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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 5403798" data-attributes="member: 15538">The techniques I mentioned do not depend on the player's willingness or desire to "jump the rails." Even if the players amicably follow what looks like the obvious path, they still benefit from being afforded the respect of real choices, attempts to maintain the appearance of continuity in the game world, being allowed to make reasonable attempts to solve challenges, etc.I just don't agree that a successful "theme park" game and a railroad have the same characteristics. I would not call a game a "railroad" simply based on the initial scenario, even if the GM plans on funneling events toward a certain goal. Railroading refers to how the game functions in play. Railroading is coercive. A game that affords the players respect and provides fun, however carefully orchestrated, is not coercive. Saying, "X happens in Act III" may be wishful thinking, but there is nothing badwrongfun about aiming for that outcome, if you think it would be fun. But if your players don't like X, and they have a reasonable chance to avert it, what happens when they do Y will tell you whether you are running a railroad. I am fluent with many models of play. I am also familiar with a genre of experience that I would not wish on anyone. I am making a distinction between badwrongfun (i.e other styles of play which may afford more or less liberty in realistic player choices) and what is strictly unfun. What Hite calls getting somewhere does not fit my definition of a railroad. I look at the comments cited in the OP as a volley in an ongoing dialectic between freedom and thematics, and as with much of partisan rhetoric, the casualty is honest and understanding communication. Railroading has NOTHING to do with getting somewhere o accomplishing something, nor does accomplishing something mean the same thing to everyone. In a discussion of railroading (I don't know the exact context, but as I understand the situation) Hite chose to make that comment, choosing to make a rhetorical point about GM control over player freedom, rather than acknowledging a dysfunctional scenario. Hite's comment is a glib defense of what is sometimes inaccurately called railroading by people who want to stretch the definition. It was a defensive comment, and ironically enough, laden with negative judgment against people who are less concerned about "accomplishing something" (whatever that means) and more with other rewards of their chosen playstyle. My take: "You are having badwrongfun" -> "No, YOU are having badwrongfun."In practice, both freeform styles and more tightly controlled, programmatic scenarios are BOTH aimed at accomplishing something.</blockquote>

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