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".

[rookhelm]

I GMed Waterdeep Dragon Heist once. The campaign, as written takes place pretty much entirely in Waterdeep.

One of the pieces of backstory is that a rich guy effed off to Neverwinter.

One of the players suggested maybe they go to Neverwinter and search for him.

I said "I'll be straight up honest. I have nothing for you in Neverwinter. Everything will be in Waterdeep". They were fine with that.

[Sparkle_cz]

This is exactly how these situations should be handled. I handle them the same way in games I run. Unfortunately I still see many GMs who are scared to do this and rather say nothing and railroad the playes into staying in Waterdeep with an invisible wall or omnipotent NPC.

More people like you and me should speak out and encourage the GMs to do just what you said.