Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5072731" data-attributes="member: 22779">Ahh, the dreaded shopkeep conversation.I've seen groups that got right into it, and ones that didn't.  I fall in the latter category, but, unfortunately for me, in the group I play in, one of the other players and the DM both fall into the former.  Sigh.  Ah well.There's a couple of things I think that might help with structuring a "talkey" encounter.First off, keep the number of participants manageable.  It's pretty hard to have a conversation with fifteen people, and keep the amount of NPC on NPC chatter to a minimum.  Watching a DM monologue gets old fast.It also might help to have a number of conversations going at the same time.  Perhaps the party is in the Color Animal Inn, some are talking to that guy in the corner, others are chatting up the barmaid and others are doing something else.  Ok, go with cuts.  Tell the players that you are setting a hard five minute time limit and then you will switch to the next conversation.  I suggest five minutes, but, hey, it's up to you.  I find that most people can survive sitting around for ten minutes at a time.Rotate around the room quickly.  Maybe even cut to the next person to give the first person a bit of time to think.  I've done this in the past and it seems to work pretty well actually.  It almost becomes something of a mini-game as players try to keep the spotlight for the full five minutes.</blockquote>