Hey #OSR and wider #DnD friends - what do you think of Hotel California style adventures (Castle Amber, Ravenloft etc) where a core premise of the adventure is some magical bollocks is keeping the players in the bounds of the adventure. Is this just railroading or can it be engaging? - ThreadSky

queerwizard.co.uk • 7 days ago

Hey #OSR and wider #DnD friends - what do you think of Hotel California style adventures (Castle Amber, Ravenloft etc) where a core premise of the adventure is some magical bollocks is keeping the players in the bounds of the adventure. Is this just railroading or can it be engaging?

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3dmatt.bsky.social•7 days ago

Weirdly, It might actually give the players more narrative freedom with their characters. Like instead of coming up with reasons why they are still here with this group or care about the problem. They can be anyone, even people who would have left or not normally associate with the other characters.

widsithatopos.bsky.social•7 days ago

Some of my favorite old Outer Limits episodes involved towns waking up to discover they were trapped under a dome or moved to an alien world. See also the problematic novel series "Guardians of the Flame" by Joel Rosenberg. The premise (transported to a fantasy game world) was solid and compelling.

josephrlewis.bsky.social•6 days ago

It totally works, gives the players clear goals!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/354011/witches-of-frostwyck

caseyg.bsky.social•7 days ago

It's still a type of sandbox. Sandboxes have borders, they can be large or small. The important part is the players agency inside those borders.

queerwizard.co.uk•7 days ago

Mostly asking for me, writing her first real adventure, and currently I have a dynamic like this in place as the problem that needs to be solved, ie. 'we can't leave here until this obstacle is removed'

acallback.bsky.social•7 days ago

Is the intention to have a physical barrier or something less tangible? I think either is fine and players need to understand that if they want to interact with the highly built content instead of improved content they need to play within those bounds.

queerwizard.co.uk•7 days ago

It's a magical storm that players could attempt to pass through and they could possibly succeed but it's very likely they won't

acallback.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think that gives the perfect opportunity for some hard checks but any failure would be "oops you got turned around in the storm and end up back at location x. Also successes could lead to landmarks outside that could have journals depicting the futility of trying as well as a reward of some kind

acallback.bsky.social•7 days ago

But to expand I don't think that's railroading it is simply the situation the players are in

pupstoic.bsky.social•7 days ago

This will sound like snark but is not intended as such: I think it's only inherently a problem if your players are immature. "I only have narrative agency if my character can go wherever they want and do whatever they want at any time" is a fundamentally immature perspective on group storytelling!

sidetone.bsky.social•7 days ago

There are *plenty* of adventures that begin with the players falling into literal holes and the fun of crawling out, I don't know why a proverbial one would be any less fun.

It comes down to the core principle of player agency: once in the hole is there more than one fun way out.

catshavenolord.itch.io•6 days ago

Shouldn’t be all the time, but there’s definitely a place for adventures like that and gives the players a clear goal of getting out.

I’ve done it before and my playtesters had a blast fumbling around the dungeon opening doors until they figured out the exit:

https://catshavenolord.itch.io/door-hoard

johnthehedge.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s such a deep and important cultural trope that it absolutely can and should be used.

If it’s part of an ongoing campaign, a good rule would be some soft signposting to the PCs that they should be prepared to be away from town for a while.

bradkerr.bsky.social•7 days ago

I like "trapped in a hellhole" dungeons! It gives very immediate goals for players.

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