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<blockquote data-quote="GuyBoy" data-source="post: 8335803" data-attributes="member: 7031143">Railroads are actually pretty handy if you’re travelling by train; you won’t get far without them. Please excuse the trite excuse for witticism above, but the point is that railroading is an emotive phrase in D&amp;D, usually seen as pejorative, and we actually need to be careful with it. Gaming is definitely a social contract, and part of the player’s responsibility to the DM is to recognise the DM’s ability to invest only so much time in preparation and their entitlement to a “job well done” feeling as their campaign progresses. It follows that the players should pick up on the plot hooks and follow them, not act like *****s by refusing to do so in the name of “not being railroaded.”Two current exemplars: in The Sword’s “Odyssey of the Dragonlords” campaign, we came upon local farmers terrified of the attacks from a demonic wild boar from local hills. So we went after the monster and thereby engaged in the flow of the campaign. In my own Saltmarsh campaign, the dead body floating into the town, with locals knowing the tides, prompted the players to head off to explore the rumoured haunted house along the coast. In both cases, the players could have “refused to be railroaded” Why? What could that achieve except frustration in the name of some meaningless cause?PS I’m not excusing my one-time Dragonlance purist DM, who when we attempted to leave town the “wrong way” for the plot, stated that there were 40 Minotaurs on the south road who say they will kill anyone who goes that way!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GuyBoy, post: 8335803, member: 7031143"] Railroads are actually pretty handy if you’re travelling by train; you won’t get far without them. Please excuse the trite excuse for witticism above, but the point is that railroading is an emotive phrase in D&D, usually seen as pejorative, and we actually need to be careful with it. Gaming is definitely a social contract, and part of the player’s responsibility to the DM is to recognise the DM’s ability to invest only so much time in preparation and their entitlement to a “job well done” feeling as their campaign progresses. It follows that the players should pick up on the plot hooks and follow them, not act like *****s by refusing to do so in the name of “not being railroaded.” Two current exemplars: in The Sword’s “Odyssey of the Dragonlords” campaign, we came upon local farmers terrified of the attacks from a demonic wild boar from local hills. So we went after the monster and thereby engaged in the flow of the campaign. In my own Saltmarsh campaign, the dead body floating into the town, with locals knowing the tides, prompted the players to head off to explore the rumoured haunted house along the coast. In both cases, the players could have “refused to be railroaded” Why? What could that achieve except frustration in the name of some meaningless cause? PS I’m not excusing my one-time Dragonlance purist DM, who when we attempted to leave town the “wrong way” for the plot, stated that there were 40 Minotaurs on the south road who say they will kill anyone who goes that way! [/QUOTE]

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