I don't quite understand what the definition of "a linear game" is. Because if it is literally linear, from A to B to C etc, no room for deviation or change of the player actions to affect the outcome, I really do not see how it is not a railroad, albeit possibly one the players willingly follow. Or is that the difference? Railroading is defined as the GM using force to prevent the players from deviating from the path, but if on the linear adventure the players never try to deviate from the path then technically such force is not needed?
It is all about Feelings.
The Linear Game is nearly all RPGs as it has to be....you have to have a Start-->Middle--->End. That is how things work.
And no matter how much you love to stay in the
Sandbox Wasteland most people will prefer to do something more
When most people cry
Railroad they are talking about a
Clumsy or Bad DM .
No. Because if the GM frames events in such way, that there is always only the one sensible thing to do, it is still a railroad, just more elegantly done than one where the GM uses force to block outcomes. To avoid this the situations should be more open ended, without one obvious outcome. Basically if you can run it with several different groups of players and they all end up making the roughly same choices leading to the same outcomes it is probably a railroad.
This is the big problem with the Railroad Concept.
When you have One person in a game that is creating the whole game reality.....and 1-4 people just playing characters in that reality......you will always be
Playing in the DMs World. Now this is basic, classic RPG 101. This is how RPGs started and is how most of them are: it is the excepted norm.
But that completely misses the point. A railroad isn't a railroad until the DM tries to force the players back on to the track when they're doing something else. In my opinion, you can't write a railroad,
I will agree in general, but still point out it is very close to possible.
In a harsh, cruel Old School RPG run by a Killer DM a simple adventure like ""the PC is poisoned and has 24 hours to find the cure" is a is a good Railroad. The player will stay very focused and motivated to to the task of saving their character.
Maybe, maybe, maybe... There are as many possibilities as there are players. Good module authors will allow for many possible options, but it's impossible for an author to think of everything -- that's why you need a DM.
To be fair, a lot of authors run in to the classic problems of space and time. If your given the job of witting a 32 page module, with seven pages of art and maps, so 25 pages.....that is a Hard Limit. No matter what you write, it has to fit into those 25 pages. And with an introduction, set up, conclusion and even just one new monster...you can take up five more pages. So that just leaves 20 pages for the adventure.
And you often get a fairly tight deadline: by this date. Period.
Worse, once you submit something...they get the right to edit it any way they want.
Let's say we have a scenario where the characters are approached/hired by the watch to help investigate a series of disappearances in a local district. Rumours point to some sort of people smuggling (or whatever) that may be operating out of a warehouse down by the docks but the watch haven't the time or resources to chase that lead up yet. It's obvious that that is the push and in a railroaded adventure, that is the only option. No talking to anyone else or going anywhere but the warehouse.
In a linear adventure, that is still the pointed lead but the players might decide to do some investigation first. Ask around the family, friends and neighbors of the missing. Canvas the streets of taverns. Set watches on the docks or the warehouse/s. Maybe doing some research in the local library or hall of records. Use their spells and abilities. The story still goes forward as before, but in a linear game, the players can get their in their own way, They can do whatever investigation or other actions before hand. That is what makes it linear over railroaded.
Woah....um.
So, you did not quite match up the adventures here. So the "railroad" to you is where the PCs are given a plot story problem and then they actively try to solve it? So the PCs actively go and try and find those missing persons.
And the "linear game" is where the PCs are given a plot story problem and utterly waste time doing whatever they want and ignore it? Like ok....so the players take five hours to have their PCs talk to everyone in town and learn "rumors say something fishy is going on in that warehouse". So, what is the positive here? The "railroad group" would have gotten to the warehouse at least 4 1/2 hours ago to play trough the adventure.
