Railroading

Nothing is less fun for a player than to feel as though they don't have free choice as to what they do within a role-playing game.

Freewill in RPGs
They don't have free will with relation to the game of course, at least none but what the Game Master allows, but they must never be allowed to know this.

If they feel that they are being railroaded, they will fight the process. Much like a classic magician's force, where the magician convinces the audience member to pick the forced card and also convinces them that they picked that particular card by their own choice, a game master must convince the players to follow the plot and convince them that they do this by their own choice.

Bait
Use bait to make players go where you want, bait like story hooks, revenge, money and treasure, and be prepared to roll with it when (and this will happen from time to time) the players don't like the bait. Just like a good magician doesn't tell the audience what is about to happen in case the contingency fails, a good Game Master should be as vague as possible. This way, when you loop the story back on track, the players won't spot it.

And be prepared to roll with it when the players don't go the way you want them to. This is where you prove your chops as a Game Master. Can you roll with the surprise and keep the story on track, even though the players are heaving wrenches at your plans with apparent abandon?

The Magician's Force is created in the role-playing game by paying attention to what the players value and what their characters value and then offering it to them. Using Bait for Players and Characters is the best way to make a choice easy. Offer lots of options and maybe even act as though you think another option might have a better chance of success- this way the player can feel as though they are role-playing not simply following what the Game Master wants.

==The Long View of Inevitable Game play ==

The Long View of Inevitable Game play is essential for a Game Master. If you are basing your central campaign around a major event, it will be hard for the players to avoid the ramifications of it forever. You may in fact never tell them to get involved, you can often simply place the event into the world and let its effect buffet the players as they try to get their characters through unrelated adventures and the players will often get involved out of necessity or interest.

As long as the campaign is truly an important event in the world that is shaping events in the world, it will be easy to move the players back so that they have another opportunity to enter the fray. Remember, the players must think that they are doing this on their own. Don't let them see the strings, but provide them with support and everything will be okay.

Rolling with the Truly Unexpected
Every so often the players will do the truly bizarre- things you can't plan for in advance. Most often these things will be foolish and either painful or fatal. This fine- these surprises sort themselves out. A situation where a player mistakes a death ray for a teleporter tends to deal with itself.

On the other hand, a player who- instead of killing the doppelganger impersonating the crown prince- decides to hire it to continue the job and work for the party presents more challenges for the Game Master. Players are smart and they are often not constrained by what people would consider reasonable.

Because the world they inhabit is fantasy, many players use it as an outlet for pent up emotions, desires and that sort of thing. Shy people become outgoing. Good and noble friends play villains. Straight laced people decide that they would rather strap their lance to a cod piece.

This sort of thing can happen even in the most serious campaigns.

The classic starter adventure for Call of Cthulhu is “The Haunted House”. In this adventure the ghostly villain possesses a bed and tries to knock characters out the window. Done right, this is actually quite frightening to the very vulnerable characters of Call of Cthulhu.

But if the bed misses, all it takes is one player to get inventive and decide to turn it into a carnival ride, and the mood is gone and players have turned the house into an amusement park- ghost and all.

A Game Master needs to be ready for these flare ups of bizarre creativity and let them flare (lest we become railroaders) and then use the distraction to spring a surprise that re-establishes mood, and returns the plot to the proper course.