D&D General Railroading - A Different Take

[Remathilis]

Also, AL rules don't even attempt to address the issues the rules being discussed try to address beyond very vague 'don't disrupt the table' guidelines. AL has a lot of rules concerning which rules sources are valid, how to build and advance PCs, what items and money are valid to acquire and use, which adventures are valid to run and what needs to be modified for them, and similar things, but doesn't directly address 'what do you do if players show up and decide to become pirates instead of playing the advertised adventure' or 'what do you do if players complain that you're railroading them by running the adventure the signup sheet said was being run'. It's not at all like formal tournament chess rules that have a lot of specifications about what devices you're allowed to access, how long you have for a turn, what attire is allowed, what specific conduct is or isn't allowed, and so on.

I mean, could you imagine if AL tried to regulate what players or DMs could do? It would be bedlam! WotC would be accused of heinous crimes against player autonomy and DM sovereignty! Most game stores barely can convince their participants to bathe properly, I don't think WotC getting hardcore on player behavior (DM included) would ever get taken seriously (except as a bludgeon against WotC).

 

[tetrasodium]

Those are all competitive games with opponents and D&D isn't one in it's usual format. It isn't an outlier, it's just not in the category at all, any more than a book club or sewing club or 'hang out and watch a movie' is. None of the participants are classed as opponents' or 'antagonists' of each other, even the DM is not an 'antagonist' to the players in the sense of two chess players facing each other where at the end one or the other (or neither) wins. Also those all have some sort of prize at stake (even if it's just ELO points or prestige like "Muskogee Mudcrabs are the state champions") and some have significant real money stakes, while in typical format RPGs don't bestow any out-of-game prizes or titles.

Check the ad&d2e phb quote below, d&d used to be explicit on that difference. The 3.5 quotes are also pretty clear on that by talking at length

about what an adventurer is questing the goals of such & so on. The 5e books pretty much gloss over the entire thing & focus more on things like story. That pretty much means that a gm who says "I see where this is going" needs to prove that it's not their own personal take on what d&d is before they can really dive into what once was written plainly but is now largely omitted.

Note that those are mostly organized and operated by some central agency - the school, the league, the bar, and so on.

D&D doesn't generally have that, except in organized play.

Where?

Spoiler: ad&d2ephb pg11 The Goal

Another major difference between role-playing
games and other games is the ultimate goal.
Everyone assumes that a game must have a
beginning and an end and that the end comes
when someone wins. That doesn’t apply to role-playing
because no one “wins” in a role-playing game. The point of
playing is not to win but to have fun and to socialize.
An adventure usually has a goal of some sort: protect the
villagers from the monsters; rescue the lost princess; explore
the ancient ruins. Typically, this goal can be attained in a rea-
sonable playing time: four to eight hours is standard. This
might require the players to get together for one, two, or
even three playing sessions to reach their goal and complete
the adventure.
But the game doesn’t end when an adventure is finished.
The same characters can go on to new adventures. Such a
series of adventures is called a campaign.
Remember, the point of an adventure is not to win but to
have fun while working toward a common goal. But the
length of any particular adventure need not impose an artifi-
cial limit on the length of the game. The AD&D game
embraces more than enough adventure to keep a group of
characters occupied for years

Spoiler: 3.5 pg4 introduction

Introduction
This is the Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game, the game
that defines the genre and has set the standard for fantasy role-
playing for more than 30 years.
D&D® is a game of your imagination in which you participate in
thrilling adventures and dangerous quests by taking on the role of a
hero—a character you create. Your character might be a strong
fighter or a clever rogue, a devout cleric or a powerful wizard. With a
few trusted allies at your side, you explore ruins and monster-filled
dungeons in search of treasure. The game offers endless possibilities
and a multitude of choices—more choices than even the most
sophisticated computer game, because you can do whatever you can
imagine.



THE D&D GAME
The D&D game is a fantasy game of your imagination. It’s part
acting, part storytelling, part social interaction, part war game, and
part dice rolling. You and your friends create characters that develop
and grow with each adventure they complete. One player is the
Dungeon Master (DM). The DM controls the monsters and ene-
mies, narrates the action, referees the game, and sets up the adven-
tures. Together, the Dungeon Master and the players make the game
come alive.
This Player’s Handbook has all the rules players need to create
characters, select equipment, and engage in combat with a variety of
supernatural and mythical foes.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide, available separately, provides the DM
with advice, guidelines, and everything he or she needs to create
challenges, adventures, and full-fledged D&D campaigns, including
sections on prestige classes, magic items, and character rewards.
The Monster Manual, available separately, contains material that
players and DMs alike will find useful. With hundreds of monsters
to populate all levels of dungeons, this tome also includes monster
creation rules, information on playing monsters as characters,
details on monster tactics, and powered-up versions of standard
creatures.
Together, these three volumes comprise the core rules for the
Dungeons & Dragons game.



