Train Wrecks on the Plot Railroad

[Dausuul]

To the gamemasters out there: In your experience, what are the most common ways players knock your storylines cockeyed?

For me, it's usually one of the following:

1. Players see something irrelevant but highly interesting, and decide to drop their current quest and go investigate. (Highly disruptive on a short-term basis but usually easy to recover from; when they get done investigating whatever it is, they go back to the plot, so all I have to do is whip up a dungeon on the fly.)

2. Players attack an NPC I expected them to talk to, or (actually more common) talk to an NPC I expected them to attack.

3. When the simplest, most sensible way to accomplish a given task is entirely obvious to anyone with half a brain, the players decide to perform the task in some totally different way, which happens to bypass all the obstacles I'd devised to make the simple and sensible way challenging.

[Saph]

4. Players decide that getting involved in the plot is too dangerous, so they go to the bar and get drunk instead.

Yup, seriously happened. I can't really complain - the players were roleplaying their characters, and I learnt my lesson. Now whenever I start up a game, I give players a set of character guidelines: "The adventure will revolve around the party doing x. You can play whatever character you like, as long as you have some kind of motivation to do x rather than wandering off and finding something else."

- Saph

[Winterwind]

5. Players find sufficiently logical arguments to convince NPCs to do things I did not anticipate, and which run contrary to my plans.

One famous instance was when a PC was being guest at a group of cultists actually directly opposed to his religion (but who had temporarily mistaken him for a prophet of their own), and my plan was actually to have the PC escape through a complex network of tunnels, with various important events happening down there. Instead, he managed to talk the cultists into attacking the neighbouring bandit town, so I completely scrapped my plans and instead of a chase through tunnels we had a huge-scale battle, with a few highly interesting (yet completely different than planned) things happening there.

[Nerd-o-rama]

6. Characters getting distracted by throwaway gags. Only really common in campaigns where the DM feels he can indulge his sense of humor, this is what happens when the players miss the joke.

[Winterwind]

Really, all of those are only a problem when you try and decide what the players are going to do beforehand (which can be done if you know the players really well).Problem? We have our first misunderstanding here - I do not consider that a problem, I consider it desirable and normal. It's absolutely obvious that everything will take a completely different turn than initially expected. And that's how it should be - otherwise, the PCs would be no protagonists, merely pawns.

However, the OP asked about ways how this comes to be, in other groups. So I gladly share my experiences on how this desirable result of players straying from the expected trail may come to pass. Where you got your idea this had any negative connotations is beyond me.

EDIT: Buh? And the post I was replying to has been deleted. Oh well. I think I'll leave this post nevertheless, for I find the above an important point.

[Dausuul]

Sorry if I've come across a bit snippy, but honestly it seems like your 'problems' are the guaranteed result of the way you've gone about it. If you can't or don't want to deal with random, unforseeable elements, write a book, it'll be more satisfying. Part of the thrill for me of DMing is seeing how things develop when multiple people are given the reins.

Don't recall saying these were "problems." I consider them more in the line of challenges; just as I try to present my players with interesting and unexpected obstacles to overcome, my players do the same for me. In my case, overcoming the obstacle means finding a way to keep the game moving with as much grace as possible when the players merrily toss my prep work out the window. :smallsmile:

This isn't a "help me solve my problems" thread. It's a "what sort of unexpected hijinks do your players get up to?" thread.

[John_D]

The PCs were gathering information about eeeevil goings on in a city street. One of them rolled a one. I said that the man he stopped walking down the street said "Um, I don't really know much. I don't live round here." The man was walking a dog. He proceeded to walk down the street and let himself into the house.

This was intended as a throwaway "ha ha you rolled a one" result. What I did not expect was for the PCs to embark on a campaign of harrassment against the poor dog-walker, culminating in breaking into his house while he was in the bath, knocking him unconscious and using his house as a temporary base of operations.

[Zincorium]

This isn't a "help me solve my problems" thread. It's a "what sort of unexpected hijinks do your players get up to?" thread.

Which is why I deleted my previous post, after reading how other people responded I decided I'd misinterpreted the point.

And I really don't have much else to say, given that I don't have players 'knock my storylines cockeyed' under the usual run of things.

