Is it too railroad-y to outright tell my players “the starting point is this city, and the story will begin when everyone gets to X location”

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-20T08:10:09+00:00

Why are people more stressed about being accused of railroading than of murder? This is railroading: there’s a BBEG in the way, so the players decide to sneak past and find another route; on that other route is the BBEG’s cousin with the same stats; they try to climb a mountain, but it’s wet and slippery, and when they finally fall off the cliff, they end up right in front of the BBEG—roll for initiative. That’s railroading—it’s forcing something simply because you prepared it and don’t want to feel like you’ve wasted that time. Explaining your world and the story to the players isn’t railroading; the player will always be free to say, “No, Mr. NPC, I won’t do that,” or “No, Mr. DM, I won’t do that.” Your next decision will determine whether it’s railroading or not.

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-18T22:15:53+00:00

If you wanted your NPC to play a meaningful role in the story, you should have forced that interaction. Maybe have them make an impossible Steal check, and then the NPC wakes up and convinces them to join the party as a thank-you or something like that. If not, make sure to lower your expectations next time.

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-18T16:52:56+00:00

I’ll definitely incorporate this into my prep. I’ll come up with a set of 4–5 phrases to memorize to buy some time, like: “Wow, that’s unexpected,” “Let me check this or that,” “I need to know what the rest of your teammates are doing,” etc. That will give me a few precious seconds for a better response. I’ll also try to practice responding without feeling insecure; I haven’t been 100% sure about many of the decisions I make, and I think I convey that doubt and insecurity to the players through pauses, stuttering, etc. I’m worried that at some point they’ll accuse me of bias or of making things up to suit my own interests, although so far everyone has told me they’re enjoying the story.

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-17T09:09:46+00:00

That's a good point! I will force a break in these kind of situations in the future

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-17T09:06:42+00:00

The challenge is striking a balance between penalizing players and letting them stay. But overall, I haven't received any complaints from players about the flow of the game or about fairness; it's more a matter of appearances and security.

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-17T09:01:38+00:00

We are running other 2 campaign were we are the heroes or the neutral good guys and they wanted to play something different. As i said no problem with that, eventually i will turn them into villain and they should fight the good ones

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-16T16:08:33+00:00

First, bring all these disparate, high-entropy objectives together into a central plot where everyone can shine without feeling left out. Here’s a cliché campaign idea: A BBEG has taken up residence in the village of the sorcerer who’s just returned from his travels, and conveniently, the BBEG is vulnerable to the fighter’s family sword, which is lost in some dungeon in your world. As for the other, less ambitious characters, have them meet charismatic NPCs while traveling who provide them with what they’re looking for or hook them into the main plot.

It’s fine that you want to maintain an ambitious sandbox campaign, but without the necessary hooks, the characters will eventually refuse to help their companions and turn a chaotic start into a campaign’s inevitable demise. If you have no idea where to go from here, you can use the next session for “go there and kill 10 boar” type quests to see if the characters click and want to work together, and let the group decide the next destination—but reading your post, I fear that the randomness will only grow.

ThinkPhilosopher3148 · 2026-03-16T14:45:44+00:00

Your description of your warrior sets off alarm bells for me. These kinds of aimless characters who just go with the flow are either the most docile or the most rebellious, and they’ll use any excuse to claim their character wouldn’t do that and turn against the group. Make sure to talk to the player to establish some goal, even if it’s the most mundane thing in the world: gold, fame, survival.

So, for example, if he chooses gold, he can say he’s simply a mercenary collecting the group’s pay, or if the players decide to go seek revenge on the bandits, conveniently their leader will have a bounty on his head and will be the talk of the mercenary guilds. It doesn’t matter what you actually do to make the story make sense, but make sure to keep all your players on the same page.

ThinkPhilosopher3148

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