What do you consider a "railroading" module?

[Raven Crowking]

The problem with that, as has been pointed out, is using the word "usurpation" in one of the options is a bad idea. The poll was skewed from the get go.

Sorry. I assumed usurptation would be a common enough word to use.

 

[Crothian]

HOWEVER, some [lazy] DM's think it's more convenient for them to RESTRICT players' choice. That is how you get caught.

I think most DM's restrict players choice to some degree. A DM can't be ready to cover everything and be able to handle any choice the palyers make.

 

[howandwhy99]

I think most DM's restrict players choice to some degree. A DM can't be ready to cover everything and be able to handle any choice the palyers make.

Isnt' that what all the supplemental books are designed for? Whether the players want to go exploring in a sea vessel, boat, airship, by wagon, on foot, or some other means supplemental materials aid the DM in that.

Being able to cover every possible choice the players want to take is part of DMing in my mind. Giving them the responsibility of choice means they will choose what they desire instead of thinking "what are we supposed to do?" I'm not a teacher when DMing asking for the correct answer. If my players identify something fun they want to do, I want to be able to oblige them. Thinking this is impossible or that the DM is required to deliver the fun isn't what I desire when I DM or play.

 

[howandwhy99]

For example, I played in a fun pseudo-history game a few years back set in Bucharest, Romania in the 1300s. The city was fun to explore and we found some ancient tunnels crisscrossing beneath the city. It was a pretty standard dungeon exploration adventure with a city above. It was too large to really discover it all (a big megadungeon), but we were having fun.

Unfortunately, the DM was running a plotline and not a standard game, so we were supposed to head North into what is present-day Ukraine and then Moscow. Driving us there was the invading Ottoman Empire (goblinoids). Rumors had much of the country running North and West (to Italy, the other option) and if we didn't go too, we would be invaded, possibly killed, and conquered along with all the others who did not leave.

Being heroes, someone came up with the brilliant idea of staging a resistance beneath the city (Vive la Resistance!). We would explore the dungeon below the city, while using strike attacks on the army above to hopefully disrupt their advance. It was a great idea, only the DM nixed it by breaking character and telling us to go to the Ukraine or Italy. There was no other choice.

Did he have the materials for the dungeon below? Yes. Could he have devised an overtaking of the city and our own preparations beforehand of a resistance? I think so. But that wasn't the Campaign Story... and we went with his idea and not our own. Soon after I left the group.


The idea of a freeform campaign isn't impossible. It's about allowing the players to choose their own fate, not forcing one upon them. Training players they should wait for the DM story or hook is frustrating for those of us who desire players who'll be heroes. Those who make their lives instead of letting it happen to them. I think those are the stories that get told afterwards; the stories of brilliant ideas like the one above (if it had come to fruition) and not some writer's predesigned (and predestined) plotline.

EDIT: If 6 heads are better than 1, why use only one person's ideas?

 

[Crothian]

Isnt' that what all the supplemental books are designed for? Whether the players want to go exploring in a sea vessel, boat, airship, by wagon, on foot, or some other means supplemental materials aid the DM in that.

So, a DM has to buy all the books? That seems a little unrealistic.

 

[howandwhy99]

So, a DM has to buy all the books? That seems a little unrealistic.

Check out the Cyclopedia. It has almost everything you would ever need to run a game. Everything to keep adding world material is easily stolen from the internet.

I do understand the supplemental books business plan though.

 

[Lanefan]

I think most DM's restrict players choice to some degree. A DM can't be ready to cover everything and be able to handle any choice the palyers make.

Referring only to in-game play here, as long as those choices fall within the predefined parameters of the game e.g. there's no laser cannons in a medieval fantasy game, why not? Specific to running modules, a DM has to be able to hit the curveball; improvise, as no module can ever account for every possible character action. And yes, there'll be times when even the most railroad-y module gets derailed. So what?

As for buying books etc., remember we're talking about railroad modules here, and by the time the party is in an adventure all the rules and design decisions (including what books are allowed) should already long since have been made.

Lanefan

 

[Ranger REG]

It's railroading when...

The text of the module says "No matter what the PCs say/do, x happens".

Meh. For every choice or action, there is a consequence.

For me, it's when the DM falters and says to the players, "No, you cannot do that."

 

[thedungeondelver]

Meh. For every choice or action, there is a consequence.

For me, it's when the DM falters and says to the players, "No, you cannot do that."

...and most poor Dugneon Masters are made poorer by modules that tell them, "Tell your players, 'No, you cannot do that'." and there have been a great deal of those out there.

 

[Arnwyn]

Meh. For every choice or action, there is a consequence.

"Meh" or not, it is still a railroad as written.

The already overworked DM has yet another issue to deal with, thank to an unhelpful - and poor - published adventure (that cost him/her money).