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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5398647" data-attributes="member: 54877">I think that when railroading or sandbox (or "rowboating", nice one!) gets discussed with some heat, there is nearly always something else involved, often unspoken. For example, I think illusionism has been mentioned only once in this topic thus far.  I can tolerate a great deal of pre-plotted material in the right circumstance, despite my preference for sandbox, but I can't stand illusionism.   Illusionism drives me nuts, and I avoid it like the plague when I'm the DM.  Problem is, it is not uncommon for a DM to think that the way to run a railroad is to use illusionism like mad.  I see it invoked in gaming advice, many times I'm convinced unconsciously. OTOH, confronted with the need to do a certain amount of railroading, I'll quite happily go to OOC discussion to resolve the issue:  "Hey, you want to get on this train and do X, Y, and Z?"  Or you want to try something else to do something similar and let me adapt on the fly?  Or you want to do something totally different and let me wing it?  Because normally I'd have more options, but this was a rough week, and I was tired when prepping." I can hear the deep immersionists screaming, "That isn't roleplaying to me!"  Well, maybe not to you.  I just call it taking a shortcut to the fun, the fun being defined as something I'm willing to run and the players excited to try. If a decision point happens to fall mid-adventure, then it is no less valid for its location.  If you'd rather handle that situation with illusionism, and the group likes it, more power to you.  Just don't do it with the idea that illusionism is the only effective way to handle the issue. I think you get similar disconnects over such things as splitting the party, level of dissent tolerated between player characters, scope of the playable world, etc.  Depending on the groups' preferences on a whole host of issues, and how conscious they are of those preferences, they may show a preference for a certain amount of scripted versus sandbox, but I think it is more a symptom of those other preferences than a simple preference in its own right.</blockquote>

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