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When I talk about GMs railroading their players — and that you should never do that — I will occasionally have someone say, “But I have a player who wants to be railroaded!”

First, to be a little blunt, double-check yourself. Do they actually want to be railroaded, or have you just convinced yourself of that so that you don’t have to feel bad that you’ve been railroading them?

But let’s assume that you have a player who has actually said, “I want to be railroaded!”

Since “railroaded” is a word that means being forced to do something you DON’T want to do — and the RPG-specific usage of the word is only a specific version of that — players who say they want to be railroaded are not communicating useful information.

(Outside of BDSM, “I want to be forced to do something I don’t want to do” is simply paradoxical.)

So this generally falls into a couple of categories.

1. They had a GM who said, “I won’t railroad you,” and then the game was bad. Maybe it was bad because of how the GM chose to implement “not railroading” (e.g., gormless mush or featureless plains with nothing interesting to do). Maybe it was bad for some unrelated reason, but is still associated with “not railroading” in the player’s mind.

2. The player means something else when they say “railroaded.” Because there can be some confusion around the term “railroading” — in part created by people who want to justify their railroading by associating it with other techniques that don’t involve forcing people to do things they don’t want to do — this is not necessarily unusual. But it does mean that you’ll need to figure out what they’re actually looking for when they say “railroad”:

• A strong campaign premise?
• Clear, definitive hooks?
• Drama-based rulings to create big, meaningful moments?
• Aggressive scene-framing to “skip to the good bits”?
• To never be stabbed in the back by their patron?

The list goes on. Because even if we accept “I want to be forced to do things” at face value, it doesn’t really tell you anything about WHAT they want to be forced to do.

3. There are, semi-hypothetically, players who simply don’t want to make any choices. (This usually takes the form of wanting to show up and be pointed at something to stick their swords in, but not always.)

I say semi-hypothetically because, in my experience, such players are vanishingly rare. Slightly more common are players who simply aren’t interested in certain kinds of decisions. The good news is that these followers are usually just fine with other players making decisions for them.

In other words, these players “want to be railroaded” in the sense that they want someone else to make the decisions for them. But that doesn’t mean it has to be the GM.

In my experience, these players also tend to exist on a spectrum (rather than just occupying absolutist values of “makes decisions” or “doesn’t make decisions”).

(You could, even more hypothetically, end up with an entire group of players who are so utterly apathetic that literally no one wants to make a decision of any kind. That’s a truly awful experience, but that level of apathy probably indicates that there’s something more fundamental wrong with the group dynamic. In fact, in my one experience with anything remotely similar to this, it was because the whole group was suffering from abused gamer syndrome as a result of being ruthlessly railroaded: They were apathetic about making decisions because they had been taught that making decisions was pointless.)

4. More problematic are the (fortunately also incredibly rare, in my experience) players who not only don’t want to make decisions, but also aren’t happy that any of the other players want to make decisions. These players are, unfortunately, a sub-category of “players who don’t want to let other players have fun” and they’re poison.

ACTION ITEM

Here’s the key take-away: If someone tells you that they “want to be railroaded,” you need to dig deeper so that (a) you can figure what they actually want and (b) give it to them.

And if they really do want you to force them to do things they don’t want to do… make sure you have a safe word.

Go to the Railroading Manifesto

Go to Part 1

THE CURIOUS TALE OF WISTERIA VALE (Kienna Shaw), much like “The Lore of Lurue,” is a fantasy holodeck in book form. But unlike “Lurue,” Shaw’s “Wisteria Vale” is a brilliant success.

What’s the difference?

Beyond a simply higher level of craft and execution, it largely boils down to stakes.

Wisteria Vale is a fake reality being used to imprison a cursed adventurer until such time as the cure can be found.

… which, it turns out, is right now.

The PCs are hired to take the cure into the book, cure the cursed hero, and bring them out again. The PCs then discover that the book has ended up in Candlekeep, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Because the things that happen in Wisteria Vale actually matter, everything about the adventure is heightened and it can give you things to actually care about. And because the PCs are given meaningful agency in the adventure, the stakes of the adventure are placed in meaningful jeopardy and the things the PCs achieve (or fail to achieve) are meaningful (and, therefore, exciting).

