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<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8656997" data-attributes="member: 7030755">With a scenario with <a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8015/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-6-alternative-node-design" target="_blank">nodes</a>, the most likely railroading situation is a dm not allowing a scene to ‘fail.’ The PCs show up to interrogate a key witness, but either don’t get the clues they would need, or don’t understand the clues given, for them to get to the next ‘level’ of nodes (‘D’ in the linked article).&nbsp; The other way it might end up a railroad is if they end up at the next part of the scenario but they can’t progress because reasons.&nbsp; Videogames often work this way, where in order to get to the next bit of content you have to trigger a cut scene by doing x, y, and z.&nbsp; I read Alexander’s thoughts on scenario design as being able to create and run a pre-written scenario while at the same time decreasingly the likelihood that the dm will feel the need to railroad the pcs to the next scene.&nbsp; I think it can be made more dynamic in various ways.&nbsp; For example, there could be a timer (‘what happens if the pcs do nothing?’).&nbsp; Or the dm can just figure out how the pcs actions in one node would change the entire gamestate.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8656997, member: 7030755"] With a scenario with [URL='https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8015/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-6-alternative-node-design']nodes[/URL], the most likely railroading situation is a dm not allowing a scene to ‘fail.’ The PCs show up to interrogate a key witness, but either don’t get the clues they would need, or don’t understand the clues given, for them to get to the next ‘level’ of nodes (‘D’ in the linked article). The other way it might end up a railroad is if they end up at the next part of the scenario but they can’t progress because reasons. Videogames often work this way, where in order to get to the next bit of content you have to trigger a cut scene by doing x, y, and z. I read Alexander’s thoughts on scenario design as being able to create and run a pre-written scenario while at the same time decreasingly the likelihood that the dm will feel the need to railroad the pcs to the next scene. I think it can be made more dynamic in various ways. For example, there could be a timer (‘what happens if the pcs do nothing?’). Or the dm can just figure out how the pcs actions in one node would change the entire gamestate. [/QUOTE]

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