Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 1900414" data-attributes="member: 633">I have tried to create a campaign which featured no railroading at all. And I mean it; there was no NPC to call on the characters and assign them a quest, or to tell them how to go about slaying the fiend; no "the only way to do X is through Y and Z"; no overarching plot, no direction. The characters were free to do whatever the hell they wanted; adventure hooks were provided through an in-game newspaper which reported on strange events and interesting stuff worldwide. Every issue had so many hooks that the party would never be able to follow through on all of them even if they tried. Hooks left alone would eventually resolve themselves in some way or another. No end-of-the-world plots, or if there were, someone else could do them if the PCs weren't interested. It was a half disaster; the party fragmented with everyone doing what he liked best and I was utterly unable to keep up three interesting adventures at the same time, especially considering that I generally had no time to prepare them. Noone was having fun, since everyone spent most of the time sitting at the table and doing nothing while I dealt with another group. Additionally, sometimes they would find themselves in far too easy or far too hard situations, with both cases being no fun. Since then, I believe that railroading, like everything else, has its uses in moderation. My current adventures have a general goal and several subgoals. I define a way to obtain each subgoal, and subtly nudge the players towards that subgoal, but I never force them that way and I always allow alternative plans to succeed if it is logical that they do so. When I don't want the PCs to do something, I make sure that there is a bloody good reason for which that something is undesirable or impossible.</blockquote>

Verification