Quote Originally Posted by Duff View Post
I don't generally like them because they slow the party from getting to the next part of the story and if they're level appropriate they hilight the level treadmill. It creates a big neon sign that the characters live in a world that is at their challenge rating. It's fine to take on quests and choose enemies at your level, but when random encounters and random terrain features like cliffs are also at you level that breaks immersion.
"Breaks immersion" will be a fairly subjective criticism, though I completely agree that prepared encounters are generally superior to random encounters.

As a player, I can be immersed in the Game, so to speak. The Game grants a certain expectation of balance, which means that sometimes *leaving* the Leveling Treadmill can break immersion (at least when "all things being equal" there is no narrative reason to deviate from the treadmill; this isn't a problem if the players are making an informed choice to engage threats above or below their intended CR).

I would posit this is why there are often so many online threads about monsters whose CR isn't really in line with where it should be on the treadmill. People lose immersion with the game when the game breaks.

But getting back to railroading and trolleys, leaving the Leveling Treadmill can sometimes be a Railroading Red Flag for players, indicating the GM has attempted to rig the encounter to some degree.