[AKA_Bait]

7. Players decide to ignore all of the plot hooks in favor of talking to Bob the Turnip Farmer for an hour.

8. Players make an utterly suicidal decision in the first challenge of the adventure and retreat.

[martyboy74]

9. One of the wizarding players decides to experiment with Fly, and see just how high he can go. The rest of the session devolves into a Googling, Wikipediaing, MS Excelling fest to see how fast the character falls to the ground.

[Roog]

3. When the simplest, most sensible way to accomplish a given task is entirely obvious to anyone with half a brain, the players decide to perform the task in some totally different way, which happens to bypass all the obstacles I'd devised to make the simple and sensible way challenging.

Or

10. When the simplest, most sensible way to accomplish a given task is entirely obvious to anyone with half a brain, the GM has decided it the task should be performed in some totally different way, so the obvious action by the PCs happens to bypass all the obstacles the GM had set up to make the way challenging.

[Tallis]

11) the players take on a rescue mission, then kill the person they're supposed to be rescuing.

12) the players decide at the end of the session that they'll enter the lair of the evil cult. At the beginning of the next session they decide that's too dangerous and they're going to leave town instead.

[Shas aia Toriia]

13. The PC's join the group of Evil Cultists they're trying to thwart!

[Green Bean]

14. Make an important NPC eat a fireball. Literally. Happened once in a high-level game. Luckily, a chronomancer was experimenting a thousand miles away, which somehow erased our present, sending us back to before the sorcerer was an idiot. :smallbiggrin:

[goat]

What I did not expect was for the PCs to embark on a campaign of harrassment against the poor dog-walker, culminating in breaking into his house while he was in the bath, knocking him unconscious and using his house as a temporary base of operations.

So... no paladins in THAT party then?

Did they not even consider that maybe he was telling the truth? Just renting the house while he was passing through? Staying with a friend?

[de-trick]

15. a player stuck on charge and kill switch
16. when a DC5 is not made by the whole party
17. A bluff that a fair was in town, we went to find the fair, never found it :smallfrown:

[Hawriel]

I ruined a climactic fight at the end on episode of an adventure. This was in 2nd ed.

The party was attacking an orc warparty camp. It was lead by a giant.
On seeing the giant the party desides to strike right for the giant. Kill the leader and any shamans around, mop up the rest. It was supposed to be a tuff fight. I won highest initiative. being in range I made a called shot to the giants head. I critted it failed its save vs death. The orcs failed their moral check horribly, and ran. the Shaman was killed by round 3.

That pritty mutch some up how Ive killed the plot. by literally killing the plot when not supposed to.

[Kyle]

18. The players decide to physically attack a challange there's no way for them to beat. Despite your stressing the fact, in-game and out, that they're going to die if they go in swords swinging.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I ruined a climactic fight at the end on episode of an adventure. This was in 2nd ed.

The party was attacking an orc warparty camp. It was lead by a giant.
On seeing the giant the party desides to strike right for the giant. Kill the leader and any shamans around, mop up the rest. It was supposed to be a tuff fight. I won highest initiative. being in range I made a called shot to the giants head. I critted it failed its save vs death. The orcs failed their moral check horribly, and ran. the Shaman was killed by round 3.

That pritty mutch some up how Ive killed the plot. by literally killing the plot when not supposed to.
Ah, that's nothing. He was going to die in the next combat anyway, and you killed him in a suitably dramatic fashion. Just too easily.

Also, this is why Called Shots Are Bad.

[martyboy74]

Although not the player's fault...

19. When a plot critical NPC gets hit by an enemy that rolls a natural 20...then another...and another. When you're playing with auto-kill rules.

[DraPrime]

20. The party blows up a city with an important artifact that you meant for them to use.

[Xuincherguixe]

I like to let the players take the plot in the direction they want. Often train wrecks are more fun anyways ^_^

Any explosion you can walk away from was a good one.

[John_D]

So... no paladins in THAT party then?

Did they not even consider that maybe he was telling the truth? Just renting the house while he was passing through? Staying with a friend?