In Wisteria Vale itself, of course, the PCs discover that things have gone awry in the pocket dimension/simulation, and they’re confronted with a mystery which alternates freely between the creepy and the surreal as they seek to unravel the Vale’s enigmas.

Shaw does a particularly fantastic job of prepping a situation rather than a plot, giving the GM lots of tools for actively responding to whatever course of action the PCs choose.

Conversely, the players are given a cool little playground where they can run wild to the limits of their imagination.

There are cool places, cool characters, and cool events.

It’s just cool.

Grade: A

THE BOOK OF INNER ALCHEMY (Daniel Kwan) features the Order of the Immortal Lotus, a school of martial artists under the instruction of Master Bak Mei who have fled from eastern lands and established a temple in the Cloakwood near Candlekeep. The adventure begins when Bak Mei sends several of his monks to break into Candlekeep and steal several pages from The Book of Inner Alchemy which contain instructions for making a legendary ki-stealing magic item called the gloves of soul catching.

The break-in goes awry, however, and although the monks escape with the pages, they leave several dead Avowed in their wake. Candlekeep hires the PCs to track down the killers.

The atmosphere of the adventure seems very much intended to evoke the kung fu flicks of the 1970’s, including the cheesy, badly translated dialogue:

• “Do you really think you can defeat my Immortal Lotus style? You were mere worms slithering through the mud on a rainy day. I am the bird, here to feast!”
• “Before you get a chance to fight Bak Mei, you’ll have to deal with me—Steel Claw!”
• “My Immortal Lotus style was supposed to be… unbeatable!” <dies>

Overall, the adventure is fairly threadbare, but quite serviceable. There are some things to nitpick (the central premise is that somebody decided to hide a book that must never be read by shelving it in the correct section of the most famous library in the world), but the only serious problem I see here is that the PCs are not positioned as the protagonists. The story just kind of happens to them.

Here’s a simple example, which is perhaps also the most clearly egregious, from the initial murder investigation:

A character who examines the bodies and succeeds on a DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check discovers a torn piece of white cloth clutched in the fist of one victim. The scrap of fabric is emblazoned with a white lotus inside a black circle. The Avowed recognize this as the symbol of the Order of the Immortal Lotus, a league of monks led by a master martial artist known as Bak Mei.

Ignore the bit where the PCs need to make a skill check to find the one-and-only clue that allows the adventure to happen (Kwan deals with that shortly thereafter by just having an Avowed find the clue for the PCs) and focus on what happens after the PCs find the clue: Instead of being put in a spotlight (making an Intelligence check to identify the symbol themselves or being allowed to research it while standing in a giant library), the PCs are automatically shunted to one side so that an NPC can solve the mystery for them.

It’s a small thing, but there’s a lot of small stuff like this through the whole adventure. And it drags the whole thing down.

Grade: C-

THE CANOPIC BEING (Jennifer Kretchmer) has an absolutely fantastic hook. The PCs arrive in Candlekeep to do some research and, shortly thereafter, are summoned to meet with Great Reader A’lai Aivenmore, who shows them a copy of The Canopic Being. This ancient tome contains incredibly dangerous rituals that allow a mummy lord to place its organs, normally sealed within canopic jars, into living hosts.

The ultimate chapter details how Valin Sarnaster, an honored oracle of Savras, has studied the work and intends to follow its instruction and ascend as a mummy lord. The final page contains a list of the living victims in which Valin will place his organs.

The last names on the list?

The PCs.

This is one of those hooks that’s so good that it more or less demands that you run the adventure. And the rest of the adventure follows through on its promise.

The PCs track Valin back to his tomb. Here Kretchmer designs an absolutely stunning dungeon featuring an incredible array of unique divination-themed encounters. It’s magical and amazing and creepy, offering a dungeon experience that’s not only solid in its fundamentals, but delightful and memorable in its execution. Things are further fleshed out with a tight cast of memorable NPCs, with everything eventually culminating in a stunning set-piece battle with Valin in the mummy lord’s zero-g demesne.

As a high-level adventure (targeted at 13^th level PCs), Kretchmer does an absolutely fabulous job of lacing advice throughout the entire adventure on how it can be tightly integrated into an ongoing campaign — through foreshadowing ahead of time; by planting lore from your wider campaign within the adventure; and with a thoughtful breakdown of how the aftermath of the adventure might play out over time.

