What is railroading?
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
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RR to me is not when events spark choices for the PCs, but when events massively and overwhelmingly force extremely limited choices on the PCs regardless of what they will try to do.
all of course, IMO.
I run story and event based campaigns where the scenarios are driven by the character backgrounds and such. I try and make all MAJOR adventures personal, not arbitrary or unrelated to the PCs. I do NOT fear the title "director" and actually feel the job of GM involves three distinct hats: the gamer's cap (rules/system wrangler), the director's cap (player wrangler) and the writer's cap (character wrangler.)
If that makes me a conductor for someone's overly sensitve railroad, thats fine by me cuz so far it has worked exceedingly well over time.
IMX there are a vocal few who have defined rr so far down into story as to make it practically a useless term.Quasqueton said:
RR to me is not when events spark choices for the PCs, but when events massively and overwhelmingly force extremely limited choices on the PCs regardless of what they will try to do.
Story seed for personal adventure. Not RR.Quasqueton said:
Consequence of possession of powerful item. Not RR.Quasqueton said:
Likely not a RR *unless* the press gang is overwhelming and unavoidable AND there were no ways to see this war coming and be in better location.Quasqueton said:
Plenty of choices. Scenario seed. Not a RR.Quasqueton said:
Consequence driven scenario. not a RR.Quasqueton said:
Cannot answer, insufficient info. It hinges on why the PCs are trying to recover the amulet. If they were forced into the amulet chase and there is only one way to get it, this might be a RR.Quasqueton said:
Scenario seed. Not a RR. (Although it could be nearing one IF the PCs had specifically sought a safe, respectable tavern and had every reason ton believe such activities were out of place.)Quasqueton said:
Consequence scenario. Not a RR.Quasqueton said:
Not an adventure or scenario.Quasqueton said:
Not a campaign.Quasqueton said:
all of course, IMO.
I run story and event based campaigns where the scenarios are driven by the character backgrounds and such. I try and make all MAJOR adventures personal, not arbitrary or unrelated to the PCs. I do NOT fear the title "director" and actually feel the job of GM involves three distinct hats: the gamer's cap (rules/system wrangler), the director's cap (player wrangler) and the writer's cap (character wrangler.)
If that makes me a conductor for someone's overly sensitve railroad, thats fine by me cuz so far it has worked exceedingly well over time.
That said, two examples of RRing from my experiences as a player.
Long, long ago in an imperium far away, we were playing some space opera game, which might have been space opera or might have been universe. I was a player and my character was an engineer who had been on this world for a while. Our group gets together and puts ourself out for hire on merc tickets. My character wants to go buy some routine weapons... normal pistols and such. The Gm has me make a roll to find such a place, IN THE PHONEBOOK. My engineer fails the PHONEBOOK roll. So I go out looking for guns dealers and stores and again no matter what i try no luck. So, eventually i go back ton the ship and stop trying. As soon as i do the patrons out to hire us show up and offer us a deal and the payoff they offer is... wait for it... weapons.
More recently, we had this newly met DND party who were bound together by arcane magics. The party barbarian was being well played and paranoid repeatedly keeping "back to the wall" and "no one gets behind me" actions and statements going, especially since she had no clue where she was. We get into village and a "quickly chase attacker" run leads most of the party, everyone but me, into a frame job "standing over the corpse of a local with bloody weapons in hand" as the constable shows up with backup. The odds for them are clearly bad and i know the barbarian is about to go ballistic when they try and take her in. I am wondering "will she make it out alive and how will she handle being in jail and how badly will this go since it seems the Gm is intended for the PCs to go quietly. Alas, i am not there to help. The GM, as the barbarian player starts to resist tells the player she is knocked unconscious by the butt end of a sword from the guard behind her and moves on to the "when you wake up in jail".
The player was furious. She was new so she kept her mouth shut. before the next session, the Gm had a heart attack and i took over the game and so she continued playing, and after a few more sessions told her husband "OK, I get now what y'all enjoy about the game."
Now, i am not against the notion of the occasional "unlucky break" where the plot needsa a bad thing to happen to a PC and enjoy systems where the PC gets drama points for suffering the unfortunate events, but one of my cardinal rules is to not do this type of plot overide when it conflicts directly with a character focus. I can use it to catch the flighty guy unawares, or trip up the brutish guy socially, but you don't use it as a technique to stomp on a character's strength or focus.
Long, long ago in an imperium far away, we were playing some space opera game, which might have been space opera or might have been universe. I was a player and my character was an engineer who had been on this world for a while. Our group gets together and puts ourself out for hire on merc tickets. My character wants to go buy some routine weapons... normal pistols and such. The Gm has me make a roll to find such a place, IN THE PHONEBOOK. My engineer fails the PHONEBOOK roll. So I go out looking for guns dealers and stores and again no matter what i try no luck. So, eventually i go back ton the ship and stop trying. As soon as i do the patrons out to hire us show up and offer us a deal and the payoff they offer is... wait for it... weapons.
More recently, we had this newly met DND party who were bound together by arcane magics. The party barbarian was being well played and paranoid repeatedly keeping "back to the wall" and "no one gets behind me" actions and statements going, especially since she had no clue where she was. We get into village and a "quickly chase attacker" run leads most of the party, everyone but me, into a frame job "standing over the corpse of a local with bloody weapons in hand" as the constable shows up with backup. The odds for them are clearly bad and i know the barbarian is about to go ballistic when they try and take her in. I am wondering "will she make it out alive and how will she handle being in jail and how badly will this go since it seems the Gm is intended for the PCs to go quietly. Alas, i am not there to help. The GM, as the barbarian player starts to resist tells the player she is knocked unconscious by the butt end of a sword from the guard behind her and moves on to the "when you wake up in jail".
The player was furious. She was new so she kept her mouth shut. before the next session, the Gm had a heart attack and i took over the game and so she continued playing, and after a few more sessions told her husband "OK, I get now what y'all enjoy about the game."
Now, i am not against the notion of the occasional "unlucky break" where the plot needsa a bad thing to happen to a PC and enjoy systems where the PC gets drama points for suffering the unfortunate events, but one of my cardinal rules is to not do this type of plot overide when it conflicts directly with a character focus. I can use it to catch the flighty guy unawares, or trip up the brutish guy socially, but you don't use it as a technique to stomp on a character's strength or focus.
Thanee
First Post
Railroading is, when the DM forces the players to follow the DM's version of the story along a single, predetermined way, regardless of what the players decide to do. In the worst cases, the story becomes completely ridiculous and multiple rules are broken in an arbitrary fashion in order to force the story on the players without their consent.
There can be single events, where only one possible way exists, which are not railroading, of course, like all the examples in the original post.
Railroading can be a single event, but usually is rather a chain of events.
Bye
Thanee
There can be single events, where only one possible way exists, which are not railroading, of course, like all the examples in the original post.
Railroading can be a single event, but usually is rather a chain of events.
Bye
Thanee
swrushing said:
Yup - that's my view. Depending on genre it may be necessary that the hyper-vigilant barbarian gets knocked out and dragged to jail, but I learned, partly from the Buffy RPG, that the best way to do this is for the GM simply to declare it - I call it "being screwed over by Fate" - acknowledge the injustice, and give the player(s) a compensatory token/reward. So when I did this in my Conan game, using a published AD&D scenario which starts with a railroad, all the PCs were awarded Fate Points.
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