Quick Links
You sit down to play yourDungeons & Dragonscampaign with your friends, but they’ve been in the starting location for two hours. You’ve been taught how to handle this through Reddit, online generators, and guides (perhapstheseguides…), you’re in your second hour, and they haven’t even moved their characters from the table. This is a problem. You want them to go to the Cave of Doom, but by the time they’re moving their characters out of the tavern, the party’s decided to explore the Meadow of Tranquility.
But you’ve only prepared the Cave! So, you narrate a red dragon swooping through, picking them up, and dropping them into the Cave of Doom. Your party’s put out, your players accuse you of ‘railroading,’ and you’re left wondering, “Wait, what did I do wrong?”
What Is Railroading?
Railroading is diverse anddefined differently from table to table.For instance, some people see railroading as a singular boulder being placed in a very narrow path, limiting access to an area.
Others see railroading in the form of NPCsdirecting characters from step to step on their quest without giving the players any agencyto decide what those steps might be. You may even find some people who define railroading asbeing told directly how your character behaves in a situation, or as certain NPCs havingplot armor.
None of these interpretations are entirely wrong, either!
In truth,railroading is used as an umbrella termto describegiving the players the illusion of choice while secretly (or, in some cases, obviously) offering none.The Dungeon Master forces their players to run along a particular path with no room for deviation, and the result is as the Dungeon Master intended. Whether or not you want to go to the Meadow of Tranquility, youwillend up in the Cave of Doom.
For a lot of players, this is frustrating. They may feel their creativity is being limited, and thecollaborative natureof the game is underminedin favor of a Dungeon Master’s total control over the narrative.In a lot of ways, it is. The players aren’t wrong. However, railroading is a common pitfall most new Dungeon Masters fall into, and, while bothersome, is nothing that can’t be fixed.
How To Avoid Railroading
So now that you know what the enigmatic railroad is, you can learn to avoid it. If you find yourself wanting your world to be more of a sandbox,there area couple of things you can do.
Don’t Overplan
The enemy of DMs everywhere is assuming that they have to be prepared for every little thing their players do. Not only is this an extraordinary amount of work for something you may only do once a week,but it’s alsoimpossible.Your players are human. They’ll get distracted by a shiny in-campaign thing or attach to Joe the Bartender.
What could help instead is torecognize what’s possible.Have a basic outline of each area, and have avague understandingof how things work,but don’t get specific.attempt to plan one session at a time, because a lot can change in a single session, and have little notes.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have an overarching plot or long-term goal, just accept thatat any point it could change.Have failsafe in place for what you think your campaign can’t survive without, but don’t run your campaign according to a rigid outline.
Get Flexible
Your players go to a forest, but you’ve planned for bandits to be on the road. No problem. They mightnot get to that encounter exactly, but you don’t have to give uphours of planning.You can still put that encounter in the forest!
You may find it helpful not to make certain encounters area-specific. Open your mind to what your players want to do and be prepared to move encounters around!
Your players willengage with it, or they won’t, which is what they’d have the option to do anyway. You can give them the choice to intervene, watch, or keep walking. Either way, this lets you move your story along, which will lead you to the next point…
Employ Consequences Often
Many times, DMs fall back on railroading because their players simply won’t move the story themselves. But you don’t have to worry.Dungeons & Dragons, at heart, is a game built on consequences.Your players make a decision, you hit them with a consequence.
Consequences don’t have to be bad. Many aren’t, and stressing that fact to your players can help move a story along. Sometimes, helping the elven ranger means the Emerald Enclave is willing to help you down the line, just as killing her might turn them against you.
By using consequences frequently, your story will feel more like a living, breathing thing andwill help you prepare for events in the storyrather than the campaign itself.
Let Players Guide The Story
Ask your playerswhat they want to do ahead of the sessionandtry to incorporate it in, when possible.Employliberal use of feedbackand ask them what parts of the story they want to see more or less of. A lot of the time, DMs may be afraid of their players derailing the story, but the simple fact is that if your group works with your playstyle, you should be able to trust them enough to align their campaign goals with yours.
Aside from that, be open to events and wishes that crop up within your story. Learning your players' draws and engaging with them is better than NOT knowing what they like and will follow!
How To Fix Railroading
So, you’ve already dropped them in the Cave of Doom. Maybe your players are upset about it, or maybe they haven’t realized it’s railroading yet. What do you do?
The good news is that if you’ve recognized the fact that you’re railroading your party, stopping it is easy. If the incident was recent, you may find it helpful to reach out to your party andask them if they’d be comfortable walking back the incidentor asking if they’d rather start where they wanted to go. If the event was further back, it may just be easier to acknowledge that it happened and move on.
If you have an NPC that’s been ordering the players this way and that,consider finding a way to write the NPC outso the players have to make decisions about their quests on their own. Start byintroducing choices(“Do you want to fight the orc or run? Or do you have something else in mind?") and follow through. Themost important part of fixing railroadingis thecommunicationyou havewith your players.
Some campaigns are more linear than others.Steps have been taken in communities of popular modules to expand the linear storytelling to be less railroad-y,but linear stories aren’t bad, nor are they necessarily railroading.Some players prefer more direction, and, as established,one man’s railroad is another man’s guideline.
Many of these campaigns are shorter in formand require some hard rules on the Dungeon Master’s part.For some tables, this works.Be sure your table is one of those if you want to explore this form of storytelling.
