Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 9372919" data-attributes="member: 23751">My definition differs a bit.To me railroading is when nothing you say or do matters to the outcome.  This applies equally to illusion of choice or blatant railroading.Illusion of choice is when the DM presents you with two doors and informs you that one leads out and the other is one way deeper into the dungeon.  Then no matter which one you choose, you end up through the door that leads deeper into the dungeon.  The choice was illusionary and you are just doing what the DM wants you to do.A blatant railroad is when you come to a wall and you try to climb over it and get informed it's unclimbable.  Then when you want to fly over a strong downward wind keeps you from being able to rise. And so on.  The DM is doing this because he wants you to go down the passage and kill the Jabberwocky first.I view illusion of choice to be the worst of the two.  The DM is lying to me in order to waste my time forcing me down his path.  I'd much rather see the railroading so that I can decide whether I want to stay in the game(which might happen if it's with friends) or leave the game.Where my definition differs from yours is that the obstacle may have multiple ways to be overcome.  The DM doesn't have to dictate the method. Only force you down the path.  In the Jabberwocky example the DM might have dropped clues to the Vorpal Sword being hidden nearby, but be open to other methods of defeating it.  Then once dead the magical winds suddenly vanish and/or handholds appear on that wall enabling you to now go in that direction.That's called just being a player.  Man, when I can stop DMing and just play, it blows my mind how much easier it is.  I don't have to worry about a bunch of NPCs, their goals and what they know, juggling four PCs, knowing what's happening in the world, answering questions, etc.  It doesn't take linear or railroad to shut off my brain and enjoy playing. It just takes me not being DM. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /></blockquote>

Verification