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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bloodtide" data-source="post: 9749456" data-attributes="member: 6684958">9. In many cases, players go off the rails unintentionally by simply heading in an unexpected direction once they start an adventure. If they have any freedom in where they go, they might think an area you mention as background detail sounds cool. They might draw the wrong conclusion from clues and head to the ‘wrong’ place. They might just reject the current plot hooks and strike out elsewhere. The DM feels the need to Railroad the PC back on track.This is the Classic Railroad Example.The players not taking the current plot hooks is very much an Out of Game Problem. A mistake some games make is doing the pick a plot hook during game play. Having the PCs in-character get and approve plot hooks can often lead nowhere or worse to some random place the players pick. This is simply much better handheld DM to players all out of character.For cool places, the answer is obvious. Don’t make cool sounding places that are not on the Adventure Path. In the most general sense, you only want to make the immediate area around the Adventure. In general, published modules already do this. Though in some cases you might need to alter things to make them less cool. When homebrewing keep the map vague or even unknown.Players, by their nature, will often go off in “unexpected directions”. At least unexpected directions to new, inexperienced, or casual DMs. As a DM gains real life experience running games, this should fade away. If you’re a DM that plays with a set group of players, you should be able to get to know them quick enough. With experience predicting players is easy.And this makes the big step here for dealing with players that go off in a direction, is to simply not make very many directions to go. Like above, you want to keep the Adventure Path tight and focused.Players will often enough misinterpret a clue or draw a wrong conclusion. In general, as DM, you should not allow this to happen. Information and clues should be made as obvious as possible. And any way to go another path should be covered right from the start.You might not be able to catch all of the above every time, but you should be able to catch most of them, and avoid the need for Railroading.</blockquote>

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