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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6098260" data-attributes="member: 82106">I would say that IN GENERAL, what happens that can be railroady is that the DM creates this character, Fat Tony, and then wants to use the character to take on the PCs. Thus he may contrive the situation with the wife, or otherwise 'engineer' the situation so that his NPC ends up in a scene having a conflict with the PCs. Its railroading anytime whatever the PCs do they end up at the end of the choo choo line (having that conflict scene). I have often seen this. Maybe the PCs pick up some girl, and then the GM says "ah, its Fat Tony's wife, I can get him into the story" and then he acquires the attributes of having minions and etc that push the story in that direction, even growing in significance as the PCs push in a different direction. This isn't a hardcore sandbox, but it is a pretty decent description of a lot of campaigns. For this DM it would be better to pay more attention to the PC's story.My rule is to only initiate action with NPCs either regardless of the players (IE they are just a part of the changing scenery, the PCs might or might not engage with), or in reaction to the PCs (they WANT to confront Fat Tony, bring it on), or as a plot hook (the NPC brings something into the narrative in order to provide a plot element, why did the PCs know about the bad guy, etc). Otherwise really its a sort of medieval world, life is pretty slow paced and sure there are consequences for things, if you ride off into the sunset then there's not a heck of a lot anyone can do about it.</blockquote>

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