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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 8039110" data-attributes="member: 6932123">From some of the comments here, there is the idea that railroading can be defined with a single incident.  However the definition for railroading is a bit like the definition for a Mary Sue — each comprises a number of different behaviors, each of which, taken individually, is not that bad, or in some cases actually beneficial and productive to the story.  The problem comes from the combination of the behaviors over an extended period of time.Forcing a decision on your players in order to cover up a weakness in your planning? Doing it once is understandable; nobody is perfect. If it's a regular occurrence, though, it's a problem.  There could be any number of reasons for it occurring, from bad GMing to poor planning, to not interacting well with the players' way of interacting with the game.  But the end result is taking away players' agency, and cutting off avenues of exploration in the game world.As some have said, sometimes it works.  Some people may not care, or maybe the railroad was the story they really wanted to follow anyway, so it doesn't matter.  Where it becomes the pejorative, however, is where it interferes with the enjoyment of the game.  If the players are frustrated because of a lack of ability to do what they want, that's often where the word gets trotted out.  It's not a single event; it's a series of events.  It's not a guideline; it's a straitjacket.  It's a pattern of behavior.  It's a continuous effect, not an instantaneous one.That makes it more difficult to describe, because any single instance that contributes to the railroading effect can be argued away or dismissed.I would personally define it as the GM regularly and repeatedly removing agency from the players as a whole, either in personal actions or in story direction, that is done in service of the GM's personal vision of the story rather than all the players' vision of the story.The most extreme version of this that I've encountered was a GM that had literally written out large scripts for the story, as narrated by his NPCs, while leaving the PCs as spectators with little ability to influence the intended story (as already written before the game started).  The players were basically the baggage carriers for the protagonists of the story that was already fully predetermined.</blockquote>

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