D&D Railroading is Good Actually 

Plot twist this video is about the importance of public transportation 🚋

"Players play their characters like water, they seek the path of least resistance. However, what the players really want is to go through a path that's anything but a straight. So your role as a DM is to set up hurdles so that the players can follow that path of least resistance, and at the end, the shape is as satisfying and pleasing as possible." - Paraphrased from Brennan Lee Mulligan, on linear storytelling as a DM

I’ve been stressing about whether or not I’m railroading my players with my story, and I thought I was just covering up my restrictions by giving the illusion of choice. This video has helped me realize the difference between railroading and what I’m actually doing; telling a linear story. It’s a huge relief. Thank you, Mr. Demico. Thank you.

I have this strange dilemma where I always run linear storytelling, and get told by my players they don't like it because it's too sandbox.

The core agreement between Player and DM is basically "We will create a story together." Railroading is the DM going back on the deal while screaming "MY STORY MINE!!!" while Linear storytelling is the DM going "Ok for this story to unfold, this is the first plot point that the story must pass through. What's you're approach?"

The most fascinating linear story for me was definitely Brennan's calamity. I want to play DnD like THAT. But I don't even have a normal group so...

This was like therapy for me and my wife, who's currently DMing for us lol. She's always worried about "railroading" us, and it's completely unfounded. She's such a great storyteller, and we all love following her plothooks. This was exactly what we needed to watch!!!! 🙂 Thank you!!

I don't know if it was on propose, but I love that the railroading example's DM is so stupid that he goes out of its way inventing insane excuses to impede the players when they weren't even necessary because all of the villagers are already unable to escape because of the forcefield. Talk about tunnel visioning

"We can't be friends because I'm not friends with people who are wrong." I'm using this from here on.

Something that Brennan Lee Mulligan talked about in the Game Masters of Exandria video, is that in a game with plot objectives you need to have rails, but it sucks for those rails to come from the GM, so what he talked about was doing in depth character creations because what your players give you is what the rails become, therefore granting this full degree of player agency while still having those rails in place. In that same video, Abria talked about how there were moments where Brennan guided her along a certain scene, but it didn't feel like a railroad, rather he gave her prompts to do what her character would do, so when he says something she didn't go "Oh, I guess this is where the plot is going" she went "Yeah, you're right, I don't hear that prophecy, FUCK THIS TREE!"

As a first time DM, I learned this the hard way. I was planning my first campaign (two years ago) and grew obsessed with avoiding railroading at all costs. What happened was that I created a sandbox type campaign and it couldn't be shittier both for me and my group. In time, I evolved it to be a multi-branch linear campaign and things started flowing so much better.

This actually puts a few things into perspective. I like choices and consequences and I have been led to believe that sandboxes are my type of game. There was just one tiny problem with the genre; I rarely ever finished them, and the reasons are becoming more obvious. 1) I need goals to keep me interested. 2) I'm prone to choice paralysis. There have been times where my inability to decide what I wanted killed my interest in the game. It's the reason why I can never play Minecraft (or any other sandbox) for too long. Some people can make their goals and enjoy games that way, whereas I prefer having a narrative to follow. I don't know if I have some kind of ADHD, but I am more likely to enjoy and finish a linear game than non-linear one. And now I know why. I thought sandbox was the solution... but I was wrong. Linear with choices is the soft spot for me.

Seriously who are you man. The amount of good will, free stuff and love you put out into the community is next level. Thanks so much for all your work. :-)

I 100% feel like a DND campaign feels empty without a main plot!

As a new DM I knew this way of Dming was the one that I liked (and now my players are enjoying) but always read about how bad "railroading" was. I'm so happy to saw one of my favorites youtubers validate my DM style (not that it was neccesary but is really neat).

I’m happy that you brought up how stories can be linear, non linear, and sandbox at different times. It’s a tactic that I use a lot. In one campaign, the party started off on a pretty linear path, and once they got to the shadow king, he told them to go get stronger and come back for their next job once they have more skill and magic items. So now the players have to go around and find out where magic items are and the campaign turned into non-linear as they scoured the land for any ancient tombs or desecrated temples. I had stuff pre prepared, but they could get the items in any order they chose. In the next campaign I am running, the party is going to be plopped into a new strange world after a very brief (like 2 encounters) linear section. They will go on sandboxing for a level or two, and then will be noticed by the local factions, at which point it will turn into linear or non-linear (idk I don’t plan that far in advance) as they are introduced to the politics of the world and hints of the BBEG acting in the background (they will originally not appear important, as the factions they interact with do not know of the BBEG’s significance yet and are too busy politicking to notice a cult worshiping a dead witch king grow within their lands)

I love a good train themed campaign

Yeah, I remember Brennan Lee Mulligan talking about this in his round table with Matt and Aabria. He likened it to irrigating a field, when the water wants to go in a straight line while the farmers want an appealing vista. The ‘story’ or ‘plot’ wants the path of least resistance, whereas the players want complex paths that the story would have to fight in its current form, meaning you as the architect must design a path to please both. “You made the shape of a story, while trying to make it anything but.

