The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermTabletop term

Railroading

When a Game Master forces the story down a predetermined track regardless of players' choices, like a train that can only go one way. Usually a criticism, it describes blocked exits, invincible villains and plots that happen no matter what the characters do.

When a Game Master forces the story down a predetermined track regardless of players' choices, like a train that can only go one way. Usually a criticism, it describes blocked exits, invincible villains and plots that happen no matter what the characters do.

Quick answers

What does "Railroading" mean?
When a Game Master forces the story down a predetermined track regardless of players' choices, like a train that can only go one way. Usually a criticism, it describes blocked exits, invincible villains and plots that happen no matter what the characters do.

Nearby in the archive

Sandbox

General term

A game world the player explores freely, choosing goals rather than following a set plot. In tabletop play it describes a campaign where the referee prepares places and factions rather than a storyline; in video games it describes open worlds such as The Elder Scrolls or Minecraft.

Game Master

Tabletop term

The player who runs the game: describing the world, voicing every Non-player character, adjudicating rules and deciding what the dice mean. Different games give the role different names, such as Dungeon Master in D&D, Storyteller in Vampire: The Masquerade and Keeper in Call of Cthulhu. The role descends from the neutral umpire of refereed wargames.

Adventure module

Tabletop term1975

A prewritten adventure published for game masters to run: maps, room keys, monsters, treasure and a hook to get the party moving. Classic modules such as The Keep on the Borderlands and Tomb of Horrors taught a generation how to design dungeons.

Fudging

Tabletop term

When a Game Master secretly alters a die roll or a monster's statistics, usually to spare the party or keep the story on course. Whether it is kindness or cheating is one of the hobby's oldest arguments.

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