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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 2343748" data-attributes="member: 8835">Jupp just hit the definition on the head.Railroading is when the PCs CANNOT make a choice because the DM prevents them or circumvents every choice to lead directly back to his plot.  Effectively, the PCs can't deviate or prevent something from happening.Whole books have been written on the nature of Choice vs. choice.  So saying my PC has no choice but to save the world, therefore he's being railroaded is misunderstanding what choice means.In normal life (and in a good D&D game), you can choose to do anything.  Literally.  You choose to wake up and shower.  You choose not to beat your spouse.  You choose to take the freeway, instead of the backroads.  You choose not to signal when turning left.  You also choose to stop and help that guy being mugged.  You choose whether to mail in the rent check or light the money on fire.However, while those are all choices, many of them logical foregone conclusions that you avoid.  In short, you pay the rent instead of burning your money, because you need a place to stay.  While technically, you have a choice, it's not a real Choice.  This situation does not constitute RailRoading.  It is merely that fact that each choice path has a result and consequence.  When each one is weighed, a rational being will choose the one that provides the most value.  As such, certain choices are effectively eliminated by our perception, but they still exist.Conversely, a RailRoading DM not only gives no choices, but actively prevents you from succeeding at any choices that aren't on his prescribed plan.  A RailRoading DM would ONLY allow you to mail in your rent check.  He'd make the match blow out before you could burn the money.  He'd make the roads blocked so you couldn't drive down to the landlord's with the cash.  He'd do this, because the next scene in his story is for somebody to call the next day and ask where the money is, so he can get a PC to say, "The check's in the mail." which is a code phrase for the spies that accidentally called the wrong number.Janx</blockquote>

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