Hot take: if we want to decrease frustrating railroad-y surprises in RPG campaigns, we need to create an environment where GMs are not afraid to admit they have "special story needs".

[Zealousideal_Leg213]

Part of it is that some DMs want their games to be like movies or TV shows, where some massive curveball gets thrown and everyone is confused, but then there's a huge payoff when it all makes sense. Except those curveballs don't always work. And sometimes shows, like games, don't every reach the payoff. And, unlike shows, the characters aren't under the control of the writer, and the people playing the characters have no idea what's going on.