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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 2352575" data-attributes="member: 8944">You and me both.  But I get the feeling that you and I are in one camp, and Jupp (and some of the other posters hereabouts) are in another.  To a degree, there's a valid play philosophy that makes the game the personal story of the players, with the DM just there to help them tell whatever tale that is.  That's not how *I* DM (or play), but the posters here have made it abundantly clear that such groups exists and are reasonably common.  I prefer a little more give and take between the players and the DM, but in order for that to happen, players have to accept the consequences for their actions that are so often identified as railroading. In short, there are three levels: 1.) The DM has control of the game.  This is usually referred to as "high railroading."  Cause and effect is entirely in the hands of the DM. 2.) The Players and DM share control of the game. This has some "railroading" but still allows the players a reasonable degree of control over their collective destinies. The players provide some cause, and some effect, and so does the DM. 3.) The Players have control of the game. The DM may only run the game in a way that they approve of, as he is merely providing the background for their story or stories. Cause and effect are in the hands of the players.  I tend toward the top of the list, as I'm sure you all have guessed. That being said, I think 2 is the most valid kind of play, but that people who most often complain about railroading expect something like 3.  Of course, the lines between them are far from clear, and I won't even try to pass some objective judgement on which is best.  All I can say is that as a DM, I'd never run a game in category 3, I'd probably have an easy time running a game in category 1 (and might even be able to make it look like a game in category 2 or 3) but concentrate my efforts in running a game in category 2.  Now, these categories use fairly generous definitions of railroading. I don't necessarily agree with the definitions (since, as you all can tell, I think something has to be *really* blatant and illogical to constitute railroading), but I've used them in what I imagine are their common meanings to illustrate the idea.</blockquote>

Verification