THREE DIMENSIONS
The Dungeons & Dragons game is a game of imagination, but it
is also a game of tactics and strategy. Miniatures and a battle grid
provide the best way to visualize the action. Miniatures, represent-
ing characters and monsters in the game, can be purchased from
most hobby shops. The Dungeon Master’s Guide includes a paper
battle grid. More durable versions may be purchased separately.
The game assumes the use of miniatures and a battle grid, and the
rules are written from this perspective.



CHARACTERS
Your characters star in the adventures you play, just like the heroes
of a book or movie. As a player, you create a character using the rules
in this book. Your character might be a savage barbarian from the
frozen wastes or a clever rogue with a quick wit and a quicker blade.
You might be a deadly archer trained in survival techniques or a
wizard who has mastered the arcane arts. As your character
participates in adventures, he or she gains experience and becomes
more powerful.



ADVENTURES
Your character is an adventurer, a hero who sets out on epic quests
for fortune and glory. Other characters join your adventuring party
to explore dungeons and battle monsters such as the terrible dragon
or the carnivorous troll. These quests unfold as stories created by the
actions your characters perform and the situations your DM
presents.
A Dungeons & Dragons adventure features plenty of action,
exciting combat, terrifying monsters, epic challenges, and all kinds
of mysteries to uncover. What lies at the heart of the dungeons?
What waits around the next corner or behind the next door? Playing
the roles of your characters, you and your friends face the dangers
and explore a world of medieval fantasy.
One adventure might play out in a single game session; another
might stretch across several sessions of play. A session lasts as long
as you and your friends want to play, from a couple of hours to an all-
day affair. The game can be stopped at any time and picked up
wherever you left off when everyone gets back together.
Every adventure is different, every quest unique. Your character
might explore ancient ruins guarded by devious traps or loot the
tomb of a long-forgotten wizard. You might sneak into a castle to spy
on an enemy or face the life-draining touch of an undead creature.
Anything is possible in a Dungeons & Dragons game, and your
character can try to do anything you can imagine.



PLAYING THE GAME
Dungeons & Dragons uses a core mechanic to resolve all actions
in the game. This central game rule keeps play fast and intuitive.
The Core Mechanic: Whenever you attempt an action that has
some chance of failure, you roll a twenty-sided die (d20). To deter-
mine if your character succeeds at a task (such as attacking a mon-
ster or using a skill), you do this:

Spoiler: 3.5 PHB pg21 chapter opening

Adventurers seek gold, glory, justice, fame, power, knowl-
edge, or maybe some other goals—perhaps noble or per-
haps base. Each chooses a different way to attain those
goals, from brutal combat power, to mighty magic, to
subtle skills. Some adventurers prevail and grow in expe-
rience, wealth, and power. Others die.
Your character’s class is his or her profession or vocation. It
determines what he or she is able to do: combat prowess, magical
ability, skills, and more. Class is probably the first choice you make
about your character—just ahead of race, or perhaps in conjunction
with that decision. The class you choose determines where you
should best place your character’s ability scores and suggests which
races are best to support that class choice.

