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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cor Azer" data-source="post: 1511600" data-attributes="member: 870">I tend to consider railroading to be when the DM makes the decision as to what a player character does, rather than just presenting one option. There are certainly times in my games when there's only one real option present to the player characters, but it's still there choice to persue it or not (and if they don't choose to take it, sometimes it may come back to bite them in the ass). But I feel that there is a decided difference between:1. The Duke, who holds PC1's sister hostage, asks the party to clear the woods of their resident bandits in exchange for her safety; and2. You agree to help the Duke clear his woods of bandits, knowing that it is the only way to save PC1's sister.A caveat: I do use railroading of a small degree in my play-by-email games quite frequently. Mostly because I like to keep the flow of the adventure fairly brisk, and having to stop after each sentence is murder on pacing. But the 'decisions' I make for my PCs is usually just stuff to gloss over, ie "After healing your comrades after the final battle, you give a good search of the area - finding a few baubles, and then return home."</blockquote>