As someone who has recently started branching out into different systems (GOD I love you Blades in the Dark), D&D really *does* require a lot more railroading compared to certain other rules-light systems, mostly because of DM preparation. When I'm DMing D&D, I need to have a *lot* of stuff prepared. I usually need battlemaps, if I want the party to fight certain enemies I'm gonna need a stat block for that enemy, I need to have a general idea of what they can *do* in this town, because all the scene-setting work in D&D is on you, the DM. If my players just decide "nah, we don't wanna help the goblins of the ancient forest this session, we're gonna head to that town south of the forest" and I didn't think to have at least *something* for that, I'm SoL and I need to either prep interesting things *real* quick or prepare for a very flat and uninteresting session. With Blades, I do not need to do this. Blades is *meant* to be more sandboxy, which means that everything is set up so that I basically have to do no prep. There are no stat blocks (player rolls solve both the enemy and their actions, and they change depending on a bunch of factors), there is no over-arching plot you need to stick to, there's just a system of factions and a way for the players to find jobs to do *in the system*. You really don't need to plan these jobs at all, because Blades forgoes planning *even in game* and has characters retroactively plan their job through flashbacks when necessary. When comparing Blades and D&D, it becomes *abundantly* clear just how much of D&D's session-to-session play is reliant on the GM at least 'trailroading' the players, showing them the path to follow and hoping to god they aren't just gonna be contrarian jerks and do something else. Blades, as a system, uses none of this, and requires the players to find their own fun in the world - that's not objectively *better*, mind you, but it's an example of how there *are* systems for non-linear, sandbox storytelling, and D&D just isn't it.

I'm glad you pointed out the choice paralysis aspect. I as a DM can easily get too excited coming up with stuff like that and I regularly get disappointed once it's actually in front of the players because by overloading them with choices and information I didn't actually communicate clearly what the consequences of those choices are, or the players spend way to long deciding amongst themselves what to do because they feel like I've given them a test with a multiple choice question and only one correct choice.

I feel like this was a long way to say something like "if you want to play Curse of Strahd, you HAVE to go to Barovia," I heard that on Crispy's Tavern and he is a DM that prefers running linear games with tough combat so he often has alot to say when reading dnd horror stories that involve DMs getting accused of railroading when all they were doing was running a linear game. Still cool to hear a breakdown of these three narrative structures

Hat; don't burnout from all the content. Take your time. We'll be here to enjoy it and support you!

I played all of the Dragon Age games + the DLCs for the first time this year and blew my mind how much agency the player has. Even decisions from past games effect the newer ones.

Final Fantasy VI and VII were beautiful examples of linear stories with lots of player choices throughout, including eventually sandbox world explorations.

I've been using a lot of Linear Storytelling in my games recently. I've essentially broken it up into small, seemingly unconnected stories that are slowly building into something greater. These stories are short/small enough that they only take 2-3 sessions at most, but are also simple enough that player's still have agency on how to progress. So far it's working out pretty well. I just gotta get past the BBG that is "Scheduling Issues".

Never played D&D but here iam devouring all these videos.

I love linear story RPGs as the choices they offer are more meaningful within the context of the story and player character. There feels like a direction and purppse to them.

I think railroading works better when you don't ask your players open ended "What do you want to do?" and ask more guiding questions like "You stand outside the necromancer tower, how did you prepare for this?". Talking while even scheduling a game "I'm excited about this dungeon crawl I made". I've found myself with anxiety players, so providing them a syllabus with what we're doing and what I need from them helps a lot to get them confident in the game. And even without anxiety players, I'll ask at the end of the previous session "What mission would you like next?" or "what landmark on the hexmap would you like to head towards next session" and then have a week to craft a heist or pre roll some random travel tables or maybe even grab a couple props from the dollar store to hand out. The main thing being to communicate with the players where their choices lay, which can be less about where they go and more about how they approach.

Honestly this is one of the best videos that explains the difference between linear storytelling and railroading. Thanks once again for a stellar vid!

I'm a first time Game Master for my group and I've found myself waiting up for your videos because they are simply amazing and the information is PRICELESS. I was in the middle of tormenting myself with my last minute game prep when this video released and they're all so good!!!