This adventure is a rare gem.

Grade: A

THE SCRIVENER’S TALE (Brandes Stoddard) features an incredibly creepy cursed book which is also the prison for the Princess of the Shadow Glass, a powerful and evil archfey. After accidentally triggering the curse, the PCs need to backtrack the book, discover the true history of the Princess of the Shadow Glass, and eventually figure out how to free (and then defeat) her. All the while, the Princess herself will be in telepathic communication with them, hoping to make them her allies.

The adventure is solid throughout and does a very admirable job of capturing an epic scope (it’s designed for 14^th level characters) while only having a handful of pages to work with. My one critique is that it would benefit significantly from a clearer and more concise summary of the Princess’ history for the DM.

The adventure’s shining achievement, however, is the curse of the Scrivener’s Mark. Stoddard has put a lot of careful thought and care into its design, and the results have paid off: The curse is progressive, slowly growing in dread as its effects grow worse and the tell-tale Elvish script which slowly begins to cover the victim’s entire body, until it finally consumes them and turns them into a statue made of solid, smoky glass.

This is made particularly clever, however, because Stoddard has designed each stage of the curse to have both a drawback AND a benefit. These start with simple things — the character stops casting a shadow and begins speaking strange languages they’ve never known before — but then grow steadily worse and more powerful as the character’s nature is drawn into that of the Princess of the Shadow Glass. The curse is thus flavorful and terrifying in its looming doom, but not something that the players will simply resent.

It’s complicated and beautiful… much like the Princess.

Grade: C+

ALKAZAAR’S APPENDIX (Adam Lee) features the fabulous stories of Alkazaar’s Thrilling Tales… and also a small appendix detailing the one adventure Alkazaar was never able to complete. If the PCs take the hook, they’ll be able to follow Alkazaar’s directions and locate the Lost Golem who has been seeking its master for centuries.

What seems like a fairly charming fairy tale, however, suddenly rolls back to reveal a fantasy epic: The golem’s master was a king who enacted a mighty spell to seal away the Nether Scroll of Azumar and keep it from the rapacious grasp of an evil wyrm. The king remains trapped within the seal, the wyrm has transformed itself into a dracolich, and the PCs are about to get right in the middle of the ancient feud.

“Alkazaar’s Appendix” is a fun adventure. It’s a little fragile in parts (requiring alliances with specific NPCs at specific points for the adventure to continue), has a few hiccups (like intermittently forgetting that the PCs’ guides exist), and a few missed opportunities (the picture-portal used to go to the golem should be a functional puzzle the players can solve and not just something that “requires 1 hour of study” and then the DM tells you what you did). But I would comfortably describe this as “eminently playable.”

And the emotionally resonant ending — where, if all goes well, there is a heart-touching reunion between golem and master (and, if not, other emotions to be had) — adds significant flair, in my opinion. Lee grounds the adventure in characters and human drama, which elevates the material above a procedural hack ‘n slash.

Grade: C+

 XANTHORIA (Toni Winslow-Brill) features Xanthoria, a druid who became obsessed with immortality and has transformed into a lichen lich. This central concept of the undead remnants of a druid clinging to existence through a perverted symbiosis-turned-parasitism with the natural world is really cool and well worth pilfering.

Unfortunately, the associated adventure is a bit naff.

The opening is very awkward, and I’ll let the adventure speak for itself (through its opening boxed text):

A fungal plague is ravaging the Sword Coast, spreading quickly from one settlement to the next. Although magic has proven effective at ridding individuals of the spore infection, the plague is spreading too quickly to contain. Creatures that become infected fall ill with a fever and sprout disgusting, gooey, fungal growths before losing their autonomy, acting like zombies. They also release spores that infect other beasts and humanoids. Eventually, the plague reduces all infected creatures and foodstuffs to puddles of ooze.

Humanoids infected with the plague drone the word “Xanthoria” over and over for no discernible reason before death finally claims them. You have determined that there’s a book by that name contained in the library-fortress of Candlekeep. With luck, the book holds information that might help you end the saprophytic plague before it wipes out every village, town, and city in Faerûn.

