Railroading in DnD, in short, means that players’ choices in a game are narrowed down for them. Instead of near-complete freedom of choice, you get a storyline that resembles a train – you can either continue moving on already created tracks for you or stop.
However, there are many perspectives on DnD railroading because some view it as a fun killer. In contrast, others perceive it as something that can improve gameplay and amusement in general.
Read on for my take on why railroading is so controversial and when it can benefit the players and the DM simultaneously.
Railroading is a dirty word in DnD
Many people would agree that railroading isn’t allowed in DnD and that you shouldn’t play with the DM that limits your and your friend’s choices. But there’s more to this strategy than meets the eye.
First, let’s get the obvious things out of the way:
The apparent bad thing about limiting people’s choices in a role-playing game is making them feel like they aren’t participating as much and that someone else is actually playing their game for them.
Players can even feel personally attacked when alternatives in character-motivated stories are taken away from them. They aren’t influencing where the story goes, they can feel disconnected from the world inside the game where nothing is related to their actions, and they just don’t see any uniqueness to their campaign.
But for the DM, the efficiently planned homebrew storyline will be simple to follow, and he would be able to have some sort of scripted adventures.
Now, when this is out of the way, can railroading, in fact, be a good thing?
Good sides of railroading in DnD
A DM that is tricking players into doing a lot of his pre-planned actions will rarely be a great DM. Nevertheless, if you have played DnD for a while now, you were probably in a situation where the DM railroaded you and your party without even knowing it.
It really depends on how you manage it as the DM. For example, let’s say that you wished your new campaign took place in a medieval castle.
The terrible choice here would be to tell your players that they are starting somewhere outside the castle and then try to convince them or offer them one-way paths that will only take them to the castle.
Instead, simply tell them their starting point is the great hall in the medieval castle. That’s it. That way, we can say that you’ve railroaded them by defining their campaign, but they don’t feel like you’ve taken any choices away from them. This is essential.
Good railroading would create a set of circumstances that players can’t control but let them take their own course from that moment onward.
So, in the case of our castle scenario, you define that they are in a great hall, what NPCs are there, what items are there, etc., but they decide what to do with each element of the game.
In the end, the best and most efficient way to use DnD railroading is to set up things so that your players railroad themselves into your adventure.
Railroading and new players
Things can be daunting when you first start playing DnD as a player.
You must keep track of your character’s spells and abilities, the numbers that determine their major characteristics, the dice you use for them, and where it is on the character sheet.
Then there’s the character’s personality, which is entirely left up to you. If you’re not used to improvising, having no framework for your role-playing might be intimidating.
Railroading can help set up a structure for beginners, so they don’t have to get even more confused by the storyline. If you are still getting familiarized with the rules and concepts of DnD or maybe even like your story to be guided more than you like free wandering, speak up.
You never know. Maybe your whole party feels that they need to learn more about their character’s abilities and wish to join a full-on railroad experience.
Once you all “get on your feet” and feel like you are ready to partake more in the story, tell your DM that you wish to switch from the single-track system and that you want to start exploring new options.
Create an ambiance with railroading
When you are a DM to a party, you are really a certain kind of a god. You define many things, such as if the story will be scary, funny, nerve-wracking, or thrilling.
If you wish, you may railroad the narrative by establishing a bottleneck in player options, making the party feel helpless for a reason. For example, you tell them that their campaign starts in prison, and they are all shackled to cell walls.
Although their first phase would involve struggling just to break free and start using their character to the full extent, you can use this to heighten their sense of success once they ultimately escape.
Talk openly with your players
Because in the end, DnD railroading is a tool with which your players’ options are limited and pushes them to a world where they are adapting to the environment rather than creating it.
Now, you wouldn’t want to spoon-feed them their entire journey, but having certain on-the-rails moments might be effective for treating certain emotions and feelings. Sometimes putting boundaries on the freedom of the players and what they can do is just the thing that would make them love the open-world gameplay later on.
Be careful in administering it to your campaigns, though. Railroading is kind of like a potent drug; if you use it too much, it can kill the patient.
