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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7080745" data-attributes="member: 97077">A previous post of mine upthread covers such scenes. The key in my view is to keep them tight - once you've rung any flavor or development out of the scene, move on, especially it's focused on just one character. A player having his or her character stab the innkeeper or bait the woodsman into a fight is looking for dramatic conflict that the session lacks and is a sign the DM needs to wrap the low tension scene and do something with some real stakes. This comes up a lot too in intraparty conflict. With no external conflict, players in my experience start looking inward for it, leading to all sorts of drama we've seen reported on the forums over the years.You will note that I never made this claim - only that challenges must have real stakes. I added that if a scene does not have stakes, that the DM is well-advised to keep it tight or else risk boring the players and getting results he or she may not want.Many words are spent on talking about &quot;group mismatches.&quot; I think it's way overblown. It's a very rare person that is going to object to having some low tension scenes. Your typical questgiver scene tends to be low-tension, but it at least sets up the opportunity for challenges with stakes later on, so the Bob the Barbarians of the world will generally be fine with them in my experience. It's when that low tension scene drags on for longer than it needs to or there are multiple low tension scenes in between challenges that problems can arise. And that's a simple fix for the DM. I much prefer to fix something on my side of the screen than simply say Bob's not a fit for the group.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7080745, member: 97077"] A previous post of mine upthread covers such scenes. The key in my view is to keep them tight - once you've rung any flavor or development out of the scene, move on, especially it's focused on just one character. A player having his or her character stab the innkeeper or bait the woodsman into a fight is looking for dramatic conflict that the session lacks and is a sign the DM needs to wrap the low tension scene and do something with some real stakes. This comes up a lot too in intraparty conflict. With no external conflict, players in my experience start looking inward for it, leading to all sorts of drama we've seen reported on the forums over the years. You will note that I never made this claim - only that challenges must have real stakes. I added that if a scene does not have stakes, that the DM is well-advised to keep it tight or else risk boring the players and getting results he or she may not want. Many words are spent on talking about "group mismatches." I think it's way overblown. It's a very rare person that is going to object to having some low tension scenes. Your typical questgiver scene tends to be low-tension, but it at least sets up the opportunity for challenges with stakes later on, so the Bob the Barbarians of the world will generally be fine with them in my experience. It's when that low tension scene drags on for longer than it needs to or there are multiple low tension scenes in between challenges that problems can arise. And that's a simple fix for the DM. I much prefer to fix something on my side of the screen than simply say Bob's not a fit for the group. [/QUOTE]

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