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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kermit4karate" data-source="post: 9760965" data-attributes="member: 7053643">Regarding the never-ending railroad debate, I've said that I plan my adventures. I plan key areas and encounters.I've also said that I fudge select dice rolls. I've also said that I tweak some encounters to make them easier or more difficult, modify my dungeons on the fly to add/remove traps, secret areas, add/remove encounters, manifest helper NPCs when needed to keep the story moving -- full-on DM magic like that bald little DM gnome from the '80s cartoon.Not only am I not ashamed about it; I am proud of how I run adventures because my players love our games. They trust and know that whatever adjustments I make are in service to the game. I don't solicit their approval before I fudge a roll, and I don't get their sign-off before I replace that spike trap at the bottom of the ravine with a cooling river because I want a player to survive the day. They trust my judgment because they love the experience.The relationship between a DM and the players is a sacred bond. If they trust the DM's motives, they don't need or care about having a "right of refusal" over individual decisions. The reason I can get behind this definition of railroading by [USER=6790260]@EzekielRaiden[/USER] is because it allows me to keep DM'ing the way I have for 40 years, while clearly describing a type of gameplay my players and I would not like. "Railroading is the word for when a GM, through coercion or manipulation, enforces an inflexibly linear experience as part of GMing, that the players would not accept if they were aware of it, or do not accept if they are already aware of it."</blockquote>

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