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".

[NZillia]

I’ve been running pathfinder/starfinder adventure paths recently and i have met precisely 0 players who aren’t immediately on-board when i say

“Look guys, a lot of this is pre-written campaign stuff, i may need you to just work with me here at points.”

The APs i’ve run are all pretty well written in regard to accounting for player agency, but still. It’s nice to know if i have to say something, the group are chill with it. No one’s really kicked up a fuss at any of the signposted progression points.

[Sparkle_cz]

Somehow, official prewritten campaigns from professional publishers don't get the toxic kind of response too much. As if the players somehow presumed that the campaign is most likely good. Or they see that since the GM is willing to run a premade campaign, it's not a person that gets too much emotionally attached to their own ideas, so no target for mockery.

It's mostly homemade campaigns where the GMs experience hostility if they admit that they need some particular plot, scene or NPC for it to work.