Nope, all CN and CE characters. At least they refrained from killing him. They also dumped all of their copper and silver pieces (deriding it as "small change") in various places around his house, so at least he had a nice surprise when he eventually awoke.

[Kurald Galain]

18) some of the PCs decide to do something outrageously stupid and prohibited, that gets them captured by the city guard, and they have to spend a month in jail.

[Greyen]

19) PC makes a ridiculously high save, or does something else to thwart capture that should have taken them down so they can be captured. Turning a simple "escape the insert bad situation" game into a hunt the BBEG game.

20)PC's get lost. Literally! They could not find their way out of a paper bag some days.

21)(This is a player action, maybe doesn't count.) PC who is plot necessay either does not show or dies in freak minor combat just before the next plot point.

[Kurald Galain]

20)PC's get lost. Literally! They could not find their way out of a paper bag some days.

Oh yeah. Players who don't know in which direction the sun rises, playing characters that have insufficient stats to know it either...

[captain_decadence]

In a Vampire the Masquerade game, the city my group was living in was being attacked by some kind of evil creature. We were supposed to fight a losing battle against it until we finally found a way to defeat the monster and save the city.

Instead we got in a car and drove away. Our storyteller ws not happy at all about this, but he couldn't really stop us.

[Stabby]

The first encounter with a reacurring villian, and everyone in the party rolled nat 20 after nat 20 with almost max damage. My brother (the DM) looked at the total damage, looked at his notes, looked at us and stated, "He exploded." Then proceded to tell us we were supposed to have run away.

[Runolfr]

22) Attacking things that are supposed to be too tough for them to defeat.

Anyone remember a 2nd Edition monster called a Stone Guardian? I had one in an old wizard's vacation home, guarding the entrance to his wizardly-studies area. If you'll recall, a special ring is made with each Stone Guardian that keeps it from attacking the wearer. I put the ring where I thought they would find it, expecting they would use it to bypass the guardian.

Well, they found the ring alright, but they were all so paranoid about the possibility of cursed items, that none of them had the guts to put it on. Consequently, it was in someone's backpack when they encountered the guardian, doing absolutely not good whatsoever. Also, the party thief had been shrunk to six inches tall by a magical trap earlier in the adventure.

The guardian attacked them as planned. I figured they would quickly realize they were overmatched and retreat. Since it was guarding the workshop entrance, it wouldn't follow them out of the room.

They didn't retreat. A Xena/Hercules-esque melee ensued. The guardian would attack whoever was most convenient, sending them flying across the room. One or two hits from it was sufficient to put about any of these low-level characters into negative hits, but the party cleric would run to whoever had just been knocked out to get them back on their feet. The thief, unable to inflict any real damage, did an admirable job of distracting the guardian whenever someone else needed to run for healing. The cleric ran out of spells after a few rounds, but the party had managed to inflict a surprising amount of damage on the guardian. The guardian continued to attack whoever presented an immediate threat (usually the last person to hit it) until everyone was down to just a few hits; so low that one more hit would drop any of them, with no heals left. At this point, the fighter with two warhammers managed to knock of the guardian's last hit points.

You just can't count on your PCs to be clever or subtle. Sometimes they just go for the "bash it until it gives up" approach.

[Winterwind]

You just can't count on your PCs to be clever or subtle. Sometimes they just go for the "bash it until it gives up" approach.I find that proper descriptions of the opponents in question help largely with this particular problem, provided one isn't prone to going too hyperbole with one's descriptions of weaker opponents.

[Afraidofsharpie]

Is it bad when as a DM you've caused your own game to go off the rails?

In a Urban/Fight the Power campaign I ran for some friends in a Homebrew setting the Face/Rogue was supposed to bluff the guards at a Guild House so she and her companions could get in and do some damage to some of the wares. Well that was the last time I stat out realistic guards. I had it in me to make a set of competent guards, which included max ranks in sense motive. One thing lead to another and now the party is being chased through the back allyways by three pissed off guards and two blood hounds. Some stupid actions on the party and more of my realistic guards later and the entire party is now trying to get out of Prison. So the game went from fighting against a world spanning guild to spending the next three sessions trying to get out of a prison which had been statted out for another game.

