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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 2963305" data-attributes="member: 158">There are some VERY OPEN definitions of "Railroading" out there. I must say that I've never encountered this before, and it's definitely an eye opener.For my group, there's one style of DM'ing that we all, unitedly, cannot stand: The totally "open DM." If a DM goes totally LARP-style freeform, it bugs the living daylights out of us, because to us it lacks focus, drive, and a reason to play. The one time our group tried one of the Storyteller games (Vampire the Masquerade), it was under a totally "open DM" who helped us with the rules, watched us make our characters, and when the game started, he gathered us around the table, and basically said, "now, roleplay." No plot, no hooks, no nothing except however our characters decided to interact with one another. So, when we began doing what we expected vampires to do (go hunting, etc.) it bugged him to no end because we basically went and did our own thing, directionlessly, and just basically became petty criminals. One day, I think I'll re-try VtM, but this one bad experience pretty much turned off the entire group to it.The totally "open DMing" style may be good for some gamers, but for me it really (pun intended) bites. I'd rather have a DM say, "OK, these are the rumors you hear" and follow up on them, or the DM says, "a man comes bursting in, screaming for help!" and follow the big, glowing hook to whatever destination it leads. I don't consider either of these railroading. To me, railroading is when helping said screaming man REQUIRES our capture, or requires us to act in a way which must lead down one path, no matter our choice.</blockquote>

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