What is "railroading" to you (as a player)?

[Thomas Shey]

So long as what your PC does makes sense in the setting for that character, we're golden.

Well, I'll flat-out say that if I have to disrupt the character's probable choices to avoid a problem with the group or the campaign as a whole, I'm probably going to do that. People have enough random decisions they make in their lives on occasion I can just shrug at that if its the cost of potentially causing group/campaign level problems.

(Mind you, if that happens frequently I'm either with the wrong group or made a bad decision of character at the start.)

 

[AnotherGuy]

I don't use TIBFs (they don't exist in my version of 5e. People make up their own versions of that stuff for themselves at my table.

Freestyling is great with a bunch of thespians, actor-types, creatives etc - but not every player possesses that skill. Some are more tactically minded, combat orientated etc. I find our system helps me to help those players enjoy a part of the game that would have in the past alluded them. Now they get to test their character in another way.
It evens the playing field, somewhat.

 

[TwoSix]

searchfunction found three posts in this thread (beside this one i'm replying to) where you mentioned 'pendragon', none of them appear like they are the post you might of been referring to? might you direct me to the one you were talking about?

I didn't mention the play explicitly, but making checks around your character's Virtues and Vices in Pendragon. As an example, you might have a character with relatively High Virtue in Valorous, but you need to test that in order to engage in single combat with a knight you know is more skilled than you, and merciless to boot.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, I'll flat-out say that if I have to disrupt the character's probable choices to avoid a problem with the group or the campaign as a whole, I'm probably going to do that. People have enough random decisions they make in their lives on occasion I can just shrug at that if its the cost of potentially causing group/campaign level problems.

(Mind you, if that happens frequently I'm either with the wrong group or made a bad decision of character at the start.)

Can you give an example of such a decision?

 

[Thomas Shey]

I really appreciate this refreshing honesty in this thread. In the past there have been several long treads where people say that certain games or certain mechanics and techniques are bad for immersion and make the game feel more like collaborative storytelling, and they get gaslighted that this is not the case and they're just playing the game wrong etc.

Well, that's often in part because people can't agree what immersion is. If they see what they're doing as immersion, and you don't, that kind of disagreement is inevitable.

That we can agree what is actually happening is amazing, even though we might disagree on whether we like it or not.

I'd suggest that's less about "agreeing what is actually happening" so much as people who either share your understanding of immersion but don't care about it that much. Next time you could end up with people who very much care about it but don't share your definition.

 

[soviet]

I couldn't possibly count the number of times in my life that somebody has made a convincing argument I couldn't refute and yet I still believed in my heart was wrong, or the number of times somebody displayed no signs of deception and appeared completely honest and yet I still just didn't trust them.

The NPC roll only describes the italicized parts.

Forums like this are proof of the phenomenon

 

[Thomas Shey]

Can you give an example of such a decision?

Back in my RQ days a situation came up in a campaign where it turned out the local culture view of the opponents we were fighting was that they were irredeemable monsters. My quite honorable character had gone in neither knowing that, nor accepting the premise. When an enemy gave up and I was told about this as a player, rather than doing my instinct (which was to defend the foe all the way) I just had the character turn and walk out of the rest of the game. Doing otherwise would have caused a big problem for everyone else involved, and I didn't see that as serving any great good there since it was partly based on a misunderstanding on my part.

 

[Campbell]

Speaking personally having to have an internal model of a character that includes things like unwanted feelings, intrusive thoughts and intuition about what is happening rather than having those things be part of the shared fiction and prompted by a skilled GM provides a level of emotional distance that I don't really want. Taking direction and integrating that makes those things feel more like the external stimulus they should.

Granted taking prompts and integrating them into my understanding of the character is natural to me as someone who grew up as a theater kid. I also cut my teeth roleplaying on Vampire so things like Self-Control coming into play feel natural.

I don't doubt that for some people the mental model approach helps them immerse in the moment. Other methods work better for me.

For me personally games like Pendragon, Infinity, Monsterhearts, Legend of the Five Rings (FFG Version) and Chronicle of Darkness all help me take on the role of my character in the moment and require less detachment than the mental model approach.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Forums like this are proof of the phenomenon

I know, right? Clearly my arguments are irrefutable, "and yet they persist..."

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So about surprises and playing against your best interests.

A while ago in our Blades game our characters were negotiating with an antagonist but not actively hostile powerful NPC and their gang. We needed to get certain information from this NPC. My character had as part of his backstory that his parents were killed in a fire. It was just distant background, and I had not been thinking about it in a while. But then in midst of this discussion, this NPC accidentally reveals that they were one who was responsible for that fire (they did not know how it related to my character.) And they were very callous about it. They had not had anything personal against my character's parents, they were just a sacrifice, some insignificant trash to the NPC. And at that moment I knew my character would try to kill that smug bastard there and then. My internal model of the character said that this is what they do, no question about it. It was not so much a choice than a revelation. So a fight ensued, I killed the SOB, my character got trauma, people got hurt, and we did not get the information we needed from the NPC. It was surprising, and it was not tactically smart. But it was very cool moment.

This is the sort of stuff I want to be happening.