[Kurald Galain]

Is it bad when as a DM you've caused your own game to go off the rails?

No. Your game isn't supposed to be on rails to begin with.

[Tamburlaine]

how about: (in a game of mage) killing the BBEG to stop his eevil summoning
ritual, but then completing it themselves anyway.

[Quietus]

No. Your game isn't supposed to be on rails to begin with.

That's not true at all. All (well, most) games have rails of some sort. Some games just have more places those rails go. For example, a game where you've introduce the BBEG and the players KNOW that he's supposed to be an important baddy, you've set out a "go fight the BBEG" rail. The derogatory form of "railroading" is just when the DM forces you to follow a certain set of rails to get to that destination. A good DM will have the ability to handle any turns you make on the way there - or make something up for when you turn around and go the other direction.

[Winterwind]

how about: (in a game of mage) killing the BBEG to stop his eevil summoning
ritual, but then completing it themselves anyway.Wha...? :smallconfused:
That's hilarious! Misunderstanding, curiosity, or hunger for power? :smallbiggrin:

[Swooper]

23: Instead of running from the barbarian horde that was supposed to chase them into the ruined necropolis, they decide they won't be able to outrun them and stop, letting themselves get captured.

[Lord Tataraus]

That's not true at all. All (well, most) games have rails of some sort. Some games just have more places those rails go. For example, a game where you've introduce the BBEG and the players KNOW that he's supposed to be an important baddy, you've set out a "go fight the BBEG" rail. The derogatory form of "railroading" is just when the DM forces you to follow a certain set of rails to get to that destination. A good DM will have the ability to handle any turns you make on the way there - or make something up for when you turn around and go the other direction.

Exactly. A good DM is one that makes the players think that they're doing all the work moving the plot, but you have actually lead them along without them noticing. I was explaining this to my friend who is trying out DMing and he was shocked, he asked if that's what I've been doing the whole time! It was hilarious.

[Kurald Galain]

For example, a game where you've introduce the BBEG and the players KNOW that he's supposed to be an important baddy, you've set out a "go fight the BBEG" rail.

No. A good DM will also allow the player characters to run away, or join forces with the BBEG, if that's what they really want.

[Winterwind]

What a DM rather does is informing the players of things that need to be done. Whether they actually decide to do them or not, and how they proceed to do them, is up to the players then.

[Mike_Lemmer]

I don't like railroads. I imagine campaigns as a series of road through an otherwise-uncharted wilderness. Now give the PCs an ATV.

[John Campbell]

18. The players decide to physically attack a challange there's no way for them to beat. Despite your stressing the fact, in-game and out, that they're going to die if they go in swords swinging.

Last time a DM told a group I was in that we were totally overmatched by the big nasty he'd come up with, and he'd have no compunctions about letting it kill us all if we went straight at it, we spent half the session coming up with a Cunning Plan, which we totally botched even before contact with the enemy, so we just straight at it, and utterly obliterated it in three rounds flat, with no serious damage on our side. The DM was flabbergasted.


As a GM, I tend towards the sandbox style of game, so my storylines are pretty much impossible to derail in any meaningful sense. The trick with that style is getting the players motivated to do anything at all rather than keeping them from doing the "wrong" thing.

As a player, when I see a plot trainwreck, it's usually a result of the GM getting invested in the story they intend to tell without considering that the players might want to have some meaningful input on the matter. I've been guilty a couple of times of deliberately derailing the train just because I was sick of getting shuttled from station to station on the railroad, and wanted to actually play the game instead of just rolling dice at appropriate intervals. The usual result of that is either the most interesting part of the whole campaign, with the GM, unprepared, forced to react to decisions the players are making, or the GM saying, "Uh, I'm not prepared for that, let's stop here for tonight," and then picking up the next session with new rails laid to guide us back into the predetermined plot.

[PnP Fan]

X: PC's decide to do what any sane real world person would do when threatened by villains: Escape, report the villains to the authorities.

They would have walked away from the whole situation (werewolves snuck into Sharn from Xendrick), if the Silver Flame church hadn't convinced them that the church didn't have any significantly powerful individuals (maybe two or 3, but not enough to search a city the size of Sharn), and needed the PC's help. In this case, it resulted in the escape of one (or more) of the werewolves, because the PC's had the villains all in one place, and could have eradicated the problem right then and there. Instead they ran (good real world solution, especially if they had died/succumbed duringthe fight).