As you dig into the mechanics of the plague, you’ll discover that it is, in fact, truly horrific:

• Anyone within 10 feet of a plague victim must make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or become infected, forcing additional DC 20 saving throws until they die.
• If you’ve had the disease, you’re immune… for 24 hours. Then you can get sick again.
• It also infects (and can be spread by) animals.
• It infects food and crops, which are automatically destroyed within a day and can also spread the plague.

So avoiding infection is basically impossible, more than half of the population is going to die the first time they catch it, and most of the rest will follow shortly thereafter. I’d say this is literally a biblical plague, but it’s actually much, much worse than that and even if people DO survive, it’s going to be followed by a famine of almost unfathomable proportions.

This is literally the Apocalypse. Even if the PCs manage to destroy Xanthoria and end the plague, the Sword Coast will have already been destroyed.

But here’s the thing: You can’t blow up an entire setting and then “fix” it in 15 pages, for the same reason that The Lord of the Rings isn’t a short story.

In an adventure like this, the set up for the Apocalypse has to be so scant (as demonstrated in practice by the boxed text above) that it’s impossible to set the stakes and have the players take the situation seriously. And even if you put in the legwork of setting up the saprophytic plague, adding all the pre-“Xanthoria” scenes of apocalyptic horror as the plague spreads, and then structuring things so that the PCs actually discover the existence of the book at Candlekeep (instead of just being told that they do)… you’re still faced with the impossible task of satisfactorily resolving the entire Apocalypse of the Sword Coast in a one-shot.

So “Xanthoria” is fatally flawed from the beginning.

Okay. So let’s say you scrap that entire premise and reframe things: The plague has broken out in a single city and it is so utterly horrific that the consequences if it’s allowed to spread are clear. The PCs are in a race to prevent the Apocalypse, and they’re following a lead to Candlekeep. (Let’s say that, once the plague victims start droning “Xanthoria,” a local bookseller remembers selling a unique book of that title to a scholar who said they were going to use it to gain entrance to Candlekeep. The person who brought the book to the bookseller is already dead of the plague.)

Is the adventure itself any good?

I’d say it’s serviceable, but rather mediocre. It’s saddled with a twee, amnesiac NPC who turns out to be Xanthoria’s living phylactery, so the only way to actually solve the adventure is to “convince Thunderwing to give up her life” with a Charisma check. (For some reason just stabbing her is never even mentioned as an option.) This is supposed to be very, very, very, very sad… but is only moderately so because the PCs met her like three seconds ago and not-at-all so because these are 16^th-level characters and they can just cast raise dead. Except they can’t because, if they could, it wouldn’t be “sad.” (No other reason is given.)

The adventure itself is a little dungeon with eleven rooms. The key for these rooms feature a lot of cool descriptions of fungus and some moderately creepy fungoid experiments being carried out by Xanthoria that also let the PCs slowly discover the tale of her fall… if they hadn’t already read about it in the titular book. The lore here is atmospheric, but the combat encounters seem perfunctory and aren’t balanced correctly for a 16^th-level party. Similarly, some efforts are taken to nerf the abilities of 16^th level characters that would trivialize the challenges presented, but even if I thought this was a wise effort, I don’t think it’s a successful one. (If you use the adventure, I would aim for a lower PC level and tweak things accordingly. It would be significantly less work than the more drastic alterations required for the reverse.)

Grade: D

CONCLUSION

What I’m personally looking for in an adventure anthology (or any anthology, really) is just a good selection of stuff I like. Some of the best anthologies I’ve ever read only have a hit rate of like 80%. I’m not expecting every single entry to be good (or suited for my tastes if it is). I can ignore the stuff I don’t like. There just needs to be enough of the stuff that I do like.

In some cases, just one truly phenomenal entry can make an entire anthology worthwhile.

With that in mind, let’s briefly survey the scenario grades:

Anything with an A or B grade is an adventure I would definitely run. Stuff with a C grade I’m more skeptical of, but are likely salvageable if you particularly like the concept or content.

So out of seventeen adventure we have:

• 8 that I would definitely run;
• 4 that could be salvaged; and
• 5 that I think are a complete miss.

