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

[hawkeyefan]

I'm not the one calling their understanding of someone else's preferences perverse.

I don’t think that’s quite what was said… but either way, you’re judging other playstyles just as much as anyone else is.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don’t think that’s quite what was said… but either way, you’re judging other playstyles just as much as anyone else is.

I present my opinion as subjective. What you're suggesting is that I should post about what I think, whether I present it as opinion or not.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I present my opinion as subjective. What you're suggesting is that I should post about what I think, whether I present it as opinion or not.

What you’re saying is that it’s not a problem for your game or any game you’ve ever seen… but that it’s a problem. So who’s it a problem for? The people who are telling you it’s not a problem for them?

My point is that you say that all you’re doing is stating your preference. But that’s not all you’re doing. You’re criticizing the preferences of others.

So please… stop hiding behind “I’m just stating my preferences”. No one else in the thread is doing anything that you’re not.

 

[Scott Christian]

It's not that uncommon. From personal experience, it was way more common in V:tM circles than in D&D. And not in "supers with fangs" VtM games, more in Anne Rice heavy inspired games. I've played sessions like that, where all convos where in character, first person. Those were games where we would have multiple sessions without ever touching dices. But beside me, everyone else in that group also loved Mind's Eye Theater and was very into Vampire LARP.

Yea, I have run a V;tM game. I have run another campaign of Vampire for eighteen players (fun, but ugh! and never again). It still didn't run that way. But to each their own. I would love to see video of a session that does this (as I have never seen one in play).

 

[zarionofarabel]

Yea, I have run a V;tM game. I have run another campaign of Vampire for eighteen players (fun, but ugh! and never again). It still didn't run that way. But to each their own. I would love to see video of a session that does this (as I have never seen one in play).

The 4D crowd on YouTube have a whole bunch of "in character only" Actual Plays you can watch. That's the whole point of the 4D style according to the proponents of it, in character (preferably first person narration) as much as possible. I myself don't strictly run 4D style, but I do encourage players to try to stay in character. Especially things like group discussions or arguments between PCs over whatever. I think conducting as much of the narrative as possible from an in world perspective is kind of the whole point of playing a TTRPG. I also don't generally run my games where there is a "pause world" feature so the players can have a ten minute discussion OOC about something, especially in the middle of a dramatic scene or combat encounter. I detest "PC actions by committee" and "test driving actions" when running games. I also enforce strict time constraints on decision making during combat. If a player takes more than 5 seconds to decide what their PC is doing during a 5 second combat round it means the PC is frozen with indecision and they do nothing for the round. In a nutshell, I don't mind the occasional Monty Python reference during a lighthearted scene, but if it's a constant thing, or it's done to rob the game of tension inappropriately, you won't be welcome at my table.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The fact that players talk as a group, as players and not as characters, is something that some versions of how this works simply misses.

There have been times where I do forbid that..by saying if any planning is spoken about, I will treat that as being spoken openly in the fiction as I'm not happy for players to have their characters make secrets elaborate plans while they are currently conversing in dialogue with NPCs.
Roleplay the dialogue out. If you wish your character to inform another character secretly of something, let us roleplay that - perhaps you need to roll deception or stealth, perhaps the NPC notices something peculiar, and their conversational tone shifts...your characters are not telepathic, so cut the player planning chat.

I like to maintain the social pillar challenges...treating it as a combat pillar removes some of those challenges.
During the combat pillar I give the players much more leeway with strategy and planning.*

EDIT: Having said that, if a player begins making that error after I have informed the table at the start that in this particular scene the OoC planning is forbidden, I remind them. People including the GM make mistakes so just warning them before any damage is done is best. I'm not out their to punish my players. I'm there to help facilitate the integrity of the scene being roleplayed and ensure it remains challenging (and thus hopefully memorable).

* Combat is chaotic, characters can cry out intentions and combat experience kicks in.
If I want to challenge PCs in a similar way in combat, I may have them declare actions first before initiative is rolled - that helps to make a combat more dynamic with certain limitations existing for changing one's action mid-combat.

 

[GrimCo]

Yea, I have run a V;tM game. I have run another campaign of Vampire for eighteen players (fun, but ugh! and never again). It still didn't run that way. But to each their own. I would love to see video of a session that does this (as I have never seen one in play).

These were people that played TTRPG VtM like mix of improv theater and LARP (which makes sense, they were also into VtM LARP and amateur youth theater). While it's great experience, i find it that it drains me mentally and i don't enjoy it that much. Not worth the effort (which it takes lots of). We did something similar in our GoT campaign way back in the day, DM called it "deep emotional role play" style. After 3 long (5-6 hours each) sessions, we called it quits and reverted to regular play style. Personally, for that kind of play style, i need to be relaxed, well rested, inspired, in short have my emotional, creative and cognitive battery at full charge to engage in it. I prefer more relaxed style where i can roleplay heavy when i'm in a mood or just revert to using character mechanics and dice rolling when i'm coming to session with half empty tank.