Paul Farquhar
Legend
True, however I would lay odds of 20:1 that my players' strategy is CHARGE!
D&D 5E What does "Railroading" actually mean!? Discount Code on Page 8
- Thread starter kieran_of_the_dark_peaks
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kieran_of_the_dark_peaks
Explorer
I like that mental image a lot! I've always likened it to a swan, and the DM screen is the water. You're trying to look cool and collected, but paddling furiously under the water to keep up.
Writing set adventures is quite tricky, because there is always going to be an element of pre-planning ... because you had to write something. I just hope that I've given the players situations to respond to, which they can then use their skills and abilities to address. I really hope that they can come up with something incredibly original, as well. A lot of the challenges I think would respond well to creative thinking!
[mandatory ad - I am trying to sell a book, after all]
Fair enough. If you know your players, you know your players. I know mine, too, and they surprise me from time to time; I try to be ready for (not necessarily written prep, just shrinkologically) anything, including tossing prepped material if need be.
WayOfTheFourElements
Hero
I don't feel like hearing a rumor about bugbears attacking a village is forcing them to deal with them. Maybe that's just me.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
To be fair, I'm probably being unfair. My players are more likely to try negotiation first. And they do surprise me in other contexts, particularly related to ways of getting from A to B, and in coming up with "gooder" solutions than I had anticipated. But wave "help me Obi Wan Kenobi" under their noses and they are very predictable.
WayOfTheFourElements
Hero
That's cool. Whatever works for you. I don't normally map options. I just tell the PCs what they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
Then again, my players are wildly unpredictable. I never know what they'll do.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Really? So you don't think about both the bugbear's combat strategies in case of a fight, and political motivations in case of a negotiation? You have absolutely no idea how the bugbears will respond to the players' actions?
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
Maybe the problem is you are adding facts that weren’t there in the original example. Nothin you originally posted showed it was a rumor as opposed to the pcs sitting in the village when the event transpired.
While I often don't know exactly how the PCs will attempt to solve a given problem, I usually know what problem/s they're going to attempt to solve, and most of those have some approaches that are more obvious than others, given the PCs' strengths and the players' tendencies. I might describe preparing for those obvious approaches to known problems as "mapping out options" but I don't think "not on the map" in this instance means "the players can't/won't do it" so much as "I didn't anticipate it." I've found that part of prep is being ready to go off the metaphorical map, which involves knowing the scenario in a little more detail than I think I'll need.
Like most things in this universe, "railroad" has fuzzy boarders. So we can talk about more railroad or less railroad. We can even put a line that labels stuff on one side as "railroad" and stuff on the other as "not", but that line isn't interesting and is a lot of work to paint.
A plot is "more on rails" when player "story" choices have less impact.
If there is only 1 way to solve a problem? More rails.
If every path leads to the same encounter? More rails.
If there are 3 paths, with different content, that lead to the same destination? Less rails than above.
If the world is broken into medium-sized pieces, and the content in each medium sized piece is uniform? Less rails than above.
If the DM creates 1 BBEG and the game is going to be about fighting that BBEG in a way that the players choose? Some rails. Less rails if there are multiple BBEG and you let the player's actions pick which ones they want to confront.
You can have rails hidden by illusions, like illusionary choice. Sometimes this is merely about saving effort; suppose you have an encounter set up where bandits attack a caravan in an forest. And the players bypass the forest. Later, they do go through a forest; using that bandit encounter there can be an example of saving effort. It is also an illusion hiding some rails; the "forest bandit ambush" teleported around depending on what the players did.
All rails are a way of restricting the impact that player choice has on the game's narrative.
A "game on a railroad" refers to a game where the rails are everywhere. You can talk about a branching railroad (which is less on rails), so having 3 paths to the end of the adventure doesn't mean the game isn't on rails. It means that the rails are less constrained.
As the world is an expression of the DM's design, even something as simple as a linear cave system or mountain pass are rails. The rails are stronger if you say "no, you can't burrow around it", and weaker if you could. Dungeons are full of rails as well.
A forest, where there are camps and creatures in fixed locations, and treasure/rewards, isn't rails. It is a location with stuff in it. The players are free to interact with it or not as they choose.
That forest put in a narrow pass that the players must to through in order to reach a destination is more rails-y.
That same forest, where you can walk around it, is less rails-y.
The more you build a world, and the less you build a plot, the less rail-y things tend to get.
If you want a plot with less rails, give the bad guys a plot and set of steps they will follow. Expose those actions and steps somehow to the PCs and let them do whatever they want about it.
Suppose you wanted a story about a Dracolich attempting to kill a god and ascend. That is your BBEG.