That, by itself, is not quite hitting “greatest anthology of all time” levels, but it’s a very good anthology. If you break that down, it works out to about $4 per really good scenario and that feels like a no-brainer to me.

But to this must be added that two of these scenarios — “A Deep and Creeping Darkness” and “The Canopic Being” — aren’t just good scenarios, in my opinion, they’re truly great scenarios. Honestly, even if everything else in the anthology were utterly unusable, I’d probably still recommend it just on the strength of those two adventures.

So the only mystery left to Candlekeep Mysteries at this point is why you haven’t bought it yet.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Project Lead: Christopher Perkins
Writing: Graeme Barber, Bill Benham, Kelly Lynne D’Angelo, Alison Huang, Mark Hulmes, Jennifer Kretchmer, Daniel Kwan, Adam Lee, Ari Levitch, Chris Lindsay, Sarah Madsen, Christopher Perkins, Michael Polkinghorn, Taymoor Rehman, Hannah Rose, Derek Ruiz, Kienna Shaw, Brandes Stoddard, Amy Vorpahl, Toni Winslow-Brill
Rules Development: Jeremy Crawford, Dan Dillon, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Cost: $49.95
Page Count: 224

FURTHER READING
Random GM Tip: Running Portals
Review: Candlekeep Companion

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Go to Part 1

What is the Yawning Portal?

Ultimately, of course, it is a mythical locale which lives in the imagination. So it can be whatever you want it to be.

As I’ve dived deep into its lore, however, there is a kind of gestalt vision of the Yawning Portal which has grown strong in my mind. And if you wouldn’t mind indulging me, I’d like to share it with you here as a way of drawing together everything that we’ve learned.

I’m not going to attempt a full map of the tavern, but we can use the rough sketch above to orient ourselves a bit.

FOOTPRINT: I’ve based the outlines of the sketch more-or-less on the 5^th Edition outline of the building. If you’d prefer the FR1 outline, you basically just need to shove what I’m describing as the West Wing back from the street so that it juts out the backside of the building.

• Built of stone.
• Three storeys high.
• Several chimneys.
• Slate grey roof.
• The front door is rounded. The signboard of silvery wood above the door reads, “The Yawning Potral.”

NEIGHBORHOOD: The Yawning Portal has been described as “two doors down from the Empty Keg tavern, right next to Mother Salinka’s House of Pleasure” (Ruins of Undermountain, p. 8). So Mother Salinka’s is the building directly to the east (sharing a wall with the Portal) and the Empty Keg is just beyond that on the corner.

Note: Given all the secret entrances perforating the Yawning Portal, could we imagine one from the East Wing leading into Mother Salinka’s? Yes, I think so.

Directly to the west of the Yawning Portal is the opening to the alley which lies behind it. Waterdeep has a number of these intra-block courtyard alleys (Trollskull Alley from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is another). The one behind the Yawning Poral has never been detailed or named. Let’s call it Halaster Alley, which is sometimes known by the name Halaster’s Cove.

STABLES: The Yawning Portal’s stables are located in a separate building in Halaster’s Cove. They are likely also employed by customers of other businesses in the Cove, including Mother Salinka’s and the Empty Keg.

TAPROOM

The taproom takes up the front two-thirds of the main building, with a general look and feel according to Jason Thompson’s illustration. The front door looks across the Well of Entry to the well-worn, but polished three-sided bar at the back. Rounded balconies run along three sides of the second and third floors, with railing seating positioned to look down into the Well. On the ground floor, there are open arches leading to the East and West Wings.

• Blue tapestries hang at regular intervals around the room.
• The walls are wood-paneled.
• The floor is made from well-worn boards.
• The demon-faced fireplace stands next to the bar, facing the front door.
• The room is lit with candle wheels.
• There are tables all around the Well of Entry (including between the Well and the bar). A number of tables are built around the wooden pillars supporting the ceiling.
• A large number of curios, mostly donated by delvers returning from Undermountain, are on display throughout the taproom. (See Tales from the Yawning Portal, p. 6 for a sampling.)
• Two sets of spiral stairs, located to the east and west side of the Well, provide access to the balconies.
• Because of the design of the space, on the second and third floors there’s a narrow “hall” of sorts that extends back along the east side of the taproom. On both levels there are some fairly private tables that are not well lit and not easily seen from the rest of the taproom.

