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

[Crimson Longinus]

I have played with amazing DMs, some of whom are professional actors, directors, and script writers. None of them have ever been able to scare me. They've been amazing at evoking a horror atmosphere in the game, but no fear. But then no horror book or movie has ever scared me, either. Other than the surprise jump "scares" which aren't really fear but just an involuntary reaction to surprise.

Expecting the DM to be able to evoke fear in players isn't in my opinion a reasonable position to take.

I'd suggest that you are anomalously unsuitable audience for the whole horror genre. Most people can feel scared by various forms of horror fiction, and the entire appeal of the genre is based on that.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Yes, it indeed is! Humans have been telling stories that evoke emotional reactions in others as longs as humans have existed, so it is indeed simple. So simple that a literal caveman could do it! And with a roleplaying game where the listeners are immersed in the viewpoint of a character in the story and get to make decisions for them it is even simpler, as this creates a far better connection to the events than just passively reading a book. And of course that it is done live with people setting next to you, means you can read the room and adjust things to maintain the atmosphere.

Telling a story is different than running a game. For most of us, anyway.

But of course you can just decide all this is too hard and not even try, and reach for the dice instead. But that's not the choice I would make.

Aren’t you the one to point out that horror is a difficult genre for RPGs?

I also love how it always comes back to the dice being everything instead of just an additional tool. As if narration and description and all that just somehow gets abandoned by anyone who also likes gameplay in their games.