A bus is the opposite of a railroad

[Someonelse]

This is what my players do when I run published modules.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...62/640/31b.gif

[Totema]

Well, they say that no plot survives contact with the PCs...

[Kid Jake]

That bus has a suspicious lack of flames to represent PCs, they must be playing subtle.

[Anonymouswizard]

That bus has a suspicious lack of flames to represent PCs, they must be playing subtle.

Well, you know, sometimes you must pretend to be an NPC.

Because then nobody will expect you when the city is burnt to the ground.

[Faily]

That gif perfectly summarizes how my group sometimes treat published adventure paths.

"Let loose a city of aboleths to take out another evil race? Pffft screw that."

[Eldan]

Mhm. I had a group like that. Kill them all and rule the ashes.

[DigoDragon]

I'm watching the pedestrians on the left and thinking "That must be the BBEG, waiting for the PCs to arrive and-- nope, they passed the baddies entirely for a different destination."

[Inevitability]

Mhm. I had a group like that. Kill them all and rule the ashes.

I have a group like that.

Group plays HotDQ. Group needs to rescue someone from a camp crawling with enemies.
Group, being a completely reasonable group, enacts their daring plan.
Set the camp on fire.
They even got away, thanks to crazy high stealth and bluff rolls (as well as the famous tactic of 'knock things out if they don't cooperate'). Together with the prisoner.

[the_david]

Okay, here's the thing. Whenever the group leaves the railroad, improvise.

Don't say no. If the players figure out a way to bypass that trap/puzzle/riddle in a way you couldn't have dreamed of you should reward them. (But never tell them this wasn't the real solution.)
Let them kill the bad guys. Don't plan recurring bad guys. Just use whatever your players didn't kill to haunt them again. There are also plenty of undead templates to go around. (The best example would be the group that send the BBEG's chopped off head to his followers. One raise dead later...)

[nedz]

Don't blame them, the solution is to never run published modules.

[jedipotter]

I would not mind hearing how your players ruin everything.

[YossarianLives]

In a adventure I ran recently the PCs were supposed to a city from evil invaders. Instead they decided to let the enemies take over the city, then became war profiteers by selling stolen alcohol to the invading army.

[golentan]

I would not mind hearing how your players ruin everything.

I think you mean make everything AWESOME!

"If you become a wall blocking my way...I'll drill a hole in you and blow you apart anytime! That is...my drill! "

Spoiler: Obligatory

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[Kol Korran]

"If you become a wall blocking my way...I'll drill a hole in you and blow you apart anytime! That is...my drill! "

A bit off topic, but that sentence sounds like one of my camp (Military camp) legends: In basic training there is an obstacle course. At the start of it there is a tall wall, which you need to jump on, pull yourself up, then swing your leg and lever yourself to he other side.

There was a soldier who was not an athlete, to say the least, and couldn't pass the wall. His officer told him that he won't get any leave until he passes the wall. So the guy tried it, again and again. He failed, and didn't go on leave. He practiced again, and started putting extra hours. He failed, and didn't go on leave. He then started spending near full nights at the thing, trying again and again, but to no avail.

Then came the night before the test prior to the next leave. So the guy went to the tools' tent, brought a 5 Kg hammer, and smashed a gaping hole of his size in the wall, shouting "No wall! No wall!" the commander was alerted, and he found him on the other side smoking a cigarette. The commander put a hand on his shoulder, smiled and said "You're going home."

[Comet]

Don't blame them, the solution is to never run published modules.

Nah, the solution is to only run published modules that don't suck.

I expect my players to get on that bus and drive it as fast and loud as they can. Thinking outside the box is pretty much the only way to win, since the scenarios I buy or design don't have simple, pre-written solutions included. I know it sounds unfair, but the players still manage to pull through almost every time. And even when they don't we have a hilarious story of valiant failure to remember.

[DigoDragon]

Don't blame them, the solution is to never run published modules.

Nah, the solution is to only run published modules that don't suck.

I've run many published modules, and the one thing I think they all have in common is that I must read them ahead of time and take notes on what ideas my players will likely come up with that the module doesn't think about. Rarely do they complete a module the way it's written.

[RolandDeschain]

I can't remember the last time I tried to run a published module. *shrugs*

Back when I did, I would tell the players, "If you don't want me 'railroading' your characters, don't 'truck' my module."

LoL...I could be convinced to substitute 'bus' for 'truck'.

I eventually gave up on published material for anything other than adventure hooks. 3.5 is wonderful for characters and hell on DMs(just my opinion, don't want to get into an argument).

[Milodiah]

Replace the bus with an angry man in power armor, and the traffic with a guard tower, and you have a pretty good idea of what happened in my last session.

The best part is the compound it was in had nothing to do with the plot. They decided they wanted to steal a plane instead of the overland slog I had planned for them. So they did.

[Someonelse]

I would not mind hearing how your players ruin everything.

I wish I had the time to count the ways...

Off the top of my head, I ran Tomb of Horrors last year as a side quest. They went and bought a herd of cattle and drove them into the dungeon.

I'm currently running a game set in Ptolus and there was a dungeon below the city accessed through a secret door in the sewers. Once they cleared the immediate area of bad guys they remodeled the dungeon entrance so that sewer water would flow down into the dungeon and fill it up with raw sewage.

[Jay R]

I was running a Flashing Blades campaign in which the PCs always left a wide trail of destruction.

Eventually Richelieu sent them on a tour of several missions throughout Europe. He was pleased with their success record, but preferred to have that level of carnage occur elsewhere than France.

"Send him, perhaps, on a mission of peace to England. The English live too dull a life."
-- Cardinal Richelieu, The Three Musketeers (1948 movie)