thread: 2011-09-08 : Trad vs Indie: FIGHT! pt2
On 2011-09-09, Joel wrote:
It strikes me that the conventional RPR scene tends to be a bit schizoid on the subject of "play to find out what happens." In my old conventional circles, EVERYONE was against "railroading." That was CLEARLY the mark of a bad GM and maybe even an abusive person.
But everyone had different ideas about what constituted railroading. The same person who in X's campaign would complain about being forced to do this or that or having options cut off would look you in the eye in their own campaign and clearly herd you into a predetermined situation.
My read, based purely on my own group, is that everyone agrees that railroading is sucky and disempowering for players, with a silent "...but of course you've got to control the story SOMEhow" appended on, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes strongly, sometimes mildly. So it's kind of hard to get to the bottom of that issue with any given player/GM without interrogating them pretty thoroughly on their whole body of techniques.
Peace,
-Joel
