tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post862847640776199929..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Railroads and PolestarsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-80668425863758994202010-10-18T12:15:09.275-04:002010-10-18T12:15:09.275-04:00Con games are a whole other beast, probably meriti...Con games are a whole other beast, probably meriting their own post sometime, but that kind of underscores the idea that it's a technique. In some games and situations (like a convention) it's going to be a far better tool than it might be at a home campaign.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-5436980780612125402010-10-18T11:35:30.057-04:002010-10-18T11:35:30.057-04:00And yet... and yet... something like convention ga...And yet... and yet... something like convention game structure seems to leaves you very little room to not push and pull the levers towards the ideas you have. Putting someone in a world and then saying, "Go explore," pushes the inverse of creativity when you've got the constraints of time breathing down your neck. <br /><br />Where is the line between that and the ugly side of the rails?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-83052748838180140292010-10-15T16:51:51.446-04:002010-10-15T16:51:51.446-04:00Sorry about that.
Seems the Blogspot "Post ...Sorry about that. <br /><br />Seems the Blogspot "Post Too Big" code yells at you but publishes anyway. The deleted comments were successive edits.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06351653614478929571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-42455520859247886772010-10-15T16:49:18.818-04:002010-10-15T16:49:18.818-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06351653614478929571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-3676002927703482232010-10-15T16:48:07.744-04:002010-10-15T16:48:07.744-04:00Hmm.
Interesting post. One observation I have is...Hmm. <br /><br />Interesting post. One observation I have is that the term "railroad" is so often used by a certain kind of player for anything with an overarching goal; they simply want to sandbox every game they are in because to them the game is a series of loot-heavy dungeon dives with linking scenes in an inevitable inn.<br /><br />I run mostly Call of Cthulhu, a game which I always referred to as "highly goal oriented" until I became acquainted with the term "railroad" (while reading The DM of the Rings as it happens). <br /><br />Now, I've been called all kind of things by Angry Young Players when I say that just about every game of CofC is by their definition a railroad, but that in thirty years of gaming I've rarely been short of players and they rarely report having a bad time. By the AYP lights I should be reviled by one and all. I think most of them just assume I'm lying. <br /><br />Indeed, I ran a Savage Worlds;Realms of Cthulhu scenario at a local con recently, *and* a D20 Delta Green game, both of which were blatant railroads even by my loose definition of the term - there's only so much you can do in a four hour slot with an investigative game like this - and each game (6 players in each) ended with all but one person professing extreme satisfaction over four hours well spent. <br /><br />Said person was annoyed because her character had gone catatonic right at the start of the Boss Fight, not because she was being herded towards a goal by yours truly.<br /><br />All I did to allay the feeling of parallel steel was let the group move between the scenes as they liked in the SW game. In the D20 thing is it was even worse. I gave them a goal and a time limit, then had them progress through pre-written stand-alone vignettes that I had crafted with a high horror and/or weird factor. At the end of that one, three of the players begged to be allowed to see the notes so they could see what they'd missed while rattling along the tracks.<br /><br />Go figure.<br /><br />I think the perception that a goal/quest whatever is by its nature a railroad is one of the more toxic memes in the RPG world.<br /><br />Having said that I know exactly what a railroad is to me. It's the scene in a Conan game where I am standing with small fortune in spendable silver coins looking at an eight week road journey on foot as opposed to a leisurely trip down river, only to be confronted by a list of increasingly unbelievable reasons why a river trip cannot be had in a river port town from the GM. And no, I didn't like it one little bit.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06351653614478929571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-33810820160548449502010-10-15T15:38:34.957-04:002010-10-15T15:38:34.957-04:00On the subject of rules for a GM that make a great...On the subject of rules for a GM that make a great game...<br /><br />Obviously NO one rule or even small set of rules makes a great game. You can have a crumby time with a killer rippin' good system. I think that speaks to your comment on the GM's job (and gaming in general) as a creative endeavor.<br /><br />That seems to me to be the impetus for rules that control the GM's mechanical power level instead of the GM's narrative freedom. A distinct, predictable system for setting difficulties or building encounters instead of the GM's whim, for example.