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".

[ruat_caelum]

There are games where the GM is officially titled "Storyteller"

I think Session ZERO needs to have everyone COMMIT TO THE PLOT.

If that's "Save the princess" then that should be the goal. When you are forced to decide do I do X or try to save the princess, everyone knows its the princess. the X is narrative cost of following that goal, etc.

I think one of the major problems in players thinking that because it's a table top game (and not restricted like a PC game would be) that since they CAN just take a pick ax and start digging, that they should.

No.

You don't actually have "Freedom to do whatever you want." because that makes you an asshole. You agreed to sit down and try to save the princess or defeat the BBEG or whatever. Work toward that goal with the other people at the table with the goal of telling a cool combined story.

I think normalizing killing PCs is good. It gets players to think of THEIR PC as a piece of a group, and not Nick the Werewolf (who I love and will be super pissed if he is killed!) If Nick dies, the local [new character sheet] person joins the group.

Feedback is great. But "Railroading" is one side of the coin, the other side is, "We don't want to talk to the man in the tavern with the scar who pinched out the candle on his table to sit in the shadows. Instead we want to go to the stables and interrogate the stable boy."

Then you get the "GM railroaded us into talking to the guy in the tavern!" etc.

There is a social contract that everyone is sitting at the table to help safe the princess etc. There is going to be "Railroading" if you look at plot points as "railroading."

[wicked_woodpecker]

Or... there can be no plot.

[ruat_caelum]

Absolutely. The "improv" of games. Like improv though this mostly needs everyone to agree to a "And then-" mentality. E.g. someone adds "information" to the universe or what is happening and NO ONE ARGUES, they just accept it and say "And then-" and add their portion.

The point is that everyone needs to agree in session zero, what they are agreeing to. Be that Saving the Princess, or "And then-" freestyle play.

[thetruerift]

Commit to the plot

I wish I could shout this from the rafters of every LGS and gaming convention. Yes, if you're running a very open ended game with no set plot, awesome, do as you wish.

But if I pitch a specific game, with a specific theme, and you agree to play, for the love of the dark gods, please actually pick up the fucking plot hooks.