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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UngainlyTitan" data-source="post: 9733785" data-attributes="member: 28487">I am one of those that think that the term "Railroad" is a negative term and should only apply to the fail state where the DM forces the player to be or do something by negation of decisions. The example of the infinite supply of high level monks to block all paths but the correct one is railroading.There is a campaign arc adventure(I think Tyranny of Dragons) that I read a long time ago, never ran and have mostly forgotten that is fairly linear. The PC start in a region, some some local quest but at some point the Bad Guys leave the area and go to another region. The party is supposed to infiltrate their caravan to follow them there.This is a linear plot.Railroading is when the party does not think of joining or shadowing the caravan and the DM forces the issue and makes them a part of the caravan.I suppose that the term could also apply to the case where the DM flat out tells the players "Look, to get to the next part, you need to infiltrate the caravan"Illusionism is when the DM moves the caravan destination to wherever the party happens to wander next (after a suitable travel time).If the party does not follow the caravan but the DM supplies information as to its purpose and destination allowing Independant travel to that are, I would say that no railroading has occurred.</blockquote>