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View Full Version : How to avoid railroading while on a railroad?



The Pressman
2010-10-03, 12:08 AM
I'm running a game soon, and it involves the party being on a train. For a considerable amount of time.
However, it is a city-sized magical train run by halflings, so...
SOOOOO
How should I let them keep it fairly open-ended? I have various stops, and they have, earlier on, the opportunity to purchase an airship, so what else should I have that doesn't keep it too closed?

ffone
2010-10-03, 12:11 AM
Side-quests involving various goings-on in particular cars - other passengers who are quest-givers for these quests, etc. Looking for smuggled goods on board, discovering that there are kidnappees in one car (human/halfling slave trade), that one of the train's conductors in in cahoots with bandits to stop or redirect the train at a certain point, etc.

The Pressman
2010-10-03, 12:37 AM
Here's a rough sketch of what it looks like.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Q19DEjZxzCA/TKgWRSQMWlI/AAAAAAAAAjw/_vpVgXipSRA/s800/Top-1.jpg

Nick_mi
2010-10-03, 12:37 AM
Is this a metaphorical train because it almost seems like they're literally on a train. Anyways, I found some people like being on a train and will gladdly bite at any and all hooks you give them. People who don't want to be on a train will generally purposefully avoid obvious hooks, and then you just have to freefall it and let them go where they want to go.

The Pressman
2010-10-03, 12:40 AM
Is this a metaphorical train because it almost seems like they're literally on a train. Anyways, I found some people like being on a train and will gladdly bite at any and all hooks you give them. People who don't want to be on a train will generally purposefully avoid obvious hooks, and then you just have to freefall it and let them go where they want to go.

They are on a train. The thing on rails.
And yeah, I thought that that would happen, and I just wanted to see others' opinions.

Tiscooler
2010-10-03, 12:41 AM
If I was in your place, this is how I would handle the situation. Make the train huge. Say it was used as a high defense mobile military base, converted to a high luxury/high security/whatever you can imagine transport method. It was made to allow rapid response during wartime from the halflings, which is why it is so huge and people could get away with [insert quest scenarios] on the train, so large that the halflings could no longer manage all the compartments after its conversion, leaving nearly anything below the core, which is the magical support that holds the massive train together and lets it run, abandoned and unmanaged.

That description allows for pretty adaptable scenarios. You have an easy out to explain why ANYTHING is on the train, anything could have snuck on drilling through the walls, been hiding in one of the abandoned compartments, broke out of confinement, etc. This also allows for random encounters on the train should they enter the abandoned section, involving bandits, hobos, stowaways, giant rats, etc.

You also are given a number of easy to make scenarios: villain sent to assassinate a rich traveler, come to try to get ransom by kidnapping halflings, find X person or X object in the abandoned section, doing favors for the people in the aboveground, finding a small but successful enclave of people living in the lower reaches, villians of halflings sneaking on by breaking in from the bottom to destroy the halflings symbol of luxury/opression/success by blowing up the core, etc.

And, its pretty freeform, because if the complex is big enough and you give multiple methods of doing/preventing something, you have a viable, non-railroady, decently thought out area.

The Pressman
2010-10-03, 12:43 AM
If I was in your place, this is how I would handle the situation. Make the train huge. Say it was used as a high defense mobile military base, converted to a high luxury/high security/whatever you can imagine transport method. It was made to allow rapid response during wartime from the halflings, which is why it is so huge and people could get away with [insert quest scenarios] on the train, so large that the halflings could no longer manage all the compartments after its conversion, leaving nearly anything below the core, which is the magical support that holds the massive train together and lets it run, abandoned and unmanaged.

That description allows for pretty adaptable scenarios. You have an easy out to explain why ANYTHING is on the train, anything could have snuck on drilling through the walls, been hiding in one of the abandoned compartments, broke out of confinement, etc. This also allows for random encounters on the train should they enter the abandoned section, involving bandits, hobos, stowaways, giant rats, etc.

You also are given a number of easy to make scenarios: villain sent to assassinate a rich traveler, come to try to get ransom by kidnapping halflings, find X person or X object in the abandoned section, doing favors for the people in the aboveground, finding a small but successful enclave of people living in the lower reaches, villians of halflings sneaking on by breaking in from the bottom to destroy the halflings symbol of luxury/opression/success by blowing up the core, etc.

And, its pretty freeform, because if the complex is big enough and you give multiple methods of doing/preventing something, you have a viable, non-railroady, decently thought out area.

That...is pure genius. I will be definitely using some of those.

Kallisti
2010-10-03, 12:54 AM
If it's a train the size of a city? You can probably use any open-ended plots you could use in a city.

That said, yes, the various stops and destinations will be out of their hands. What they do when they get there, however...

The Pressman
2010-10-03, 01:48 AM
If it's a train the size of a city? You can probably use any open-ended plots you could use in a city.

That said, yes, the various stops and destinations will be out of their hands. What they do when they get there, however...

Ok. In that case, what are some basic guidelines for city adventures, if any?

Raum
2010-10-03, 12:31 PM
How should I let them keep it fairly open-ended? I have various stops, and they have, earlier on, the opportunity to purchase an airship, so what else should I have that doesn't keep it too closed?
Ok. In that case, what are some basic guidelines for city adventures, if any?Avoiding scripted play is simple...though not necessarily easy. You simply need to allow for players' choices. What players choose to do needs to have at least as much impact on the game as choices the GM makes for major NPCs.

One of the easier methods of accomplishing this is to plan NPC goals rather than planning events or encounters. An NPC with a goal to accomplish can be very flexible about adjusting actions (events / encounters) to meet current circumstances...even when those circumstances may have been radically altered by something the PCs chose to do.

To apply this, populate your train with NPCs who have goals. The example of an assassin above is a good one...if the PCs notice and stop the first attempt to set up an 'accident', the assassin will simply adjust tactics and try again. At least until he's caught. Now add a few more...

What goals does the stowaway have? Why did she hide on board? What is that rich businessman / noble doing on the train? Particularly in a public car... What about the staff? Are they law abiding workers? Or could they be smuggling something? Perhaps they're simply underpaid and easily bribe-able...which makes you wonder exactly what was that large bribe for...

:smallwink:

Urpriest
2010-10-03, 01:29 PM
Your train reminds me of China Mieville's Iron Council. In that vein, a strike on the train could get pretty epic.

The Big Dice
2010-10-04, 09:44 AM
Ok. In that case, what are some basic guidelines for city adventures, if any?

I always think in terms of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon for city-based adventures. Though six steps is usually too many, three or four works better.

The idea being, you're never more than three or four people away from the person/place/information/whatever that you need. Think of the second Matrix movie. Neo's chain of people goes from the Oracle to the Merovingian, Persephone, then the Keymaker and finally the Architecht.

The trick is to know who the characters need to see and what they need them for, but not to decide how they go about finding and contacting these people. That way the players have a large degre of control over their own actions, but the GM has control over how the NPcs react to the different approaches the PCs might take.