Is Railroading in D&D really THAT bad?

[@TLBainter]

me (a DM who keeps setting his campaigns in a train yard so he can show off his model train gear) for the first 24 seconds of this video: 😰

[@DavidDecero]

Man, I just hate it when a game goes off the rails.

[@williamross6477]

At a higher level, the real issue is making player choices not matter. It can be a completely open sandbox, but if every time a player makes a choice it just gets dismissed, that’s just as bad as bad railroading. Conversely, good railroading is when a path is set, but the players feel like their choices are making a difference. Their goal might be single minded, with only one viable way forward, but while their choices might not change the path they are on, they would still see the impact of their actions in the world around them.

[@joatandimas3098]

Amazing video. I would love an in depth video about DnD. Hope you do that some time

[@FirstTimeDM]

love the honest cut with the title card

[@almitrahopkins1873]

A good DM foreshadows the good kind of railroading. If he describes the dodgy looking supports holding up the roof in a mine, they’re guaranteed to collapse behind you. As a DM, my story progresses with or without the players. If they leave the plot, it doesn’t matter. It’s just going to be worse when they get back to it because they weren’t there to stop small parts of it. I learned that trick from a guy who was a fantastic DM. Insert a dozen hooks and see which one the players bite on. Drop vague clues to the bigger plot in all the smaller bits, regardless of which one they follow. Let them explore the smaller bits that interest them and let them draw up their own conclusions. Removing the overland travel portions from 5e or simplifying it seriously affected the game. It made preparation a more rushed affair. In older editions, a 300-mile journey gave you a couple of filler sessions to prepare for the hook they bit onto. The encounters on the road can be or not be connected to the main plot line, but the players will connect them on their own. There is no such thing as an unclimbable mountain or a uncrossable river. It won’t be easy, but it is never impossible. As a player, I’ve wasted time crossing uncrossable rivers because it took building a raft to ferry across players who couldn’t swim or gear that would have drowned them. This is why rangers and druids are in the game. Railroading is easy to avoid. It just takes practice.

[@joshy3twist1]

Completely derailed my murder on the orient express themed campaign

[@storystrider]

Hey this sounds fun I'm in. Need a victim? 🔪

[@justiceiro47]

by what i gave gm'ed, my opinion is that railroading is a tool in the belt. its only bad when you use it incorretly or to solve the wrong problem. if used well, it wont be a hindrance.

[@macoppy6571]

Story is not the responsibility (or even within the purview) of the DM. Story is what the players (including the DM) tell each other and outsiders about what happened in the Game. Story is the product of a process (the Game) that is intended to be enjoyable independently of said product.

[@miles9462]

I think it really comes down to how egregious the railroading is. Prep is a huge bitch, especially when your players tend towards unpredictability. Any game that isn’t intent on being a sandbox is going to be on rails to some degree or another. Hell, official modules tend to be very railroady. So long as it’s not actively ignoring player decisions with a “you can’t do that” I don’t much mind.

[@TapiTalk]

I have a solid outline of what I predict will happen, but if the players deviate or I roll bad I'll just go with the flow, it's not the easiest but it rewards players agency, and fortunately I'm doing a Majoras Mask time travel campaign so if they TPK it's not the end of the world.

[@hughhartley6093]

Is that the game music from the YuGiOh rose duellist in the background? I definitely recognise it from somewhere

[@storystrider]

Some good thoughts here. Regardless of your choice to run a homebrew game or a game based off of a setting/adventure path it's impossible to plan for every outcome of a game - anything from "the fighter can't come this week to dnd" or "insulting the wrong NPC as a joke" can alter games so dramatically. Ultimately there is an illusion somewhere, a curtain somewhere that is drawn where once the players move past it it's either all improv (using what you know about the world and the space) or a break to consider the outcome of their agency. How much you show players those moments is where I think people are most likely to call out railroading. If there is no curtain, the game is planned, and you can see the ogre on both paths (extreme example) that doesn't feel like a real adventure it feels like an ogre fight simulator which some may want (especially in time crunched groups with tough matching IRL schedules). But what's stopping a DM from saving that ogre for another, more relevant time if they don't pick the correct path? They pick the non-ogre path and instead have a nice hike through the woods but a few games later it turns out the Ogre came to the questgiver village to steal livestock and there's a cool defend the town scene. That makes a living world, especially if the party chooses to track them back to find that the ogre was maybe waiting for them on one path. To me the most common answer would be DM's wanting to give their players this cool, fun, and exciting thing they worked on, but I think that really should take a back seat to the curtain. Surely other reasons too, and just my opinion in the space, but don't worry the ogre can come back! .... with a magic club and a few levels if needed

[@RoguesRollCall-Cam]

Some very well worded thoughts, thanks! Couldn't have said it better myself

[@amessinger]

The commenter who said its only railroading if the players notice it as such brought me an eye-opening realization. It's not the ogre that's quantum, it's the whole railroad! Railroading itself is a quantum phenomenon. _All_ prep exists in a superposition somewhere on the sandbox-to-railroad spectrum, only settling into a concrete position on that spectrum when closely observed by a player! 🤯