Biggest Mistakes of a DM?

[jiriku]

I can only guess that a lot of the players that complain about Railroads has never DMed a game. Most DM's have to get things ready before the game: looking up things, writing out things and making encounters and plots and NPCs and everything. Only a few DMs can sit down with just a black sheet of paper and a pencil and make an amazing adventure out of whatever random things the players say. All the other DM's have to plan things out ahead of time.

I hate railroads. I also have more than two decades of experience behind the DM screen. I am also fortunate enough to be one of those DMs who can sit down and make amazing adventures with no notice out of random stuff. But it took me years to learn to do that, and I sympathize with where you're coming from. I still invest a lot of preparation time when I can afford it; it makes my games better.

Let me try offering two analogies.

Being able to DM a railroady game is good. It is like knowing how to use a hammer. Being able to DM a sandbox game is also good. It is like knowing how to use a screwdriver. You are a better handyman, however, if you know how and when to use both tools to their fullest extent. Your complaint that sandbox games are boring and pointless is somewhat like the hammer-wielder who says "Screwdrivers are stupid. I tried to use a screwdriver to pound in some nails once, and it didn't work well at all." If you attempt projects that only use nails as fasteners and never screws, then it is no wonder that a screwdriver seems useless to you. Conversely, if you were to try to fasten screws by pounding them with your hammer, anyone who watches would think you a fool. A good DM uses artful, subtle railroading to manage a railroady campaign, and uses action-oriented, plot-driving sandboxing techniques to manage a sandbox campaign.

I learned calculus from a Columbian professor who taught us "kickapong", which means "give-and-take". In calculus, some problems cannot be solved. However, if you "give and take" by adding one to the equation and then immediately subtracting one, the problem becomes solvable, even though +1 -1 results in no net change. In D&D, this technique often goes by the name "yes, and" or "yes but". For example, if a player asks "is there a cleric in town who can cast remove curse?" and you say "no", then the problem is not solved. But if you say "yes, and getting his aid will involve xyz" or "yes, but he can't remove this curse for some reason, and speculates that you may need xyz", the players have the beginnings of a solution, even though both answers have the same immediate result (i.e. remove curse does not get cast at that exact moment in time). Great sandbox DMing is about learning to take "nothing" and turn it into "two steps forward and one step back" on the spur of the moment.

[atemu1234]

The problem, JP, is that you are failing to see the point. Railroading does happen (it is necessary on a certain level) but there's a fine line between telling them that a lich lives in a castle and that there's incentive to fight it (treasure, xp, phylactery to hold over it's head indefinitely, etc.) and telling them that they MUST go and kill the lich.

Reasonable people make reasonable players.

Another mistake you make is assuming that because everybody railroads means all railroading is equal. This is also wrong, and the line is generally drawn along the difference between allowing them to make a choice and having them live with it and having you make the action for them. You already run all the NPCs, why do you need to control the players too?

[RegalKain]

*newb*

How does one avoid railroading without having the pcs crap all over their prep? Multiple plot hooks, pick one or die in the woods?
All roads out of town lead to the same ogre camp? What if they found out it was South, and head North? Just toss random encounters at them?

It seems like the illusion of free will is key to a functional* game. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I've been wanting to DM for my friends (all newbs) for a while.
My thoughts are that it would be a sandbox game and thus, necessarily dangerous. That mountain? Red dragon lives there, does now, will when you're level 15. Stay away.

For example, starting in a town, coast on the east, a road going west, woods north and south.
Boarding a ship would result in it sinking and having an island adventure, woods would have previously mentioned ogres, and the road would have brigands. In town, prostitutes ended up dead.
No matter which way they leave town (or don't), they get an encounter, Or they jerk off for a few hours and I never waste my timing DMing for them again.
Once they made their choice, because I'm a lazy B, the other avenues are recycled, updated, and presented again at a later date.

Is that enough agency for you guys and is that a realistic expectation on my part?

As a DM who tries to avoid railroading a lot I can give you some tips. First make your players inaction have consequence. They didn't bite the bait and rescue the princess instead choosing to go and hunt random kobolds? When they return to town .Have the city folk dressed in black and everyone is mourning the princess' death. Want to take it further? Make the lord or lady who had originally asked blame them directly for her death. I've found this instills a sense of fear and importance in their actions sometimes give them a lose-lose scenario. What I mean by that is they have to choose one of two objectives knowing the one they do choose the other will fail I've had players diverge on a quest to hunt down and eliminate an NPC who killed another NPC they liked. Things like that get your players invested not only in your world but more important fly their characters.