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

[pemerton]

While i get that some people don't like railroading as DM method, i would like to hear opinions on following scenario.

You have open world, game starts, you throw in some potential quest hooks and you ask players: "Ok, what do you do?" And for the next 30-40 minutes, they spend trying to figure it out what do they wanna do, do they take quest hook, do they do something else. In essence, you give them complete control over what to do and they do - nothing.

So, in case of group's analysis paralysis, is it ok to use railroading methods to get game going and not waste precious session time?

To me that sounds like a bad game.

Instead of the GM railroading, why not have a better way of getting the game off the ground? It's not like there's a shortage of methods in the contemporary RPG world.

 

[CreamCloud0]

5e had BITF, i wonder how this conversation would be going (in regards to DnD at least) if having low stats actually made you pick and establish specific stat-apropriate flaws for your character, admittedly they were just there as an RP guidance aid but if these character flaws were actually established, even if only as simply as a line of flavour text would that influence perception of players acting their character against those traits...

 

[GrimCo]

To me that sounds like a bad game.

To me it's mostly waste of session time. But i witnessed it few times, both as a player and as a DM, with few different groups. It happened when people wanted to try character driven, open ended, sandbox games.

Instead of the GM railroading, why not have a better way of getting the game off the ground? It's not like there's a shortage of methods in the contemporary RPG world.

Could you share some examples of those metods? Preferably one that could be used in d&d sandbox style games.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So regarding whole roleplaying the stats thing. I don't like the rules or the GM telling the player what their character should think (except in a sense of what they know,) but I'd still expect the stats to be taken into account in the roleplay somehow. We use point buy, (and more generous than the RAW,) so the assumption is that the player chose the stats to represent the sort of person they want to roleplay. But when the rules start to tell what sort of decisions the player is allowed to make, we are eroding the core of roleplay. I don't like Pendragon-style passions telling the player what to do and I would not like a D&D GM telling the player that their character has too low INT to think a thing. Now if there is an overall trend where the what's on paper is never reflected on the roleplay, then that might require some discussion, but it is not about specific instances or decisions.

That being said, I am not a huge fan of how D&D does mental stats to begin with, nor I expect them to cover all the mental aspects of the character. Roleplaying requires the player to use their own brains, and that will reflect on the character. For example in D&D I consider what INT actually affects, and thus interpret it to mainly measure ability to memorise facts and do formal reasoning. It does not necessarily mean ability to think laterally and come up with good plans. In other words, INT gives you Spock-smarts, but whether the character has Kirk-smarts depends on the player. In actual play this is reflected on the knowledge skill rolls providing the character facts regarding on the situation, but then the player having to decide what to do with those facts.

 

[Committed Hero]

To me it's mostly waste of session time. But i witnessed it few times, both as a player and as a DM, with few different groups. It happened when people wanted to try character driven, open ended, sandbox games.

Could you share some examples of those metods? Preferably one that could be used in d&d sandbox style games.

I agree. There's no question that the example preserves player freedom. So what's better?

 

[GrimCo]

I agree. There's no question that the example preserves player freedom. So what's better?

15 years ago, i would say - who cares about 30-40 minutes, let's talk it out, decide, agency is king. We played every week at least one 5-6 hour session and quite regularly another 3-4 hour session. Last 7-8 years, i would rather have DM hop in, use "force" to get things moving and actually play game since for most sessions i have hard cut off time, we play at best 25 sessions per year, sessions usually lasting 3-3.5h in total.

 

[Maxperson]

Not until you start jumping on people for not leaning into the parts of their character that aren't important and that they didn't pick. Which is exactly what you're doing. Maybe just stop trying to tell people how to play their characters and just worry about how you play your character?

When it negatively impacts everyone else in the game? Sorry. You can get on board or find a game where it doesn't do that. 5 people don't have to suffer through bad roleplay just because you want to ignore your low stat. There are a lot of folks out there and we can all be happy by you playing at another table.

If a player comes to a game that I'm running and refuses to roleplay their stat, they have 3 options. 1) change and roleplay the stat, 2) make a new character with a low int, 3) go to a new table where they will fit in better. Not that any of those will ever be a concern, because as I said, a low int has to be chosen at my table. The way we roll stats makes the odds of a low int very unlikely.

 

[Reynard]

When it negatively impacts everyone else in the game? Sorry. You can get on board or find a game where it doesn't do that. 5 people don't have to suffer through bad roleplay just because you want to ignore your low stat. There are a lot of folks out there and we can all be happy by you playing at another table.

If a player comes to a game that I'm running and refuses to roleplay their stat, they have 3 options. 1) change and roleplay the stat, 2) make a new character with a low int, 3) go to a new table where they will fit in better. Not that any of those will ever be a concern, because as I said, a low int has to be chosen at my table. The way we roll stats makes the odds of a low int very unlikely.

Out of curiosity, what kind of behavior would you accept as "roleplaying a low int"?

 

[Maxperson]

Out of curiosity, what kind of behavior would you accept as "roleplaying a low int"?

I already told you that directly in my response to you in post #683!

 

[Reynard]

I already told you that directly in my response to you in post #683!

Sure, but that suggests a pretty one dimensional interpretation of "low int".

Also, people should definitely play with other people with whom they share certain preferences. But boy would I be put out if another player judged my roleplaying my character.