Baron Opal II
Legend
I enjoy railroads as long as I don't perceive the rails.
I had a friend who made some great adventures, and it was really logical how our choices lead to the next stage. However, the DM was really good at presenting to us the 2-3 most likely choices we would chose, and have those lead to the next story beat. Sometimes we might have some advantage or disadvantage, or some other orthogonal effect, but what was next was what was next. There was also more than one "station", to extend the metaphor, in the chain. So if something needed to change in the fourth chapter because of what happened in the second, that could be adjusted to a degree.
One time I did perceive the rails. There was a fight going left, and easy stealthy way going right. I realized that we could actually take the fight it one of those moments of gaming clarity. I explained the plan, everyone was either on board or considering, and the DM almost paniced. And that's when I saw the "man behind the curtain", and publicly reconsidered the plan. I know he worked hard on the story, and didn't want to derail him.
I had a friend who made some great adventures, and it was really logical how our choices lead to the next stage. However, the DM was really good at presenting to us the 2-3 most likely choices we would chose, and have those lead to the next story beat. Sometimes we might have some advantage or disadvantage, or some other orthogonal effect, but what was next was what was next. There was also more than one "station", to extend the metaphor, in the chain. So if something needed to change in the fourth chapter because of what happened in the second, that could be adjusted to a degree.
One time I did perceive the rails. There was a fight going left, and easy stealthy way going right. I realized that we could actually take the fight it one of those moments of gaming clarity. I explained the plan, everyone was either on board or considering, and the DM almost paniced. And that's when I saw the "man behind the curtain", and publicly reconsidered the plan. I know he worked hard on the story, and didn't want to derail him.