Forcing specific equipment without railroading too hard?

[alpine hull]

I've written a storyline for a quest that I would like to DM in a campaign at some point. Early on in the quest the player(s) would get forcefully fitted with an item that they cannot take off until the end of the quest. It is a crucial key item for the story, one that the entire quest revolves around, which means not equipping it cannot be an option, else the quest would have no driving force. It'd be like Ben 10 choosing not to put on the Omnitrix, the story wouldn't even start. However, simultaneously I know that such 100% forced encounters should be avoided in campaigns, as it would make the campaign feel too railroaded.

Do you have any suggestions for what I could do here? How do you usually handle encounters or events that are 100% required for the story to work?

[austere mantle]

Retool your narrative so it doesn't have such an obvious failure point

Maybe the bad guy gets this item instead and puts it on

Maybe it latches onto a deer or some other random animal

Maybe it's parasitic and quickly drains the life from the area it's in if a living thing doesn't put it on

[alpine hull]

It's a mask that marks its wearer as being sentenced for life imprisonment, and if the wearer is spotted outside a prison, anyone is honorbound to slay them.
It is shut with a magical lock that will kill the wearer if it detects tampering, thus only an intended way (or a very risky improvised method) is able to unlock it.
The player doesn't put it on willingly, they're captured and forced to wear it before being set "free", like catching, tagging and releasing a fish.

[austere mantle]

So why not change the item to be something that isn't a literal sword of damacles over your head

Sub it for a mithril shackle that latches onto whoever's closest to it, or anything else where you can pivot in the event players don't run into this one item

Otherwise just start the campaign post-having the bomb collar strapped on

[alpine hull]

That could work, but having the campaign start with the players waking up at an inn to find themselves locked into the gear feels even more like a copout.

[austere mantle]

"we'll start this campaign with your characters being released from prison, but tagged"

Congrats, now it's not a copout

So long as you make this thing clear to them as part of the campaign pitch and they sign up for that, then it's totally fair game

[alpine hull]

who would've thought that such a freeform game would be counterintuitively so restrictive for the DM?

[austere mantle]

It's not

the thing that defines ttrpg as a medium is player agency

[alpine hull]

for the DM, I mean
not for the players

the DM always has to account for the unknown factor, so they can't design anything too specific

[austere mantle]

Ye

That's what you've gotta do when needing to account for the free will and choice of 2-4 other people

If you don't like that scripted cutscenes aren't really a thing in rpg the same way they are in video games or movies, you can always just write some microfiction, a short story, or novel

[alpine hull]

it is frustrating though
this is reasonable, it works, but it doesn't allow for any buildup for the imprisonment to be a climactic event
even if you promise that it'll happen later in the campaign rather than starting off with it, the players will be paranoid and will be waiting for it

it won't be a surprise anymore

[austere mantle]

What buildup is there for "you're being chased by a guy on a Pegasus with a magic turbo bloodhound you can't outrun or hide from"

It's like a horror videogame after you die like 3x on a segment; the outcome is known, there is no tension, playing through it is a formality

[alpine hull]

what I mean is if the player doesn't know what is coming, you can sprinkle in foreshadowing and clues as to the importance of the mask
have enemies wearing the mask, explore the prison that the masks were designed for, minor things that emphasize the importance of the mask

[austere mantle]

You're assuming the players will care about and get invested in this thing rather than just fixate on ripping it off

Or not jump off a cliff and making new characters that don't have to deal with it

[alpine hull]

the latter just sounds like shitty players ngl

[austere mantle]

Or never get tpk'd since you've made this such a central part of your entire idea

Or have one party member die and have to figure out why someone new would go along with a group of people all wearing a scarlet letter

[alpine hull]

that's... a good point, actually

[austere mantle]

Or figure out how tf people will be able to rez a party member when access to gemstones will be basically 0

Unless you feel like a detour into minecraft

Etc

If you make the "tagged and released" bit part of your campaign pitch, you avoid much of that since players tacitly understand their characters have to be cool with that

And they can just not sign up if that's not a premise they're interested in

[alpine hull]

makes sense
I wrote the quest too much with the expectation that none of the PCs would die

[dim granite]

this idea is what would come up in a book//video game, not most ttrpg games

[alpine hull]

indeed...

[dim granite]

have to do a specific thing and they have to live for it to matter

not a good combo

[alpine hull]

good shout

[livid bobcat]

Over time you'll learn the types of situations that are good for running in ttrpgs.

Generally if the words "the players must" are in it, it will be very railroaded or just won't work. The players always know

[austere mantle]

Agdq is going on rn, check in on that and see how much fun any given speedrunner is having during an autoscroller or unskippable cutscene

That's what most ttrpg players feel like when they know they're being railroaded