[Ravyn]

My group's a contradiction on terms. On the one hand, they break my plots pretty much every time they interact with the world--my personal favorite was when I was trying to seed the existence of an upcoming BBEG as something that they "may want to look into at some point" during the downtime, and one PC decided to investigate her--pretty much alone--and ended up getting himself and one of the more involved NPCs captured. On the other, I've had one of them tell me he thinks the group would be better off with a little more direction; then again, he probably just got sick of not being pushed back towards the group when I didn't have any good plans for him splitting off but didn't want to railroad him.

[Tamburlaine]

[quote/]Wha...?
That's hilarious! Misunderstanding, curiosity, or hunger for power?[quote]

heh, they pretty much did it by accident, the ritual was completed by stabbed a suitable vessel (a mage) in the summoning circle, and the evil mage was in the circle at the time, and they threw the martial arts guy with a sword at him. *stab* *whoops!*:smallamused:

[Mithhuan]

Instead of killing the orcs, goblins, kobolds, bugbears... the party captures them and turns them in to the local authorities. Then chastises them for mistreatment of the prisoners.

[Kyle]

Last time a DM told a group I was in that we were totally overmatched by the big nasty he'd come up with, and he'd have no compunctions about letting it kill us all if we went straight at it, we spent half the session coming up with a Cunning Plan, which we totally botched even before contact with the enemy, so we just straight at it, and utterly obliterated it in three rounds flat, with no serious damage on our side. The DM was flabbergasted.
The last time I told my players that, they weren't even really overmatched powerwise, they were simply in a bad position, and it resulted in a TPK. The PCs were on a mission to retrieve a book for one of the goodly churches--not even a magic book, just a book--and there were several other organizations interested in the tome as well.

The PCs managed to travel to the pirate island, secure the book, and arrange passage back to the city where the clergy they were hired by was located. They were staying in an Inn overnight, and I had one of the evil groups--clerics of trickster god--bust in on them in the middle of their sleep. A brief fight ensued with most of the villians being fought off in short order, though not without inflicting damage. One of the PCs had the bright idea to jump out the window and try and lead off the bad guys while the other characters escaped with the book.

Of course, he fumbled on his way out the window, which was a few stories up, and knocked himself into negative hitpoints from the falling damage, with no one around to heal him.

Rather than kill him outright, I decided that the evil clerics would find him, take him back to their lair, and send a messanger to the remaining PCs that the evil church would be willing to trade their friend for the book. My thought was that after they'd gotten their friend back, they could try and retrieve the book from the evil chruch at a later date, and it would add on to the adventure.

So, the rested and healed PCs went to the specified meeting spot, where the head of the evil chruch--who was only a level higher than themselves--and four other clerics were holding the captured PC, bound and gagged. The head evil dude demanded the book, and claimed he'd let the PCs all leave unmolested if he was given it, and sense motive checks revealed he was telling the truth. Still the PCs didn't like that idea so much, and demanded that their friend be released, or else they'd stomp the evil clerics.

The evil cleric gave them one last warning, letting them know he'd have no compunctions about slaying the captured PC right then and there unless he got what he wanted.

At this point I paused the game to strongly hint that the players would really be better off if they were to take the deal and try and get the book back at a later time. However, that wasn't heroic enough for them, so they charged.

The captured PC was coup de graced, and the rest didn't last much longer.

My attempts at letting the players know they didn't have a hope while we played Call of Cthulu worked out even worse.

[Dausuul]

My attempts at letting the players know they didn't have a hope while we played Call of Cthulu worked out even worse.

When you're playing Call of Cthulhu, that should really go without saying.

[....]

A bunch of players found out that several of the baddies (or who they thought were baddies) were going to be holed up in an inn for a secret meeting. The idea was they they spy/bust in on them and find out a major secret and go off to stop another BBED ect ect...

Instead one player goes, "Lots of evil in an inn with minimal innocents inside? Well, I have some vials of alchemist fire and know a guy who sells discount oil..."

