Railroading is good, actually.

Not for every group; probably not even for most groups. But it can work. It’s can be a great tool for any GM.

A set path for the campaign/adventure/quest ahead. Maybe you’re short on time, or don’t get to get together all that often, or you just need a quick game to run to break things up. A well intended railroad can enhance a game rather than detract from it.

Here’s the key, though: Tell your players. Tell them, ask them what they think, and make it clear why you think this is a better approach for what you’re doing. Trust me, it works.

I once ran D&D 5e Curse of Strahd for a group in the before-days, before in-person games just stopped. It was a great group, though. New players, veteran players, people that like the mechanics, people that love the fluff of it all. Unfortunately, we could only play every other week for work reasons. And even then, we only had 2-3 hours a session. Scheduling was tight, but the game was fun.

A bit of a way into the campaign, which I ran mostly as written (as far as anyone can run a published 5e campaign as written), I realized that, maybe, I needed to switch things up. Just to keep the pace up, keep things exciting and the fiction tight. A two-hour session only really has time for a set piece encounter, combat or otherwise, and some free play. And only playing every other week made it harder to keep things engaging, as people have lives and forget things.

So I suggested to them to trim the campaign down a bit and run it more like a railroad. I used that word and all. I explained that, instead of letting them explore the map freely as a sandbox point crawl, I would guide them more strongly from set piece to set piece, plotting their path through this campaign more tightly and intentional. Now, that didn’t mean they won’t have influence over the story–it’s their story, not mine, after all. Their choices and decisions would carry forward, just that the main set pieces are laid out by me ahead of time.

One of the important bits is to provide choices for the players, just not an open inventation to do whatever. Whenever more than one logical set piece could come up next, ask them which path they want to take. Kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure book. See, even a railroad has switches that change the path ahead.

Think of it as playing Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a good game. Great even. You have so many choices, paths to take, people to meet or kill or fuck, and do whatever the hell you want. But every act, you end up in the same place, the same narrative, the same things. Just, your previous choices might carry forward each act. It’s a video game, so you’re on at least some rails. You can’t really change where you end up, just how you get there.

I recall the final fight of Critical Role season 1. The fight against Vecna at the top of his evil tower. The party was smart. They rested up and used powerful magic to topple the entire evil tower. Mercer let it happen, obviously. But then, he describe how the top of the tower, where the Vecna fight was going to happen, was shielded from the magic and floated to ground gently. He had to do that because he created the encounter using physical pieces for the battle map. That fight was always going to happen, right there, at the top of the tower. The players were still rewarded. They bypassed the entire interior of the tower, which was meant to reduce their resources before the final fight. It’s 5e, after all.

Is that railroading? I think so, yes. Mercer probably pulled a lot of these tricks throughout. Shape the fiction, present the goings on in just such a way to ensure the set pieces he planned for can fit it in.

The Alien RPG’s greatest strength are pre-written scenarios. They come with premade characters, each having their own secret agenda. They’re played out over three acts with set triggers for when to switch to the next act. Every act, the secret agenda of each character changes, advances. Players are strongly encourage to play into these agendas, which get worse with each act. These cinematic scenarios are as much of a railroad as a TTRPG can be. But they’re fun. They really let you explore the horror and humanity of the Alien universe within a very tight, very strict framework. You’re playing out an Alien movie! It’s the dream!

Railroading works. it works well, actually. As long the context is clear, the players are aware of the constraints of the game they’re engaging in, and as long as their choices and moments still matter. As long as they’re still the focus of the game, it’ll be fine.

That Strahd game was great, by the way. Lots of cool moments of Strahd causing trouble, an emotional character death, and a grand finale against the vampire lord. It all came together so well, and we did it in just a few months, playing every other week for 2 or 3 hours. Each session mattered. Everyone had fun. Did we explore all of the campaign? Probably not, but the bits we did served the story and the characters, and the conclusion made it all worth it.