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What best describes railroading as you understand it?
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<blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 2970568" data-attributes="member: 18832"><p>I'd like to illustrate my definition of railroading with an example.</p><p></p><p>The first Third Edition game I played was a fairly long-running Planescape campaign which was, for the first two-thirds to three-quarters of its length, intensely player-driven. The DM had quite a complement of minor plotlines, organisations, and NPCs which he had created in response to the PCs' goals and backstories, and the eight (!) characters we eventually had in that game had a grand time scheming against them and each other, struggling to succeed by forming alliances with NPCs and PCs alike.</p><p></p><p>Then the DM decided that the game had to come to an end, and that the best way to do this would be to "reveal" that the PCs were destined to open a gate to an unimaginable font of power, the sort of thing that could ensure victory for one side in the Blood War or let forces from the Upper Planes crush first one side and then the other. At first, the prophecy we heard was cool - there were eight names, titles like the Unmaker, the One Who Is Three, that sort of thing, each of which could be potentially applied to more than one PC or even to certain NPCs.</p><p></p><p>The problem, of course, was that the PCs all still had goals of their own, and however interested we were in investigating or fulfilling the prophecy we were not proceeding towards the end the DM envisioned nearly fast enough to suit him. So he started railroading, turning a game which <strong>had</strong> been a PC-goal-driven sandbox experience like nothing else I've ever played into a one-track, one-way express train towards what turned out to be (in my opinion) kind of a lame, stupid conclusion and certainly nothing fit to cap off the game as it had been.</p><p></p><p>Specific examples of railroading included ignoring my character's completely reasonable belief that there was no way any of us could get anything out of opening the gate - not with the hosts of several Upper and Lower planes interested - and a disinclination, being a slightly insane alienist obsessed with getting to the Far Realm, to be involved in any of those forces' schemes as a loyal lieutenant; when this led to my character's deciding not to accompany the party for an audience with a demon prince, the DM tried to have an NPC knock my character unconscious and drag him along.</p><p></p><p>(At this point I do want to note that the game <strong>had</strong> been a player-driven sandbox prior to virtually this point, and also that it had been completely acceptable to split the party up on separate ventures prior to this point. Hell, my character and two others had entered the game by joining a "solo" side campaign one of the other PCs had gone off on after a conflict with the rest of the party!)</p><p></p><p>When I decided to quit the game over this, I'm told that my character "randomly leaped into the River Styx and lost his memory", one of the most boneheaded rationales for a PC forgetting his objections to a proposed course of action I can imagine. Eventually, some of the other players talked me into coming back to play the conclusion of the campaign, and similar hijinks ensued, involving a red dragon travelling with the party in disguise trying to stop my PC from simply walking away from the direction of the gate.</p><p></p><p>So, you know, I think that's not only a decent example of railroading, it's also a decent example of incredibly egregious railroading which completely ignored the unspoken but agreed-upon direction of the game to that point.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mhacdebhandia, post: 2970568, member: 18832"] I'd like to illustrate my definition of railroading with an example. The first Third Edition game I played was a fairly long-running Planescape campaign which was, for the first two-thirds to three-quarters of its length, intensely player-driven. The DM had quite a complement of minor plotlines, organisations, and NPCs which he had created in response to the PCs' goals and backstories, and the eight (!) characters we eventually had in that game had a grand time scheming against them and each other, struggling to succeed by forming alliances with NPCs and PCs alike. Then the DM decided that the game had to come to an end, and that the best way to do this would be to "reveal" that the PCs were destined to open a gate to an unimaginable font of power, the sort of thing that could ensure victory for one side in the Blood War or let forces from the Upper Planes crush first one side and then the other. At first, the prophecy we heard was cool - there were eight names, titles like the Unmaker, the One Who Is Three, that sort of thing, each of which could be potentially applied to more than one PC or even to certain NPCs. The problem, of course, was that the PCs all still had goals of their own, and however interested we were in investigating or fulfilling the prophecy we were not proceeding towards the end the DM envisioned nearly fast enough to suit him. So he started railroading, turning a game which [b]had[/b] been a PC-goal-driven sandbox experience like nothing else I've ever played into a one-track, one-way express train towards what turned out to be (in my opinion) kind of a lame, stupid conclusion and certainly nothing fit to cap off the game as it had been. Specific examples of railroading included ignoring my character's completely reasonable belief that there was no way any of us could get anything out of opening the gate - not with the hosts of several Upper and Lower planes interested - and a disinclination, being a slightly insane alienist obsessed with getting to the Far Realm, to be involved in any of those forces' schemes as a loyal lieutenant; when this led to my character's deciding not to accompany the party for an audience with a demon prince, the DM tried to have an NPC knock my character unconscious and drag him along. (At this point I do want to note that the game [b]had[/b] been a player-driven sandbox prior to virtually this point, and also that it had been completely acceptable to split the party up on separate ventures prior to this point. Hell, my character and two others had entered the game by joining a "solo" side campaign one of the other PCs had gone off on after a conflict with the rest of the party!) When I decided to quit the game over this, I'm told that my character "randomly leaped into the River Styx and lost his memory", one of the most boneheaded rationales for a PC forgetting his objections to a proposed course of action I can imagine. Eventually, some of the other players talked me into coming back to play the conclusion of the campaign, and similar hijinks ensued, involving a red dragon travelling with the party in disguise trying to stop my PC from simply walking away from the direction of the gate. So, you know, I think that's not only a decent example of railroading, it's also a decent example of incredibly egregious railroading which completely ignored the unspoken but agreed-upon direction of the game to that point. [/QUOTE]
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