut or advantage.&nbsp; I kind of see that as the same thing as railroading.&nbsp; In my never humble opinion, the goal is not to protect the integrity of any storyline the GM has, for good or bad.&nbsp; The goal is to present a world to the players in which they can become heroes (or villians, if you are running an evil campaign).&nbsp; If the players get themselves killed, then roll new characters and a new band of heroes have to pick up when the now dead party left off.&nbsp; Or go in a completely new direction.&nbsp; If the main bad guy gets knocked off too early, have a contingency bad guy ready to step in and fill the void.&nbsp; The great thing about fantasy worlds is that they are full of villians with plots of global domination.&nbsp; Pick a new one and move on.Just recently, the players allowed an important NPC to die because they dragged their feet getting to where they needed to be.&nbsp; They spent a couple of days in a major city and decided to pay someone to enchant their weapons for them, since I was being &quot;mean&quot; and not adding a lot of magical weapons to the treasure hordes.&nbsp;&nbsp; I could have just said they couldn't find an enchanter, but that would have been untrue, as it had already been established earlier in the campaign there were several in the city.&nbsp; They knew they were under a timeline, just not sure how tight of one.&nbsp; And to answer the question, yes, they were already equipped well enough to have handled the encounters.&nbsp; They didn't need additional enchantments to do so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bardsandsages, post: 3362092, member: 28771"] I don't railroad. I make it a point not to. If the players are off doing something they aren't suppose to be doing, they need to live with the consequences. Nor do I pull Deus Ex Machina style antics to protect my story if the players find a shortcut or advantage. I kind of see that as the same thing as railroading. In my never humble opinion, the goal is not to protect the integrity of any storyline the GM has, for good or bad. The goal is to present a world to the players in which they can become heroes (or villians, if you are running an evil campaign). If the players get themselves killed, then roll new characters and a new band of heroes have to pick up when the now dead party left off. Or go in a completely new direction. If the main bad guy gets knocked off too early, have a contingency bad guy ready to step in and fill the void. The great thing about fantasy worlds is that they are full of villians with plots of global domination. Pick a new one and move on. Just recently, the players allowed an important NPC to die because they dragged their feet getting to where they needed to be. They spent a couple of days in a major city and decided to pay someone to enchant their weapons for them, since I was being "mean" and not adding a lot of magical weapons to the treasure hordes. I could have just said they couldn't find an enchanter, but that would have been untrue, as it had already been established earlier in the campaign there were several in the city. They knew they were under a timeline, just not sure how tight of one. And to answer the question, yes, they were already equipped well enough to have handled the encounters. They didn't need additional enchantments to do so. [/QUOTE]

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