DM of the Rings Remastered C: Railroad Goes Ever on and on

By Peter T Parker Posted Sunday Jan 5, 2025

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 7 comments

While planning your gameworld, it should be noted that no matter what you do, the players are going to route around those aspects of the world into which you have poured the most detail and filled with the most interesting characters. They will skip right past those locations and insist on exploring the blank areas of the map.

Then they will grumble about the threadbare nature of the campaign.

If you prevent them from doing this, they will accuse you of railroading them.

– Shamus, Monday May 14, 2007

 

 


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7 thoughts on “DM of the Rings Remastered C: Railroad Goes Ever on and on

  1. Zaxares says:

    I actually remember way back in the early D&D editions, they actually had rules and encounter tables for players who just wanted to go romping off the beaten path (like, “OK, you pass into the next hex, which is a forest tile. There is a 30% chance of encounters… Which is confirmed. Now we see WHAT you encountered… 63! You have encountered a band of centaurs that appear to be migrating to their summer hunting grounds. They eye you warily and finger their bows, but do not attack. What do you do?”) This kind of fell by the wayside as D&D evolved into a more story-telling/driven system, but I always kind of appreciate that they thought of ways to cater to players who just wanted to go gallivanting across the countryside and see what lay out there. :)

    1. Dev Null says:

      So basically, a modern dungeon-crawler boardgame…

      1. Mattias42 says:

        Nothing wrong with a good dungeon crawl. Can be a really fun play-style if the entire table is OK with the raw combat!

        But yeah. It’s a style currently not in favor. Even the PC games don’t do it much. For good and ill, a lot more focus on characters & story.

  2. witteafval says:

    I just want to say that I’m so glad you’re redoing these comics. They’re just as hilarious now as they were before, and the ones around the end of Two Towers and beginning of Return of the King were some of the best.

  3. Railroad goes ever on and on
    To the only place that you can go
    If you want to choose another way
    You know the answer, it is NO.

  4. Mr. Wolf says:

    When you get right down to it, Middle-Earth is a desolate and empty place overall.

    1. DanB says:

      In the story there was a lot of danger in the world that needed heroes or community for safety so not a lot of people braving the wilds. In the real world New Zealand has a lot of places too far from electricity, stores, and cell towers

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