To railroad or not to railroad?

[Dread October]

Yes, this was a concern of mine. I would love for the player's to experience the expostion (the process of how they got to the dungeon?), but my fear is that since the players are 'newbies' (new to DND), they may get bored until the action starts.

Thanks for everyone's comments so far, please keep them coming.

Then give them action but don't start it at the mine or whatever. Have them leave the Archduke, and then the following could happen:

1. They have to seek lodging for the night because the mine is far away.

2. That night one of them recieves a message that it'd be a good idea to skip the Archduke's mission.

3. Then have them attacked while getting supplies the next day.

4. All clues lead to this mine.

You will have introduced mystery that isn't just a dungeon, gotten them some action in the form of a back alley brawl, and piqued their interest in the mine.

It didn't sound like they were being railroaded your way either.

Dread

 

[Jdvn1]

Right- that's basically my point. Rather than RPing wandering around town, and watching the plague slowly take hold while the PCs are picking berries or whatever, just sum it up with exposition and move them into the module. The quicker they're doing stuff, the more they'll get into the game.

Mind you, when I run I usually take an approach similar to what you're describing. I generally have a "chargen" session where everyone makes they're characters. This is primarily to get people working together on backgrounds, but I also like everyone to roll their characters in front of me after a couple of "lucky" players in the past. Anyhow, during this session we'll talk out character background and motivation, and I'll lay out the basic parameters of the campaign, and we'll mesh them together into a framework.

Oh, hm, sounds cool.

I've had a lot of lucky and unlucky players in the past -- I'm leaning towards point buy now.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Railroad away at the start. Otherwise, you'll get players doing things you never thought of and going off on tangets you don't want to explore. "A plague!?!!! Let's leave town and never come back--we dont want to get sick and die!"

I think a little bit of "rail-roading" at the beginning is o.k.--it would be the "adequate backstory" that Torm defined. Or, as deltadave put it: "an obvious goal isn't railroading."

 

[Mark]

This doesn't sound like railroading to me - it sounds like adequate backstory. Railroading would be if they decided to abandon the mission and, rather than allowing them to do so with realistic consequences (they're no longer welcome in Dantredun, and/or they're being hunted for dereliction) you blocked their attempt to leave with an unrealistic cave-in. Or worse, a rain of Buicks falling from the sky.

Yup. I agree.

It can't hurt, though, to have some not-so-appetizing scenarios to describe if they waver, such as mentioning that they grew up in the area and it is very likely they will all lose some family members if the plague isn't halted (and things like that). There's no reason you can't imply (and even spell out for them, if necessary) that what you set up was "the group of heroes following the best and most likely path", and then have some others paths for them to follow if they choose but give them a bare bones run down of just how horrible it would be should they fail.

"You want to not go in the mines? And just leave the area? I suppose you could do that but...if you do then you might want to say goodbye to your neices and nephews, all of whom will likely be covered in puss-spewing, pain-wracking boils within the month...their laughter to never again grace the halls of your families' ancestrial homes. You'll need to find something profitible to do quickly, to send money back to support the sick and dying parents you will all be leaving to suffer without... Well, are you sure you'd rather just leave? Cause if that's what you think is best, then that's OK, too, I suppose. You're "heroes", right?" (etc.)

It's not railroading if you sell it well enough.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Don't Railroad, or.

Don't let your PC"s realize it's being railroaded, think of it as more of a Scenic Trolley Ride through the Country. Take advantage of the backstory to link the PC's to your gameworld and to each other.

One possible scenerio (that I'd use in this case).

The Archbaron is a former adventure and has called out to his former compaions (whom he has not seen for several decades) to once more honor their long-standing friendships and send aid to him in his time of need. Of course all his former companions are to BUSY to come themselves, but the send some of thier most trusted companions.

(Human Cleric) The Baron's fomer Adventuring Cleric Templar is now an Archbishop of the church of (insert PC's cleric domains here) who sends one of his brightest students to the Baron's court with his blessing.

(Half-Elf Ranger), Try to tie in his favored enemy here. For example is he chooses Goblinoids, maybe the Baron's former Ranger companion is now a scout for the King's Armies along the mountainous border lands filled with goblinoids. Tell me more aboput the Ranger, I could get a better story.

(Dwarf Wizard). Nephew, cousin, son, some distant relation to the Baron's Orginal Dwarf Companion. With a Dwarf's Typcial sense of honor, he asks his realtion to aid him in keeping his (and his entire clan's) honor.

This way you already tie the PC"s into both the game world and each other, and you give them NPC "Examples" they can use if they aren't sure about what direction they want to go (often a problem with new players). And you tie the PC's together, thus giving them a "reason" to give a troll's backside for each other.

Later,

 

[ST]

I don't think that's railroading; it's agressive scene framing.

Railroading is when you take player control away without consent. If you ask the players "Hey, you want to do a dungeon crawl, I'll set it up for you", and they say yes, then you're giving them what they want.

 

[Parlan]

When speaking to my players about what kind of game they want, the standard answer is:

"I don't care, I just want to play."

On the other hand, they expressed an interest in having their characters not know each other from the start and role-playing their first encounter, which makes me hesitant to place them right in front of the dungeon.

Sounds like you're goin gto have to play it by ear and see how much roleplaying they really want on game day.

Start them with the Baron. Use a quick backstory hook for why he chose these three particular guys. He introduces the PCs to each other.

If they seem to be having a good time roleplaying their intros with each other, let them keep going. If they grow bored or run out of things to say, just fast-forward to their departure for the mine.

Keep advancing them towards their final destination until you either get them to the mines or they seem to want to interact with each other in character.

This could be anything from 5 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the desires of the PCs.

My hunch is that, until the newbies get more comfortable with thier characters and each other, the first few sessions will run better if you give them MORE direction, not less.

 

[Jdvn1]

I don't think that's railroading; it's agressive scene framing.

That's hilarious, I think.

 

[S'mon]

Depending on genre, "aggressive scene framing" is great - "The situation is X, what do you do?" - for eg Conan, it's perfect in setting the mood. Another term for this is "in media res." One thing I do if my aggressive scene framing is detrimental to the PCs (eg washed up on desert island minus equipment) is reward them with a (Conan) Fate Point to represent being 'screwed over by fate'. In a less dramatic game maybe you want to avoid in media res for a more naturalistic simulationist approach, but there's nothing wrong with it in principle.

 

[Mark]

That's hilarious, I think.

Tis...