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"Railroading" is just a pejorative term for...
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5398534" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Any approach can be bad if done wrong. </p><p></p><p>The opposite of the railroad is what I call the rowboat or rowboat setting. A rowboat setting is when the players have the appearance of complete freedom but can't actually do anything. The actual rowboat setting would be literally:</p><p></p><p>"Ok, you are in a row boat in the middle of the ocean. There is no land in sight anywhere and you have no idea where you are. What do you want to do?"</p><p></p><p>However, any sparcely described setting with few obvious features, limited player mobility and empowerment, and no discernable purpose or direction qualifies. Virtually every setting I've ever encountered by someone who prides themselves on their ability to 'wing it' qualifies. </p><p></p><p>In essence, both a rowboat setting and a railroad reach the same end from opposite directions. In neither case does the player have any real choices. In the literal rowboat setting, players can do 'anything', but 'anything' here consists of solely rowing in a randomly chosen direction through a vast and featureless ocean with only the faintest hope of finding land and with an even fainter hope of finding anything interesting when you get there. And whatever happens, the DM will take no responsibility for the outcome and instead blame the players for their 'poor choices' even though the players had literally nothing to base their choices on. </p><p></p><p>However, just because the two extremes arrive at a bad place if followed to long or unwisely, doesn't mean that either plots or sandboxes are bad or even incompatible in moderation.</p><p></p><p>Whether or not you think 'railroads' or 'rowboats' are inherently bad probably depends mostly on your personal experience. If you were abused by a bad DM that put you on rails, you probably hate railroads. If you were abused by a bad DM that left you to flounder pointlessly in a rowboat, then you probably hate rowboats and think the term 'railroad' is used by bad DMs to justify hellish rowboats.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 5398534, member: 4937"] Any approach can be bad if done wrong. The opposite of the railroad is what I call the rowboat or rowboat setting. A rowboat setting is when the players have the appearance of complete freedom but can't actually do anything. The actual rowboat setting would be literally: "Ok, you are in a row boat in the middle of the ocean. There is no land in sight anywhere and you have no idea where you are. What do you want to do?" However, any sparcely described setting with few obvious features, limited player mobility and empowerment, and no discernable purpose or direction qualifies. Virtually every setting I've ever encountered by someone who prides themselves on their ability to 'wing it' qualifies. In essence, both a rowboat setting and a railroad reach the same end from opposite directions. In neither case does the player have any real choices. In the literal rowboat setting, players can do 'anything', but 'anything' here consists of solely rowing in a randomly chosen direction through a vast and featureless ocean with only the faintest hope of finding land and with an even fainter hope of finding anything interesting when you get there. And whatever happens, the DM will take no responsibility for the outcome and instead blame the players for their 'poor choices' even though the players had literally nothing to base their choices on. However, just because the two extremes arrive at a bad place if followed to long or unwisely, doesn't mean that either plots or sandboxes are bad or even incompatible in moderation. Whether or not you think 'railroads' or 'rowboats' are inherently bad probably depends mostly on your personal experience. If you were abused by a bad DM that put you on rails, you probably hate railroads. If you were abused by a bad DM that left you to flounder pointlessly in a rowboat, then you probably hate rowboats and think the term 'railroad' is used by bad DMs to justify hellish rowboats. [/QUOTE]
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