Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5017714" data-attributes="member: 80487">If you define something as being possible in only one very narrowly precise way, then ... well, naturally! &quot;No, defeating the Not So Bright Lady's Army of Badness and making the World safe for Monarchy is not enough. Victory cannot be ours until you complete the Scavenger Hunt of Gnomic Utterances!&quot; Fine. Make it so, if you like. I just don't see that it's necessary.Hallelujah! Although actually they can decide before play if they want. The key is what's in bold.That would be railroading, but railroading might be perfectly okay; it depends on the players.It does not follow that a bridge's collapse must be a Message From God to be interpreted as, &quot;Get back on the plot line!&quot; It amazes me how closed some minds are.Anyhow, someone (Doug?) defined a sandbox as a campaign in which the DM has several adventures prepared. Why couldn't this be one of those? The players are free to cross that bridge or not, but on the other side things start to happen. Maybe things like those in Hobb's End in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness ... maybe it's a railroad, but -- whether you read them or not -- the signs were posted before the conductor punched your ticket!A scenario in which the PCs are somehow stranded (geographically, financially, politically, etc.) can be a lot of fun. Dungeonland and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror are great tests of D&amp;D-playing skill (and potentially a kick for the Lewis Carroll references).It should be easy to come up with other cases of what might be called &quot;commuter lines&quot;, surprises that whisk players into a new situation -- and then cut them loose to make of it what they will.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5017714, member: 80487"] If you define something as being possible in only one very narrowly precise way, then ... well, [I]naturally[/I]! "No, defeating the Not So Bright Lady's Army of Badness and making the World safe for Monarchy is not enough. Victory cannot be ours until you complete the Scavenger Hunt of Gnomic Utterances!" Fine. Make it so, if you like. I just don't see that it's necessary. Hallelujah! Although actually they can decide before play if they want. The key is what's in bold. That [I]would[/I] be railroading, but railroading might be perfectly okay; it depends on the players. It does not follow that a bridge's collapse must be a Message From God to be interpreted as, "Get back on the plot line!" It amazes me how closed some minds are. Anyhow, someone (Doug?) defined a sandbox as a campaign in which the DM has several adventures prepared. Why couldn't this be one of those? The players are free to cross that bridge or not, but on the other side things start to happen. Maybe things like those in Hobb's End in John Carpenter's [I]In the Mouth of Madness[/I] ... maybe it's a railroad, but -- whether you read them or not -- the signs were posted before the conductor punched your ticket! A scenario in which the PCs are somehow stranded (geographically, financially, politically, etc.) can be a lot of fun. [I]Dungeonland[/I] and [I]The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror[/I] are great tests of D&D-playing skill (and potentially a kick for the Lewis Carroll references). It should be easy to come up with other cases of what might be called "commuter lines", surprises that whisk players into a new situation -- and then cut them loose to make of it what they will. [/QUOTE]

Verification