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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6595328" data-attributes="member: 42582">Very Delphic. Not very helpful, though.An observation that also pertains to my conversation with [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION]:The only unequivocal example of railroading that has been provided in this thread (at least recently) is [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]'s story about the corpse-eating demon, which also seems to have lead to illusionistic backstory manipulation to get the game "back on the rails".I don't see how it would have been any less problematic, in all the ways that it was, if it had come about because the GM rolled on a random table and it happened to be the result that came up.If my example of a PC falling through the Elemental Chaos is supposed to be railroading (which I don't remotely see - what player  agency was blocked/negated?), how would it have been less so if it had come about because I rolled it on a random table?And more generally: railroading pertains to the relationship between the GM's introduction of new fictional content, and the past player decisions, PC actions, etc. But random tables, use of freeze-frames etc are all just variations on GM-side techniques for making a decision about what to introduce. None of them, in and of itself, implies anything about a relationship between the GM's decision to introduce new content and past player decisions, PC actions etc. Hence why I cannot see any relationship between the use of them, and railroading.Obviously the use of a freeze-frame scene (the overturned wagon, the demon eating the corpse, the githzerai training in their dojo like the closing scene of Tai Chi Master) might be railroading, if it negates some prior exercise of player agency. But so can rolling on a random table, or sticking to the setting description in the GM's notes, or imposing a GM timeline.</blockquote>

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