I wanna get back on the railroad

[howandwhy99]

Are you saying a GM should not improvise events, encounters, weather, etc? Everything that occurs in game other than NPC dialogue must be pre-planned?

Yes, it is what all these rules are for. Without the rules it becomes impossible to successfully roleplay.

Of course, we have random tables for some of what you mention above.

 

[S'mon]

Yes, it is what all these rules are for. Without the rules it becomes impossible to successfully roleplay.

Of course, we have random tables for some of what you mention above.

Er, right.

 

[Goumindong]

Another thing that's not good is that when I railroad, I have the maps pre-drawn and the monster tokens all lined up and paper-clipped to the pages of the module. This saves lots of time. When skipping among three modules, I have to draw in every room slowly, read the room descriptions, and I ended up using coke cans instead of tokens for the scorpions because I couldn't find any.

They players don't know what encounters they are going to run into. Unless there is some major thematic problem, just use the encounters you have prepped in the order you prep them regardless of what the players choose. Yea, the players don't have an actual choice in the matter, but they don't know that.

 

[Noumenon]

That wouldn't work very well when you are skipping between modules. The encounter with the grigs in the rat warrens while you're Tiny size because of Improved Reduce Person isn't exactly going to fit if they go to the haunted lighthouse instead.

Now within the module, I can make sure they find the grigs before they find the ogre giant cave with the magic ring laid aside on the dining table far above, no matter which way they go. That's what I normally do.