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Legends and Lore October 22nd
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<blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 6038116" data-attributes="member: 6688937"><p>I suspect that some of what drives railroading is the difficulty of preparation. The fact that it often took much longer than an hour or so to whip up a story arc's worth of adversaries and situations means that the DM is far more invested in getting to use that material which is already prepped. Sometimes, I think that "railroading" is merely lack of prep time combined with a DM misinterpreting the party's interests. (Another reason I prefer rules-lighter; I was hooked the first time I ran a game that could "prep" and react on the fly.) This is probably exacerbated by the fact that every single group I have ever seen believes or claims to be driven by story...regardless of the truth of that claim. A DM wanting to play to that false expectation can easily be accused of railroading.</p><p></p><p>Which is not to say that railroading isn't real, or doesn't happen for other reasons. In groups like mine, I think some of their reactions are learned from bad experiences. They are even skittish about things like Action Points (or its cousins), or any other open admission that we are playing a story or that anything like Narrative Causality might be functioning.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Right. I think that's fine, and (I suspect) would be fine with my group...if you could pull it off outside of 4e.<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> The speed and ease of DM prep in 4e allows you to do this in ways that earlier editions would make nearly impossible and certainly impractical. Which is what, I think, leads to the mostly static dungeon style of adventure for old-schoolers. The DM can prep a horde of adversaries, a host of encounters, sometimes connected by a few conditionals (both explicit choices and simple geography) and then leave it up to the party to "solve" it. Reducing the ability of the party to "go off the map" reduces the chances of the DM getting caught with his pants down (a significantly bigger crisis in <4e editions.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ratskinner, post: 6038116, member: 6688937"] I suspect that some of what drives railroading is the difficulty of preparation. The fact that it often took much longer than an hour or so to whip up a story arc's worth of adversaries and situations means that the DM is far more invested in getting to use that material which is already prepped. Sometimes, I think that "railroading" is merely lack of prep time combined with a DM misinterpreting the party's interests. (Another reason I prefer rules-lighter; I was hooked the first time I ran a game that could "prep" and react on the fly.) This is probably exacerbated by the fact that every single group I have ever seen believes or claims to be driven by story...regardless of the truth of that claim. A DM wanting to play to that false expectation can easily be accused of railroading. Which is not to say that railroading isn't real, or doesn't happen for other reasons. In groups like mine, I think some of their reactions are learned from bad experiences. They are even skittish about things like Action Points (or its cousins), or any other open admission that we are playing a story or that anything like Narrative Causality might be functioning. Right. I think that's fine, and (I suspect) would be fine with my group...if you could pull it off outside of 4e.;) The speed and ease of DM prep in 4e allows you to do this in ways that earlier editions would make nearly impossible and certainly impractical. Which is what, I think, leads to the mostly static dungeon style of adventure for old-schoolers. The DM can prep a horde of adversaries, a host of encounters, sometimes connected by a few conditionals (both explicit choices and simple geography) and then leave it up to the party to "solve" it. Reducing the ability of the party to "go off the map" reduces the chances of the DM getting caught with his pants down (a significantly bigger crisis in <4e editions.) [/QUOTE]
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