NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 5398229" data-attributes="member: 50987">Ah, yes.  Railroading.This topic comes up every now and then at my game table, and it's usually brought up by The New Guy who hasn't gamed very much with the rest of us.  The topic is usually introduced in a snide tone of voice, as part of a complaint about his character not being allowed to do something."Whadda ya mean I can't pick the king's pocket?!  Oh-sorry-then, I didn't realize that this was a railroad game, my bad. (sulk)"Like most everyone else, I run a plot-driven game.  I start a campaign by writing the story first, and then all of the adventures are just steps in a progression.  My campaigns work sort of like a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: there is a main goal that needs to be accomplished (stopping Willow, for example), and every episode of that season is a step toward accomplishing that goal.So imagine how crappy the show would become, how quickly it would be cancelled, and how incredibly pissed the fans would be, if ten minutes into the season premiere Buffy shoots Willow in the face with a shotgun.  "There, I saved the world," Buffy says with a shrug.  "Next."This is a rather extreme example, I know.  The point is that the players don't necessarily know the whole story yet, and that there is usually more than one way to solve a problem.  The Scoobies don't yet know that Willow is going to be crucial to the survival of the whole world in the final season...all they see is a problem, and they want to solve it as quickly and easily as possible.  (And a shotgun is a fast and easy solution to most problems. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> )  Without a solid plot, without character relationships, without certain assumptions of what's right and wrong, it would be a perfectly valid course of action.  Unfortunately, it is one that would make the whole game suck.I really don't know what to say about the Dragonlance example that PirateCat mentioned.  Clearly, it's a poorly-written module.  And the DM throwing a hissy-fit was unfortunate.  If the story was dependent upon the party getting captured by slavers, the story should have started there...a whole plot can't depend on a single decision, because inevitably players will make a different decision than what your story needs.  (Instead of "you have to follow them," the DM should have dismissed it, let the players have their fun in town, and then started out the next day with:  "You wake up with a splitting headache.  You are on a wooden floor in shackles, and a gentle rocking motion suggests you are below decks aboard a ship.  You don't quite recall how you got here; you vaguely remember having a bowl of stew at the Boar's Tooth Inn, and getting really sleepy..."  Or somesuch.)I guess my attitude toward the railroad boilerplate is to trust your fellow gamers, and talk about problems the moment they come up.  If you feel like your players are trying to hijack your game, or if you feel like your DM is turning your character into a prop (or a piece of scenery) stop and talk about it OOC.  Disclose parts of the plot if you must, just so that everyone knows where the game is ultimately heading and how awesome it is going to be."Um, listen," Joss Whedon says to Sara Michelle Gellar, "Buffy can shoot Willow in the face with the shotgun, but you will all regret it if she does."  He turns to face Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, and Anthony Stewart Head.    "Your characters don't know this yet, but Willow is going to be needed in a couple of years.  The point of the story isn't just to stop Willow, but to also save Willow.  Okay?  Does anyone have any questions?"</blockquote>

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