THE BAR:

• Under the bar, Durnan keeps a crossbow loaded with blunt-headed sleep arrows.
• A broadsword hangs on the wall behind the bar.
• There’s a lance-and-lion board set up for play on the bar.

THE WELL OF ENTRY: The Well is 40 feet across with a 1-foot high stone rampart. It’s 140 feet deep.

• A stone ledge juts out from the bar side of the Well, allowing access to the rope-and-harness suspended from a block-and-tackle.
• The harness is notably studded with a bronze bas relief of a skull.
• The pulley system allows Durnan to lower would-be delvers from the bar; there is also a release lever there that will rapidly drop the entire rope into the Well.
• The walls of the well are crumbly, with abundant handholds and footholds.
• The entry/exit fee to be lowered into or raised out of the Well of Entry is 1 gp.

WEST WING

The West Wing is made up entirely of guest rooms. Three floors, each with a public stair on the south end and a servant’s stair on the north end.

• Barrels filled with fireplace-heated stones are placed at the end of every floor’s central hall.
• On the third floor there’s a dining area at the far end of the hall, with a fireplace and a trestle table where the staff will serve food to those renting rooms.

EAST WING

The first floor of the East Wing has additional seating ringed by a number of private dining areas, discreetly screened with blue curtains.

• A service hallway connects the storerooms on the north end of the East Wing’s first floor to the kitchen (see below; it’s really more of a single, rambling complex of staff rooms). This hallway can also be accessed from a door in the northwest corner of the dining room (servers sometimes use this to deliver food).
• There is a secret door leading from one of the private dining areas into the back rooms.
• Another secret door leads from a storeroom into the dark end of Halaster’s Cove . Just across the alley from this door is the back door of the stables.
• The Wet Well, sometimes referred to as the Wet Way, is located in one of the East Wing’s back rooms.

Note: Exactly what connection(s) the Wet Well has to Undermountain is beyond the scope of this vision. It seems likely they also change depending on the current architectural whims of the Mad Mage. But it is generally known to offer more direct access to Skullport than the Well of Entry.

The second floor of the East Wing is a large hostel, with multiple bunkbeds and cheap cots. This area often ends up being a congregation of adventurers, swapping tales and tips while preparing for their sojourns.

• There’s a small library of books here. (With sometimes surprising titles to be found crammed amongst the common fare.)
• The room is also accoutered with medical supplies, usually overseen by a Tymoran priest who can offer healing services.

The third floor of the East Wing is newer construction and has a pair of luxurious suites, particularly well-suited for adventuring parties who have just returned with gold to spend from Undermountain.

• Both suites have secret doors leading to the third-floor balcony of the taproom.

STAFF AREAS

REAR AREA – FIRST FLOOR: Behind the taproom are several rooms.

• The kitchens, including the back door.
• Durnan’s Office, furnished with two facing couches of red velvet, a small table, and a desk.
• A private meeting room.
• Access to the Lower Depths (see below).

REAR AREA – SECOND FLOOR: Rooms for the live-in staff can be found here.

REAR AREA – THIRD FLOOR: The private quarters of Durnan and his family are located on the third floor.

LOWER DEPTHS

Wine cellars and storerooms which extend for at least three levels below the Yawning Portal. These are labyrinthine, some being of new construction and others actually being chambers that were once part of the lower levels of Halaster’s Tower.

• The lower depths are warded against teleportation and divination (most likely due to ancient protections placed here by Halaster).
• A secret tunnel from the Blackstaff’s Tower can be accessed from one of these storerooms.
• The deepest wine cellar is also Durnan’s trophy room. Some of the stone pillars here have secret vaults concealed within them, including one which holds Durnan’s old adventuring sword and a magic ring.

STAFF

The Yawning Portal has a total of fourteen staff members, including Durnan and the members of his family.

CONCLUSION

But who is Durnan? The innkeeper himself, of course, has gone through a number of iterations. I have chosen to focus primarily on the tavern itself and not dive deeply into Durnan’s evolution because NewbieDM has already done the work here.

So if you’d like to dive even deeper, check out The Many Faces of Durnan the Wanderer.