<br /><br />The intersection of mechanical budgets for GM power and creativity is an interesting thing to me. Even in ways that might be subtle, how often do such restrictions end up impacting the GM's creativity anyway?Paulhttp://podgecast.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-36977484573334206732010-10-15T15:15:23.250-04:002010-10-15T15:15:23.250-04:00I think it is basically important to expect the un...I think it is basically important to expect the unexpected and to plan for this. If you plan for unexpected events then your plan will be flexible but with deadlines and outcomes to be met.Eddiehttp://download.paddypowercasino.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-70374390394369374302010-10-15T12:01:47.478-04:002010-10-15T12:01:47.478-04:00The plot point campaign structure used in Savage W...The plot point campaign structure used in Savage Worlds resolves some of these issues. There is a throughline of interconnected adventures that advance the story with an assortment of various other Savage Tales (side adventures) that can be dropped in appropriately to flesh out and individualize a campaign. Admittedly, it's a tricky proposition to design an adventure/campaign setting that has a storyline, but does not feel forcedm yet has player buy in. It's essential that each player feels a real connection to what is going on, that the stakes matter, and that they (for good or ill) can affect real change in the story/campaign/plot point, etcetera.<br /><br />I've never heard anyone use the polestar analogy, but it's an apt one. Typically, I try to present a sandbox approach to settings akin to what's seen in a number of video games (such as some of the older Final Fantasy games) that have a progressive storyline, but variances that occur within. ME2, as you've pointed out, is a good example, as is Fallout 3. At their root, they both have very simple goals (Save the Universe and Find Your Father) respectively, but (you as) the player gets to create their own own unique adventures wholly contingent upon individual choice. The end result of the story is nearly the same (as it's impossible to account for all permutations of branch logic choices), but the journey shapes the story and makes it your own.Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07360933754143953059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-58521012923852544272010-10-15T11:50:29.036-04:002010-10-15T11:50:29.036-04:00I think the major problem with railroading as a de...I think the major problem with railroading as a descriptor of a bad game is that it is often a result of poor communication between the gamemaster and players. Both sides have different expectations of what they want from the game. Especially when the players feel helpless to alter what is happening (when this happens the situation gets worse as players try to break from the script).<br /><br />Players like the illusion of free will, even if there is actually no reality to it. When they don't get that illusion (just like in real life), sparks begin to fly.<br /><br />But most groups need some measure of direction. Otherwise they often find themselves immersed on a flat white featureless plain and suffer immediate writer's block. Even if you allow them to pencil in bits of the world (and own them) it still requires someone outside the ensemble to meld those disparate elements and provide the scene and direction. Which is why I find a theatrical metaphor of director much more appropriate for gamemastering than that of being an author. Or possibly a choirmaster trying to get everyone singing in harmony (and to get those ones who hide up the back of the choir a chance to be heard).<br /><br />Of course, it helps a lot if you have good actors/players that can improvise on the spot.<br /><br />[For me personally, I find the traditional idea of a party of adventurers to be a weird and unnatural thing. It's often a forced association, and as the power levels increase, the reasons for the association often break down. And things keep going because they have either discovered (or been forced to discover) new ties or simply, and far more likely, they continue to do so because this is what they have always done. And when the carriage is unnatural, even before you consider the rest of the railroad...]<br /><br />[Of course, the exception to this is single-shot adventures which implicitly have a reason for the players to be trapped together, but nothing to keep them together, after the problem is solved.]<br /><br />[And now you have me wondering what the I-word is.]Reverance Pavanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217657347160811310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-54246536087770639632010-10-15T11:10:56.267-04:002010-10-15T11:10:56.267-04:00...you need to redo the entire plan from that poin...<i>...you need to redo the entire plan from that point forward...</i><br /><br />Although a couple of consulting gigs I've been on the project managers insisted that the plan also be redone backwards as well, so that the current phase was "as always intended." <i><grin></i><br /><br />I thanked <i>Gods, Demigods, and Heroes</i> for enabling me to call this Project Epimethus. Although one manager asked me why I had named it after a moon of Saturn...Reverance Pavanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217657347160811310noreply@blogger.com