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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Realistic Consequences vs Gameplay
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<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 8008673" data-attributes="member: 53980"><p>It's only railroading if the players have been railroaded. </p><p></p><p>Let's say the players notice a sleeping dragon while exploring a series of caves. They walk over to the dragon, waking it, and demand its hoard. Without a roll, the dragon declines the request. Have the players been railroaded? I think not. They could have ignored the dragon, or woken it up and tried to bribe it into revealing information about the nearby area. The fact that the DM predetermined that the request for its hoard is not an option does not suggest even a whiff of railroading to me. The DM is just roleplaying the dragon, one of whose traits is an avaricious love of treasure. In the case where the players bribe it for information, this can even work to their benefit and be automatically successful, no check required. </p><p></p><p>I think a lot of the negativity towards this aspect of NPCs is because we've focused pretty much exclusively on the auto-fail aspect of NPCs with unyielding character traits. Is there anyone who disapproves of character traits which, when properly leveraged by the players, result in them automatically succeeding?</p><p></p><p>If there are traits that result in automatic failure, then the converse is (or at least should be) true. There will be NPCs whose personality traits allow the players to automatically succeed when played to. Like the dragon who is willing to part with information in exchange for treasure. </p><p></p><p>I don't see how that has anything to do with railroading. It's railroading in the same sense that putting walls in your dungeon is railroading. I mean, yes, improperly applied (a dungeon consisting of one long corridor with no choices) it could result in railroading. </p><p></p><p>However, I don't think it remotely necessitates railroading. It's simply setting limits on what the NPC will or will not do (which is part of giving them a personality). Much like what the walls do for a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 8008673, member: 53980"] It's only railroading if the players have been railroaded. Let's say the players notice a sleeping dragon while exploring a series of caves. They walk over to the dragon, waking it, and demand its hoard. Without a roll, the dragon declines the request. Have the players been railroaded? I think not. They could have ignored the dragon, or woken it up and tried to bribe it into revealing information about the nearby area. The fact that the DM predetermined that the request for its hoard is not an option does not suggest even a whiff of railroading to me. The DM is just roleplaying the dragon, one of whose traits is an avaricious love of treasure. In the case where the players bribe it for information, this can even work to their benefit and be automatically successful, no check required. I think a lot of the negativity towards this aspect of NPCs is because we've focused pretty much exclusively on the auto-fail aspect of NPCs with unyielding character traits. Is there anyone who disapproves of character traits which, when properly leveraged by the players, result in them automatically succeeding? If there are traits that result in automatic failure, then the converse is (or at least should be) true. There will be NPCs whose personality traits allow the players to automatically succeed when played to. Like the dragon who is willing to part with information in exchange for treasure. I don't see how that has anything to do with railroading. It's railroading in the same sense that putting walls in your dungeon is railroading. I mean, yes, improperly applied (a dungeon consisting of one long corridor with no choices) it could result in railroading. However, I don't think it remotely necessitates railroading. It's simply setting limits on what the NPC will or will not do (which is part of giving them a personality). Much like what the walls do for a dungeon. [/QUOTE]
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