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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7079042" data-attributes="member: 16586">I think a major flaw in your analysis is a failure to meaningfully consider the social environment present in adventure path play. I also think you are applying some binary logic here when it comes to railroading that fails to get to the very real nature of what happens between players at the table. This is also why I am not overly fond of the way   [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] is framing things even though I mostly agree with the point I believe he is trying to make.If adventure path play is to be functional and coherent there needs to be a shared interest by all players to engage the adventure and try to figure out what they should be doing. The hallmark of skilled play involves properly reading cues, pursuing one of the paths that the adventure has laid out for the play group, find the prepared story, and trying to beat the scenario. We might let our characters influence how we approach things, where the spotlight gets shone, who takes the lead, and other matters of approach. Advocating for our characters and the things they want is secondary if it even enters the picture. While abandoning the adventure path or engaging the fiction in unforeseen ways is always a possibility it is not likely because if our shared interest is in engaging the adventure on its own terms then there is an extremely high social cost for pursuing those courses of actions.This is a phenomenally different sort of play experience than one in which our shared interests are focused on meaningfully exploring a fiction, advocating for our characters with integrity, pursuing their goals and drives, playing hard, and playing to find out what happens - not just how it happens or why it happens. Up thread I made a big deal about the difference between hooks and opportunities. What separates the two in my mind is that an opportunity exists primarily for players to engage it on their terms - in the ways they want to. It does not determine what their aims should be on social layer of play. Adventure hooks imply a complete a buy in to engage the adventure on its terms, not your own.</blockquote>

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