I find this stuff really interesting. Personally I run mostly nonlinear/sandbox styles, but I absolutely recognize the value of linear games and do enjoy them. I also think it's a lot easier to prep for, as sandbox games can end up feeling like a loosely connected series of random encounters. And while that works wonders in some places, like in exploration or survival-style games, if you're trying to run an epic story-heavy campaign, it simply will never serve your needs

Story from the first campaign I ran. I made a mystery plot but after listening to people saying how railroading was bad I didn't put anything to send them towards the foreshadowing for the ending and they ended up skipping all of it because I didn't try hard enough to expose them to it. The ending twist completely fell flat and none of the players cared (It was also a problem of not learning what kind of campaign the table wanted and since I have made sessions more towards their interest with a small amount of railroaded foreshadowing for the twists and intrigue I like in storytelling to create a game everyone on the table enjoys)

How to get people to click your video without clickbait 101

In my experience, it is much more difficult to prepare for complete sandbox games and even in nonlinear stories it is harder to prepare dramatic events and foreshadowing the things properly. It is difficult as character arcs are often interrupted or interchanged with other plots. Players sometimes forget the cool things and naturally after 24 weeks break, some of the passion is lost in time and will need to be refreshed. That is how feelings work. Linear stories with choices aplenty is best for almost all tables in my experience. But I love monster of the week stuff too for a change of pace but my favorite is deep and dramatic long campaigns. I am a sucker for that and they are simply usually mostly linear. There might be sandboxy parts but the main narrative and story is linear.

As a first time DM I told my players I was running a guided story (Candlekeep Mysteries) and if they wanted to play they would have to go along with the adventure prompts. To me, this means if the plot requires them to help a King, they will accept the quest and in doing so start the adventure. How they go about the quest and the outcome of the quest will depend on their creativity and actions. Running an entirely open sandbox world where you can do very little planning and have to react and improvise to every players whims sounds like an exhausting nightmare! How do you get to be creative? How do you introduce engaging NPC’s and challenge your players growth and development? Great work as always Pointy Hat! Thanks for giving us this tip! 🙏🏻

I'm currently running my first homebrew campaign and let me tell you, linear storytelling has done wondors for me. It makes things very easy to track for both me and my players (who are also new) and let's me guide them towards significant choices I have planned in the story we are telling. Making them feel like they're contributing to and making a difference in the story while also allowing me to prepare for whatever they choose to do ahead of time. All in all it's still really enjoyable for everyone and makes DMing alot less of a headache than I was anticipating :)

100% this. They are so much easier to guide, cater, and push things along. The characters having their joined stories and objectives along a major path and toward the next event is so powerful. Look at stories like Avatar, One Piece, Pokemon Legends Arceus, and Xenoblade. They are all linear with sequential wide open sections that make them freeing. Keeping in enough linearity also helps the feeling of the GM as a *director* and moderator, helping provide the best aspects and moments catered to the players and characters. So yeah I’m a big fan of this hybrid model of sequential narrative openness. They come in knowing where they are and where they’re going and what they generally want to do, with the story, choice, and action being based on *how* all of that happens.

I am constantly impressed by all of the media examples you use in these videos to support your points. It’s so fun to see the clips and art that help get the message across. The first thing that came to mind with video games that mix linear and non-linear are the type with a main quest line and lots of side quests. Playing Assassin’s Creed where I can either progress the plot or go around beating up the towns and cities really made me enjoy the game.

As I’m doing more one-shots recently, linear storytelling is my go to. I will often do a non-linear in the vein of “you got X places to go (and yeah, they will have more concise plots when you get there), but which do you want first?” Very much in the vein of the first Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. But why am I not in the trenches with you? Idk. I guess I’m not at the front. Just one of the fellas at home while you save the day!

Seeing as the entire point of playing D&D is to have fun, I think maintaining a certain minimum degree of linearity in every campaign is essential, because being the main characters in the sequential plot of an awesome story is fun. Wandering around aimlessly and doing random crap can also be fun sometimes, but that isn't exactly how most stories go, and for good reason. The key point is to let the players decide how they want to respond to any given event. As long as they always have at least a couple options and the freedom to propose new ones (even if they're really stupid), then it's fine.

So long as the players & DM can have fun it doesn't matter what storytelling method you use , and you can even mix and match .

I have discovered you a few days ago and I'm already running out of your content. You and that familiar of yours are amazing. Keep up an amazing work! Your arts and illustrations are wonderful. Especially, the hat (you). All these expressions are so cute, and all the puns and jokes are just as good as everything else. I hope one day I'll see 500k and then a 1m (and beyond) subscribers here!

Hearing pointyhat talk about games like dragon age and their linear (with choice) storytelling along with his general fondness of dnd makes me wonder what he feels about Owlcat's Pathfinder game. I'd also like to add that I highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't played them; especially because they're on sale.

When I studied games design at university everyone would always argue that a linear narrative stripped players of their agency and I could never succinctly respond to them about how WRONG they were, but now I'll just send people this video! I love a good linear narrative, I love leaving breadcrumbs for people to follow in stories, and I also love people to feel like they have a choice and make an impact on the story. I ESPECIALLY love when all these things happen at the SAME TIME 👍

One on traps and puzzles would be nice.

Sometimes yes definitely but in many campaigns, especially with a large place should have many quest starts and stuff

6:00 No way you just referenced Sid Meier's Pirates haha! As if I couldn't love this channel more!!

