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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 2963258" data-attributes="member: 8835">While a player being uncomfortable or uninterested can lead to unhappiness, it does not constitute a railroad.  What if the rest of the party is happy with being in the city, dealing with politics, while the Ranger wishes he were out hunting orcs?What if, while hunting orcs, the player discover the orcs are being paid by a trade guild in the city to attack rival merchants?  And the party decided to goto the city to investigate further?As a GM, I cannot guarrantee that you the player, or your PC will be comfortable or interested in everything that goes on in the game (no GM can, they can only try).  I can however, avoid the railroading mistakes which I outlined in my other posts, which will result in better execution of adventures.  And those guidelines won't guarrantee the players will like the adventure anymore.I look at it this way, there are certain PC types, that presented with a certain type of problem, will respond to it in certain way.  To do otherwise would be "not playing in character".  So if a party of Paladins discovers the local orcs nest is cooking babies for breakfast, and nothing more pressing is going on, then the paladins WILL be rescuing said babies.  That's not a railroad.  The PCs didn't have to rescue the babies.  It's just that they're not given a better alternative (though there are others).  The fact that the players don't like rescuing babies from orcs is also not railroading. The fact is, if the players don't like the story, I AM wasting their time, but that's not the same as railroading.Railroading is forcing events and outcomes to suit a DM's preplanned path, instead of letting the dice decideCrappy adventure writing is picking a plot that doesn't interest the players, and doesn't appeal to the PCs.In all these posts, you discern a pattern.  I am seperating symptoms from causes and effects.  I see railroading, crappy plots, and unhappy players as distinct elements, that while related, are seperate.  I feel that by seperating them, and identifying the cause, you can treat the cause more precisely.If you want to avoid railroading, do what I said in prior posts.If you want to avoid crappy plots, examine what type of stories your players want, AND what kinds of hooks the PCs would take (based on PC definition and the player behind it).</blockquote>

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