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Message: <blockquote data-quote="T. Foster" data-source="post: 3277091" data-attributes="member: 16574">Railroading to me is when decision-making authority is taken out of the players' hands in a way that they find objectionable. Many players don't mind being told what to do, and even prefer it -- they're playing the game to hear a good story and participate in some cool scenes (be they combat or role-playing). They don't want a lot of freedom and decision-making authority and when they're given it they tend to "freeze" and stand around bored "waiting for something to happen." Often these players don't have enough grounding in the genre/setting (or just haven't been paying close enough attention) to be able to make effective decisions even if they wanted to. So, faced with these kinds of players, it's much easier as GM to just tell them "the Duke of X orders you to go to this place and do this thing" -- as long as where they're going and what they're doing is interesting and "cool" the players won't mind, and won't feel railroaded. The problem with these types of players only arises when they don't like the adventure -- when they're being told to do something that they don't find interesting or cool -- then, suddenly, they'll complain about being railroaded and not having enough freedom. But what they really want isn't freedom, it's just to be told to do things that are more in line with their expectations. Communication and knowing your players is key here -- find out what they like and want in adventures, and run those kinds of adventures. And, perhaps most importantly, if you're running an adventure (either of your own design or a store-bought module) and the players aren't enjoying it, ditch it! Yeah you might have thought it was the best thing ever when you wrote/read it, but if your players aren't engaged it's your obligation as GM to move on to something else (or at very least change things around to match the players' expectations) -- if you force the players to "play through" an adventure they're not enjoying (especially a long one or series) nobody's going to have any fun.</blockquote>

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