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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5399778" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is in part a terminology issue, but not entirely.I don't agree that this is railroading. It is scene-framing, in that it presents the players with a situation in which their PCs find themselves.Crucial to the distinction drawn here between railroading and scene-framing is that railroading is an approach to play. It is the GM exercising determinative power over the course of play. In this example from the Isle of Dread, no play has occurred yet, and so no power has been exercised.What would be railroading would be if, having framed this scene, the GM then told the players "So you find yourselves at the docks, looking for a boat to take you to the island on the map."Having identified what is taking place as scene-framing rather than railroading doesn't mean I particularly like it as it stands. Unless the players have already indicated that their PCs are nautical treasure-seeking types, there is nothing about this introduction that links it to something compelling in a PC's backstory. But that could be fairly easily remedied - for example, the map could be signed by a former mentor (or nemesis) of one of the PCs, or the city could be described as having a shrine to some friendly or enemy god.</blockquote>