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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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<blockquote data-quote="Blackbrrd" data-source="post: 6578654" data-attributes="member: 63962"><p>I don't really think this is true. I do think you have some good points, but look at your example. The PC's just assumed the guy was the good guy and did his bidding. Let's say the PC's are of a suspicious nature and did some investigation to find if the NPC was trustworthy. If you generated content based on this and actually let the actions of the PC's decide if they discovered the truth and if they did, let the PC's completely change the story - you are not running a railroad any longer. You are now running a story based on the PC's actions and the motivations/actions of the NPC's you have created. If you were running a railroad the PC's investigation would just put them back on the track you planned from the start.</p><p></p><p>I ran "Reavers of Harkenworld" and mostly, the PC's did as the adventure was written, more or less a railroad, but towards the end the PC's actions had diverged so far from the adventure that I was improvising one session at a time, and at a certain point I had no idea what the PC's would do so I just prepared their opponents, but not anything about the circumstances around meeting them. It was smart, I kinda assumed the PC's would hole up in a partially taken keep, but instead they stormed the rest of the keep and then did a commando raid into the enemy camp two days ride away, assassinating the main NPC. Completely different than my assumption that it would be a long siege and a slog of a combat. </p><p></p><p>To sum it up, starting up a campaign that has a plot doesn't make it a railroad. Only allowing planned outcomes of the plot to succeed is rail-roading. The minute the train is running rampant through the city/forrest/dungeon, it's off the railroad. You might have a train-wreck of a campaign, but at least the PC's decisions actually mattered. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>(Btw, if you like rail-roads I think that's fine, but I don't think it's the only way to play. Adventure paths and mega adventures are very prone to rail-roading so I try to avoid those, but some are just really good, for instance Red Hand of Doom. What makes RHoD good is that the assumptions it makes don't really make it hard to adept the adventure to the PC's actions. It's more of a "this is the what we think is the scope of the adventure, if the PC's act outside it, you need to wing it, building on what they did".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blackbrrd, post: 6578654, member: 63962"] I don't really think this is true. I do think you have some good points, but look at your example. The PC's just assumed the guy was the good guy and did his bidding. Let's say the PC's are of a suspicious nature and did some investigation to find if the NPC was trustworthy. If you generated content based on this and actually let the actions of the PC's decide if they discovered the truth and if they did, let the PC's completely change the story - you are not running a railroad any longer. You are now running a story based on the PC's actions and the motivations/actions of the NPC's you have created. If you were running a railroad the PC's investigation would just put them back on the track you planned from the start. I ran "Reavers of Harkenworld" and mostly, the PC's did as the adventure was written, more or less a railroad, but towards the end the PC's actions had diverged so far from the adventure that I was improvising one session at a time, and at a certain point I had no idea what the PC's would do so I just prepared their opponents, but not anything about the circumstances around meeting them. It was smart, I kinda assumed the PC's would hole up in a partially taken keep, but instead they stormed the rest of the keep and then did a commando raid into the enemy camp two days ride away, assassinating the main NPC. Completely different than my assumption that it would be a long siege and a slog of a combat. To sum it up, starting up a campaign that has a plot doesn't make it a railroad. Only allowing planned outcomes of the plot to succeed is rail-roading. The minute the train is running rampant through the city/forrest/dungeon, it's off the railroad. You might have a train-wreck of a campaign, but at least the PC's decisions actually mattered. :) (Btw, if you like rail-roads I think that's fine, but I don't think it's the only way to play. Adventure paths and mega adventures are very prone to rail-roading so I try to avoid those, but some are just really good, for instance Red Hand of Doom. What makes RHoD good is that the assumptions it makes don't really make it hard to adept the adventure to the PC's actions. It's more of a "this is the what we think is the scope of the adventure, if the PC's act outside it, you need to wing it, building on what they did". [/QUOTE]
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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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