D&D 5E What does "Railroading" actually mean!? Discount Code on Page 8

[WayOfTheFourElements]

So, that is 12 years work gone into it.

It wasn't 12 years of work during session 1.

World building is where most of the actual work is done, no matter what type of adventure you are running.

Maybe. I don't know.

I get a couple of things from that:

1) You are doing exactly what you called fraud - creating the illusion of meaningful choice via random rolls.

I don't think so. If my tables were simply a list of monsters, I agree. Here are a couple of entries from the city of Lionsmane.

• Two young noblemen, Florence Caldwell and Jackson Swan, duel in the street, surrounded by a crowd. One young man is soon injured and attempts to flee, but the crowd prevents it. The duel is the result of a petty offence.
• A local guide, Gareth Gareth ("First name Gareth, last name Gareth) offers to lead tourists to the ruined tomb of the Dragon King, Xerix IV. The ruins exist, but are inhabited by Gareth Gareth's band of bandits.
• A brick falls from a roof. Two repairmen reply apologetically.
• A slave owner, Ferdinand IV, chastises a young woman, Salome, in public for dropping an expensive teacup.
• A charlatan, Blue-Eye Bill, wanders the streets selling "dragon coins" which he claims ward away dragons.
• An immature illusionist, Olip, turns a young women’s dress invisible.

The table paints a nice picture of the city and the types of people that live there. It includes NPCs, like the blacksmith, and doesn't force situations on players. They can choose to ignore them or not. It simply describes what is happening around them. I have a different table for each city, town, village, road, forest, and mountain range. Some are quite long (100 results). Others are quite short (only 6 results). When a result is used, I replace it with another (although I keep track of used results in case I need to reference the NPCs). I also have a table of events which I roll once a month.

2) Most of the time you wing it - make it up as you go along. If the players arrive in a village you don't know the name, age or personal history of the blacksmith or anything else about them until the players say "we visit the blacksmith" at which point you create the needed content.

I wouldn't say that. I know exactly who the blacksmith is: "A weaponsmith’s stall is filled with strange and unusual weapons of his own design. The smith, Adrian, claims they are the best in the world."

That only works because of your players. If my players didn't get a distress call from a princess they would choose to never leave the moisture farm. They aren't motivated by gold, loot, power, or a desire to bum around the countryside causing mischief. If the world doesn't need saving they would rather stay in bed.

Yes. If my players didn't react to the world around them, my game would go nowhere. So far, however, that hasn't happened.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I wouldn't say that. I know exactly who the blacksmith is: "A weaponsmith’s stall is filled with strange and unusual weapons of his own design. The smith, Adrian, claims they are the best in the world."

If you knew that before the players mentioned the blacksmith, you have done rather more preparation than you first claimed: "My world is just maps and random tables". If you made it up just now, that's winging it.

The table paints a nice picture of the city and the types of people that live there.

Sure, but you freely change the locations and times of those events. The brick just happens to fall off the roof of the building the players happen to be walking past at the time they are walking past it.

 

[Aldarc]

J. M. Straczynski had some interesting things to say about heroic narratives. When we start reading Heroic/Epic fantasy (which Babylon 5 was) we pretty much know it will end with the heroes winning. However, the uncertainty comes from what price the heroes will have to pay in order to win.

This same wriggle room can be used to make the actions of the players more meaningful in a narrative-driven D&D adventure. Sure, the end of the world will probably be averted, but at what cost?

This is an angle that a number of PbtA, PbtA-derived, and Fate games do well since these games include complicated successes or success with a cost as part of the resolution mechanics.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

If you knew that before the players mentioned the blacksmith, you have done rather more preparation than you first claimed: "My world is just maps and random tables". If you made it up just now, that's winging it.

I didn't make it up. It's on my table. My game started in a very small village without a blacksmith, however. In fact, Greenswald only has 10 residents. Essentially, I started small and worked up from there. Regardless, I never did much prep. Only consistent prep.

Sure, but you freely change the locations and times of those events. The brick just happens to fall off the roof of the building the players happen to be walking past at the time they are walking past it.

Well, the assumption is that bricks are falling all the time in different places around the city, but it is this particularly brick that falls in the vicinity of the players at a particular place and time.

Of course, there will always be some element of arbitrariness when it comes to DMing, just like there is a level of arbitrariness associated with the laws of physics. A game cannot emerge from a mere primordial soup of possibility. Concrete things must exist in the world at a particular place and time in order for the PCs to interact with them.

I'm not sure that arbitrariness, however, is the same as railroading. Nor is it fraud, at least so long as I am upfront with my players that I make arbitrary decisions about the game world.

* * *

Also, I'm still not sure what you mean by "narrative approach".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Also, I'm still not sure what you mean by "narrative approach".

Hard to explain without common points of reference (such as modern published adventures). Consider Castle Amber. There is a sequence of events that is expected to happen:

1) Players find themselves in a strange castle.

2) Players explore the castle trying to find out where they are and meet it's weird inhabitants.

3) Players escape from the castle, and find themselves in an alien world.

4) Players explore the new world looking for a way home.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Hard to explain without common points of reference (such as modern published adventures). Consider Castle Amber. There is a sequence of events that is expected to happen:

1) Players find themselves in a strange castle.

2) Players explore the castle trying to find out where they are and meet it's weird inhabitants.

3) Players escape from the castle, and find themselves in an alien world.

4) Players explore the new world looking for a way home.

How is that different from the sandbox approach?

In my (hypothetical) session:

1) Players went to a strange castle.

2) They explored the castle and met it's weird inhabitants.

3) Then they escaped from the castle, and find themselves in an alien world.

4) Finally they explored the new world looking for a way home.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How is that different from the sandbox approach?

In my (hypothetical) session:

1) Players went to a strange castle.

2) They explored the castle and met it's weird inhabitants.

3) Then they escaped from the castle, and find themselves in an alien world.

4) Finally they explored the new world looking for a way home.

Certain fixed events happen in a fixed sequence - it's a railroad.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Certain fixed events happen in a fixed sequence - it's a railroad.

Is the narrative approach the same as a railroad?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Is the narrative approach the same as a railroad?

No, but they overlap.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

No, but they overlap.

How do they differ?