☆☆
Those are quite different from

Spoiler: 5.0phb pg4 Preface

Preface
NOCE UPON A TIME, LONG, LONG AGO, IN A
realm called the Midwestern United
States—specifically the states of Minne
sota and Wisconsin—a group of friends
gathered together to forever alter the
history o f gaming.
It wasn’t their intent to do so. They were
tired of merely reading tales about worlds of magic,
monsters, and adventure. They wanted to play in those
worlds, rather than observe them. That they went on
to invent D u n g e o n s & D r a g o n s , and thereby ignite a
revolution in gaming that continues to this day, speaks
to two things.
First, it speaks to their ingenuity and genius in fig
uring out that gam es w ere the perfect way to explore
w orlds that could not otherwise exist. Almost every
m odern game, whether played on a digital device or
a tabletop, ow es some debt to D&D.
Second, it is a testament to the inherent appeal of the
game they created. D u n g e o n s & D r a g o n s sparked a
thriving global phenomenon. It is the first roleplaying
game, and it remains one of the best of its breed.
To play D&D, and to play it well, you don’t need to
read all the rules, memorize every detail of the game,
or master the fine art o f rolling funny looking dice.
None of those things have any bearing on what’s best
about the game.
W hat you need are two things, the first being friends
with whom you can share the game. Playing gam es with
your friends is a lot of fun, but D&D does something
m ore than entertain.
Playing D&D is an exercise in collaborative creation.
You and your friends create epic stories filled with ten
sion and memorable drama. You create silly in-jokes
that make you laugh years later. The dice will be cruel
to you, but you will soldier on. Your collective creativ
ity will build stories that you will tell again and again,
ranging from the utterly absurd to the stuff of legend.
If you don’t have friends interested in playing, don’t
worry. There’s a special alchemy that takes place
around a D&D table that nothing else can match. Play
the game with som eone enough, and the two of you
are likely to end up friends. It’s a cool side effect o f the
game. Your next gaming group is as close as the nearest
game store, online forum, or gaming convention.
The second thing you need is a lively imagination
or, m ore importantly, the willingness to use whatever
imagination you have. You don’t need to be a master
storyteller or a brilliant artist. You just need to aspire to
create, to have the courage of someone who is willing to
build something and share it with others.
Luckily, just as D&D can strengthen your friendships,
it can help build in you the confidence to create and
share. D&D is a game that teaches you to look for the
clever solution, share the sudden idea that can overcome
a problem, and push yourself to imagine what could be,
rather than simply accept what is.
The first characters and adventures you create will
probably be a collection of cliches. That’s true of every
one, from the greatest Dungeon Masters in history on
down. A ccept this reality and move on to create the
second character or adventure, which will be better,
and then the third, which will be better still. Repeat that
over the course of time, and soon you’ll be able to create
anything, from a character’s background story to an epic
w orld of fantasy adventure.
Once you have that skill, it’s yours forever. Countless
writers, artists, and other creators can trace their begin
nings to a few pages o f D&D notes, a handful of dice,
and a kitchen table.
Above all else, D&D is yours. The friendships you
make around the table will be unique to you. The adven
tures you embark on, the characters you create, the
m em ories you make—these will be yours. D&D is your
personal corner of the universe, a place where you have
free reign to do as you wish.
G o forth now. Read the rules of the game and the
story of its worlds, but always remember that you are
the one w ho brings them to life. They are nothing
without the spark of life that you give them.

Mike Mearls
May 2014

Spoiler: 5.5/2024phb pg 4 opening

THIS STORY BEGAN 50 YEARS AGO, AND YOU' RE PART O F
it. In the 1970s. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created a
game of make-believe that fused rules with storytelling.
There"d never been anything like it: a game in which each
player made their own fantasy character and teamed up
with their friends to go on quests. One person served as the
narrator and referee-the Dungeon Master-and did every-
thing they could to challenge and delight the other players.
That game was, of course, the first version of Dungeons &
Dragons. andyou're now reading its latest version.
Over the decades, millions of people have played D&D,
and scores of writers. game designers. and artists have
made their mark on it through its various editions. When
our team released the current edition in 2014, we were
humbled by how many of you loved it. This revised ver-
sion of it is a salute to all of you-those of you who've been
playing D&D for years, those of you who've contributed to
the game through your feedback, and those ofyou who are
about to experience the joy of playing itfor the first time.
As a teenager, I met both Gary and Dave. I even spent
an entire day with Gary, and we did what all D&D fans do:
share stories about our adventures in the D&D multiverse.
I invite you to embark on such adventures anew. Share as
much laughter as you can with your friends. Use only the
rules that serve your fun, and always follow your group's
bliss. So many people have been enjoying the magic of D&
for half a century. Let's keep it blazing for another 50 years!
-Jeremy Crawford

RE YOU READY TO EMBARK ON FANTASY
. adventures with your friends? DUNGEONS
& DRAGONS invites you to play imaginary
adventurers who delve into dungeons and other
perilous locations together. face fearsome fees such
as dragons. and build friendships forged amid fan-

tastical danger

Fueled by imagination and rules, D&D invites
you to adopt a fantasy persona-a mighty Fighter, a
cunning Rogue, a faithful Cleric, a magical Wizard,
or something else-and then solve problems, fight

There's no winning and losing in D&D, at least
not the way those terms are usually understood.
Together you and friends create an exciting story
of adventurers who confront perils. Sometimes an
adventurer might came to a tragic end. Even so. the
other adventurers can search for powerful magic to
revive their fallen comrade. or the character's player
might create a new character to carry on. No matter
what happens. if everyone has a good time and cre-
ates a memorable story. they all win.