A rails-y way to do it is to describe what the players do in order to defeat the Dracolich.
A less rails-y way to do it is to set up a track for that the Dracolich will do if not interfered with (a plot for the Dracolich).
Then populate the area with adventure hooks and things to do and treasure to find when following those hooks.
Then connect some of those things/treasures/hooks back to the Dracolich's plot, so that following those hooks/getting that treasure/doing those things exposes the players to the Dracolich's actions.
Have those connections get more and more obvious as the Dracolich's plot matures; (never underestimate player cluelessness).
If you feel generous, you can even arrange for increasingly difficult ways to disrupt the Dracolich's plot, connected to increasingly dangerous local adventure hooks, so if players do notice the plot "early" they don't get smacked down and killed by a surprise Dracolich.
Players never have to follow the bait you have placed. If they are having fun, you keep at it. If they get bored and ask out-of-game, you can drop a hint about one of the hints you gave (or make hints more blatant).
Here, I have planned for the players to do a myriad of things, and dangled a story in front of them if they want it. But I also planned just as hard (if not harder) for what happens if they don't take my bait, and ensured that the story that results doesn't suck.
If they ignore the Dracolich completely, the story is that the Dracolich creates a massive death zone and blight, kills a god, and ascends. These things happen. That dead zone looks like a fun adventure hook!
A plot is "more on rails" when player "story" choices have less impact.
If there is only 1 way to solve a problem? More rails.
If every path leads to the same encounter? More rails.
If there are 3 paths, with different content, that lead to the same destination? Less rails than above.
If the world is broken into medium-sized pieces, and the content in each medium sized piece is uniform? Less rails than above.
If the DM creates 1 BBEG and the game is going to be about fighting that BBEG in a way that the players choose? Some rails. Less rails if there are multiple BBEG and you let the player's actions pick which ones they want to confront.
You can have rails hidden by illusions, like illusionary choice. Sometimes this is merely about saving effort; suppose you have an encounter set up where bandits attack a caravan in an forest. And the players bypass the forest. Later, they do go through a forest; using that bandit encounter there can be an example of saving effort. It is also an illusion hiding some rails; the "forest bandit ambush" teleported around depending on what the players did.
All rails are a way of restricting the impact that player choice has on the game's narrative.
A "game on a railroad" refers to a game where the rails are everywhere. You can talk about a branching railroad (which is less on rails), so having 3 paths to the end of the adventure doesn't mean the game isn't on rails. It means that the rails are less constrained.
As the world is an expression of the DM's design, even something as simple as a linear cave system or mountain pass are rails. The rails are stronger if you say "no, you can't burrow around it", and weaker if you could. Dungeons are full of rails as well.
A forest, where there are camps and creatures in fixed locations, and treasure/rewards, isn't rails. It is a location with stuff in it. The players are free to interact with it or not as they choose.
That forest put in a narrow pass that the players must to through in order to reach a destination is more rails-y.
That same forest, where you can walk around it, is less rails-y.
The more you build a world, and the less you build a plot, the less rail-y things tend to get.
If you want a plot with less rails, give the bad guys a plot and set of steps they will follow. Expose those actions and steps somehow to the PCs and let them do whatever they want about it.
Suppose you wanted a story about a Dracolich attempting to kill a god and ascend. That is your BBEG.
A rails-y way to do it is to describe what the players do in order to defeat the Dracolich.
A less rails-y way to do it is to set up a track for that the Dracolich will do if not interfered with (a plot for the Dracolich).
Then populate the area with adventure hooks and things to do and treasure to find when following those hooks.
Then connect some of those things/treasures/hooks back to the Dracolich's plot, so that following those hooks/getting that treasure/doing those things exposes the players to the Dracolich's actions.
Have those connections get more and more obvious as the Dracolich's plot matures; (never underestimate player cluelessness).
If you feel generous, you can even arrange for increasingly difficult ways to disrupt the Dracolich's plot, connected to increasingly dangerous local adventure hooks, so if players do notice the plot "early" they don't get smacked down and killed by a surprise Dracolich.
Players never have to follow the bait you have placed. If they are having fun, you keep at it. If they get bored and ask out-of-game, you can drop a hint about one of the hints you gave (or make hints more blatant).
Here, I have planned for the players to do a myriad of things, and dangled a story in front of them if they want it. But I also planned just as hard (if not harder) for what happens if they don't take my bait, and ensured that the story that results doesn't suck.
If they ignore the Dracolich completely, the story is that the Dracolich creates a massive death zone and blight, kills a god, and ascends. These things happen. That dead zone looks like a fun adventure hook!
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