Unrelated to my previous comment; I'm mostly a GM (by choice at this point), and I love more off the head style gming. Improving situations for me is always really fun so I'm more sandboxy by nature. But I do like having little quests in there to be side beats or even something to take over a campaign. Making rivals and factions that just kinda do their own thing is my jam and when it leads into a story? That's the best

Weirdly enough, one of my gripes with Inquisition is that I wish the areas quest arcs had a proper end point so that I knew when I finished an area.

I think one of the important things to remember is that even when you use linear storytelling, you don't have to make it feel linear to the players. For example, they may have three different NPCs they can reach out to for help. All three NPCs might suggest the same solution. You might THINK the noble, the thief and the clergy would have all given you different paths to tackle the problem, but it doesn't mean they would have. This is linear, but the players still have choice in how they approach the problem. It might even change some of the details of what happens or why, but it could lead to the same situation, the same puzzle, the same combat, etc. The one really big thing to avoid is making the players feel like they don't have any choice. In highly-linear story situations, it's important to both discuss the linearity of the campaign with the players, but also to ensure that their characters are sufficiently motivated so that the linear path would definitely be the one they take. A discharged knight of the kingdom who seeks to earn back her rank will take up arms to defend the cities and villages, especially if those in office can't. The sorcerer whose brother was killed by the BBEG will stop at nothing to get revenge. The Life cleric must purge the undead menace because the BBEG is a necromancer. They stole something from the Rogue and now the rogue has to defeat them and get it back or they can never return to their order. If a player's character does not have a baked-in reason to be motivated to tackle the campaign and follow the adventurer's path, then it's the player's responsibility to figure out why they're motivated, even if it's just that they're really chill with whatever and like these random goobers they met.

My best campaign experiences as a DM, homebrew or official module, has been through linear storytelling. Specifically, I go by a consequence system, with "consequence" being morally neutral. There's the overall storyline happening around the players, and there are hooks dangled in front of them to participate in them, but my players have the agency to do anything they want (which is 90% of our content). If they don't take the hooks, stuff happens even without them there, affecting what they encounter later. Everyone loves it, and it feels like true RP. Wonderful video, keep it up!

NGL I think I needed to see this video. I’ve been putting together my next campaign with some new players and I’ve been trying to find the best storytelling method and talking myself out of doing linear storytelling because it feels “Railroady” meanwhile all of my other games have struggled from a lack of direction and purpose. So thanks, I was leaning this way and now you’ve affirmed the truth. Here’s to great campaigns!

Most Refreshing D&D RU-vidr I've found. Love your stuff!

I TOOK THE FIRST STEPS TO GET INTO DND! I got the players hand book and going over it and will eventually make my character. I'm def going to review some of your character videos to give me an idea. I've been wanting to get into DND forever and you definitely sparked a lot more interest thanks to your amazing and funny vids. Congrats on your channel's speedy progress, I was here before 1mil, and will be here long after.

I run a somewhat loose dnd game with my girlfriend, which is really more roleplay than it is game. Our game is very non linear, even sandboxy at times, several characters have different goals that they do want to achieve, but the overarching goal of the game is simply to get strong enough to actually achieve those goals. The party is united simply by being good friends and really wanting to help each other out. I think that’s a fun way to run a non linear or sandbox game, the plot doesn’t always have to be moving, but the story always is as the characters are allowed to simply interact with each other. I see some games, I’m even in one, where the player characters don’t really interact, things are played more like a game, which is fine of course, but doesn’t get me as invested since the bard kinda just wins in any social scenario, whether or not it’s progressing the plot.

Thank you for this! I (A new DM) recently ran a game where I was worried I was railroading my players, when in actuality it was just linear.

I've always just used railroading more like that older meaning, I didn't even know the meaning had changed I thought people were just using it wrong.

Ah, yes the "Linear = bad" phase video games went through. Right up there with "Boss Fights = bad" and "Japanese =bad". Good times.

Me and the other DMs in our group (I know, our group has 3 DMs, we are blessed), we have a routine whereby in between archs/quests we will have a role play heavy session or two where the party recovers from the last quest line and figure out information for what to do next. During these sessions we are given two or three choices and we choose which direction we want to go, therefore starting a new linear quest. I love this model. It provides change, choice, and player agency, while then giving the DM direction for the future sessions.

