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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5170792" data-attributes="member: 58197">To me, the question can be summed up simply: How does the DM react when the players (as players do) take an action which will lead them off the "rails?"As an example, let's say the PCs run into a bumbling thief. The thief doesn't know it and neither do the PCs, but he's the last descendant of a demonic emperor, and he will later become the vessel for his evil ancestor and emerge as the BBEG of the campaign. The DM expects the PCs to befriend the thief and get some useful information, but instead they decide to kill him.A) Change the direction of the campaign. The thief dies. The PCs don't get the information they were supposed to, and the demonic emperor remains imprisoned in the Abyss forever, never emerging to threaten the world.B) Allow the PCs to change the flow of the current adventure, but tweak things a little so the campaign eventually gets back on track. The PCs don't get the information they were supposed to find, and the DM picks somebody else to be the last descendant of the demonic emperor.C) Let the action appear to work, but rearrange things behind the scenes so that it ends up taking them along the rails after all. The PCs kill the thief, but find the information in a note on his body. Later, the demonic emperor calls in a few favors on the mortal plane to get the thief resurrected.D) Throw up arbitrary, implausible roadblocks so that the PCs can't take the action. The thief, who has up till now been portrayed as a comical buffoon, turns out to be a 20th-level ninja master. He effortlessly defeats the PCs and announces the information over his shoulder as he walks away.Option A) is the "sandbox" option; it gives players total freedom of choice and control, but can lead to an aimless-feeling campaign if the players are unable or unwilling to provide the motive force. Option B) is a common approach and IMO only a sandbox purist would object to it. Option C) is  the "illusion of choice" approach, and there's debate as to whether it's an acceptable practice; I think it's fine as long as the DM is subtle about it, but others disagree. Option D) is what "railroading" has traditionally meant, and I've yet to meet anyone who was okay with it.That's option D), and if you ask me, he's not offering the illusion of free will and control at all. He's openly stomping any attempt to deviate from The Plan. "Illusion of choice" means you get to do what you want, but somehow it always ends up taking you where the DM intended to go.</blockquote>

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