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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6205958" data-attributes="member: 6681948">[MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] (and anyone else following it) - let’s take a deeper look at the scene.  The PC’s are here to seek the blessing of the just and righteous King for their quest.  The just and righteous King who appeases Dragons by handing babies over to them.  Dragons that are, it seems, pretty easily routed, so how much power does this King or kingdom actually have?  It seems like the King’s blessing has become a McGuffin. I was called down earlier for not letting players learn of the backstory (like the attitude of the Chamberlain), but here it seems there is no word amongst the townsfolk about dragons regularly visiting the tower of the King (no one notices them swooping to the balcony and shortly thereafter departing without hostilities?).   To say nothing of any lack of knowledge on the part of the public that the King is handing over babies (how often, to keep the Drakes satisfied?  Where did they come from?) to appease the Dragons. The idea was that the Chamberlain is diametrically opposed to the PC’s seeing the King.  Could that have been simulated here?  Sure – maybe the King doesn’t know exactly what is appeasing the Dragons, and believes they merely part with some treasure, bringing no hardship to the Kingdom or its people.  But it seems like the Chamberlain would now be even more opposed to the PC’s seeing the King, rather than running off to him.   But can that happen?  That would be a consequence of the players’ success that  has a negative impact on their ability to achieve the goal of seeing the King.  Similarly, success intimidating the Drake, means that there can’t be a much greater threat out there, perhaps enough to explain why  the King is appeasing, rather than opposing, the dragons, and opposition truly worthy of the PC’s, not so readily dispatched as the three minor emissaries.  But, again, that greater force seems like a negative result of their success – their perfect victory. My main issue is that I’m not seeing the rising conflict I was told Indie play produced.  Instead, I saw a cakewalk, and one a fact pattern that doesn’t really stand up to a lot of scrutiny.  It’s a scene that could happen in other playstyles (on the assumption that the PC’s revealed the GM’s plot, rather than creating the plot themselves, of course).  But it doesn’t seem like a plot that made it challenging to see the King – it’s challenging to keep believing we want his blessing on our quest, though.  And easy to see how it could distract from our quest in leaving us to deal with both the Dragon threat and the leadership that sacrifices its people to appease that threat.</blockquote>

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