Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
Is it any wonder that I am extra cautious about taking actions that feel like railroading to me? This entire post is written presupposing that I must be running a railroad, based on nothing I actually said.
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Again, you are presupposing a railroad based on nothing.
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So in your opinion, a game where the GM doesn't have anything in mind and leaves it entirely up to the players to come up with a solution is *more* of a railroad than one in which the GM lays out several paths before the PCs and forces them to choose one?
If whatever the PCs try will work, that's a pure sandbox. As unappealing as a railroad in my view, but in any event that's pretty clearly not the case here.
But if one path is easier, why would the players not take it? Why would they deliberately choose a sub-optimal path?
If there is one unambiguously best path for the PCs to take in every situation...

that's a railroad. That's the definition of a railroad. This is the "nothing" that makes people "presuppose" a railroad: the apparent lack of understanding that there's any other way to run a game. Concealing from the PCs and players where the tracks are doesn't make it not a railroad. You now seem to be saying that you're offended that people are accusing you of railroading when you reduced the ambient light to a point where no one could possibly see the tracks so your players would stop saying such mean things, not realizing that "there are actual meaningful choices that aren't 'the right one' or 'one of the wrong ones'" is even a thing.