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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9760559" data-attributes="member: 6790260">If it is a singular isolated case, perhaps it might not be railroading--but I see it as reflecting a general pattern of pretense. The GM is pretending that they allow the players to act with meaningful freedom, but in practice, they're functionally forbidding anything that doesn't suit their preconceived, essentially fixed pathway.Like we can see something of a progression of railroading technique, getting more refined but still producing the same results. Consider the party trying to take the south road instead of the north road:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Flat unvarnished fiat: "You can't because I say so"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ad hoc invented obstacles: "You can't because...uh...the south road is blocked"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pretense of allowance: "You can try, but the road is so damaged, you're essentially guaranteed to fail"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Extensive pre-written work: "You can't, because as I established six sessions ago, the south road is blocked."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Illusionism: "You can!" [But this now just means that the north road adventure happens with a 180-degree rotation of directions]</li> </ul>And this, incidentally, is one of the reasons why I have such a strident opposition to illusionism. It is railroading, plain and simple, it's just highly sophisticated railroading, designed to deny the players even the possibility of objecting. That's why every single source that talks about using it, specifically goes into how the GM must never, ever allow the players to know that it's happening--otherwise it would upset those players, probably by a lot. Manipulative techniques which include such efforts to conceal that any maniuplation has occurred at all are...pretty high on my No No list.</blockquote>

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