I like balancing linear and non-linear by having time baked into the campaign that functions as down time of sorts. So Linear event 1 and 2 happens, then there's time for side quests a, b, and c, or screwing around for a little, waiting for Linear Event 3 to happen. Generally I have side quests feed back towards the overarching linear story in some way. Taking a campaign I'm currently running at the moment as an example: The party was brought in to explore an unknown world, meet locals, and try to discover as much as possible about the history of the world. First Linear Event, securing a small base of operations on a somewhat large centralized island and the area around it. During that, the party ran into some locals that had an important relic stolen from them. Recovery of that relic was the Second Linear Event. After recovering the Relic, the locals offered to provide safe transport to any of the three continents. This is the first place the party had a big choice, of where to go. I gave the players all of the info they'd need to decide early, so they already knew where they wanted to go when it came time to pick. After getting to where they wanted to go, there was a short introduction to the local climate and the party was prompted to register with the local Guild to accept any work. From there, the party was given three optional quests to pick from. All three gave "rewards" pertaining to the overarching story, and after completing two of them the party found themselves in the middle of the Third Linear Event. From there, a somewhat longer chain of events are happening that will eventually lead to some downtime during a local festival. During this, there will be another set of side quests made available all of which will feed into the overarching story in some way. I made sure that the side quests help advance the main plot too. One side quest was clearing out a mine, one was helping secure a traveler's outpost, one was helping a local merchant protect an important shipment. The mine was going to have a key for a plot important location, securing the traveler's outpost was going to put the party in contact with someone who could help trace down plot important relics, and the merchant historian was going to provide easy access to local languages as well as a trove of historical texts on this region. This also can mean that, in campaigns where a player intentionally wants to take some down time to save money on getting supplies (like making your own scrolls, wands, potions, etc) you can easily allow them to do it and sprinkle in some little adventures around town that wouldn't interfere with their main focus. Or if they want to explore in some random direction instead, they're free to do so! I just be sure to write the next Linear Event in a way where it can happen in a different town if needed, and the plot important location (like a specific cave) can instead be near that other town instead.

Sabía que eras español, pero para nada me esperaba que vivieses en Tenerife, saludos desde Lanzarote. Disfruto mucho de tus vídeos, sigue así. Sobretodo por tu increíble nivel de inglés, tengo curiosidad ya que voy a estudiar filología inglesa, tú también lo has estudiado o simplemente has vivido anteriormente en un entorno en el que se hable mucho inglés?

As a DM who very much prefers linear storytelling, this is really uplifting. SO MUCH bad feels from all the people attacking that style of play, this is great. Thanks

No way ! I left Santa Cruz de Tenerife almost one year ago... I used to live right in front Comics y Mazmorras... as a not-so-good spanish speaker I struggled so much to find english speaking players... if only I knew !! Great work, by the way ! It also feels good to see another fellow GM defending linear Storytelling :) Especially that from the adventurers' perspective, in my opinion, it HAS to feel linear. First, because it's easier for them to recall and tell, "we did this and then this happened, but we faced that thing so this happened" instead of just a bunch of "AND"s with nothing more to connect all the events; second, if you choose to do A first instead of B showing the consequences of that choice feels way more compelling and gives a sense of urgency and actual high stakes. Accounting for multiple choices, and planning ahead for the consequences (and then coming up with new ones on the spot because your players never do as you expect) is still not a sandbox, nor it is non-linear storytelling...the whole challenge here is to make them feel and craft their own story with their choices... and let them live with the aftermath 😈

I love your content! Thanks for putting so much effort in to keeping the hobby space positive and wonderful!

As always, great content my dude! I definitely also hate railroading and similar "DM Power Abuse" scenarios where "oh I know I split the party, but now you suddenly need each other, so POOF! the cleric's good just teleported you back together" or whatever... it just doesn't feel right... Keep up the good work though!

Hi ! I totally agree with you here ! If you want an example of a mixed storytelling I found really creative, here's what a Cyberpunk GM inventend at my hometown TTRPG society to make best of our open table policy (anyone can play what they want each session, so group tends to change a LOT) This young genius GM had the idea to share storytelling agency by taking inspiration from videogame mission hub : For each session, we would choose a mission as players, and the have our character get dispatched by their boss to go and complete it. Urgent missions will wait untill someone want to complete them just like in a video games. All our choices, and non choices have an impact, even the chronology we dictate to the missions. Take time to do a mission for a faction before one where we need them ? They're friendly, now. Don't ? They ask for a favor, or straight up reffuse. Do the mission to set up a new cyber network ? Communications are now allowed in place they where not. The GM even makes a recap of elements we added to the game and friendlyness gauge for every faction before each session. It's like the best of linear and non-linear storrytelling ! I love this GM, I hope I get to play more with him.

When my friends and I were trying D&D for the first time, after a short easy game to dip our toes in, we were going to start an open-world campaign in which we could get the several MacGuffins in any order we wanted. However... It went so wrong after the first dungeon and entered the world for the first time. Another player and I were trying so hard to do damage control... But then one player had to bow out temporarily, and we didn't want to continue our big homebrew campaign without them, so we started to play the much more linear, railroad-y Humblewood. That was the best choice ever. As we, beginner players who barely played for 2 months, continued with the game, we got experience, we got better at roleplaying, and I lost my title of a wallflower and became one of the most passionate roleplayers that I straight-up voice act my characters and even bought a voice mod. If you are introducing a group of players that 5/6 of them have only played one short game to a D&D campaign, I HIGHLY suggest a linear campaign for them. We are now finally playing our first open-world campaign, and we are doing SO much better than our first one. All thanks to earning experience through a linear storytelling campaign.

