You are not the Director

[Vegepygmy]

Directors, producers....what do you call the guy on the movie set who kills all of the characters the actors are portraying? Cuz that's what I am.

 

[Celebrim]

Oh, I totally understand your feelings. Why, just the other day, I was forced to correct one of our wayward brothers. Unbelievably, he was actually WRITING UP KEYED LOCATIONS. Oh my god. Talk about railroading. Doesn't he know that we must never script anything? All encounters must be 100% ad libbed with no preparation whatsoever.

Horror of horrors, he even had a TIMELINE of events that would occur unless the PC's intervened. Choo choo. All aboard this railroad. I mean, what a terrible DM he was to actually spend the time making sure that his campaign had logical flow and coherency. For shame.

Worst of all, he took the time to plan out chained events. If the guards in one room rang the alarm, then other guards would come to their aid! Imagine my shock. A logical flow of events, pre-determined before play?!?!?! I was stunned. After all, one should never, ever script anything. To do otherwise is to shackle the poor players to a particular chain of events.

Needless to say, I spent much time correcting him. He won't do that again in a hurry.

Fail.

 

[Hussar]

Fail.

Really? In what way? I suppose it's perfectly fine to sit there and claim that any scripting is akin to railroading, but, injecting things like, oh, I dunno, what actually happens at the table is a fail?

 

[Celebrim]

Really? In what way? I suppose it's perfectly fine to sit there and claim that any scripting is akin to railroading, but, injecting things like, oh, I dunno, what actually happens at the table is a fail?

It's a fail because you are so anxious to continue a fight from some other thread, that you don't even notice you've jumped off on a tangent and completely misunderstood the post you are trying to flame. No one claimed that any scripting is railroading. Not every fight is over your pet peeves.

 

[Fifth Element]

Has anyone compared DM's to cat-herders yet?

I think that's the best analogy yet.

 

[The Shaman]

It's a fail because you are so anxious to continue a fight from some other thread, that you don't even notice you've jumped off on a tangent and completely misunderstood the post you are trying to flame. No one claimed that any scripting is railroading. Not every fight is over your pet peeves.

"You must spread some Experience Points around . . . "

 

[jmucchiello]

That's actually the goal of a sandbox campaign.

In my experience and all that.

Sure, but there's a difference between the players could do anything and the players did WHAT?!!

 

[The Shaman]

Sure, but there's a difference between the players could do anything and the players did WHAT?!!

I consider "The players did WHAT?!!" to be the ultimate sign of a successful game.

 

[weem]

I consider "The players did WHAT?!!" to be the ultimate sign of a successful game.

Unless of course that includes giving you the finger, flipping over the table and urinating in the corner of your room...

...on the other hand... that might be pretty awesome. It would be a story at least

 

[Hussar]

It's a fail because you are so anxious to continue a fight from some other thread, that you don't even notice you've jumped off on a tangent and completely misunderstood the post you are trying to flame. No one claimed that any scripting is railroading. Not every fight is over your pet peeves.

Fair enough I suppose. I guess I just find it rather ludicrous that people would try to claim that "there is no script" when it's so obviously false. What is an adventure if not a script? Whether you write the adventure yourself or buy a module, it's a script for what's most likely going to be played that evening.

That the script is not adhered to often, and the script is often very vague, doesn't suddenly mean that there is no script.

I'm rather surprised actually that you're letting the claim of "What if there is no script" slide by without any reaction at all.

But, sure, maybe it's just my pet peeve.

Besides, I thought it was funny.