>The empire is doomed to fall. Would that be railroading?

>>52375718
Kind of. Is there more to this or is it just a little idea you've got for something.

>>52375718
>>The empire is doomed to fall.
Depends, why it is impossible to fix it?

All empires fall eventually, just like all people die.

Depends on what type of expectation you create for the players and how you present the empire.

If you present the empire as a crumbling edifice and give the players control over how it collapses, who gets what lands, what happens to the peasants, etc, it wouldn't be railroady. This creates the expectation that your game is the story of the empires collapse and the players drive how it unfolds

If the empire is just going strong but then is meant to suddenly fall to an invasion, expect the players to fight tooth and nail to stop it. In this case the expectation is that the players are meant to protect the noble realm of <insert empire>.

>>52375718
Tell us about this empire your thinking about railroading into the ground OP?

>>52375718

At that scale its not railroading unless there is a very simple solution that the players are not allowed to do anything about.

There is usually a lot of moment around the fall of an empire. The party can do everything right and still not impact things on a large enough scope to prevent the empire from falling, but their actions should still have an impact on their immediate area.

They can save everything within 50 miles of them, but that doesn't magically save everyone else.

You can still stop the Empire from falling.

Fortify a castle and patrol surrounding townships and villages.

If the capital is burned to the ground, the Emperor slain, his crown and sceptre broken, the palace looted and every little lord goes their own way to be independent or join the invaders it doesn't mean the Empire has fallen.

You put the imperial standard upon that castle, lord of this land is the Emperor by default now. So long as you stand the Empire hasn't fallen.

Are you bad enough dudes to not only weather the storm alone but break the storm?

>>52375718
Depends.

>>52376479
Yeah those every little Lords going their own way and being independent. They're all doing the same thing. Every one of them will consider themselves to be carrying the torch of the empire and all the others are traitors who've turned their backs on it

>>52375718
Depends on how well you word your prophecy.

Loot a burning house.

>>52375718
4 to 6 people can't stop a country from collapsing if it's determined too.

>>52375718
That background story. And is that a dragon in the firewall?

>>52376819
So?

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>>52375718
In the book "Legend" by David Gemmell that is the plot. And then a 60 year old axeman rallies the defense of the only fortress in the way of the barbarian horde. Only 6 people don't die.

>its pretty good
>people were fighting for it in jail

>>52375718
No, it's a matter of scale and the type of game. Players simply can't be everywhere at once, and if they can, so can the enemy.

>>52375718
Is it a thing far too large for the players to change? Like the sun setting, or the seasons changing, because sometimes really at certain points it's far too late for any individuals to do anything about a problem that's been a long time coming.

I've done this for a campaign once and watching the long standing empire splintering and the PCs not winning but surviving is way more interesting.

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>>52377638
>>52378789
This.
Look if you put your players in the Byzantium empire during the Year of the Ottomans, the fall of Byzantium isn't a failed quest, it's literally just setting. How the hell could your players prevent it? Even if they managed to rally the Empire's forces, plus some mercs and maybe a few backwoods russians, then defeat the ten billion Ottomans/Orcs/Whatever, Byzantium will still fall. And it'll be awesome while you play through that and explore the world a fallen empire creates

>>52375718
Anyone have a screencap of the heirs to sisyphus story?

>>52375718
Why is it doomed to fall though? Is it because of ethnic tensions being at a breaking point? (See Yugoslavia as an example) Are there hordes of ravenous invaders sacking and pillaging the lands (Germanic Tribes attacking the Roman Empire) Are there hordes of men from the east attacking the Bastion of Humanity? (See Byzantium and the Turkish invasions) Has the empire suffered such a massive economic crisis that revolts flare into life like wildfire (Collapse of the Soviet Union)

>>52375718
Can the players avert the empire's doom?
>If yes, it's not railroading
>If no, it's railroading
That's all it boils down to.

>>52380587
I would argue it totally depends at what point in the empire's lifetime you're at. Compare (western) roman empire at 450 AD and 235 AD (just after the assassination of Alexander Severus). It's pretty much a fact that Rome falls in the former, whereas historically it survived the 50-year long civil war of the latter.

>>52381594
There's a difference between an event that happened an indeterminate amount of years before the campaign began and something that's happening during the campaign that the PC's have a way to potentially subvert.

Like unless you're using time magic, you're not going to save a city that fell out of the sky due to some ritual gone wrong but if the PC's uncover something that would lead them to believe that a coup was being planned, it'd be shit to just say "eh, session ends" and then begin the game with "oh, and the city is falling out of the sky, what do?"

Y'know what I'm saying?

>>52381684
True. Ultimately, I'd say it's up to the DM to elaborate when explaining the setting that
>The empire has started to fall
And if you want the players not to be able to do anything about it
>The events that set this in motion happened long ago, and although you can try to minimize impact, [empire] will no longer be when the campaign is over

>>52379203
Depends on the level difference between the party and the average mook of the invading army.

Even without wizard shenanigans a sufficiently big gap is going to result in half a dozen dipshits trying to reenact 300 + Dracula Untold.

>>52381801
Eh, at that point you might as well just say "the empire fell a few centuries ago" than waste everyone's time by having the empire fall, but in such a way that it's still happening but there's still nothing you can do.