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

[Scott Christian]

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.

Thanks. I will check it out.

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.

What about players that have difficulty remembering exactly what they can do, or always get confused about action economy? What about players that sometimes deal with choice paralysis?

I mean, I get it. If you look at any criticism I have of any game, half of it probably deals with the length of time a combat takes. But, there are "people" acting as players, and not everyone has a decisive, calculating mind.

 

[Scott Christian]

Where are you adding all of these options from? If a plane is locked down then magic won’t work. If you are ruling that wish overrides a planar lock then that would require a check to ever cast wish again. Some choice you got there.

Wizard71,

The OP has backtracked and said he used all the wrong words to describe the scenario. This was after much criticism that it was railroading by quite a few people. Take it for what it is.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What about players that have difficulty remembering exactly what they can do, or always get confused about action economy? What about players that sometimes deal with choice paralysis?

I mean, I get it. If you look at any criticism I have of any game, half of it probably deals with the length of time a combat takes. But, there are "people" acting as players, and not everyone has a decisive, calculating mind.

I'd also argue there's a huge difference between the semi-reflexive decisions of people who are at least trained, and probably practiced combatants, and the people who doing this as a hobby once a week. I also can understand the desire to avoid dithering and overanalysis, but I don't think five second decision windows are reasonable for the majority of people.

 

[zarionofarabel]

What about players that have difficulty remembering exactly what they can do, or always get confused about action economy? What about players that sometimes deal with choice paralysis?

For the most part I don't run games that have tactically complex combat (no minis). Combat in the majority of the systems I run is a narrative exercise in line with every other type of activity one can partake. So precise positioning isn't really all that important. Ranges are usually quite abstract (usually falling into; too far to shoot; close enough to shoot; melee) and movement is abstracted along similar lines. Decision making during combat usually isn't all that complicated. The most robust combat system I use is Mythras, and most of the "tactical" decisions are front loaded due to the particulars of how the system works. During combat what to do is usually pretty obvious, with the one decision point being what special effect(s) to choose if a critical success is rolled. I also much much much prefer single action combat action economy, so each round a player only needs to decide to do a single thing. It keeps the spotlight moving and reduces the complexity of the decision making process.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Decision making during combat usually isn't all that complicated.

Even in grid-less, mini-less games that is not true for some people.

I find it absolutely torturous when a player sits there going "um...um...um..." while dithering over a very finite set of possibilities when there is ONE FREAKING OBVIOUS ANSWER.

...and I still try to sit there and keep my mouth shut and show a little tolerance.

 

[Scott Christian]

For the most part I don't run games that have tactically complex combat (no minis). Combat in the majority of the systems I run is a narrative exercise in line with every other type of activity one can partake. So precise positioning isn't really all that important. Ranges are usually quite abstract (usually falling into; too far to shoot; close enough to shoot; melee) and movement is abstracted along similar lines. Decision making during combat usually isn't all that complicated. The most robust combat system I use is Mythras, and most of the "tactical" decisions are front loaded due to the particulars of how the system works. During combat what to do is usually pretty obvious, with the one decision point being what special effect(s) to choose if a critical success is rolled. I also much much much prefer single action combat action economy, so each round a player only needs to decide to do a single thing. It keeps the spotlight moving and reduces the complexity of the decision making process.

Even just narratively speaking, five seconds is not a lot of time for some people. I mean, just going around the table and asking someoe to describe their character, especially a specific part of their character like their boots, still takes quite a lot of players a good amount of time to come up with something creative.

That said, I am glad your system works for you. That is nice to hear. It must make combat go by fairly quickly.