A few minutes later the entire first floor of the inn was filled with gallons of oil and set ablaze. The structure burned to the ground, killing everyone inside and didn't just pause the story, it completely stopped the caimpaign.

[Dairun Cates]

24. The players magically decide that the man that's aiming a gun at them and shooting them is someone who should be handled "diplomatically".

25. Immediately after #24, the players decide that the "reoccurring villain" that they've encountered once before should be attacked and murdered despite him having a group in the room that overpowers them by a large margin, the only thing he did was challenge them to one fight, they already stole his netherworld, he doesn't actually want to fight because he's busy with other things, they're the ones currently robbing him, and they've pissed him off bad enough that he's holding a bomb over his head that will kill everyone within 60 feet instantly and collapse the building on anyone else if dropped.

Remember, kids. Sometimes people just aren't willing to take you bull**** no matter how charming you are.

[Jayabalard]

No. A good DM will also allow the player characters to run away, or join forces with the BBEG, if that's what they really want.
/shrug neither of those rails precludes the existence of any of the other rails.

one rail "go fight the BBEG"
one rail for "try to join forces with the BBEG"
one rail for "run away"

[Golthur]

When you're playing Call of Cthulhu, that should really go without saying.

That's not entirely true. You can let them have hope, so long as you completely and utterly destroy that hope at the appropriate time. :amused:

[Leicontis]

26: The PCs are craven cowards, and despite having numerous options of where to go that would be doable, sit in one place overplanning and cowering.

[nobodylovesyou4]

Exactly. A good DM is one that makes the players think that they're doing all the work moving the plot, but you have actually lead them along without them noticing. I was explaining this to my friend who is trying out DMing and he was shocked, he asked if that's what I've been doing the whole time! It was hilarious.

youre talking about me, arent you? how about i relate the time we kind of (sort of) screwed up your naval campaign.

so, we were in a battle with an enemy ship which we found out later that tataraus here had intended for us to commandeer. unfortunately, our "capn" (if he could be called that) fired a cannon and rolled triple 20's to hit, instantly exploding the other ship. whoopsy. it was cool, but it was also the only time we didnt want to roll triple 20's.

[Jarawara]

Definition of a good DM: "When a DM will also allow the player characters to run away, or join forces with the BBEG, if that's what they really want."

Definition of a bad game: "When a DM will also allow the player characters to run away, or join forces with the BBEG, if that's what they really want."

'Tis been true for as long as I've been playing. If the DM's got rails for us to train along on, then the game's got story. Once you let the players go off in any old direction, the game ceases to be fun, and becomes just random wandering about, killing things.

I'll take a little railroad over none at all, any day.

[Telvos]

I gave up on planning campaigns out a LONG time ago.

Basically, we sit down, everyone gets their characters ready, and then we're in the middle of something. It just goes from there.

That's just me, though. Some DM's can actually make a coherent campaign that people follow. I can't do that.

[Fhaolan]

I think the worst case of a train wreck on a plot railroad that I was involved in was many years ago. It was a store-bought module, but I can't really remember which. Another fellow was DMing, and I was playing a rather dim Fighter-type. Our party had a group name; 'Storm Front', and we lived up to it.

Right at the begining of the module the party wanders into town. We notice the ornate statue or fountain or something like that in the middle of the town square. Without skipping a beat, we walk up to it and tip it over.

Which solved the module quest without us even being aware of it.

Why did we do it? Because it was an over-described terrain feature. We had gotten used to store-bought modules, and knew that anything that had that long of a description had to be important.

There were several rules we had that were consistant across all modules at the time:

1) Overdescribed terrain feature = Go fiddle with it, it's important.
2) There's a glint in the fireplace = Look up, there's spiders on the ceiling.
3) There's a dead body in the middle of the room = it's infested with rot grubs.
4) Building with boarded up windows = Thieves guild
5) Helpless damsel alone on the road beset by bandits = sucubus/eryines/vampire/etc.

I think there used to be more, but I can't remember them all.