My favorite style of DMing is to use a collection of linear narratives to create a true sandbox experience - let me explain. When I DM, I don't like to plan "plot points" for the story of the game; I don't like to think that far ahead in terms of what will happen and what events I want to be dramatic because a, it's very difficult to manage player behavior and expectations in ways that lead towards those important plot points and because b, I personally find that players are more invested in dramatic outcomes if they feel that they had a personal hand in causing - or allowing - them to occur. I like to let my players do whatever they want... with the caveat that they are playing people who have connections and needs and which live in a world. Instead of planning out plot points, what I like to do is plan out networks of "what do my NPCs want" and "what will my NPCs do if nothing interferes with them." By knowing what will happen if the players don't do anything, I have a very neat (and usually not very interesting) linear narrative lined up - because the world exists independent of player actions, these events will unfold as planned unless the players act to interfere with them in some way. The next step is to give the players a reason to get involved, which is where knowing NPC motivations comes in handy - by knowing what the NPCs want (and what they're willing to do to get it), I'm able to adjust when the players throw off my planning. Last year, I ran a campaign of the ROOT RPG - the introductory mission saw the party (who were a group of mercenaries) hired by the Corvid Conspiracy (a sort of anarchist organization they had positive relationships with) to restore shipments of iron from a mining town to a town where they had an active cell. Upon arriving at the mining town, they discovered it was under the control of a foreign military power using its resources to fund their invasion, and that the town was currently blockaded by forces loyal to the old aristocracy. The players were free to use whatever means they wanted to accomplish their objective, or even abandon it entirely in favor of wandering around the surrounding woodland trying to find ruins and treasure; because I knew what all my NPC motivations were and what would happen if the players didn't interfere, the game would be able to continue in a way that changed the shape of the Woodland and put pressure on the player characters regardless of their choices, which meant that they were free to act in any way they wanted in order to move the story forward without me needing to present them with a menu of choices at all. The real beauty of this is when you use it to run a game that looks like a monster of the week game, but which has a secondary, long scale NPC plot going on behind the scenes which is connected to all of the other major plots going on throughout the world; in my campaign, that was that the Corvid Conspiracy was unknowingly working towards unleashing a resident-evil style zombie virus onto the woodland in an apocalyptic plan orchestrated by one of the PC's mentor figures; the result was a situation where the players were able to effectively write a sort of script for their own linear narrative by choosing who to support and when, and ultimately the evil plot came to fruition by their own hands without my planning for it at all. This is basically just linear narratives with more steps, but I've found that not thinking about what choices your players have and instead only considering what will happen if they don't act and why the people making it happen want it to happen allows for a very fun, very collaborative form of storytelling.

I’m glad to see you championing linear storytelling as a good option - and differentiating it from railroading.

I really appreciate this video, thank you! I now have a solution for some of my players choice paralysis. I was worried about 'railroading', but giving a linear story(instead of nonlinear) before I try handing them a world sounds like a great solution. First video of yours I've seen and you've already helped me a ton. Thank you!!

I really enjoy and appreciate your advice. I think that you'd be a really fun guy to have as a DM (it also doesn't hurt that you're adorable in personality and looks) LOL Take care of yourself and keep creating!

I enjoyed this video. My best friend is running a couple of games at the minute. One was a straightforward dungeon crawl, fairly linear the other was sandbox. Frostmaiden I think. The frostmaiden group really struggled because they didn’t know what to do, argued about what they should do and got frustrated with the DM’s and each other. And they’d asked to play sandbox style. My friend vents at me on discord all time. His latest one is how they keep missing obvious clues.

I DM with a linear storyline, but a sandbox world. The players have the option to go anywhere, explore the whole world, but the NPCs will recommend them to go to certain places to progress the story. Its up to them, but ultimately they choose to progress the story. Great video!

I love your videos! The main storyline is more linear but what they do, between the events is more of Sandbox

First thing: love the videos. My kids and I watch them and love the content. As a new DM (for my family) I appreciate the recognition of linear story telling. I will always let them play with the storyline however they want but I want them to know there are objectives they can focus on and it helps them roleplay their characters. So like, thanks 😄

I think of linear narrative as main quests, non linear narrative as side quests, and sandbox as exploration in video games. Thinking of implementing in this way in my campaigns too.

After hearing these definitions I've discovered that, based on them, I'm a Linear GM. I've pretty much never had to railroad my party to keep it on track either and I know excactly why. Of course the real answer is we had a detailed talk about the kind of game we wanted to playb and the players are good friends outside of game that listen and communicate with each other and me. The more mechanical reason though, is instead of making a story and plopping their characters into it, they made characters togather and I made the story around them. This made it _so_ easy to make plot hooks because very few players are going to turn down an opportunity to delve into their PC. Other than that, it's just a matter of thinking of more than one scenario for when they make a decision. Even when they think of something you didn't account for, prepping multiple outcomes helps you at improvising because you're training your brain to be creative with the direction of your story. When you have the huge things planted, the stuff in between is easier to change if need be.

