Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
7 Golden Rules of Dungeon Master Etiquette
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9245584" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>To railroad or not to railroad. The classic debate.</p><p></p><p>Depends on the group. My beginner groups tend to like a very strong narrative direction. But I still always try to give options, and the current group is playing through <em>Lost Mine of Phandelver,</em> which offers a nice balance of a solid central story with plenty of side quests that give it a bit of sandbox flavour.</p><p></p><p>With my home group the story sort of evolves synergistically. I put out story threads, the players make choices or bring up stuff from their character's background, and one thing leads to another. Sometimes they wind up in a story that has a pretty clear through line, so I can prep a lot in advance. At other times, I am more reacting to them.</p><p></p><p>For example, a recent story arc involved the players arriving in a new town and making a deal to investigate a problem happening in a nearby village, near a swamp. This was just one of many available story hooks. It led to a violent encounter with a hag, and the party killed her pet Froghemoth and destroyed her home before working out that she actually wasn't really the villain of the situation. She escaped and threatened revenge unless they made up for the damage, which led to a series of quests for her that was pretty railroad-y.</p><p></p><p>So, that was a half dozen or so games worth of story that sprang out of a few decisions that the players made (to take that particular job, and to attack the hag without first figuring out the real issue). I had little to do with those choices, but once things were rolling the story had its own momentum. That's my preferred mode of play: player decisions driving the narrative, but the narrative having its own cohesion. I get there by giving my major NPCs their own goals and agendas, so that when the party encounters them, some outcomes are fairly predictable.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 9245584, member: 7035894"] To railroad or not to railroad. The classic debate. Depends on the group. My beginner groups tend to like a very strong narrative direction. But I still always try to give options, and the current group is playing through [I]Lost Mine of Phandelver,[/I] which offers a nice balance of a solid central story with plenty of side quests that give it a bit of sandbox flavour. With my home group the story sort of evolves synergistically. I put out story threads, the players make choices or bring up stuff from their character's background, and one thing leads to another. Sometimes they wind up in a story that has a pretty clear through line, so I can prep a lot in advance. At other times, I am more reacting to them. For example, a recent story arc involved the players arriving in a new town and making a deal to investigate a problem happening in a nearby village, near a swamp. This was just one of many available story hooks. It led to a violent encounter with a hag, and the party killed her pet Froghemoth and destroyed her home before working out that she actually wasn't really the villain of the situation. She escaped and threatened revenge unless they made up for the damage, which led to a series of quests for her that was pretty railroad-y. So, that was a half dozen or so games worth of story that sprang out of a few decisions that the players made (to take that particular job, and to attack the hag without first figuring out the real issue). I had little to do with those choices, but once things were rolling the story had its own momentum. That's my preferred mode of play: player decisions driving the narrative, but the narrative having its own cohesion. I get there by giving my major NPCs their own goals and agendas, so that when the party encounters them, some outcomes are fairly predictable. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
7 Golden Rules of Dungeon Master Etiquette
Top