D&D General Why defend railroading?

[Crimson Longinus]

I usually have about a half dozen pre-made encounters ready. If the party goes out of the prepared area and into the unknown and say comes to that fork, I will generally pick one of those encounters that fits the area and place it down one of the paths. Once I place it, though, I cross it off and will not re-use it later if the party picks the other fork and never encounters it.

And from the player perspective this doesn't matter one bit.

 

[Maxperson]

And from the player perspective this doesn't matter one bit.

And?

 

[Maxperson]

The look on Janet Jackson's face when she suspects railroading. She all for Control, but not that much.

I actually met her once, which is probably why she popped into my head when trying to think of a celebrity name. She was a very nice, down to earth woman. The fame hadn't gone to her head like it does with a lot of stars that you run into.

 

[Cadence]

No, but as I pointed out in my train example above, when I get on a literal railroad(train) and go somewhere, I still have lots of choices while on that railroad. Having choice while being forced down a lane or having choice AFTER you are forced down a lane, doesn't remove the railroad.

I usually have about a half dozen pre-made encounters ready. If the party goes out of the prepared area and into the unknown and say comes to that fork, I will generally pick one of those encounters that fits the area and place it down one of the paths. Once I place it, though, I cross it off and will not re-use it later if the party picks the other fork and never encounters it.

Would it work if you had only five pre-made encounters to pick from?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

And?

So it doesn't matter. This is about your personal hang ups that matter only in your head. And that's fine, we all have such. But it doesn't matter to the actual player experience so objectively obsessing about it is pointless.

 

[Thomas Shey]

This. If the presence or absence of an ogre had no bearing on the players’ decision making process, then the presence of an ogre on the path they chose doesn’t invalidate their choice. They didn’t choose to go the way that doesn’t have an ogre, they just chose to go left. Had they chosen to go left because they knew there was an ogre to the right, and ended up having to fight the ogre anyway, that’s invalidating their choice.

Yeah. I really can't help but think some Quantum Ogre type constructs are just meaningless when it comes to constraining choice; they may well be Force, but so is something as simple as deciding you're going to roll random encounters every hour (after all, the players aren't allowed to avoid those just by their choices as such).

That said, I think it might have been Ezekial that argued where it becomes relevant is whether the PCs could have avoided ogres completely farther back on the decision tree, which I think is legitimate, but if taken far enough comes down to "the PCs can avoid the whole campaign" which I don't think too many people are supporting as necessary for something to be not a railroad.

 

[robus]

Sure, but if I make a choice to go to the mall and see Janet Jackson, she is not also going to have been at the movies if I had made that choice instead.

This is why we’re talking in circles. You seem to be arguing that the players know the ogres are on the route (the Janet Jackson in your analogy) whereas we’re arguing that they’re choosing between the mall and the movies (Janet Jackson is no part of the choice).

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Would it work if you had only five pre-made encounters to pick from?

And do they need to be differnt ones? Can we have ogres x5?

 

[Maxperson]

Would it work if you had only five pre-made encounters to pick from?

It would work with one. It's not the number. It's whether it's avoidable through player choice. With only one encounter placed down one of the forks, it's still an avoidable situation and I haven't removed the players' agency by forcing it on them no matter what they do.

 

[Maxperson]

This is why we’re talking in circles. You seem to be arguing that the players know the ogres are on the route (the Janet Jackson in your analogy) whereas we’re arguing that they’re choosing between the mall and the movies (Janet Jackson is no part of the choice).

I had no idea I would be meeting Janet Jackson that day. That was my fault for writing unclearly. I probably should have put a comma before the "and." Sorry about that.