This is something between rant, constructive criticism and appeal to our quest-gms.Tobiah Panshin: The Game Master - A guide to the Art and Theory of Roleplaying wrote:When confronted with a situation where they are losing control of the plot, the most common GM tactic is to bully, cajole, or trick the players into following the preordained course that has been laid out for them. These methods are collectively known as Railroading.
"My quests are never railroaded." someone said. I'm challenging that claim.
I'll pick a generally well received example game-mastered by that someone: The battle against Phelmon. While still enjoyable it had a number of people rolling their eyes, one "Well, what do you expect, its that Gamemaster." in teamspeak and frustrating 'this is not what you are supposed to do, therefore it is impossible'-moments to me.
The battle against Phelmon was set up in absolutes: The Necromancer hides in the Queens grave protected by three pillars. These pillars fuel the spawns of undead. Once the pillars are downed by excessive force, priest- or mage-rp the necromancer can be beaten. After his defeat he surrenders and puts a curse on those who kill him. This setup is great, until someone does something not anticipated. One player managed to get into an archery-position from where he ghosted the necromancer... who promply was resurrected with an emote to show this to have had no effect. I had my character fight through to the necromancer afterwards, using up a bottle of holy water (requiring one pure water and a small roleplay event to create) on the necromancer... who melted down and manifested from the shadows, as if nothing happened.
No matter what player characters did, everything not done on the pre-laid rails of the gm was very openly discouraged. Things simply did not progress until the preset, scripted conditions of the gm were met. And when they progressed, they progressed only in the way set up beforehand with only the choice of an alternate ending. To me that does fit the definition of railroading.
In my eyes such a mindset does go against the great things a human gamemaster can offer. The battle against Phelmon was a finely executed boss battle one also could find in other video games. Video games without game masters. Game master able to improvise, able to fill the gaps an engine can not. The thing I love about pen&paper roleplay (called tabletop in English for some reason) are nigh endless, unscripted possibilities on what characters can try and how stories unfold, as one is only limited by setting and creativity. I believe that this can to a very wide degree be applied to things coordinated by gms in Illarion.
I therefore think that gm-lead quests would very much benefit from a more nuanced, open and less scripted approach.
And if you are a gm and put down meteoroids, how about simply playing out the attempts to mine them with the players? Make fun things happen, maybe give them small trinkets, but most of all let them have fun with what they want to play. And please don´t tell me "I gave you valuable stuff and two leads to follow. Therefore it is not Railroading if I say you are not supposed to mine the meteors and mining them is impossible."
I would also like to recommend the book cited from. Its a great read.