Honestly, I'm always happy to see my players having creative ideas and outsmart the situation in which I placed them

I tend to lean toward a combination approach between linear and non-linear. I'll typically let my players explore in any direction they want in any order they want but then have linear plots that play out differently based on the order they've chosen to explore things. For example they might get the info that there are big monsters they need to kill in all four cardinal directions but a particular faction will go to war with the party when they go west. If they go west first they'll deal with that threat the entire game but if they go any other direction first that faction will be allies opening up additional options. This is a super simplified example mind you, typically I try to have at least three arching plot points that could go good bad or neutral that will affect the overall story flow and options for the rest of the game. Usually for this type of structure I'll start out with a pretty linear starting zone, open up to a bunch of nodes they can explore in any order (four to six works well) and then funnel them toward a linnear end zone where the consequences of all their choices come into play. I think the key to making this really work tho is work backward from that consequence funnel at the end and make those choices brach back out into effects on all the yet unexplored nodes, otherwise it feels a bit like a bethesda game where the only real consequence of your choices is what outfit your supporting npc's are wearing at the battle for hoover dam.

In a couple of days, I’m planning to DM my first session by running an adventure from one of the D&D modules, and railroading has been a reoccurring fear in the back of my head since I plan to stay true to the book. This explanation has taken a lot of that weight, and I can’t thank you enough, Pointy Hat. Much appreciated!

This is exactly what I needed to hear! Thanks. I just found my new favorite channel. Keep it up!

Linear storytelling vs railroading- a very useful distinction. Thus far, I've done a total sandbox thing, partly because I like the improv and less need for prep, but also because I want to my players total agency. This is a useful tip if I ever want to do a "main quest" sort of thing in my next campaign.

16:23 This is exactly how I feel! I want a bit of a curated experience that gives me choices within the narrative. I have never been upset that I couldn't abandon the plot of a video game to piddle around. When I can do anything I feel like there is nothing to accomplish. I too feel like it is me against the world when I say the new Zelda games suffer as Zelda games for their focus on open world exploration. Brilliantly fun games, but you could slap any franchise or original IP on top of it and it doesn't lose anything. The story and prior games are inconsequential, which I do understand is Nintendo's intention.

Thanks for this video! I've only played, like, 3 1-shots in the last year but I've started DMing for my kids. I stumbled upon the non-liner to liner tactic, and it's worked out pretty well! I let my kids fumble around for a couple sessions doing encounters from Icepire Peak, then the big brothers of the guys they attacked all happen to be working for the BBEG who figures into the backstory of my 11-yr-old. It's like, I let them come up with the puzzle pieces, then I fit them together. PS, hearing my 6-yr-old daughter tell my wife, "Mommy, I melted a goblin's face off!" was a really cool dad moment.

I loved that this video focused on Game Theory!!! I'm not in enough spheres or online circles to talk in favor of linear plots, but I miss the focus on having those! I just need to start getting back into those with my dnd games. Thank you as always!🎉

I think linear narrative is the best fit for DnD, where prep time is far above the average for most rpgs and the mechanical support for sandbox style is non existent. Since I personally prefer sandbox style play, I tend towards games like Burning wheel, Free from the yoke and Kult, where individual and group motivations are mechanically supported, so that you always know what you're supposed to be doing.

I actually made a homebrew world with all those options in mind. Linear storytelling from people choosing to be an officer in the navy (world of islands like that of one piece) and the reason its linear is because you are an officer on a boat, and that boat will be sent to specific islands to progress the plot forward, the main differences being if a character dies or who gets the magical powerup in a limited magic world. But there is also the sandbox storytelling which is them choosing to become pirates, go to different islands to max allies or enemies till they bite off more than they can chew. And those weren't the only two options as they could've become bounty hunters, which gives some non-linear storytelling options, choosing which target to go after and ending up near certain events at certain times or become mercenaries and protect merchant ships which is another form of linear storytelling but they can jump off the tracks when they wish.

Probably my favorite video of yours so far! Very well done, I love having the proper terminology at my disposal to use in discourse!

Thank you! In the last long-running game I DM'ed I made sure to mix linear, sandbox, and non-linear story-telling and gameplay to make sure we all had fun. The only one seemingly not having fun was this 3.5 fan "forever-DM" who constantly tried to sandbox every single segment, even if the rest of the group had fun in both linear and non-linear side quests and over-arching story beats. I think they thought i railroaded or something, cause it sure felt like they were trying to rock the wagon off the tracks!

This is so good :) I always write my DnD stories in chapters. They are highly linear! I never force the players to do specific actions or follow specific routes, I just write the narrative and story in a way that makes the players understand what "the story" needs to move forward. But if they want to take a detour for three sessions and just go spelunking, thats ok! But the main story wont progress by this (Highly influenced by old JRPGS like Final Fantasy).

