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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5413178" data-attributes="member: 80487">That seems at first glance at odds with what I read at the Web page I cited. However, the assumption that there must be such a prior thing as "the adventure" or "the story" that requires certain outcomes seems to be very deeply ingrained in some quarters.It's rather silly from the "grognard" perspective. That Stalingrad might or might not fall, might or might not even be a high priority when (e.g.) the Caucasus oil fields beckon, is very definitely interesting to us! It is, in fact, fundamental to the interest of a game. We play to explore worlds of "what if".The very essentials thus are different. The traditional game involves setting up a situation, after which the players' moves -- along with whatever chance factors may be involved -- determine the course of events. That is how it goes in everything from Checkers to Chainmail.That was the very commonplace and uncontroversial assumption in place when we started referring to "railroad" setups in FRP. The term is pejorative because the behavior so designated constituted no less than cheating except in cases such as tournaments and other convention scenarios that were regarded as less than the full game.The basic procedures of play, as laid out in the handbooks of the original D&D game and others, are distinctly different from those in which the limited scenario is considered to be a whole "campaign". One might note that the basic unit of play in OD&D, C&S, Traveller, RuneQuest, and so on is the game week. The individual player selects activities at that scale -- a dungeon foray, wilderness expedition, research, training, etc. -- and the GM's responsibility is to adjudicate results.This newer kind of game is like a kibbitzer butting in to insist that one must play the Lepanto Opening because "the story" calls for it!Sure, and we've got to have mustard in a PBJ sandwich because the bologna demands it, eh?</blockquote>

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