No one wants to be in a game where no matter what they do or how they approach a challenge, character, or story, the outcome feels like it was predetermined. When you’re playing in any tabletop RPG you want to be able to affect the story and feel that the actions of you and your fellow players have an impact on the chronicle and that you’re not just a passive audience member listening as the GM tells you a story. Players want freedom. Or do they?
While a rigid and unchangeable plot line plot line is no fun for any player, other players often become overwhelmed to the point of inaction when presented with an overabundance of choices. Countless GMs likely have players of both types at their table, so how do you please them all? How do you tell a compelling story where the characters feel they have the freedom to affect the setting but at the same time, keep the story moving forward?
Railroad them.
Yes, for many of us the term makes us squirm at best. No doubt, these early exposures to railroading were at the hand of new or inexperienced GMs, at least that was my experience with it. Long before I knew what it was called, I was a victim of railroading. My GM told tales of epic heroes accomplishing legendary tasks that elevated them to the level of gods. Sadly, those tales were not about our characters, but rather, his own NPCs.
In my own inexperience, I thought that this was how game mastering was done, and I put his techniques to use in numerous ways; at first, I would use my NPC to rescue the PCs, or I would raise difficulties to impossible levels when the players wanted to perform tasks that would lead them astray from the story I had in mind. Then something clicked. I realized not only what I was doing, but why. Better yet, I had an idea of how to achieve what I wanted from my experience as a GM with what my players needed from their experience as players.
To use the word of a fellow Montoya: “Let me explain. No there is too much, let me sum up.”
I wanted to tell the best story I could for my players. Most of the time I just let the story tell itself, but in those fantastic moments of inspiration, a plotline presents itself that just demands to be explored. Perhaps I get the idea that my player needs to find a mentor or teacher to learn a new skill or arcane power. In my moment of inspiration, I envision this teacher as a fisherman that lives on the banks of a river.
While on their journey, I present my players with a fork in the road, one leading to that river (and the mentor I so badly want to introduce) and the other leads deeper into the Forrest of No Mentors. Now, despite all the hints or subtle persuasions I give to entice my players along the river path, they all decide a stroll through the forest would be fun. So is my mentor story line cast aside for a series of random encounters? Hardly! I can just turn the wise old fisherman into a noble hunter! My players still felt like they had that freedom to make a decision, but I was still able to introduce that mentor.
The idea is simple–the more important the idea, character or story line is to the continuation of your story, the more vague it should be so that it can better fit into any unplanned or improvised situation. Or if your story demands a more established or defined element, plan out several avenues or story pathways to get there. This will give players the freedom to chose their path, and if all of them still lead to your next plot point, your story arc remains intact. Like it or not this is, essentially, railroading. There is an undeniable stigma attached to the term, but the idea is simply to keep the story moving and not watching your players burying themselves in the sandbox or blowing aimlessly in the wind of a setting with no story. I’ve made those mistakes as well and have developed a style that is a mixture of improvisational, planned out, sandbox and railroaded.
I was talking with a friend recently about railroading and I came up with this analogy: it’s like going to Disneyland when you’ve never been before. One of the first things you should do, besides getting that map, is to go on the monorail. It’s a train that takes you around the whole park along a track so you can see all the great things you’re about to experience.
It’s the same with introducing a new game or setting to your players; you have to railroad them for the first few sessions to introduce the setting, the primary challenges they’ll be facing and the important NPCs that will help or hinder them along the way. Once these aspects of the game are introduced then you can feel more confident in loosening the reins. Occasionally, you may have to repeat this process as you change the scope of the story or introduce new elements, but you should always give your players decisions to make and allow them to affect your world if you want them to continue to feel a part of it.
Alex Montoya
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