I’ve always loved Linear storytelling and prefer it as a DM. I do, however, take advantage of Non-Linear every now and again. Although, most of the Non-Linear stuff happens between sessions so I know what to prepare. (Eg: I tell the players that I have two missions planned for them and let them choose which one they want to do so that I have one of them prepared for the next session and can prepare the next one after that weeks session.)

I like to do a bit of both of sandbox and linear. Often, i have a main plot that is developing, either with or without the players being aware of it (but are still interacting with it). example 1: The party is for example looking for a legendary treasure. They start with a somewhat linear quest in order to find say the legendary map in order to find the treasure. When they find it, they learn they need to find 4 keys in order to get into the treasure chamber. They can hunt the key's down in any order they wish, but each key hunt has a linear story attached, often but not always involving the background of a pc. example 2: the story appears more sandbox, with the players moving around where they wanna go, but they are often offered two or three hooks to persue. Those hooks however tie into an overarching plot that the players are made aware off, but maybe don't interact with fully yet. Each hook leads to a smaller linear plotline they follow, and when it is done they can pick another hook. For example, they venture to place to place adventuring, but while each hook has it's own story, they learn there is the pressence of some strange cult. With each hook resolved, that cult's pressences becomes more and more known, until they eventually learn this cult has masterminded most of the existing problems, and now are preapring their endgame.

Had a moment that reminded me of the "way of the samurai" games and I wanted to give a quick note to those. The way you have to hit timing on story points with multiple stories going on all over the place is wild

I like stories that have a clear goal, but with lots of choice inbetween, and if there are other stories along the way that become just as important or take over the original goal, that can be fun as well. For example, in the game undertale the goal is to get out of the underground. There are so many ways you can get out of the underground though, and loads of player choice. What’s more, is that your goal may shift as you meet characters in the story and start to care about them. You could argue that much of the story is built through the player’s choice of who they chose to interact and develop relationships with, even though there is always that overall goal of leaving the underground. This means that what the player does really does create the story (or the journey) here. And the Linear part is really just the destination. Not sure if you would call that Linear storytelling, but that’s one of my favorites.

Thank you for this video. I am a DM in one campaign and a player in another. I learn a lot from the DM in the other game and sometimes wonder if i should pursue a more linear narrative since i am so bad at emotional payoff, at least in my pov. Yet my group loves making the small choices for character flavour and they don't mind me giving them the next destination and not offering a bunch of choice. I think this is more sandbox style. As a panster writer it is less time consuming to prep since its only when the session ends that i can effectively make up material for the next session (while having furure destinations float in my head for when i see an opportunity to drop hints if a character does something unexpected). My players are enjoying whats happening so far so i am focusing on my weakness - combat - instead of trying to fix something that isnt broken. I am fortunate to be blessed with players with whom my DMing style suits. I like sandboxing as a scatterbrained DM but largely prefer linear as a player. For context, my "sandbox" campaign (which had elements of linear) is tomb of annihilation but heavily modified with a bunch of homebrew stuff tossed in as i see fit.

I love that you're so self aware about the videos, honestly the best thing about this channel - and all the amazing work put into your homebrew that is FREE for heaven's sake - and gosh darn it one of the big things I love about TTRPGs is narrative; the story the DM is telling, sure, that can be primarily player driven, or completely sandbox but over all the narrative relies on the Dm's shaping of the world - I'm often confused by the idea that DMs should stop making linear stories or attempt to make player choice the absolute decider, because frankly, there are many players who want to star in their own fantasy story, and that needs a DM with a level of control over the story's direction, player choice can effect the people they meet, the battles they fight, and the ordeals they have to overcome, but at the end of the day a story cannot simply manifest from unrelated decisions What is bad is when a DM allows the characters to make any decision they want and uses an open world to hide the fact the sandbox is fluff and the actual story is railroaded

I am 100% a linear storytelling lover and DM. Sandbox I find so unsatisfying personally, even Breath of the Wild wasn't my cup of tea. I'm still learning how to work with a mix of non-linear and linear storytelling but add some non-linear elements has absolutely resulted in a noticeable increase of enjoyment my players get when playing my games! I appreciate you highlighting how things aren't black and white, great video pointy!

I hate how the internet mindset is "I'm right you wrong you big poo poo." Why can't we all be right!? That's what an OPINION is! Amazing job for bettering this dumpster fire we call the internet with your awesome and entertaining videos. Keep it up, You'll always have my support. Side note, for some reason I never thought playing DND would help me better my skills as a game designer since that's the industry I'm aiming for. So more videos like this that help with game design would be greatly appreciated.

4:26 I nearly inhaled my chips & salsa lmao! I was NOT expecting to hear a Texas Beeworks reference in a DnD video 😂

Your city looks adorable! Really, such a good vibe in there. About linear/nonlinear narratives... I do think that your example of mixed parts is great! Thanks for your videos.