High Expectations.
I've been accused a few times of giving the players too many options. This is because I want to be able to improvise new things and enjoy the unexpected during the game. That is what is exciting for me when I run a session. I want a game where players feel free to explore and go find out what is behind the waterfall. The problem is that my players will never see the waterfall because most of my players only see what is directly in front of them.
In one of my longer games, my players are ignoring all the side quests that I have given them and are just focusing on the main story. These players have gotten tons of hints in game and me as the DM specifically telling them where to go, and they still aren't doing it. I had 3 different portals put in front of them and they only went through one. Each portal leads to another part of the story and after at least 6 sessions, the players are still ignoring them after my constant reminders.
I am annoyed by this because I have stories prepared that will never been seen by my players. At the same time, I want my players to choose to go somewhere and explore as well as getting the job done. There should be time for both.
I have played in games where the railroading was so bad, that we as players couldn't look around or talk to the characters we wanted to. So I will always want to give my players as many choices as possible.
Prepare for specific players.
A good player will take their time to ask questions and explore the world around them instead of waiting for the DM to lead them by the hand. The players are supposed to be the main characters but that means they need to be actively trying to move the story along. That is what I expect in my games. I'm sure other DM's will be different.
The answer to this is simple. if you don't want your players to miss anything, you'll need to put them on a track. I guess I will have to railroad them. Whatever I want them to deal with, will just be placed in front of them. For me, this means I'm a DM who railroads. At least for this specific game for these specific players.
The problem is that my players will never see the waterfall because they only see what is directly in front of them. So I'll have to put the waterfall right in their path in order for them to explore it.
Bad pacing leaves no time to explore.
In one of my recent games online, I set up some hobgoblins who were kidnapping slaves from a village. The players had to track them down and rescue the villagers. I also had a separate plot thread about a couple who was smuggling a baby through that same village. I expected the players to find the baby in a hidden cellar, under one of the ruined houses.
The problem in this case was my pacing. The players didn't do any exploring. Which was my fault. I had enemy goblins nearby and the players wanted to chase them down. My placing enemies in their path distracted them from exploring. So they never ended up finding the baby that was acting as a plot hook.
In this specific case, my timing was off. If I had the bad guys show up later, maybe the players would take their time to look around. Give them downtime so they feel like they have the freedom to explore. When I want the story to move forward, That is when I let the players notice the bad guys.
It is okay to railroad when you have to.
It all depends on the situation and how good you are at pacing and working with specific players. If the players aren't good at exploring you'll have place everything in front of them. If a player doesn't want to look around, then they get stuck on a track.
Another tactic for helping them along is to have NPC's tell the players exactly what to do and where to go. Help them along with a local guide or a mentor, even a bad guy during a battle can leave clues before he gets muder-hoboed by the players.
The trick is to leave clues and plot hooks wherever the players choose to go. If your players are the exploring type, you can leave things that you have prepared wherever the players go. This gives the players the illusion of choice, they choose where to go and what to do, but they still get the plot hooks and everything you have prepared. Then you won't be seen as a railroading DM.
"The benefit to loosing is that you get to learn from your mistakes." -MegaMind
The pacing and set ups will always be changing.
For example, I could have had my goblins in the village lead the players to where the cellar is instead of having them run away distracting the players. Or I could have had a villager ask the players for help. My expectation was that the players would find the cellar on their own, let them do the exploring.
Going forward, my fix to this specific problem will be to move the cellar forward and have them find it after they defeat the current set of goblins. It will be right in their path, ready to start off the next session. It would actually make better sense to have the house outside of the village, more suited for baby smuggling.
