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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 2959955" data-attributes="member: 18280">And say goodbye to the DM.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Seriously, though, I think that when people are discussing railroading, they are talking about one of a pair of bookends.  On one side, the DM attempts to control the PCs (railroading).  On the other end, the players attempt to resist anything the DM presents (this really needs an equally derogatory name...?).  Both destroy the fun of everyone involved.The best games include the DM laying hooks that get followed, and a few that never do.  If the PCs see a ruin on the hill they never get around to exploring, or hear of a cave complex that they don't check out, that's a good thing.  It adds to versimilitude, and the design work that went into it can always be used with another group of players or in a later game.  Players should have choice, and the DM should not metagame to remove choice from the players.  The DM, however, should also get a return on his time and effort invested; the players should not metagame to destroy the value of the DM's efforts.I think that some of the problems arise when the players try to do the unexpected to achieve thier goals, and the DM perceives it as "that equally derogatory name" I failed to come up with.  The DM takes steps to prevent this, and ends up railroading the players, who may well have been invested in the adventure even if they were unwilling to walk into an obvious trap.  The worst experience I ever had as a player was with a DM running Slave Lords who decided that every round spent not following the preordained path, the PCs (me!) aged 10 years.I think that other problems arise when the players do not trust their DM.  The DM has laid out lots of hooks to give them a fun & interesting time, but they are too concerned with not being railroaded to follow any of them.  Instead they do nothing.  So nothing happens.  And then they blame the DM.  The worst experience I had as a DM was with a player of this type, who simply would not react to anything the campaign world threw him.  So the rest of the PCs left him in the tavern and went adventuring.Of course, I have no problem walking from a game I'm not enjoying as a player (though it would have to be a bad game indeed before I would use this option mid-session) or not inviting a player back to a game I'm DMing (though it would have to be a bad player indeed before I tossed him out mid-session).Still, I think we're talking about things that are part of a continuum.  Players refusing to follow hooks is on one end, DM railroading is on the other, and the kind of gaming most people find fun & rewarding occupies the space between the two.</blockquote>

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