WHAT YOU NEED
Here's what you need to play D&D with one or more
friends (a typical group has five people):
Dungeon Master. One person takes on the role of
the Dungeon Master (DM). the game's lead story-
teller and referee. The DM creates adventures for
the players' characters. who navigate its hazards
and decide which paths to explore. The DM also
narrates what they experience and plays the
friends and foes they meet along the way. Even
though the DM challenges the adventurers. the
DM always strives to delight the whole group.
Players. Each player creates an adventurer who
teams up with the other players‘ adventurers.
Working together. the group might explore a dark
dungeon. a ruined city. a haunted castle. a lost
temple. 3 lava-filled mountain. or another location
described by the DM. The adventurers also solve
puzzles. talk with other characters, battle fantas-
tic monsters. and discover magic items and other
treasure—all while supporting each other's fun.
You also need these resources. either in physical
form or on DnDBeyond.com:

I'd be curious where in the d&d Adventurer's League organized play docs that a player would find anything like the 2e & 3.5 quotes. The Adventurer's League Player's guide(5pg pdf) is shockingly absent of even the slightest hint of a nod towards that sentiment. I'm not going to link to it but every version of the ALDMG(4pg pdf) is more about making sure the GM knows they need to allow the various books with few exceptions and the published rules as written but must never use any houserules. The PHB isn't of much use on that note either since it's equivalent is directed with almost laser like focus on stories friendship camaraderie & making sure nobody forgets the DM is there to "delight"

☆☆ Left the 4e PHB out because I don't have it & was running other stuff at the time

 

[Paul Farquhar]

AL is a weird anomaly anyway. I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. The standard way to play D&D is with a regular group of friends.

 

[billd91]

Honestly, AL isn't that weird at all. Playing at a convention/game store/student union table with people you don't know is pretty much as old as the hobby. AL and the other organized play campaigns just add the twist of having certain table rules be common across the whole campaign no matter where or when you play.

 

[Umbran]

Where?

TL;DR. Maybe focus your quotes next time.

If you honestly feel a book saying it is equivalent to an organization enforcing it, there's not much for us to discuss here.

 

[Umbran]

True. But even in organized play, D&D behaves differently from other activities.

Sure.

The point was that organized play is the only place where we might even approach the level of authority to enforce regulations of, say, a referee in a sports league.

Not saying that organized play is the same as league sports. Merely that unorganized ttrpg play (which I suspect is most ttrpg play), has only the forces of social interaction behind it, no matter what the rulebooks say.

 

[Maxperson]

That did mean that for one FLGS that I DMed for there was a certain group of people that we called "the cheese weasels" - because they took advantage of every exploit and twisted every word of text to their advantage - never wanted me as their DM. It was fine. I always had people that would show up a bit early and make a bee-line to my table because they knew that while I enforced rulings I was fair about it and willing to listen to reason, just maybe hold off on it until after the game so we can continue to play the game.

Now I want to name my next character Vin Cheesel and deck him out.

 

[bsss]

This is kind of a tangent, but I disagree. It is actually extremely common for recreational activities to have participants informed on how to operate with antagonists. There are huge swaths of rules, regulations, and conduct guides for thing like school sports, chess leagues, martial arts tournaments, bar quiz nights, etc, that are all based around the idea that somebody is going to openly antagonize their opponents. In this regard, D&D really is an outlier where we give the DM and players much more responsibility and power to kick individuals out for perceived "unreasonable" behavior rather than codifying it somewhere.



Sports in particular are constantly rewritten around uncouth behavior. Baseball's infield fly rule. Football's rules about uniform materials, or StickEm. Uncouth behavior has changed some sports so much they're almost unrecognizable from the incarnations played in the 70s, or earlier.

Seconding Umbran --- there is a central authority essentially being the "cops". Do the unreasonable thing and you're out of the league, and D&D doesn't have that. But still, the activity itself doesn't address the need for the cops. They are beyond the scope of the game, it's not like the game is "well, you keep playing under duress, it's normal to just keep getting kicked where the sun don't shine".

I think that is where the second part of what you said gets interesting. The infield fly rule for example, right, someone arguably antagonistic towards baseball kept going "oh haha the sun got in my eye again and I missed the catch, but what do you know, easy double play, weird!" one too many times and people went "that's silly, we have to put a stop to that" and made a rule saying "you can't do that, the umpire's going to call an out and send everyone back to their base". So you're right, there is some element where the limits are put down and I don't think they necessarily foster bad behavior because the limits exist. My "contortion" I had in mind, though, was something like "well, people are just going to cheat to catch a ball, I guess, but we can't tell them 'no', so we'll have to make the footballs extra slippery". That's the antipattern, treating bad behavior as normal and creating processes to include yet thwart it rather than excluding it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I find D&D is largely played by people who are not particularly competitive. The Scrabble club is more antagonistic.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Now I want to name my next character Vin Cheesel and deck him out.

does DnD have a mousefolk?