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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5689871" data-attributes="member: 386">Yay railroading discussions.  These always go smoothly.I agree with S'mon and CJ.  The worst RPG-stories I've played through have been when the DM had a pre-planned story in mind.  The best were when the DM created an interesting situation for us to hook our PCs into and let the chips fall as they may.I don't think it takes much DM skill to get a good story out of planning a situation then letting the players make real choices about how to deal with the situation.  I think it takes a lot DM skill to get a good story when the DM pre-plots the story.Perkins is advocating removing player choice, but hiding the fact that you're doing so.  That warforged that they killed?  It doesn't really matter, since he'll just introduce another character that has the exact same role in the game - but he's crafty and doesn't let the players realize that:Enough time has passed since the warforged incident that I can introduce this new NPC without my players feeling force-fed, and although the heroes have yet to question her, I feel confident that my patience will be rewarded. And if they kill her, okay—at least they'll have a corpse upon which to cast a Speak with Dead ritual!Another quote:I've found that when players feel as though they can make real choices that affect the outcome of an encounter or an adventure, they are less likely to maliciously ruin my campaign. Patience is the key—if you remain calm and don't show panic or fear, your players will think that you're prepared for any contingency. Also, they'll realize in no time that you're not trying to lead them by the nose. As they fumble about and chase other distractions, you'll see opportunities to steer them back on track, or, conversely, you'll discover that the direction they've decided to go is more interesting than the one you had planned.I think the key line is "players feel as though they can make real choices" (emphasis mine) which suggests to me that the goal isn't to have players make real choices but instead to have them feel as though they were.   If they were making real choices, there wouldn't be much concern over how they felt!I don't know why he thinks he's not trying to "lead them by the nose"; that's what it sounds like he's doing to me, though I guess he leaves open the chance that they might do something more interesting than what he's planned.</blockquote>

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