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Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7095604" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Who says they're not engaged? It's entirely possible the players (in character) are so engaged in watching whatever the scene is play itself out (and have realized that anything they do probably won't help) that their best in-character action is to simply do nothing and wait for further developments.</p><p></p><p>A not-that-great example: the advisor/Baron scene, after the advisor has been made to reveal himself as a traitor - in a book or movie the Baron at this point is almost certainly going to react, probably leading to some back-and-forth between the Baron and the (soon-to-be-ex-)advisor. And while the PCs might well find this very engaging and informative, their likely-best move during this part of the scene is to - along with the rest of the court - do nothing and see how the Baron-advisor argument turns out.</p><p></p><p>OK, let's try a different example: party is travelling through some known-to-be-dangerous wilderness to get from one town to the next. Maybe they've already scared off a marauding wolf or three and at some point diverted their course in order to avoid something big crashing through the trees. Party in theory have a reason to get where they're going but it doesn't matter whether they get there tomorrow or next month, so out of the blue someone says "Screw it, this forest is dangerous. Time someone cleaned it out. I'm going after whatever's banging those distant drums I hear - who's with me?" So the player has not only just introduced the drums into the fiction but is also trying to get the party to engage with them...and thus left-turn from whatever they were going to be doing in the next town. (and note these drums or whatever is behind them have absolutely no bearing on anything else; the player who introduced them knows this and is just looking to do some head-bashing before what she fears might be another tedious round of diplomacy in the next town)</p><p></p><p>The many details - some random - are the depth, without which immersion is either much more difficult or nigh impossible. And, as the game world is (or really ought to be) far bigger than these few PCs and their cares, it stretches believability beyond its breaking point if everything the PCs ever encounter just happens to mesh with exactly what they care about. "Do we have any reason to care about this" is a very valid question for characters to find themselves asking, sometimes followed by "Should we find a reason to care?" and-or "Should we care anyway?".</p><p></p><p>If you can tell the difference during the run of play then that's down to me as DM, as I'm doing it wrong.</p><p></p><p>If you-as-player can "play my character, engage the fiction, and find out what sort of stuff ensues" (your words, above) does anything else matter...such as the source of said ensuing stuff?</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7095604, member: 29398"] Who says they're not engaged? It's entirely possible the players (in character) are so engaged in watching whatever the scene is play itself out (and have realized that anything they do probably won't help) that their best in-character action is to simply do nothing and wait for further developments. A not-that-great example: the advisor/Baron scene, after the advisor has been made to reveal himself as a traitor - in a book or movie the Baron at this point is almost certainly going to react, probably leading to some back-and-forth between the Baron and the (soon-to-be-ex-)advisor. And while the PCs might well find this very engaging and informative, their likely-best move during this part of the scene is to - along with the rest of the court - do nothing and see how the Baron-advisor argument turns out. OK, let's try a different example: party is travelling through some known-to-be-dangerous wilderness to get from one town to the next. Maybe they've already scared off a marauding wolf or three and at some point diverted their course in order to avoid something big crashing through the trees. Party in theory have a reason to get where they're going but it doesn't matter whether they get there tomorrow or next month, so out of the blue someone says "Screw it, this forest is dangerous. Time someone cleaned it out. I'm going after whatever's banging those distant drums I hear - who's with me?" So the player has not only just introduced the drums into the fiction but is also trying to get the party to engage with them...and thus left-turn from whatever they were going to be doing in the next town. (and note these drums or whatever is behind them have absolutely no bearing on anything else; the player who introduced them knows this and is just looking to do some head-bashing before what she fears might be another tedious round of diplomacy in the next town) The many details - some random - are the depth, without which immersion is either much more difficult or nigh impossible. And, as the game world is (or really ought to be) far bigger than these few PCs and their cares, it stretches believability beyond its breaking point if everything the PCs ever encounter just happens to mesh with exactly what they care about. "Do we have any reason to care about this" is a very valid question for characters to find themselves asking, sometimes followed by "Should we find a reason to care?" and-or "Should we care anyway?". If you can tell the difference during the run of play then that's down to me as DM, as I'm doing it wrong. If you-as-player can "play my character, engage the fiction, and find out what sort of stuff ensues" (your words, above) does anything else matter...such as the source of said ensuing stuff? Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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