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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8562283" data-attributes="member: 2629">Games may switch from railroad to sandbox, and perhaps back from sandbox to railroad, but they are distinct and separate styles.  I am really asking about what styles of game people might run that do not fit these specific categories, whether it is for an entire campaign, or for a subset of a campaign.I, myself, run most campaigns as a railroad to level 5 (using this time to establish lore, move the PCs to unexplored terrain, and set storylines in motion), then a sandbox until level 17 (where I let things unfold organically around the actions of the PCs - giving them a chance to make the world better as they go), and then narrowing to a railroad for the conclusion of the campaign (with the resources they have to complete the railroad ending coming from the allies, items, and other tools acquired along the way - and the contents of that railroad partially written to reflect the world they've created through their actions).  So, if your point is that a game can switch between these styles, I do not disagree at all.  However, I will mention that I find a lot of DMs tend towards one style or another for prolonged periods, if not an entire campaign (or all campaigns they run).  Further, many preprinted materials restrict you to one or another style if you're going to run them substantively and substantially as written.The old Dark Sun modules are the most 'tight' railroads I've ever seen.  They do things like assume how PCs will react in a conversation, and force the story forward assuming that the PCs reacted as predicted.  The DM is told to not let the PCs wander, and that they must follow a given path - period.  PCs are just along for the ride until they reach the completion, or the PC dies.  The players really have no choice on how to proceed.  A DM running those modules has the choice of railroading, or not running the modules in the way intended vy the authors.  You may argue, "Hey, a DM is always free to change things up", which is technically true ... but if the story is so tightly written as these Dark Sun modules, changing something up causes problems down the road, sometimes several modules later and in ways you would not be able to predict, which requires either very ingenious correction or substantial rewriting of the modules.  (I'm a fan of Dark Sun as a distinct setting, but am highly critical that we've never had high quality adventures that flex the potential of the setting).</blockquote>

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