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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9732795" data-attributes="member: 42582">Early D&D didn't advocate for railroading, though. Here is how I describe the sort of play that Gygax advocates in the "Successful Adventures" section of his PHB: it is map-and-key play where the players can (a) learn the map, and at least important bits of the key, via "exploration" (ie low-stakes action declarations that oblige the GM to reveal the state of the "board"), and then (b) make choices about which latent scenes to activate/trigger by making the appropriate moves at the right place on the map.What makes it not railroading - even though the GM is exercising overwhelming authority over the setting and backstory - is that the players have a lot of influence (via (a) and (b)) over choosing what scene occurs next (by choosing which door to open, based on what they learned via exploration), and over what is at stake (early on they can keep stakes low, by exploring; once they've identified the range of "targets" in the environment they can choose which one(s) to pursue).Here's my attempt to describe a "limit case" for this sort of play:The GM maps and keys a dungeon that is a single corridor, with doors along it and rooms leading from it. The players can travel the corridor, using ESP and Detection spells (and perhaps other exploration techniques) to get a sense of what is behind the doors, and then come up with a strategy about how to tackle the rooms, in the manner Gygax describes in his PHB.The GM, in keying the rooms, includes opportunities that reward one approach rather than another, and hence reward good player planning: eg it's good to get the dragon-slaying sword from the Ogre room before you open the door to the dragon room; and it's good to get the hammer of giant-slaying from a bargain with the Dwarves before you tackle the Ogre room; and maybe there's another room, across the way from the Ogres, with some info about the Dwarves like Balin's tomb in Moria; etc.This would not be the most exciting dungeon of all time, and its map is fairly boring, but I don't think playing through this would have to be a railroad-y experience.CODA:Classic Traveller is published in 1977. The Traveller Book (1982) compiles, and adds a bit to, the 1981 revision. There is nothing in the 1977 edition that suggests railroading by the referee. Whereas there is that sort of thing in the Traveller Book. To me, this change seems consistent with a broader hobby-wide change that began in the early 80s and was cemented by the end of the 80s. Which is the change to a GM-centrism that is also very railroad-y in advocated approach.</blockquote>

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