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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Noumenon" data-source="post: 4780898" data-attributes="member: 70102">I've been trying not railroading.  Here's how:1) I dropped hints about three different modules instead of railing them onto one.  Result, they pick the hardest one first and almost die.  And they do the first part of two different modules and don't get any treasure for two sessions.  And they end up with four hours of roleplaying and no combat because I can't plan to drop in encounters for pacing when I don't know where they're going.I think the pacing is the biggest problem with no railroading.  I like to have my balance of combat and non-combat: "The party will have a discussion over what to do with the Black Pearl.  Then something will attack.  Then some role-playing, then another attack.  Then some investigation, then the module proper."  In this case I had to totally drop the notion of the campaign for sheriff because it would've meant a fifth straight hour of roleplaying.  In my normal preparation style, the session would have started with the campaign and gone "roleplaying to persuade voters, quest to win over voting bloc, roleplaying to debate opponent, quest to prove worthiness..." and been a lot more balanced.Well, that's practically a whole post in itself but I already wrote points 2 and 3 so here they are.2) I tried to get them to stay in town by having the townsfolk urge them both to stay and go, but have the mayor offer the fighter sweet armor to stay and be the sheriff.  Result, they manage to get on the beach in a boat leaving town before I am able to get the mayor in contact with them, making the railroading obvious instead of a subtle nudge.3) The party is splitting up over individual motivations -- not fighting, just not the kind of smooth, fun teamwork we get when we just assume motivations and go kick butt.  I can't use "you're the sheriff" for adventure hooks because the other two have no interest in being hired on as deputies.The good things that have resulted from non-railroading so far are that the rogue took the initiative to start a fishermen's cartel and the fighter took Wisdom damage from an allip and went swimming naked with a merfolk in the bay.  Oh, and I pulled a water mephit completely out of my butt because I was desperate for a random encounter and the party ended up befriending it and teaching it conspiracy theories about merfolk instead of fighting.  It was definitely a more freeform session, it just lacked team goals for the party to cooperate and achieve.</blockquote>

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