[illyrus]

Two events:
1. We were playing thru a game about cultists summoning some demon into the prime material plane. Throughout the adventure we had had an easy time defeating the cultists and we bust into the summoning room with them about a minute from completing the ritual. We tell them "that's okay, continue, we'll wait for you to summon your big bad demon" and sat down, content to see how tough Mr. Demon actually was. There was about a two minute pause from the DM, then he picked up the MM and picked the Balor as their choice of summon. We barely eeked out a victory on that one.

2. We were in a wizard's tower and had just defeated him. Suddenly cut scene mode is engaged and a few demons come in and "use their powers of pain" to immobilize us with plans to capture us and do whatever.
PC: Is there some sort of save to this effect?
DM: ... Yeah sure, a will save, go ahead and roll
PC: *rolls* I got a...
DM: You fail...
PC: Natural 20.
DM: ... Well you're on top of a tower with a 200 ft drop.
PC: I transform into a bird and fly out the window.
DM: No, they stop you.
PC: How, they all just spent their actions using the pain power on us?
DM: They just do.
PC: ...
DM: Hey look, do you want me to give you the illusion of control or are you just going to be willing to go along with this.
All the PCs: ...We'd rather you give us actual control.
DM: I'm trying to make a story here, in the story the PCs get captured.

We didn't finish that session or campaign.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Fhaolan: agreed. It's clear that WotC's adventure designers have spent far too much time playing old adventure games with their unusually emphasized terrain features.

When running a published module, I make an effort to spend a lot of time describing insignificant details. Often, this distracts the players with something useless, but they have short enough attention spans to wander back to the plot of their own accord, and it keeps them from correctly guessing which details are important.

[Bosh]

27. Hiring the goblins I had planned as enemy mooks as a cheap spy network.
28. Ambushing the BBEG with his pants down (literally) while at his mistress's place.
29. Meeting the NPC I planned to be their ally, insulting him, framing his brother, castrating his horse, getting him declared an outlaw, killing him and defrauding his newphew.
30. Convincing Erik Bloodaxe to show mercy.
31. Enjoying a legal battle over inheirtance carried out using medieval Icelandic law.
32. Going to the BBEG and asking him for work.
33. Embarking on a lasting fued with a local sheepherder.

I love my players :)

[Dervag]

No. A good DM will also allow the player characters to run away, or join forces with the BBEG, if that's what they really want.I think you misunderstand the nature of the rail in question.

These rails are not necessarily hyperexaggerated "the players must fight the dragon and the DM will concoct absurd rationales for why they can't leave the area or ignore the dragon or ally with the dragon." situations

They may well be more along the lines of having some kind of a plot planned out, such as a massive campaign in which heroes gradually amass power, dealing with rivals along the way, and ultimately save the land from the King of Ouch.

It is entirely possible for a good DM to have such a plan and to be seriously discommoded when it is broken by unexpected player action (such as the heroes joining the King of Ouch's army and subduing their homelands under his command).

[Runolfr]

They may well be more along the lines of having some kind of a plot planned out, such as a massive campaign in which heroes gradually amass power, dealing with rivals along the way, and ultimately save the land from the King of Ouch.

It is entirely possible for a good DM to have such a plan and to be seriously discommoded when it is broken by unexpected player action (such as the heroes joining the King of Ouch's army and subduing their homelands under his command).

You know, that's why I don't plan my campaigns around what the players do. I plan around what the villains and other NPCs want to do, then see how the players will react.

Session 1
PCs discover that the King of Ouch is invading the land with his army. Can't really miss that one. Mooks from his army make nuisances of themselves to the PCs (picking fights, insisting on searching or confiscating their stuff, etc.).

Session 2 (next week)
Something involving the King of Ouch and his army, depending on what the PCs decide to do about him.

If they decide to resist Ouch's invasion, great!
If they decide to assist Ouch's invasion? Maybe not my #1 expectation, but I'll roll with it.
If they decide to leave the area? Fine, just give them a fun time dodging Ouch's patrols, press gangs, etc. on their way.

[Tallis]

When the PCs must destroy the cubic gate to prevent the skycastle from falling on the city and killing a million people. They instead steal the cubic gate. How much xp are a million people worth anyway?
I admit I did it, but it did make for a fun evil campaign in the long run.