#its just easier to let go of my damn campaign at this point maybe ill fucking feel sane again

[teapsoon]

my mental health hasnt been this bad in years

[candid-gamera]

DM 101 : Authorial Intent and Railroading

A lot of electrons have been transmitted on tabletop gaming subjects, and I figure adding a few of my own can’t hurt. I considered doing some kind of video series on this subject, but it may be a while before I can do that to my slightly perfectionist standards, so I will write.

I am a 28 year veteran GM with a number of systems, campaign worlds, and sessions under my belt. I have opinions, and a vial of emergency dice in my backpack at all times. None of what follows should be considered a gospel on the One True Way to play tabletop RPGs, just insights from someone who’s been there, behind the screen. I also recommend this guy.

I want to talk a little bit about railroading. If you don’t know what that is, I’ll give you a short definition. Railroading is a slang term describing a GMing style that does not allow the players of the game any real control over the direction of the campaign. It often manifests as the GM saying “No” to a perfectly reasonable plan, or throwing in-game obstacles in the path of the party to force them back onto the track that the GM wishes to follow. Sometimes a GM will offer the illusion of choice, but the tracks are still there - you can pick A, or you can pick B, but both options lead you to C.

But, you say, what’s so bad about that? The GM has a story to tell, right? Well, they might, but if the GM is just there to tell a story, the players don’t need to roll up characters and make decisions. They just need a couch and some popcorn and the willingness to listen to the GM ramble on about his or her idea. The magic of roleplaying games is their interactivity, and if you aren’t giving your players any real agency, then that interactivity is severely limited.

The GM is not an author, they're a co-author. It is not their story. It’s everyone’s story.

Warning signs of the “frustrated author” Game Master :

“You can’t do that! I haven’t planned for that.”

“I know that would make sense, but it doesn’t work this time, just trust me.”

“Your character feels _______.” Or ‘does’, or ‘thinks’.

Encounters that seem inevitable.

Gatekeeper obstacles or NPCs.

Obviously, seeing one of these doesn’t absolutely mean you have a railroader, but you may want to sit up and pay attention. Similarly, “Your character feels ill at ease” is a passable way for a GM to say that your danger sense is going off; “Your character feels an intense hatred for Player B’s character” is only acceptable if there’s mind-control magic at play. (Yes, I have had a GM say that to a player in a game, wherein I was Player B .. and no, there was no magic involved. Just a GM who was only interested in the story HE wanted to tell with us as a captive audience.)

I think a lot of GMs fall into the trap of railroading because it’s easier, and is less likely to require improvisation. If you know the PCs have to go to Halfwittesburg, then you don’t have to write up an entry for Dumbasseplatz.

Unfortunately for the technique, a lot of players like to try unconventional choices, and even if you’re pretty good at hiding the rails, they’re going to notice. And their reaction is going to be akin to : “Well, why don’t I just give you my character sheet, you play it out, and tell me how it ends, okay? I’m going to go play a video game.” It is incredibly frustrating to feel like you either have no choices, or your choices don’t matter. And for me, it just saps my interest in the game.

Admittedly, I am probably at the extreme end of the scale for my resistance to railroading. I’m an over-planner by nature, I am going to work all the angles to have the party come out on top.  And if all my clever plans get shot down, and I’m just there to roll dice and offer a bit of dialogue now and then, I’m mentally checking out.  I recall one game I played in that had an ancient and terrible menace awaken, and I outlined a beautiful point by point plan where we could take the thing down. The GM indicated the logistics were impossible, there was no way we could pull that together, so we just had to do the “Face to face” confrontation option .. and while we were doing that, our evil rivals showed up using a plan exactly like mine, despite having less current available information, and totally upstaged the party.

So it wasn’t that the plan was impossible, it’s just that the GM had already decided that someone else would be doing it. Fortunately, that was near the end of the campaign, but I was basically done that day.  I just didn’t care anymore.

If you aren’t going to let the players’ decisions effect the outcome, don’t pretend otherwise.

So, what can you, as a humble and entirely hypothetical novice GM, do to avoid the trap of railroading?

1.) Prepare. Some GMs are good at improv. Some are not. If you’re not, or you don’t know how good you are, prepare. Build a list of NPC names - maybe one PC will want to talk to the local grocer. Give him a name from the list, mark it out.  Have a generic small town ready to drop into the wilderness. Write a list of rumors the players can pick up on.

2.) Randomize. There are some DAMN good random generators out there for a wide variety of RPGs. Everything from treasure and encounters to towns and dungeons. Maybe the party doesn’t want to deal with the corrupt chancellor right now - they just want to kick an owlbear’s ass. Let them.

3.) Write Flexibly. Don’t make assumptions when you are writing your adventure ideas. Players WILL surprise you. If they have to talk to Rogue B to get the location of the Macguffin, you have created a bottleneck in your plot - and you better be prepared for them failing to find Rogue B, or killing him before getting the information. By the same token, don’t pre-suppose the ending. Maybe they’ll find a way to negotiate with the dragon, despite the two hours you spent designing its cave full of traps and treasure.

Players will have more fun if you’re not telling them exactly how they should have their fun.

And Justin Alexander has a lengthier, better-written article on the same subject, if you’d like some more detail. Multiple parts!