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

[VHawkwinter]

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

I can imagine myself playing and enjoying a horror-themed board game, where you roll dice and move pieces, and turn over cards with cool artwork that describe tropes from the horror genre. "You witness a nameless thing from another dimension. Lose 1d6 Sanity." And that would be fun, and I would both laugh and fake groan when my character goes crazy and has to go to the Insane Asylum section of the board until whatever game mechanic gets me out again. I would play that game.

But it wouldn't feel like an RPG. EDIT: ...to me.

Sounds like Call of Cthulhu. Not a game I want to play a campaign in, but there are some RPGs that work better for one-shots with disposable pregens.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sounds like Call of Cthulhu. Not a game I want to play a campaign in, but there are some RPGs that work better for one-shots with disposable pregens.

I've never played CoC any other way. In my world it's a con game.

 

[VHawkwinter]

I've never played CoC any other way. In my world it's a con game.

Sometimes we play a CoC one-shot if people cancel and it would be inconvenient to run our usual campaign. One of the guys has run it often enough that he is familiar with a bunch of one-shots for it, and has pregens already. Makes it an easy drop-in.