She knew you and your sister were heroes. Sometimes she can predict the most subtle outcomes of chaotic events, and sometimes she can’t find her own ass with the help of a Tome of Ass Finding.Ĭase in point: She knew the magic box was magic. Theresa is a classic author-insertion know-it-all plot exposition character. Sis dies, and you get blasted out of a window. Since you and your sister aren’t one of the three, he shoots you both.
Heroes are exceptionally rare.) He’s been reading a prophesy that there will be three heroes he needs for his plans, and a fourth that will stop him. (Supernaturally strong and durable people with the ability to use magic. Then Lord Lucian concludes that both of you are heroes. Since your sister’s wish was to live in a castle, it seems like her wish is coming true. That night, Lord Lucian summons the two of you to his castle. Good evening Jeeves, my mute brother and I are here to see Lord Lucian so he can fill us with plot exposition and bullets. Your sister makes a wish and activates the box. A strange robed woman named Theresa is there, and convinces your sister to buy the box before leaving mysteriously. (Rough guess.) A traveling swindler is selling “magic” items in the streets, one of which is a “wish-granting” box. You and your sister are street urchins living in the squalor of Bowerstone Old Town. When you buy property, a blob of white bird crap appears over the marker to denote it as yours.) (The bird crap becomes your in-game symbol. By the time the tale is over, he will have done a lot worse than just flinging crap at you. This is a very appropriate way to begin the game, as what follows is an epic journey through nonsense and madness as the writer contorts the game world in every possible way in order to have his fun at your expense. Uh, the one on the right, that is.įable 2 begins with a bird crapping on your head. This is Rose, your doomed sister in Fable 2. You won’t be allowed to make any choices that deviate from your predetermined role as a clueless mute doormat.Īs before, this will roll right over the plot without regard to spoiler warnings. They’re usually artificially binary good / evil decisions that have no impact on the main story. The game touts “choices with consequences”, but the choices you are allowed to make in-game are never germane to the plot. The player will be forced to ally themselves with people they want to kill, surrender when they would rather fight, show mercy when they would rather have vengeance, blunder into obvious traps, and listen to villainous diatribes rather than simply taking action. Their (mostly illusory) autonomy is negated so that their character can be conscripted in service of the plot.
(Although we are always clamoring for more freedom whenever we can get it.)Ī bad railroader will use their power over the player character to force the PC to do things they would never choose to do on their own. As long as their actions make sense and fit with their goals, the lack of freedom is usually grudgingly tolerated. A good railroader will make the process natural: The player will be forced to do that which most people would choose to do of their own volition. Computer games are delivered and mediated by an uncreative computer, and so we have to accept a certain degree of railroading. Players come to the game with the expectation that they will have some input into the shape of the world besides rolling the dice to stab things. “Railroading” is a dirty word in a tabletop RPG.